Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints what cartridge for pdogs?

CZ is I think.

ruger ain't anymore......

There's this...

http://www.taylorsfirearms.com/half-pint-sharps-hunter-17-hornet-24-octagonal.html

The Rugers are good. Mine's a CZ 527, the "heavy" barrel model, which means it weighs 8 pounds 10 ounces with a 4-12x scope. The single-set trigger breaks at 9 ounces, and average 5-shot groups with 20-grain plastic-tips run in the .4's at 100, at 3600-3700 fps.

I alternate between the 17 rem,222,223 and 22-250.

The bulk of my shooting is with the 17 tho.

I had a Cooper in 17AH back before the 17HH came out but I actually like my home grown CZ 17FB better....
I finally sold the Cooper to GeeDub.....

Good. That saves me some $$$

Mule Deer talked me into the .204......





Now I'm hooked.

Savage is making them in the Model 25.

FieldGrade,

The .17 Fireball is a GREAT PD round. I'd probably still have my 700 (which shot very accurately right out of the box) if brass had been cheaper and more easily available. It wasn't any big deal to neck down .221's, but even those were scarce for quite a while.

But Hornady .17 Hornet brass was abundant and much cheaper--and Hornady factory ammo so accurate and cheap that it often didn't make any sense to handload.

Mule Deer, did you trade your CZ?

I remember you mentioned it being an American Sporter in the .17 hornet thread.

Maybe I am confused. I have been agonizing as to which rifle to buy. The Varminter or the American.

17 Hornet for me. Buy ammo online and resell once fired brass to get net cost down to slightly more than 17 HMR cost/round. Savage and CZ make rifles so chambered. Calhoon makes a single shot follower for the CZ. 20 Vartarg is close second but a reloading proposition.

Those two calibers can shoot much longer before heating barrels than the other calibers mentioned. A 17 HMR for walking around as long as shots are not much longer than 100 yards also works well but moves around too much in typical wind at longer ranges in my experience.

I formerly used 243, 22-250 and 223 as well as 204 Ruger and downsized for ease of spotting shots and cheaper loads. Most of my shooting is off a rotating bench out to 350/400 yards. Just had a 17 Fireball made and waiting to try it this summer.

Lots of bragging on cartridges and opinions on what is best, but this little nugget of truth escapes all but the really knowledgeable PD shooters. It is amazing how many guys never miss but rarely, until you get a clicker and actually keep score. Ingwe mentioned it once how he used to do that until he saw what the real tally was, then threw away the clicker.

Jim,

You're right, it is an American Sporter. But the barrel is pretty heavy, 3/4" in diameter at the muzzle, which to me is more varmint-weight!

HitnRun,

Yeah, I remember Ingwe telling that story!

We often hear about long hits on PD's, but not on how many shots it took to the make 'em.

I caught that too Jim. We the readers come out on top here, because MD can give us a fair comparison between the two rifles.

Edited:
Nevermind..........I type too slowly.

Depends on the range, the weight of rifle you want to carry, and (of course) your budget.

17HM2 out to 100+/- yards, or the 17HMR out to 150+/- yards, or either the 204 or 223 for longer ranges.

Prior to getting my RAR-P in 204 I had had three or four different 204 Remingtons and Savages, but I wasn't a fan and found a reason to rebarrel them. Then, I got my RAR-P and found that rifle to be so accurate and so easy to shoot that it has made me a fan.

That said, components for the 223 are less expensive and when you're shooting pdogs in volume, less expensive is never a bad thing.

25-06 Improved is clearly the best prairie dog cartridge.

It will take them nearly 45% of the time at distances nearing 200 yards.

And you can probably quit shooting inside of 300yds after about three shots.

Sometimes I don't even kill them with the bullet. Often times its a horrible powder burn.

that I would think so.......