Cast Boolits on Prairie Dogs?

[JohnH]

I have an opportunity to ride west with a friend for a week of Pdog shuetzen in the spring. Anyone do ever do this with cast? Is it worth the effort? Is it your bullet type of choice? Feel free to share your experience doing this, it is something I've only read about, and I'd like to know all I can.

[felix]

I shot them when I lived in CT at about 80 yards max offhand with pistols. I used the maggies, 41s and 44s mostly. Unfortunately, they allow the dogs to go back into their holes unless hit just right. The most fun was to hit them where they would fly 10 feet up into the air like a beer can. Longer shots could have been made with cast rifles, but other folks with me would rather shoot them in specific spots with scoped condoms. The farmer wanted his dogs dead, and the pistols were therefore used for the challenge only. ... felix

[waksupi]

I've used cast on the ground squirrels here, and in Alberta. Slightly smaller than the prairie dogs. I've used the .223, .45-70(!), .22 Hornet, and ML round balls. They all seemed to work well.

[9.3X62AL]

I've used cast boolits in 243 caliber on ground squirrels much like Waksupi has, and the rats expire immediately when hit. No "red mist", but the critters crap out post haste. My load has been 12.0 x 2400 under the RCBS 95 grain 6mm casting, and it can do 1"-class groups if all goes well at 100 yards. I'm going to try a test series very soon with elevated powder charges as per the old RCBS Cast Bullet Manual, and learn how accuracy holds. I estimate my current load is running about 1700 FPS or so, and a little trajectory flatness might help things a bit. Shots past 150 yards are a little iffy when sighted in at a 100 yard zero, due to low strikes. If they do connect, it's still a "rat down".

[JeffinNZ]

Should do.
I use a Lyman 225415 over 6.5gr Green Dot in my .223 for 1900fps and this is great on rabbits out to 120m.
The little 0.1 flat nose sure does put 'em down.
J

[Bullshop]

When we were living in Fair view Mt. Jr. and I would cross the river to the national gress lands in ND. There are many miles of rolling grassy hills along the yellowstone river.(public land) Back in those hills are dog towns scattered about the valleys. We would take our hornets and pockets full of ammo and never come close to running out of dogs. Within 200 yds no dog was safe. We shot the 45gn fngc NEI and the 55gn fngc Lyman. Those flat nose boolits starting at about 2200 fps take them dogs apart.
BIC/BS

[carpetman]

The 58 grain .22 RCBS in either a .222 or 22-250 will take jackrabbits to whatever range you can spotlight them. Would work on a prarie dog.

[9.3X62AL]

Since C-man showed up here, I should add that he is responsible for the intro to the RCBS 243 95 grainer. Success was immediate, and continues apace.

Thanks again, Ray--that Rem 788 x 243 might be my most accurate cast boolit rifle.

[BruceB]

I haven't done it very often, and hits didn't come all that frequently, but....I DID bump off a very few ground squirrels with the .416 Rigby and .50 Sharps' with cast boolits. I will guarantee that I had at least as much fun as my pals with the .223s and .22-.250s, too....

It was more like mortaring the poor buggers, but there was no difficulty in seeing the bullet impacts. The boolits probably weighed almost as much as some of the critters, and how is THAT for "overkill"? When hit, they stayed hit.

[ben1025]

I've shot a lot of prairie dogs and rock chucks ( similiar to a ground hog) with jacketed bullets with most 22 cal centerfire rifles, also 243 with instant kills. I thought I would try my 30/06 with lead bullets on rock chucks. My load was 12 grains unique and 180 grain cast bullet, brinnel 8. My 100 yard off hand practice load. Around 1200 fps I think. I shot 9 and they all made it to their hole. They must have been bled out considering the amount of blood they lost on the way. I didn't like the results and never used cast for rockchucks again. That was probably 25 years ago. If I was going to do it now I would use a faster bullet, probably a large meplate or HP, straight lead.
Anything that would kill them quick. ben1025

[felix]

Ben, that's my conclusion exactly. Need 2K fps at the target, with a light enough boolit to enter and explode. I would use a boolit that is less than 100 grains made out of something brittle. ... felix

[Slowpoke]

I have an opportunity to ride west with a friend for a week of Pdog shuetzen in the spring. Anyone do ever do this with cast? Is it worth the effort? Is it your bullet type of choice? Feel free to share your experience doing this, it is something I've only read about, and I'd like to know all I can.

John I have shot prairie dogs quite alot and even sometimes to the point where I was bored or felt bad about killing so many.

I used to carry my TC 357 mag, with me in my day pack and in those days the 180 gr LBT was the only bullet mold I owned.

If you get set up on some good real estate with only one rifle you will get over heated pretty quick and or you will need to get up and stretch your legs, I always shot prone off a bipod.And when one or the other happened I would take the TC and go put the sneak on a few while my rifle barrel cooled. I never had any problems anchoring them if I hit them in the upper half of the body with the LBT, if I hit low they would sometimes crawl back to the hole before I could get another shot off.

good luck

[KCSO]

I can't stand it...
Yes I use cast on Praire dogs. I shoot them with 535 gr bullets from my 45-100 Sharps. If you hit them solid with this load they don't crawl off. If you hit the dirt in front of them you kill them and bury them too. Of course I also conduct guided muzzleloader hunts for Rattus Ratus. No guns under 40 caliber allowed.

[BruceB]

" I shoot them with 535 gr bullets from my 45-100 Sharps. If you hit them solid with this load they don't crawl off."

You 'n me, pard. These small-bore fellers don't know what they're missing. It's kinda like fly fishing....even when you don't ketch anything, you still have a lotta fun messin' with the equipment.

[PDshooter]

No fun .......Got to use "HP" been shooting them since 91! :redneck: