Home Forums Hunting & Shooting BPCR BPC Varminting...

Shifting Cattle the other day and watching rabbits hanging around their burrows in the distance, a thought came to me - Are there shooters who have built a dedicated BPC Varmint rifle or use their BPCR for LR varmints?

I read some years ago of a guy Varmint shooting with a C Sharps '75 .38-55. I think he was using cross sticks with tang and globe sights over 300 yards on Prairie dogs or similar. Granted the Prairie dog would be nearly invisible at that range and misses would be many. He was shooting alongside a guy with a .22-250 varminter from memory. The guy with the .38-55 had the biggest smile.

With "rainbow" trajectory, lobing bullets over LR into medium or large game and risking the loss of wounded game would be unethical. However a hit anywhere on a varmint like a Rabbit or Prairie dog with a big BPC is sure to stop it in its tracks.

Varmints are plentiful here, with the Rabbit being public enemy No1. Sitting back on a portable bench or sticks at 200, 300+ meters sniping at a Rabbit warren is easy to come by. With a MVA, RHO, Fecker, Unertl, Litschert or Lyman [etc]scope, I am sure some fun could be had.

cheers,

Cam....

Was an article in VH Mag. a year or two back about a lad that made the 1500 yard club on a 'yote...that dug up the p. dog he'd shot earlier...I think it was a .45-110, or maybe 120... tagged a speed goat the next day at 600 yards or so...

I don't see any reason you couldn't do it, but I'd stick with bigger bores just to make the smokeless dudes twitch, and obsure their view as well. Ya always gotta shoot on the upwind side of those folks. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Tho I probably couldn`t see a barn at that range, That is some shot!

I like the idea of the bigger bores too, but did wonder if people had/have built dedicated BPCR's for Varmints too. ie: .25-20, .25-21, .25-25, 28-30 etc

"Ya always gotta shoot on the upwind side of those folks." I like it <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Yup, particularly in the densely populated Eastern US "Groundhog Ranges"..............where liberals freak out when they here the sound of freedom....rifle fire.

Very mild reports, and good accuracy............

What more could a guy ask for.

I think there was a thread up on the "Single Shots" 24 hr forum, Cam, but can't be sure.

Regards, GTC <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Finally found the article on varminting with the tang sighted .38-55 Sharps '75. An old 1993 edition of The American Sharps Shooter, article by a guy Sid Litchtenfelt.

The .38-55 is for the 100-300yd Dog towns and he uses a .40-65 for further shots and less frequent shooting. I can�t retype the article, I am too slow. However a quote or two -

"Actually it�s not the range that�s the problem, it�s seeing your target."

There are two shooters, one with .22-250, the other with the .38-55: " Sitting behind his cross sticks, the shooter reaches for his belt, extracts a 3" long cartridge, stares out over the dusty dog town. He turns and says "Is that one out there by that piece of sage brush, about 50 feet left of that big bare spot inline with the 3 holes?" High power shooter looking thru his glass - "yeah he is moving toward that hole just right of the sage... He�s sitting on the left side of the hole facing left"

"Cocking the hammer, he puts the rifle to his shoulder, aims and "boom"...."

"You hit the hole: missed him by a good 4" I think maybe the wind got you. Elevation is perfect" The shooter with the high power looks up and continues with a confused look on his face: "how did you do that? You can�t even see him, and that has to be 250yds!" With a smile, the shooter with the .38-55 looks up and says - "Nothing to it... and it was closer to 300!"

"No, I don`t hit everyone I shoot at. I shoot at quite a few and manage to hit enough to keep it interesting. Maybe 10 out of 50 on a good day. I'm not out there to save the world from Prairie dogs; I'm out there to try to learn something about wind, light and my rifle. And I enjoy it"

"Now, who do you suppose is having the most fun? The guy with the .22/250 and his big bore scope who hits about 70% of his shots, or the guy with the black powder rifle and iron sights, who hits 20%? Answer: They both are."
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I am sold. We don�t have Prairie Dogs, but do have Rabbits in good numbers, often plague proportions. Take my portable bench and set it up on a hill with comfortable deck chair or better still on the back of my Ute [pickup] with a thermos of coffee. Could say an esky [cooler] and a beer as it is summer, but that is politically incorrect nowadays. I would probably cheat with an 8x 10x or 12x Fecker or Litschert etc type scope. A range finder to get me on the burrows and improve my guestimation of range. Get my gusnmith to finish my .40-82 and I am out there <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />


cheers,

Cam......

Enjoy...I know I would! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I want a .22 Hornet or .223 insert for my Roller.
Anybody make one?
Jim

Trigger Doc................What Breed of Roller? Will assume it's a "small firing pinned" smokeless rig ( of which some had enormous pins, by modern specs / standards)

.225 Win. brass was recently available...rimmed equivalent of the .223.

This is nice, it was scarcer than hen's teeth for quite a while. This would be a far wiser choice, than the rimless case.No reaon not to build and run a compatible extractor ( digging cases out with a screwdriver's a PAIN )

Working with the fact that an insert is a de-facto variable, voluntarily introduced, in the "Headspace equation".........

......................I'm a bit concerned about a cartridge as lively as the .223.....rimless or rimmed.

Absolute dead-vertical breechblock lockup (rarely encountered),a minimum of action pin "shuck", breechblock face integrity, and careful consideration of a "Niedner insert" firing pin setup, with gas venting incorporated into it's design , ..................good place to start your evaluation.

As far as the insert itself goes....foam earplug, or nylon sleeve piloting, and centralization / stabilysation setups will probably not handle the energies involved in a hot Hornet load, and I'd be super sceptical about the larger cases. We don't want the parent barrel damaged, do we?

If yur roller's a large bore rig, there's adequate room too spool up a chamber insert rear guide / bolster / support.
....................main concern here is index to YOUR chamber, repeat YOUR chamber......not some standard , loosely interpreted "Spec."

The front end ?....................I'd "Pull" it into index / alignment on a good "Nylatron" bushing ( That is going to have to be kept SCRUPULOUSLY clean between service periods...as to not mar the parent barrel's riflings).......
..................and pull the whole lashup into skew with a tensioning "Nut" , designed so as not to mar the parent barrel's crown.

I had a beat up early smokeless roller turn up, years back, that had been converted to ( Get this).....30-06 Ackley improved............while this is a bit haywire ( a bit????, hell it's NUTS).................the action is out in my shop, and good to go as a mild BP pressure rig, some when. Point is, it stood up to this outrageous stunt, it's brethren may well not.

The Hornet is probably the wiser choice, but I wouldn't shy away from the larger cases , if I had a strong and mechanically fresh smokeless action.

I've worn out a couple of 1 in 8" twist .223 barrels, on a bolt gun, and love that 80gr. SMK at a fairly warm 2850 fps. Really bucks wind, and carries out into the 400yd+ realm handsomely. Sierra will flat out tell 'ya , though ...........these long bullets are hard on throats.

This project is do-able, IMHO.

Best regards, shoot well, and shoot often.

GTC

This is an original 7x57 action and has the small firing pin. I chambered iot in 45/70 and have shot nothing but BP in it. the action is well within tolerances and locks up tight. Maybe .22 mag or .17HMR
Thanks for the input.
Jim