Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 300 yd p.d. rifle

fast twist 223 or 6x45?

223ai with 53 gr vmax

+1.......

my 223AI has a -0- @ 300 w/53 V max

plain 223 will work fine....boolits are cheaper than 6mm

At that range a standard 223 will get it done just fine.
Hornady V-Max or Nosler B.T. bullets in the weight that your gun shoots most accurately work well, as will many other bullets.

.223 slamo Dunko...

yes 8 or 9 twist 223

Regular 223 with 12 or faster twist will do you just fine if it is your first PD rifle.
Once you are familiarized with the .223, its goods (many) and bads (few), then you can decide the next toy in your cabinet.

as will a 17 hornet.....

Yep, or .17 Fireball, .22 Hornet loaded with plastic-tip 40's, .221 Fireball, .204 Ruger, and a host of wildcats in the same general range.

Anymore I regard the standard .223 as on the heavy side for 300-yard PD shooting--and most humans can't hit 'em consistently much farther than that, in average conditions.

Who'da thunk it?......

I didn't believe that Mule Deer guy, so's I took the 17 fireball for a spin a while ago. Shaaaazzzzaaammm....The furball really will do it at 300.. Well, I be dammed.....

Huntsman, you and your 17s are a bad influence!
Mule Deer too, trouble!

Now I'm thinking I need something different too, maybe a 20VarTarg.
Hey, it's 300 yds or less.

20 Vartarg

CZ American in 223 would be my first choice, but I probably prefer a lighter gun than most and I have other guns to shoot and if you don't, remember that barrel will heat up very quickly. Or if you don't care if you burn the throat out of a barrel in a few days of shooting, you can buy new takeoffs for ~$75 and have a gunsmith change them out for fairly cheap when you get home.

The CZ in 223 or 204 in varmint weight will give you substantially more range than 300 yards, either will work just fine. The 223 varmint weight guns have a faster twist than the American and in my opinion the 204 needs the barrel length of the varmint over the American.

Actually, I don't know where I stand on the CZ American in 204, mine does not give me the velocities I was looking for out of the shorter barrel on the American. Just because I haven't really warmed to it doesn't mean that it isn't something to look at. I have had it five years and don't use it enough to have a valid opinion. If you are interested in looking at that option, ask around. I think if I spent more time with it, and less out hunting it might just pan out to be as good as anything and better than most. But make sure you get valid opinions.

17 caliber rifles are not going to cut it in the wind on the high desert in Montana where I shoot prairie dogs. I have a 17 Rem and it is plenty accurate, but the wind will kill you. I shoot more rock chucks with it than prairie dogs for exactly that reason, although the wind blows up the coulees of central and eastern Washington too. The 17 is only going to be good for a few hours in the morning where I shoot, because that is the only time the wind is not blowing pretty stiff.

All of the above being said, a Howa is a good gun too if you are just getting going and want to stay with a relatively inexpensive gun to start out with. If you want to spend more, the options are almost endless. I don't care for Savage rifles, but a lot of people like them just fine.

JDhasty,

I don't know what loads you're comparing to your .17 Remington, but with a 25-grain V-Max at 4000 fps a .17 Remington will drift noticeably less in the wind than a .223 with a 50-grain V-Max even at 400 yards. And there isn't enough difference in wind drift between a .17 Fireball with a 20 at 4000-4100 and a .223 with a 50 to tell at 300-400.

I live in Montana so do most of my prairie dog shooting here, and to beat the fast .17's, it takes something more wind-resistant than a typical .223 with 50-grain bullets.

the main thing about shooting pd's is to shoot the lightest recoil rifle/caliber.... so... you can watch the impacts. If you can't see the impacts... what's the fun of shooting them

I did this very thing last weekend in wind swept Wyoming, my favorite combo for 300yd pd's is a 222 with 40gr Blitzkings

I shoot a 22 L.R. out to 300 yards on prairie dogs, though a bit more horsepower is preferable past 150 yards.

My current favorite is a 223 AI loaded down to 22 Hornet levels with 40 grain Ballistic Tips. It satisfies the 3 bears scenario of not little and not too much... it's just right. Also works nicely for fireforming brass.

Yeah, I have a Blue Dot formula for that. Like having a hot, ACCURATE Hornet.
John is, as usual, right. But I will still stick with a .223 for the central rifle in the varmint quiver. I have a Fireball for a bit less, and a 22BR for a little more. Just depends on what's out in front, I guess.

Fair enough. My 17 Rem is a H&R Ultra Wildcat and although it sports a 1:10 twist it will not shoot 25 grain Vmax at all. They keyhole and I'm lucky to hit an 8.5x11 target twice out of ten shots at a hundred yards.

Actually the bullets I shoot are not even as slippery as the current Hornaday HPs, they are the last of about three thousand of the Hornaday/Remington 25 grain HPs that Remington used to sell bulk packed in lots of 500.

So I would also apply my advice regarding the 204 CZ American to the 17 then, and get more than one opinion. But that being said you would not want a gun like my Ultra Wildcat that weighs about five pounds. You would burn the throat out of it in a good day of shooting.