Just sharing.....My buddy and I took our 17HMRs and .223s on a prairie dog shoot this past weekend. The rancher asked us to eliminate and many as possible. They are destroying his much needed grass for cattle. We spent two days cruising large pastures using a hand-held clicker/counter and tallied every kill. If it was uncertain, it was not counted. The final tally? 403 eliminated dogs. A really good outcome. I would guess we killed 100 with .223 and the rest with 17HMR. The 17gr bullet is amazingly destructive.
Prairie Dogs with 17HMR
- Thread starter Sniper66
- Start date
- Status
troy fairweather
Member
Sounds like a really good time, lots of good time behind the guns to. I always wanted to go out west and do a prairie dog shoot, quess all it takes is knowing a rancher and a bunch of ammo. How far were the shots with the hmr and 223.
The HMR shots varied from a few 50yd shots to150yds, with most being between 100-150yds. The .223 were 150-200yds with a few 200+. We had an uncharacteristically calm 2 days on wide open prairies so the 17gr bullet was mostly flat shooting. When the breeze picked up occasionally, we had great fun reading the wind and making the shot on the curve. Also got to use my new Meopta scope with it's illuminated reticle with a center dot. I'm now really sold on that dot technology. Had great time.
I have a "wind flag" I made out of a 4' by 1/8" rod! Bent 1' 90 degrees to the 3' section. Tied a 1' piece of yarn to the end of the 1' section. Place it about 10 feet in front and used it to catch the fish tailing winds. Really helped shooting the curve with the slow winds when shooting. Kill ratio went up quite a bit when knowing which side to hold on, and by how much.
Western Kansas. The populations all over the Dakotas, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas, et al. are in constant flux. When I first started shooting out fhere 15 years ago, I had lots of shooting on 6 different ranches, all many 1,000s of acres in size. With all the poisoning only one ranch remains and his populations have dwindled to about 10% of what it used to be. These days I spend more time finding new places to go than I do actually shooting. For you and your sons I would recommend finding an outfitter that sells p-dog hunts, unless you want to invest lots of time making contacts.
FL-NC
Member
I got to shoot those things one time on a cattle ranch after a 10 day sniper trainup out west- the land owner was very eager to turn us loose on them. We did it as our "field exercise". About 10 SOF sniper wrecking prairie dogs with M118 LR through M24's and SR25's. Most fun I ever had with a rifle, and your tax dollars at work!
What Meopta are you running? I have an old CZ 452 17HMR with a cheap scope on it that I should look at upgrading.
Actually, the Meopta is a Meapro Optika6 3-18X56 SFP and mounted on my Rem 700 VSF .223. And WOW, what a scope. It's fantastic and helped me make several 200 yd shots that hit dead center. The 17HMR I was using has a Burris FF II 4.5-14X44. I don't like this scope, but it worked OK as a temporary option. My favorite 17HMR was being repaired so didn't have it with me. When I get it back it will have a Bushnell Elite 4200 4-16X. It's decent scope I've had on the .223 that now has the Meopta. The Burris was on a .270, which I sold, so I used it on 17HMR because I had it. Probably more info than you wanted. But, about Meopta. They make fine scopes. The one I have is now the best scope I own. If I was to make a recommendation for your CZ, here's the one I would use. Not expensive and good features.....I love the dot reticles they make. Hope this helps.
https://www.gunbroker.com/item/935649844
https://www.gunbroker.com/item/935649844
Patocazador
Member
The only time I shot prairie dogs, we used deer rifles 'cause that's what we had. Lotsa fun and killed quite a few. Two of us would shoot a little low at close ones and the 3rd guy would try to hit them in the air with a shotgun. He got about 5 "doubles" that way. 
- Status
