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

yes im crazy and use a standard weight 22/250 all the time out there

have used a 223 remington and 220 swift- both rifles were too heavy for my taste

thinking about a 17HMR, 19 Calhoon, 19 Badger, 22 Hornet or 223 remington

any thoughts?

Depends on what you want. I love the .221 Fireball because my barrel doesn't get hot and it's easy to shoot well. Others want flat trajectory and maximum resistance to wind. Others experiment with odd cartridges. Some want a sporter, some a varmint rifle, some a lever gun.

Hard to go wrong with a .222 Remington done right. I'd personally love to find a custom .17 Fireball built on a Sako action.

barrel life and weight are concerns we walk the pdog fields

I used to hunt them with a Ruger Mark II 22 pistol. Takes a bit of skill to get close enough. The pdogs won more often than not.

That's the great thing about PD hunting, you can use anything including a bow! Sounds like you'd like a nice light sporter for your type of walking. If you handload anything goes, if not .223 ammo is inexpensive and available.

I have a Krico .223 sporter with double triggers that I bought with 7 other rifles from a collection. It's the only one I kept. Normally a handloader but I found Hornady Zombie ammo shot well in it so I've never bothered to handload for it. I rarely shoot it but it would work as you roll. It's not for sale, just sayin. Pick up a fine condition little sporter of your favorite persuasion and rock on. Try typing in ".222" or ".223" in Gunbroker under "bolt action rifles" and see what comes up.

Brian: I began Hunting Prairie Dogs in the 1960's and relish Hunting them still!
If I were to pick ONE (heaven forbid only one!) cartridge for Hunting them it would be THE 204 Ruger!
If you have not tried a Rifle in this caliber I highly recommend you do so.
It has so many great attributes and NO negatives (that I have ever observed).
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Plus one vote for the 17 fireball - so much fun, does not heat up a barrel, can spot your shots through the scope.

Red mist factor is high

Downsides might be, converting brass (221 FB lapua), or trying to find brass. Factory ammo is limited to one run a year (usually).

Of course it might be hard to find a 17 fireball rifle. There are always a few on gunbroker, average price is anywhere from $800 and up.

Some guys have been enjoying buying a cz 527 fireball and rebarrelling it.

walk...........? not gonna carry a 17# rig.......

I let the V max do the walking for me...caliber choices ?

17M2....20 Vartarg...20-222...20 Practical...223AI...6BR...

6.5x55 for the tough ones in a bunker......

this pic is my 20-222...was a 20BR for 1200 rds....

the 20-222 is the most pleasant p/dog rig I own...luv it !!

my Vartarg & Practical 'were' 204 Ruger chambers when new...

17 hornet....

another vote for the .17 hornet. .17 Fireball is fun uses about twice the powder. .17 rem. is fun but uses a little more powder yet. .204 is fun but uses a little more powder. 22-250 is fun but, ahh, you get the picture.
I had a .17 hmr and it's the only .17 that I've had that I sent on down the road. Never impressed me much.

I was gonna say .17 Hornet.......still have not found one to buy yet.

I like my .17 Fireball, but the barrel does get hot.

Hands down 204 Ruger.

you can see your hits due to no kick, and it reaches out to 400 easily

The .204 is the shizz.....

Remington didn't offer a .17 hornet, so I got a fireball.
I love it. Dead nuts to 300 yds.
I was lucky and found a lot of brass, then a retired machinist friend made me a bunch more, cheap, from .223 brass.
.204 is great also.

Because he hasn't been around in a while, I'll plug the 222 Remington Magnum out of a Sako for Shrapnel.

Isn't that a cdog?

He's from Oregon.
Nuff said.

Indeed......I did just that....I love that little rifle...
I have 17FB...17Rem...222Rem...I use the 17FB more than the other two combined....
Fortunately I bought enough brass when it first came out to last me a life time but necking down 221 ain't that big of a deal...I wouldn't let it stop me from getting a 17FB if I were you....truth is you'll end up with better brass in the long run...





Works good on Cats and Coyotes too....

Another vote for the .17 Hornet.

I've been shooting PD's for over 50 years now, since starting with a .22 Long Rifle as a kid. For the first 25 years I constantly up-sized my cartridges, but during the past 25 years the process has been one of constantly downsizing, mostly because plastic-tipped bullets increased range and explosiveness.

Have shot PD's alongside world-record benchrest champions, several professional snipers, reknowned accuracy gunsmiths, etc. Have yet to run into anybody who consistently hits more PD's than they miss much beyond about 300 yards in typical conditions.

Once in a while a really calm day comes along, where more can be hit than missed out to 600+, but not often. After trying a bunch of cartridges, the .17's proved the easiest to hit with out to 300, partly because recoil is so gentle you can spot your own hits and misses at any range, rather than depending on somebody else to spot the shots.

Eventually thought I'd settled forever on the .17 Fireball as my primary cartridge, but then the .17 Hornet appeared, and it worked just about as well with 2/3 the powder, and brass MUCH cheaper and more available than .17 Fireballs.

Still use a .204 for longer shots, but out to 300 (and on a calmer day farther) the .17 Hornet does the job. In fact was shooting with some friends last summer, and sent a dog about two feet into the air with a 250-yard shot. They were all traditional shooters, using .222's or .223's for most shooting, and .22-250's or Swifts for "long shots," and though none had ever tried a .204 thought it has to be too small. One saw the dog fly and said, "That little .204 does pretty well!"

I said, "That was the the .17 Hornet...."

John, Im out of the loop...anyone making a 17 hornet besides Ruger?


( I like theirs a lot, but Im just curious..)

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.......

20 cal sumthing is where its at for p/dogs.........

I live in prairie dog country. Started shooting them in 1949 with a 22 LR RF . I started looking for one perfect P D rifle years ago. Iv shot them with 17HM2, 17 HMR ,17 WSM , 17 Hornet,17 Fireball, 17 Rem, 204 Ruger, 22 RF, 22WMR, 22 Hornet, 221 Fireball, 222 Rem, 223 Rem, 22 250 Rem, 220 Swift, 243 Win, and a few with big game rifles. To be a good PD rifle it must be accurate with a good quality high power scope .. Prairie Dogs become muzzle blast smart. So only one rifle wont do. The little low muzzle blast 17 rim fire rifles are fine for shooting spring time PD pups. Iv only shot a few with the new Ruger 17 WSM rifle and the new CZ 527 Varmint 17 Hornet rifle. Both are winners. But for some one looking for their first prairie dog ,take look at a accurate 204 Ruger rifle.

.223. Ammo is cheap and readily available. It also isn't hard on barrels.