22 and prairie dogs

[222]

I shoot 22's on pdogs often and have always have less ricochets with non round nosed ammo, like hp's, flat nose smg bullets. My cache of 22 hp's are getting low and replacements are still high when found but round nose is very common. I found via internet Paco Kelly makes a nasti nose tool but it's hard for me to justify the $$ for his system that I only have heard works. Is there any tool like that for much less or plans how to make a tool. Thanks

[Hickory]

I have a friend who has Paco Kelly's tool and he says that it changes the whole dynamics of how the 22 RF reacts on squirrels and rabbits. I need to borrow it for a few days.

[375RUGER]

You can make your own tool quick cheap and easy. I did. Here's the thread.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?204890-My-22-wide-flat-nose-tool

I do these WFN with Standard velocity and the CCI Quiet. The performance is worth the little bit of time it takes to modify these, IMO.

[222]

Thanks 375Ruger that looks like a plan to try, and in my price range.

[Texas by God]

I used to love CCI Stingers for prairie dogs. A little more range & a lot more pop. They are unobtanium around here. I have seen the SGBs but have not bought any to try. I've shot them in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Wyoming and remember fondly just loading up and going whenever I wanted. Good Hunting to you. Best, Thomas.

[Reverend Al]

Used to go to Alberta every summer for a gopher "safari" and shot thousands and thousands of rounds of .22 rimfire on the little devils. CCI Stingers are impressive when they hit, but accuracy dropped off drastically after about 50 or 60 yards in the rifles we were using. Remington Yellow Jackets performed just as well upon impact, and we found that the accuracy was far better out to 75 or even 100 yards out of my favorite Anschutz rifle and my friend's CZ 452 HB. They cost us a bit more and they can be tough to find when you want them, but we always used to stockpile a bit of ammo for the following season whenever we saw it for sale anywhere.

[waksupi]

I just took a section of round stock. Drilled the appropriate sized hole to put in a .22. Cut to correct length, and hardened it. So, I set the tool on a flat surface, give it a lick with a file, and am good to go.

[Clark]

I started shooting prairie dogs in 1984 with 243, 220 Swift, and 17 Rem. Mostly the 243 with a bi pod. I would shoot 10, get up and move forward 100 yards, lie down and shoot 10 more. That was on my wife's aunt's ranch.

Shooting prairie dogs on public land in 2013 with a 223. The dogs were poking up their heads were immature and at 250 yards. A head shot at 250 yards is hard even with no wind. They have been shot over. I was lucky to kill 10 dogs an hour.

But looking at the GPS, I noticed the fenced off private land next to me had the fence in the wrong place. I jumped the fence with a 10/22. I walked around shooting full size prairie dogs in the head, shooting off hand at 30 feet. These dogs had never been shot over.

[Pistolero49]

I enjoyed shootin' those little devils with .22 Remington Vipers in my Marlin Mountie up in the Tres Piedras, NM area.

[marlin39a]

I was shooting them up in Seligman, AZ for years. Private ranch, now wants $20.00 per day. AZ Fish & Game patrols the area, and checks on shooters for permits. My rifle of choice was a Remington 700 Varmint Synthetic in .223 with 40 grain V-Max. A 22 LR would never get close.

[222]

Planning to use these with nose cut off as 375ruger template as soon as weather cooperates and the dogs too!189365

[35remington]

Those could stand a bit more nose length cut off for a wider meplat.

[Sam Casey]

You owe it to yourself to try a .220 Swift on PD's after you finish with ones @ 100 yards with your .22. IMO the best rifle for the sport is a pre-64 M70, but the Swift is the round that will serve you best at longer ranges with most rifles so chambered.

[DLCTEX]

I shoot them out to 300 yds. with a Rem 722 in 222. With a 22-250 it stretches to 400 yds.

[222]

I use 22s when dogs are "young and dumb", 17 hmr for volume shooting, 223 and 243 when serious about killing. I have shot dogs with 22 shorts up to 375 H&H in rifles a host of handgun rounds too at ranges measured in feet to 500+ yrds. Every dead dog is a good dog since I left the ranching life it still my favorite hunt. Today, I shoot a couple of small towns under 40 acres about 4-5 miles from home over lunch I will head out and use which ever gun is in the pickup. I keep 2 or more rifles in my pickup at all times and 22 has been most common until my 17 and my 2 sons 17s joined the family last summer.

[Plate plinker]

22 suppressed is good then onto 17 HMR, after that 204 ruger. Come on out ya little buggers.:2gunsfiring_v1:

[Larry in MT]

I hadn't killed PDs with a 22 in 40 years (I use two 223s) until last Summer when a fellow invited me to shoot out of his Suburban and "suggested" a 22. It was his show so I took my 10-22 with a 16" VQ Carbon Fiber barrel, which is both accurate and handy. Using WW Power Points, and being as careful as I could be, most of the PDs fell over dead. Some, however, got down the hole -- I never liked that but, even with a .223, it sometime happens.

I shoot Richardson's Ground Squirrels (about 1/2 to 2/3 the size of a PD) with that 10-22 and kill nearly all of them outright. Last Summer I shot 600+, which was less than normal. The Power Points kill better than other HPs that I've tried.

[wmitty]

Hunted in s.e. Colorado last May with a friend. He used a .223 while I took a .22-250 and a Rem. 582 bolt action tube feed. Turned out nearly all the dogs we saw were young and I fired over 800 rounds of .22 rf and had a blast with the rimfire. Wind was blowing the bullets around, but with no recoil it was easy to see the impacts and correct aim. I had a great time!

t

[Texas by God]

My Rem 581 liked CCI Stingers enough to get some at 150 yds.
Always take a .22 on ANY hunt. You might need it!

[jim147]

My old Remington 511? I would need to go look at it been a few years since I was shooting groundhogs with it. It loved the rem yellow jacket wish I had got a case of them in the '80's. it was good over 100 yards when my eyes worked better.

[ravelode]

I started shooting prairie dogs in 1984 with 243, 220 Swift, and 17 Rem. Mostly the 243 with a bi pod. I would shoot 10, get up and move forward 100 yards, lie down and shoot 10 more. That was on my wife's aunt's ranch.

Shooting prairie dogs on public land in 2013 with a 223. The dogs were poking up their heads were immature and at 250 yards. A head shot at 250 yards is hard even with no wind. They have been shot over. I was lucky to kill 10 dogs an hour.

But looking at the GPS, I noticed the fenced off private land next to me had the fence in the wrong place. I jumped the fence with a 10/22. I walked around shooting full size prairie dogs in the head, shooting off hand at 30 feet. These dogs had never been shot over.

As a land surveyor I would not trust a handheld GPS to tell me where the boundary lines are there is no telling where the info came from or how accurate it is, my two cents.

[ravelode]

That said I always start off with
22LR, then .17 HMR, then
.223 the noise lvl spookiness lvl ;)

[ravelode]

:bigsmyl2::bigsmyl2:I've been harassed by land owners whose property was half a mile away while in the middle of square mile of BLM next to a county road once I explained I knew exactly where I was and offered to contact the BLM ranger to settle our disagreement he changed his tune bigtime