I've seen one of you guys post about going on prairie dog hunts..

I went before ammo prices skyrocketed. Pre Columbine. Shot 8 cases of shells. We drove to Amarillo tx and asked a couple farmers at the feed store. Stayed a weekend and I was honestly tired of shooting when we left.

Tiger on the Hill I believe is who it was.

22-250 might be a little hot for prairie dog shooting.

Should be perfect. I think he had one in .22-250. It may have been a back-up rifle as he likes to use his XP-100’s

I've sat and watched them at their towns many times. Damn entertaining. Looks like it could be tricky to get sighted in on 1 and make your shot before he starts running around, or jumps back in a hole.

LINK

Here's a thread he started.

204 ruger would be a good one.

It's not that the 22-250 couldnt be great for it, but its a hot round and the barrel lofe of your rifle would suffer by the volume of shooting on a hunt. I think he had 3 or 4 different guns for the hunt.

17 hmr 204 ruger 22 223.
South east texas . It was an 8 hour drive.
No permit already had hunting license

Hey guys,
I'm a little late checking in this AM because of plumbing problems at the house.

Auggie, if you like shooting and don't mind wind and hot weather, you'll enjoy prairie dog shooting. If you want, I'd be glad to email you a pd shooting "primer" I put together for a friend who wanted to take his grandson on a pd hunt. In the meantime, here's the Cliff's Notes version:

22-250 is a fine pd hunting gun, but I wouldn't want it to be my only gun. It's good to have multiple guns so your gun can cool down during the hunt. For the one gun shooter, I'd suggest the 204 Ruger or 223 Rem. The 204 is a little more prone to wind drift than the 223, but shoots flatter and has less recoil; specifically w/ most 204's the shooter can spot his own shot and that really helps. I mainly hunt w/ specialty pistols, Remington XP-100's chambered in 22 BR and 6 BR. I do have 2 rifles I built for guests to shoot, a 221 Rem Fireball and a 20 Practical (basically a 204 Ruger). The Fireball is a really good pd gun, but not many factory guns are available and factory ammo is scarce. An average day for me and my pistols is about 100 rounds whereas w/ a rifle it'd be about 150-200. Use only fragile bullets; no FMJ's since they don't kill well and are prone to ricochets. Take your deer rifle if you want to, but be careful of ricochets and be aware you won't shoot very many rounds. We don't usually use rimfires much. 17's are very susceptible to the wind and 22's are limited by the ranges and wind. The wind is ALWAYS blowing. If you want to take an accurate rimfire I'd do so, but don't expect it to be one of your main guns. All of my guns are bolt actions, but an AR would be ok as long as it's accurate. You'll want good scopes in the 6-18X or 6-24X range. Nothing against them, but I don't have a Swarovski, Schmidt & Bender, Nightforce or other high end optics. We usually hunt in 2 man teams w/ one guy shooting and the other spotting the shots/misses. My last few hunts have been on the Kiowa National Grasslands (east of Clayton, NM) and the Rita Blanca NG (north of Dalhart, TX). I've done both self-guided hunts as well as guided hunts. I've hunted both private and public land. My hunts have taken me to KS, OK, TX and NM. I've never done it, but like one of the posters did, I've heard of folks driving to a town w/ nearby prairie dogs and finding private land to hunt by making a visit to a local feed store, hardware store, etc. PD numbers are down in some areas due to the plague and other factors.

Keep us updated! I've been meaning to make a post on this year's dog hunt, but haven't yet done it. I'll work on that.

Thanks for replying.
As I said above, I have already been considering getting a .204,but it might have to wait a few weeks.

I have plenty of other great rifles to use though. I don't need to wear any single 1 out.

am hoping to try some challenging shots, more than just shooting hundreds of prairie dogs.

How much do you have to worry about where you are set up to shoot, according to the wind? Meaning, do you have to worry about them smelling you, or can you set up so you don't have as much crosswind?

I will probably have to just try at the feedstore or whatever, and see how that pans out, since it will be added in during a working trip.