Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints 800 rounds 223 in 8 hours

Returned home last night from a spring Ground Squirrel hunt a few hours from me. Brother came down from Idaho for day 1, just my two sons (14 and 16) on day two. Total both days was about 8 hours of shooting. Went through the entire 55grain Varmint tip stash for both of the .223's we were firing. Had some rimfires also, but the 223's did the heavy lifting for me and my boys.

Last box of 20 rounds about 11am yesterday.

Could add dozens of dead squirrel pics, but you get the idea...

Nemotheangler: I am so happy for you all, getting so much "trigger time"!
I shoot more rimfire these days at Colony Varmints - but "back in the day" I had a number of 400+ rounds days Hunting Prairie Dogs.
That gets expensive anymore.
Again so happy for you and your team getting such great shooting.
Stay safe.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Sounds like fun
Would be more fun with suppressors and brass catchers on those brass flingers

Winnemucca?

Yeah probably right. We spent some time picking up brass. From what I understand, you still use hearing pro with suppressors?

Yes, that was the closest real town.

Here......

60 rounds an hour per shooter

Is a good p/dog patch

Sounds like you passed a good time. I'd love to experience that kind of action.

Paradise Valley?
I keep planning on getting there and somthing comes up.
Brother lives in Winnemucca so maybe next year.
Probably two years will be a possibility

Man I would commit terrible sins to have a day like that shooting ground squirrels..

Just seems like an absolute blast

I've had a time or two, that I've exceeded that much in just a couple of hours.

Sage rats are up and down, thru out the day... and not all of them at the same time. They usually go down about 6 to 6:30 in the evening in Southern Oregon. But around 4 to 4:30 it seems like ALL of them are up and out running around.

I've had situations where I have stayed that late in the day, having a 3 hour plus trip home. For those times tho, I've had one of my Ruger 10/22s with me, and I have six 25 round mags for them... with one of those wind up speed loaders.

Kept my shots to within 50 to 75 yds. Ammo has always been those 550 round packs that use to be only $8.99 at Walmart.

With those speed loaders, six 25 round mags and holding my shots to no more than 50 to 75 yds, I've managed to go thru pretty much both new boxes of 22 shells in 2 hours or so. And that has been a lot more than once. Keeping my distances that close hit ratio was 90% plus. In a full day with a CZ 452, with a 5 shot mag, I've seen busy days sometimes where I've gone thru 1200 to 1300 rounds in a day.

Using bolt action 223s, and single shooting those with my Blue Dot loads, those days are usually kept to 500 to 600 rounds in a day, with a 90% + hit ratio. I've ran out of ammo before 4 o'clock rolls around, and am dealing with a scope squint headache.

but you want high volume shooting in a short time, between 4 and 6 0'clock is the time you want to wait for.

Days like that, its not hard to go thru 5000 to 8000 rounds in a season...and is why I have some barrels with some real high mileage on them., but still maintain minute of sage rat accuracy.

I'll admit, I prefer the 223 over the 22s. I can shoot more with a 10/22 in the evening, before sun set. But the real fun, is the 223, and bouncing the round in front of the sage rat, vs at him. When you bounce it in front of them, it comes up as shrapnel, and tears the crap out of them... sometimes knocking them 5 feet or more in the air...or sending one half of it 10 to 20 feet to the left and the other half 10 to 20 feet to his right. This is where that term "red Mist" comes from.

Can I come and hunt with you??

Seafire: "Red Mist, one half blown one way - the other half blown the other way, high volume shooting, high hit ratio, tears the crap outa them, shrapnel, 10 feet into the air, 25 round magazines" - you sound like a sicko of some sort - I LIKE THE WAY YOU THINK!
Keep up the good work - there's more of them out there.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy