Scope for .204 Ruger

[Swifty Morgan]

I am planning to try to kill coyotes and coons on my farm, using an electronic call. I have a TC Venture in .204 Ruger I plan to use for this purpose. When I bought it, I decided to try an ATN X-Sight II 5-20X. This is a night scope with a lot of toys on it, such as video recording.

I'm not going to pick on the scope; it works, and for what you pay, it's a perfectly good deal. Nonetheless, it is not the same as using a quality glass scope.

I'm thinking about getting a glass scope for the rifle. I would like to be able to get coyotes 200 yards away, and one of these days, I'd like to go west and shoot prairie dogs. I'm wondering what kind of magnification I should opt for.

I love using powerful scopes, but I have read that they can be a problem at long distances because of heat mirage effects. Where I live, I don't have this problem, but I could see how it might matter if I shoot prairie dogs or long-distance targets.

I was thinking I might get a 14X or 20X scope, and if I had problems with mirages, I would just turn down the magnification. Is that a good idea?

I shoot with scopes a lot, but I don't really know much about different types of reticles and compensating for distance and wind. This is what happens when you learn by yourself, shooting at carefully fixed distances.

 

[cdb1]

This isn’t much help but the rifle I use 90% of the time on coyotes has a 3-9x40 Zeiss Conquest and the rifle I use 10% of the time has a VX-R 2-7x33. The serious coyote hunters I know don’t have super powerful scopes on their rifles.

 

[Varminterror]

I'm thinking about getting a glass scope for the rifle. I would like to be able to get coyotes 200 yards away, and one of these days, I'd like to go west and shoot prairie dogs. I'm wondering what kind of magnification I should opt for.

This describes two scopes for most folks. Coyotes at 200yrds are much, much bigger, better defined, and faster moving targets than prairie dogs. Most folks prefer a lower magnification, larger FOV optic for coyotes than they might for prairie dogs.

An option you have - buy the coyote hunting scope now, then buy a more appropriate prairie dog optic if and when the time comes.

Personally, I prefer more magnification than most folks, and I do like to use the same rifle for coyotes as well as prairie dogs. A 4-16x44mm is my standard “hunting optic,” great for deer, elk, coyotes, bear, etc, however, I find these to be on the low end when sitting over prairie dog fields. For pasture poodles, I like to top out over 20x, and a classic 6-24x50mm is hard to complain about for this application. The 4-16x is sufficient for shorter range work, but really, we don’t shoot prairie dogs with intentions on short range work.

To have both in one optic, you’ll have a larger optic than most folks might want on a coyote calling rifle. However, you’re not necessarily pursuing the same application as most folks, so you don’t have to follow the trends of most folks. A used Bushnell Elite 6500 4.5-30x50 (or 2.5-16x50mm) is a great option for your needs, as are the Bushnell LRHSi 4.5-18x44 and DMR II-i 3.5-21x50mm. Others I have enjoyed thoroughly for coyotes and prairie dogs have been the Burris XTR II 5-25x50mm, Nightforce NXS 5.5-22x56, and I suppose a tip of the hat to the Vortex Razor G2 4.5-27x56mm - various price points among these. Any of these give enough magnification for prairie dogs but still enough FOV for calling coyotes.

My personal coyote/pdog rifles are a 22” AR in 204Ruger, wearing a Bushnell Elite 6500 2.5-16x50mm, and a 6 creed 26” Havak with a Bushnell DMR II 3.5-21x50mm.

 

[Swifty Morgan]

I don't see myself going over 200 yards on this property.

I feel like going with 16X or 20X for now, and if I am lucky enough to get to shoot prairie dogs later, I can make it work or get a more powerful scope.

 

[Varminterror]

I don't see myself going over 200 yards on this property.

I'd like to go west and shoot prairie dogs

I assumed when you said "go west and shoot prairie dogs," that was largely ambiguous for you, so the typical western prairie dog hunting paradigm applied, such I offered:

An option you have - buy the coyote hunting scope now, then buy a more appropriate prairie dog optic if and when the time comes.

I feel like going with 16X or 20X for now, and if I am lucky enough to get to shoot prairie dogs later, I can make it work or get a more powerful scope.

If you consider either 44mm or 20x the breaking point for "coyote scopes vs. prairie dog scopes," then my list of optics above still applies. Anything less than 50mm, or less than 20x is more of a coyote hunting scope than a prairie dog scope, with the 50 and 56mm optics and 21-30x top end optics being better suited for prairie dogs. Finding one in the middle will save you some money. If you don't mind a large optic on your rifle, then I suggest you consider some of the large span optics, like the 3.5-21x DMR, 4.5-30x Elite 6500, or the 4.5-27x Razor. Never have to change the optic, and don't have to make any concessions. Buying one $1500 scope is often better quality than buying two $750 scopes. BUT... Not everyone is ok with a 50 or 56mm objective on top of their calling rifle. There do tend to be two types of coyote callers out there, some of us carry 16" carbines with low powered variables, while the other half of us tend to carry a longer barreled bolt gun with a higher magnification optic. The only difference in productivity between the two is determined by how often they call, not by the rifle they carry.

 

[Swifty Morgan]

It sounds like the two-scope solution is best.

I just took a look at the Burris Fullfield E1, 4.5-14X with a 42mm objective. Maybe I should try that here, for coyotes and coons, and if I need something bigger later for longer distances, I can grit my teeth and buy it. I have a Fullfield II 4.5-14X on my .17 HMR, and I really enjoy it.

I have a 20X Leupold for my .308, and I could put it on the .204, but I don't really like moving scopes around from gun to gun.

 

[Grumulkin]

I am planning to try to kill coyotes and coons on my farm, using an electronic call. I have a TC Venture in .204 Ruger I plan to use for this purpose. When I bought it, I decided to try an ATN X-Sight II 5-20X. This is a night scope with a lot of toys on it, such as video recording.

I'm not going to pick on the scope; it works, and for what you pay, it's a perfectly good deal. Nonetheless, it is not the same as using a quality glass scope.

I'm thinking about getting a glass scope for the rifle. I would like to be able to get coyotes 200 yards away, and one of these days, I'd like to go west and shoot prairie dogs. I'm wondering what kind of magnification I should opt for.

I love using powerful scopes, but I have read that they can be a problem at long distances because of heat mirage effects. Where I live, I don't have this problem, but I could see how it might matter if I shoot prairie dogs or long-distance targets.

I was thinking I might get a 14X or 20X scope, and if I had problems with mirages, I would just turn down the magnification. Is that a good idea?

I shoot with scopes a lot, but I don't really know much about different types of reticles and compensating for distance and wind. This is what happens when you learn by yourself, shooting at carefully fixed distances.

I also have a 204 Ruger with which I've killed coyotes, crows, a deer, and other stuff (probably some raccoons and ground hogs but I don't remember exactly how many of what). The crow was a bit over 300 yards away and, as with all the other stuff, I was using a 2-7X Leupold.

 

[Swifty Morgan]

Can you reliably hit a crow that far away? I would expect it to be so small, the crosshairs would block it completely.

 

[Varminterror]

Reticle stadia are typically 0.2-0.25moa wide, so at 300, you’re talking .6 to .75moa wide, covering 1.8-2.25” at 300. An adult crow should typically fall about 2.5-3” wide. The crosshair width usually isn’t the problem, it’s the narrow margin for wind call error, or even raw group size - when you start talking about connecting on ~1moa targets at 300yrds from field positions.

Most feedlots/cattleyards around home have had “bone pits” which have made supreme crow sniping hot spots, some of them, for generations. Great way to burn a slow afternoon once work is done to go burn a box or so of rounds on crows. Never seems to be a shortage to replace the ones hit.

 

[Swifty Morgan]

We have a ton of crows here. They are omnipresent. They don't seem to cause any problems, so I am not inclined to shoot them. There is also a season for them, so you can't just blast away when you feel like it. They would be a great training resource for me, but I just don't hate them the way I hate coyotes, coons, and squirrels.

 

[Sniper66]

I shoot coyotes and prairie dogs. The dilemma with coyotes is that sometimes they appear on the next hillside and won't come any closer, so the 20X is helpful. Other times they are 10 feet away. The coyotes I've failed to get surprised me and I had the magnification turned up way too high on my adjustable. Once had one 20 feet away with my scope on 12X. Of course he took off and I couldn't get the scope adjusted in time to find him in the scope. Successful callers use something like a 1-4X or 1-6X on an AR type rifle or a simple red dot with no magnification. Many callers carry two guns, a rifle and a shotgun. I prefer to go with a buddy and one of us carries the shotgun. For prairie dogs I also have a .204, a Kimber 84M and have a Bushnell Elite 6-24X and it is definitely not too much magnification at 24X at 200 yards. At 200 yds, those dogs look really small and I need all the help I can get. Also have a .223 with a Bushnell Elite 4200 with 4-16X. Both of these are wicked accurate. Oddly, the rifle I have killed the most coyotes with is my other .204 a Ruger #1 with a Leupold 4-12X 50mm. This because that's the rifle I happened to have when the coyote showed up. By the way, crows can be destructive birds when populations get too high. I'm seeing them in the 100s around here and think it's my duty to thin the herd whenever possible. Game warden told me they destroy lots of songbird nests, eating the eggs or the young birds. You'll find however that they are smarter than you can believe. After you shoot a couple, they'll disappear...quickly.

 

[Swifty Morgan]

Today I got my new Icotec GC320 working, and I decided to set up and see what coyote hunting was like. I set up a blind in my pasture, and I put the Icotec around 85 yards away at the foot of a berm. I didn't draw any coyotes (that I saw), but crows seem to love it. I only put in an hour. I figured it was good to go out and put in a short session getting the bugs out of the system. I don't want to find myself farting around, trying to get familiar with my equipment when a coyote actually shows up.

I was using my X-Sight II 5-20X, and I have to say that now I understand why people don't go for high magnification for hunting coyotes. At 5X, I was seeing something like 24 feet of pasture at 100 yards, which is very small. I knew I was going to have a challenge if a moving animal showed up, because it would take effort to find him and keep him in the picture. At the same time, I realized it was not necessary to see a coyote with high magnification, because instead of trying to keep everything in a spot the size of a quarter, I was now hoping to hit an area maybe four inches across.

It's funny; when I shoot targets, I always feel the scope is too weak, no matter what the magnification is. Today I had the opposite feeling. When I looked through the X-Sight at 5X, which is low, at first I thought it was set much higher. I actually checked to see what the magnification setting was. Everything seems bigger when you're hoping to shoot a big animal instead of a small target.

I don't like using a 9X scope for targets at 100 yards, but after today's experience, I feel like it would be a little strong for a coyote at 200.

Before this, I had used a scope for squirrels, but nothing larger. I guess shooting squirrels is a lot like target shooting, because they're so small. The squirrels here are the size of rats. It's another world when the animal weighs 40 pounds.

I have a Burris Fullfield II 3-9X on a K31. I may just pop it off and put it on the .204 Ruger. Surplus RUAG ammo is a thing of the past, so I don't think I'll be using the K31 much in the future.

I still don't know what I'm doing, but it looks like it's best to have different scopes for coyotes and prairie dogs. If I used one scope for both, I don't know how I would get a big enough field of view for coyotes.

 

[Varminterror]

I only put in an hour.

An hour is a lifetime on a coyote set.

 

[redneck2]

I’ve been on 3 week long prairie dog hunts. I have a CZ 527 Varminter .204. It has a 4-14x50 (IIRC) VX-3L. My main rifle is a Varminter AR with a 6.5-20x40 VX-III.

I’m big on magnification but rarely turn the 20x more than about 15x