Another "best" or ultimate thread (grin) .

Have been sort of rounding out my varmint rifle battery for the last few years with a light .223 , a .17 Rem , also have 6mm , 25/06 , and .264 for the longer shots at the tuff stuff , but have yet to aquire a dedicated PD gun .

My thinking is a factory with one of the varmint weight tubes , and that you should stick with the small cases due to brass cost and barrel heating concerns , but which one ? And now the .204 comes along to dish out another good choice.

The .223 , what can you say , we all know it works , there are mountains of cheap brass , etc.


.223 Ackley......really no downside to this chambering I can figure , except initial start of costs of re-chambering and dies. Should be less case stretching , and a little more performance than the parent round , without really any more barrel heating or very little more powder cost involved. Maybe it will perform right on par with the .204 ? And like the parent round , the .22 cal. bullets are the cheapest you can get .

.204......should be fantastic with 4000+ fps at moderate load levels . Downside, maybe more rapid barrel heating with the higher speeds , more expensive bullets and brass , though that might change at some point ?

Then there are the bigger catridges like the 250 , Swift , 6mms ,performance in spades, but I figure rapid barrel heating and component costs take them out of the picture for a "best" dog gun .

Rambling again(grin) so any other thoughts out there ?

You might be looking for a more technical debate over which is the best, but based on my experience, I'd go for the .223. It's just a good round for prairie dogs...maybe not the "best" at anything -- the .22-250 is faster and reaches a little farther, the .204 is neat...you could argue the merits of a lot of different rounds. I think the .223 is very balanced -- good muzzle velocity with a medium weight (50 gr.) varmint bullet, slow to get too hot, very little muzzle jump with a heavy barrel (see your hits), good for all but the longest shots, etc. Even with all of the other neat guns and calibers available, I find myself reaching for my .223s more often than any other rifle when prairie dog hunting -- that is just my objective experience...

The standard .223 is tough to beat. Case stretching has never been a problem, even in semi-autos.

If you need more velocity, get a .22-250 or .220 Swift.

The Tactical .20 is a more efficient round than the .204, and it is based on the cheap, plentiful .223 case. If I wanted a .20, that would be the one I'd get.

CPS

sdgunslinger,

If my memory serves me correctly (on your location), I would have to bet barrel heating to be one of your biggest concerns.

I have to agree with GTB, go with the .223. You can likely go through several hundred rounds in a weekend. Do you want to fire form several thousand for an AI so you are not reloading every week? I wouldn't go with a .204 yet. With all due respect when Varmint Guy, Voldoc and others are proclaiming its virtue when they have 4000 rounds through them, I may take another look. JMO

Of the three choices: a high quality, heavy barrel, .223.

Later, pdhntr

I certainly hope it is the 223 because I am getting one this week . I ordered it and the dealer said 2 days it has been 4 .I guess the rings and bases were delayed. It is a rem vls. Any tips on break-in, loads for pd or other info for a new varminter is apprieciated.

.223 in a Savage 12BVSS

Of what you mentioned......223Rem. Availability of brass, availability of projectiles....just for plain shooting a s...load of rounds in a day! HOWEVER! I will have to wait awhile to reply about the barrel heating of the .204! We don't have PD's(we do have "police dept's and some of them are about as worthless as Prairie Dogs) so we don't routinely "heat barrels" like the PD shooters. But in my testing of the .204 and firing repeated stings from the bench, and then the dreaded, "gotta stop shooting and clean" regimen, I don't think barrel heat is going to be a factor with the .204's! 223AI....forget it! A whole lot of trouble for a little gain! As far as the 223 goes, it was outdone with the 222MAG from the getgo but the shorter neck of the 223 functioned better in the auto and semiauto rifles that the miltary was considering to adapt to their small arms cache. Just my thoughts! GHD PS: Don't remember many IBS summaries listing .223 as the winner but can remember the 222MAG being listed quite frequently!!! And then it went to the 6x47!!! .204 is just an extension of the family!!!

sdgunslinger
After eight years of PD shooting my PD arsenal has evolved
to two .223 Ack. and one standard .223 VSSF Rem. The .223
VSSF will soon be rechambered to .223 Ack. Needless to say
I love the Ackley chambering. I get 3900 fps. out of 23" barrels with 40 gr. Balistic tips. Case life is much improved over the standard chamber. I have seen a lot of
discussion about fireforming brass, have not seen this to be a downside. My fire form loads with N 133 and 40 gr. BT
will shoot .5 to .6 groups @ 3650 fps., I don't see a down
side here. I have not shot an .204 yet so can not comment
on it one way or the other, but for my money I will stay
with my .223 Ack. at least until the .204 brass is readily
availible.

This is one of those topics that ought to be titled "Lets you and him fight!" (LOL).
My take as I've stated many times is that I'm an equal opportunity gun lover, I love em all and they're all great!
(hope that keeps me out of the scrap)
Now my opinion. The last few years I've been seriously afflicted with small caliber madness. Because of that I've shot a pretty fair ammount of .17 and .20 and my .22 and up stuff has pretty much been collecting dust. As they pertain to p-dogs, if I had to put together a battery for a 3 day safari (which I do regularly) I'd take a .17 HMR, .17 Mach IV, Tactical .20, .223 and a .22-250 . Barring gail force winds what I'd end up shooting most is the Tact.20 and .17 Mach IV. Both are very effecient rounds and are easy on barrel heat, way speedy and really pop a dog, and what hasn't been mentioned is with a 6X20 scope set at 20 you can see your hits!
Until a p-dog hunter shoots a round that allows him to see every hit he's got no idea! Truly a big deal.
In passing I'll also state that my Tact.20 "seems" to heat "SLOWER" than my .223's, certainly no faster. I use 24.1 grains of H4198 with a 33 grain V-Max for 4,200ish and 25.6 grains of Benchmark for 3,900ish with the 40 V-Max both loads are fast but very effecient. There's not enough difference between a Tactical .20 and a .204 to spit at. The 40 grain V-Max has a BC of .275 punch that into your ballistics program at 3,900 and see what you get, she's a serious p-dog whacker. Have you ever whatched through your scope and seen a 33grain bullet moving at 4,200fps connect with a p-dog? Not recommended for the squeamish !!!
There's my opinion, now am I gonna run out and sell my .223's and .22-250's?? Not on your life!

Certainly a lot of opinions on this one-- all good. here's why I'm with Johnny the Night Hawk on his choice of the Savage guns in .223-- mainly due to their much reported and proven out-of-the-box accuracy. It's also a smaller capacity round meaning longer accurate barrel life. Combine that with the versatility of 12 twist barrels and that means u can shoot a few more bullets with a much higher BC-- i.e. the JLK LD 52 and 60 for LR shooting to probably 5 or maybe even 600 yds. Some of their tactical models offer a 9 twist option which opens up even more flexibility regarding bullet selection tho admittedly u may be a little less so due to OAL limitations possibly affecting accuracy. I put a lot of value in loading fexibility.