My varmint rifles are a SAKO 222 Remington with a sporter barrel and 2 AR15s, both with 16" barrels in 5.56 NATO (223) For prairie dogs the heavy fluted match grade AR and the SAKO are best for me and both shoot under 1/2 MOA. For getting real low to the ground the SAKO is easier to use then the AR.
But for shooting varmints for hides, the king of the 3 is the light barreled AR. It's got a Weaver fixed 4X scope and a match trigger, but it's the least accurate of the 3 rifles. It will do MOA, just just MOA and sometime about 1-1/4" is what I can expect at 100 yards, depending on the ammunition I am using.
However I am nearly as fast for the 1st shot with the light AR as I am with the SAKO, and if there are multiples (as does happen not infrequently with foxes and coyotes) the light weight AR is the king. Almost no recoil so 2nd shots are REALLY fast and I don't come off the scope at all, so if I miss the 1st shot I have a correction and a 2nd on on the way in less then 1 second, and in the cases of pairs and packs there is just no comparison between the AR15 and the SAKO. I get a LOT more hides using the semi-auto.
So for varminting for money, the AR15 is probably the best tool yet invented
