[atlongjr]

Anyone hunting Prairie Dogs? I am planning a trip to West Texas in the spring and would like some input on what rifles to take. The guys I am going with are shooting 17HMR's up close then everything from .204's to 25-06 for the longer range shots. I've been looking at .223 just because of ammo cost. Might shoot 2000 - 3000 rounds on a three day hunt.

 

[ryanh_johnson]

Anyone hunting Prairie Dogs? I am planning a trip to West Texas in the spring and would like some input on what rifles to take. The guys I am going with are shooting 17HMR's up close then everything from .204's to 25-06 for the longer range shots. I've been looking at .223 just because of ammo cost. Might shoot 2000 - 3000 rounds on a three day hunt.

I've never been, but I think I'd take my 17HMR.

By the way......if you need another person or anyone has any other contacts for doing this please let me know!!

Thanks!
Ryan

 

[Ike Brown]

I use to hunt them varmits. I don't know about using a .17, how is that lite bullet going to handle the wind?

We always used 22-250, .243 or .223. The 22-250 was the favorite

 

[atlongjr]

Oh Yea! The 17HMR is going on the trip, along with the .243 Win. I'm looking for advice on a 300yd - 400yd rifle. Considering the number of rounds that get fired I need something I can actually afford to shoot a 1000 rounds through.

The guys that go all the time say the way it goes is something like this:

Early in the morning the dogs are in close and they shoot 22 mags or 17HMRs, then the higher the sun get the farther the dogs move out. They actually put out distance markers in the dog villages, out to about 600 yds.
The dogs are so small a range finder won't pick them out so they walk out and put colored milk jugs down when they range back to the shooting benches.

I hear the kill ratio is about 2-3 shots/dog. Sounds like a lot of fun.