Varminting with big calibers

[twoblink]

I thought gophers and squirrels with a 308 was bad..

Just read on another page; someone recommended a 300WinMag for ground squirrels

I assume a clean hit = "Squirrel's in the Mist"??

I can't imagine anything left if you get a clean hit from a 300Win Mag.. Or will is the bullet too fast and will just punch a hole like the squirrel was paper?

 

[Snorkel Bob]

Well I loaded up some 120grn Hornday V-Max for my 7MM rem. Seems like it will do the trick. Cant wait to chronon it. I hope its around 3400fps. Why not try something new

 

[twoblink]

Is there any meat (or animal) left with a clean hit?

 

[mete]

If you want explosive performance in a 300 mag then use a 150 or 170 30-30 bullet.

 

[Art Eatman]

Generally: Varminting with larger calibers is either just because that's what you have with you, or else that's all you've got to use.

My first centerfire was an old 1917 that I worked along at sporterizing as my near-empty billfold would permit. I used a $13 Lyman 310 tong tool for reloading.

Hornady's 110-grain Spire Point was pretty much the standard varmint bullet in those days. Just for fun, I sometimes loaded with the 80-grain .32-20 flat-nosed bullets after running them through a .308 swage. You could get the 110-grain up to near 3,500; TLOK what that 80-grainer was doing. "Bodacious fast" comes to mind. One of Phil Sharpe's loads allows a guess of 3,900 to 4,000.

Using that 80-grain bullet is a definite indication that you're not at all interested in hide or meat. Although that flat nose means it slows down rather rapidly, inside a 100 yards or so it's a lot like a bomb going off inside poor Mr. Jackrabbit. Parts, pieces and "paint" over about a half-acre. (Texas A&M had released a report which concluded that seven jackrabbits would eat as much grass as a cow. This was during the drouth of the 1950s, so ranchers were rather ill-disposed toward the competition.)

, Art

 

[dakotasin]

i spend time on dog towns w/ all my big game guns. i've shot hundreds of rounds on a dog town w/: 308, 300 wsm, 338 win mag, 7 rem mag, 25-06, and of course, a few dedicated varminter rounds (223, 22-250, 243)...

anything left to eat? actually, that begs the question: why would you want to eat a varmint??? i sure wouldn't even touch a prairie dog, let alone shove one in my mouth!

 

[twoblink]

Art,

One of the hunting guides in TX told my buddy, 14 cottontails eats as much as an Elephant. When I took my biology class, my teacher confirmed it.

What's worse, we all know 14 rabbits becomes 140 in 3 months!

How easy is it to varmint without a scope??

My Mauser's got Iron Sights only...

 

[AKAMac]

308 for varmit

Two blink,
You can buy quality sabot rounds for the 308. I've used 30-06 sabots for ground squirels in my 03A3 with peep sights out to 150 yard's. I don't recall the cal. of the bullet but the results were impressive. Look and ask at you local gun shop, you won't find them at Wally World.
Mike

 

[kudu]

.300 WinMag for varmints is dandy, just make sure what your backstop is because they just bore a hole right through them. The first groundhog I shot was a bit dissapointing, just a dime sized hole through it and a crater in the dirt about 6" deep right behind him. I was shooting downhill so the 180gr BT wouldn't end up in the next county.

 

[cdbeaver]

After I got out of the Army and went to work for the Casper, Wyo., Tribune, I enjoyed driving out to my uncle's ranch and shooting jack rabbits. My favorite bullet was the Hornady 110-grain that Art mentioned. When you hit one, there was no doubt about it.

Jack rabbits were a real pest problem in Eastern Wyoming in the mid-1950's. My uncle and all other ranchers would do almost anything to rid their grazing lands of the things.

When I drove into Douglas on the way to my uncle's ranch, I saw SEMIS loaded with dead jack rabbits headed for Montana and the mink ranches.

Young men loved to drive the sage brush at night and hunt the varmints down with .22 rifles. It was not uncommon for several guys to return to town after an all-night hunt with a pickup box full of bunnies. I'm sure they got paid something for the carcasses by Montana mink farms.

Every highway was littered with jack rabbit bodies. Much like Southwest Texas highways and deer today.

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

cdbeaver,

OT but, my great uncle told me about "The Year of the Rabbit" (1938) in Eastern Colorado. Jackrabbits were so thick that my grandad and his six brothers spent almost all their time driving around shooting them with their 1890 Winchesters. The mink farms paid .15 each and would send a truck to Matheson, Colorado once or twice a week to buy rabbits. When they saw how many the Ashcraft boys were bringing in, they started bringing a truck to the Ashcraft ranch once a week.

BTW, .22 shorts were $15.00 per 1000 rounds, so 100 rabbits paid for 1000 rounds. That's the way the family made money in the post-depression, post-dust bowl days.

 

[Art Eatman]

Funny how that population explosion in the jackrabbit world cycles. My mother has spoken of the incredible numbers in the Texas Panhandle around Hereford, back in the late 19-teens. Again in the drouth/Depression years of the 1930s per Larry's uncle's story; the drouth years of the 1950s, and the last I've known was up in northeastern Nevada/southwestern Idaho around 1980 or '81.

Lightweight bullets from larger-caliber cartridges can really be devastating. Next time the topic comes up in Rifle Country, mention this as a home defense load without overpenetration.

, Art

 

[varminator]

ground squirrrels in mist

My brother and I shot ground squirrels with many calibers. It seems to be as the power got higher the pieces left got smaller. 22 cal mangeled them pretty good anyway. Shot one at about 10 feet with a 45 auto and could not find ANYTHING! it just went into a mist it seemed. We could not believe it. It just exploded.

 

[LeonCarr]

The most awesome hunting trip I have ever been on consisted of the time I took my Uncle's .257 Weatherby Magnum Prarie Dog hunting, using handloads consisting of 75 grain Sierra HPs chronographing 3900 fps.

Red mist and chunks .

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

 

[Art Eatman]

Twoblink, sorry not to answer your earlier question about iron sights. I guess the answer is that your effective range is limited by your own skill in using them. It's a matter of, "How far out can you reliably hit the end of a beer can?"

, Art

 

[Dr.Rob]

You can hit a prarie dog with your elk rifle.. and it's far more challenging to do so than to set up a dedicated "target rifle" from a bench over a dog town.

Most times you punch right through them, sometimes they flip.

Varmint hunting feeds the raptors, yotes and badgers too.

 

[Shooter973]

Varminting with Big Calibers!!!!!

I shoot AT a lot of varmints with large caliber handguns( 357-44- 45 etc) and have a real ball doiing it I've even used a 45/70 once in a while just for fun. It sure sharpens your skills with the handguns! Makes it very easy to tell if you make a hit or miss. Sometimes you have to wait for the dust to settle for a couple of minutes though.

 

[twoblink]

45/70?? That's scary!! hehehe.. yeah, you'd definitely be able to tell if you hit with a 45/70

If you want to see what uncontrolled rabbit population looks like, ask an Auzzie farmer!!

I saw a pic of uncontrolled rabbits...

How's 4000 / sq-acre sound??

 

[Sven]

> How's 4000 / sq-acre sound??

Call in artillery.

 

[twoblink]

How's 4000 / sq-acre sound??

If you get a chance, take a look at what is affectionately called "The Fence" in Australia.. There are so many rabbits it's disgusting...

The population there has made the land into a desert wasteland..

 

[Chuck Jennings]

How's 4000 / sq-acre sound??

"I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

 

[ThreadKiller]

This past December my brother and I pounded a coupla' prairie dogs with his .375 H&H. Seemed to kill 'em OK.

Before that I popped a few with my little Hornet. Kinda cool toting two old Model 70's afield, one in Hornet and one in the H&H mag. Good ol' rifles.

Tim