I saw a few short clips from dogbegone.com(?) of p dogs doing some very dynamic stretching excercises. Apparently they have some special high speed capture function that allows them to pick up frame by frame, every tiny fragment of p.d. as it speeds away from it's pont of massive IMPACT.

My question is, never having seen or shot a prarie dog, what would these people be using to get such spectacular results?

Will a centrefire .22 do this or are they more likely shooting bigger bores? .25-06 or .270...?

[ 06-22-2003, 22:09: Message edited by: EXPRESS ]

I was just out in Montana and talked with a sporting goods store owner. Who talked with the guys who made the videio. They had some very expensive equipment he said.--------------------------- Having shot thousands of dogs. An 223 will get go results out to 200 with good bullets a 22250 300 yards or so. The 243 out to about as far as you want to wack them. --------------------------- I watch my son shoot his first one with his new 25-06 at 157yards that one was lanuched about 6 feet in the air. But what else would you expect with a 87 gr bullet at 3400 on a small target like a pdog.----------------------------------- The 243's and bigger with good explosive bullet really blow them up at ranges from 100 to 500 with good results out farther.

Faster is always better and the fast .22's (.22-250, .220 swift and others) will give you the action you are looking for. By the same token, it is where you hit them that makes the difference. The absolute best pose is the dog laying on it's belly looking at you or away from you. With this type of shot, a .223 is more than adequate with a 50 gr V-max out to 200-300 yards.
The trick is being able to place the bullet exactly where it needs to be.
The Hornady V-max is the most destructive bullet I have ever shot.

Express;

I have used mainly 223s shooting them. I use a wide variety of bullets on them. I had the opportunity last year while coming back to the truck to get more ammo, to see a Pdog hit.

My friends nephew was on a fence line using the fence post for a rest with one of my 223s. About 100 yds straight out in front of him a Prairie Dog popped out of his hole and stood looking at the kid. Thirty yards to the PDogs right, I was walking back and of course stopped.

The P Dog then was looking frantically from me to the kid and back. Of course with its little brain it was real confused.

Justin asked me if I was okay if he took the shot, He had an 8 x 32 scope and the distance was 100 yds. Being 30 to 40 yds to the right of the PDog, I did not feel any sort of danger so I told him to go ahead.

It would have been interesting to hold a video camera. The shot hit the PDog standing up. It blew the thing about 2 feet into the air and he blew back about 30 feet. I went over to look at the remains, but all there were was Prairie dog parts the entire 30 feet back. Don't remember what bullet that I had loaded in that ammo he was using.

Hit em right and they will explode like a balloon.

Another interesting thing, was I was in Montana last Sunday shooting Pdogs again. The load was a 50 gr Speer TNT, but coming out of the muzzle at only 2600 fps.

I shot several Pdogs, down in the crouched position who were looking at me at distances between 125 to 150 yds. When I hit them, I could see them fly up in the air, but what got me is then you could see them flopping all over the place like a fish out of water on the ground, and I mean covering a radius of several feet, bouncing all over the place.

At first I thought I had just wounded them real bad and they were trying to recover, and get back to the hole. Wrong!!! Nervous system reflex is all that I can assume.

Each time, the shot had taken off half the face and head, but they bounced from 15 to 30 seconds. The same thing had happened when I had head shot ground squirrels shooting here in Oregon in May. That was with a 22 LR.

Each time post mortem was such to the extent that you think the shot would have killed them instantly.,,Not so! And I am talking that the impact took half their head off.

Nature can be amazing somedays.

Hey fellas I bought that video a while ago and love watching it before going out on PD hunt. The rifles they took time to describe were two relatively plain Savage 112 HB police-type models and a NEF 17 HMR. The Savages were chabered in .22/250 and .223. The best glass was a 4-16X Burris Signature atop the .22/250. They didn't mention any loads but from watching it so many times they crawl pretty close to most of the dog they shot. For maximum terminal effects in my .223AI Savage I like 50 gr Blitzkings a little better than 40 gr V-maxes. Both Great bullets though. For my .25-06 I love the 75 gr V-max over 59 gr of H4831SC. The best it's ever done is one big chunk of PD(laser confirmed for the hell of it) 40 yds from the rest of it. Just figured I would pass it on.

Dog-duster

I shot one with my 300 RUM with a 180 NP at 3300 FPS and needless to say it was messy!!!

WOW! I just visited the site and watched the clips. I was out this morning with a Hornet doing the same exercises with 45 or so of the local gophers. That is outstanding photography, exactly duplicating what I see behind the crosshairs on a perfect shot.

I dare not buy the video, though. Momma would just not understand why her idiot husband and our young son were whooping it up in the other room

<----Momma

Redial

I really like it when the little critters do a full gainer. Sometimes you are rewarded with a full gainer and 1/2 twist! P dogs and rabbits will do this, but gophers more often than not just vaporize. This has been my experience with both the .22-250 and 6m/m.

Heavy calibres often react differently. One fall while deer hunting an opportunity presented itself in the form of a pissed badger. It came our way at a rapid clip, and at about 75 yards was promptly stopped with a .338 Winchester. I hit it low in the head, in line with the spine. Didn't look like it phased him, he just stopped. Upon closer examination there was no badger, just an 8"x10" chunk of hide! Singer himself couldn't have put it back together. If memory serves me correctly, that was with a 200 grain Noslet B/T.

packrat

I have the video and it's EXCELLENT!!!

Hit a prairie dog low, near the ground, if you want him to fly high.

Hit him in the head and he'll flop around, as will most other animals.

I like a 243 with light bullets for maximum effect but any good varmint bullet moving fast will usually do...

$bob$

Have you ever wondered how a high speed bullet travelling horizontally can impact a Varmint that is sitting on the ground, can, on occassion send it directly vertically up into the air?
I am pretty sure I know the answer to this phenomenon and was just wondering what you fellows think (you too Ann!)?
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

[ 06-29-2003, 05:16: Message edited by: VarmintGuy ]

the energy of the dog expanding equally outward has nothing to "push against", except the ground. therefore, I believe, the dog rockets in the opposite direction of terrafirma.
what is my prize?

Can anyone post a direct link to a few of these video clips??
Sounds cool.

Their email addie is dogbegone@mac.com. Other than that you can use your fav search engine. derf

Best explosion I have ever seen was obtained using a 9mm at a distance of two feet.

Tex - Ewww! Two feet! How long did it take you to clean yourself off afterwards? Or did none of the parts fly in your direction? Just curious.

Rick

Most of it hit my boots. I was on my first trip and wanted to see what a prairie dog looked like up close. I shot one with my 22 from about 50yrds. I walked over to get a good look and as I was looking at it this p dog jumped out of a hole right next to where I was standing. It started barking at me. So I unholstered the 9mm from my hip and killed it. I believe I hit it with a hollow point can't quite remember the bullet type though.

Most of my shooting is done from the bench. I have 4 different .224 centerfires so I go through a lot of Sierra 52gr HPBT's. I also use these for woodchuck since I have so many of these bullets at any point in time. They behave pretty well in my .222Rem., clean kills being the order of the day. However, when fired in my .22-250Rem. at higher speeds they become quite explosive to the point of occasionally turning a chuck virtually inside out. The combination of a hot load and a HP bullet is really destructive on whatever you hit. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

A few years ago some friends and myself went on a mule deer hunt out in Lance Creek, Wyoming....We all tagged out the first day so the rancher took us out hunting for P dogs.Since all we had was our deer rifles, I wacked a couple with my 270 and then just started filming my friends as they shot some. The neatest one was taken with a 300 Weatherby at around 30 yards. It flew up in the air about eight feet, and was nothing but a piece of hide about the size of a playing card when it came down. I still watch that video!.....Big K

Higher RPM's make a difference also.

Hey fellas, I'm Tom from Velocity Films, we produce the video you've been discussing here.

We had a blast (literally) making it, and we're always happy to chat it up on the boards where we're being discussed.

I'm going to try and contact the moderator here to see if he'd be interested in reviewing the tape for the board, then running a giveaway for it. We've done this on several other boards with success.

In the meantime, feel free to ask whatever interests you about the vid.

I guess I'll head off the obvious Q, given this is a reloading board. The .223 was loaded with 50 and 55gr. V-Max (moly) over warm (1-1.5 gr. under max.)loads of H335. Brass was once fired LC, various years headstamp. Win. Small Rifle primers.
Velocity is about 3200fps +/-.

22-250, 55 gr. V-Max (moly), over warm load of W748. Win. brass, Win. Large Rifle primers. About 3400 fps.

Both loads showed no signs of pressure in extreme heat, and I get minimum 5 uses out of the brass.

Thanks again for your interest, and for those of you who haven't already, check out the video!

Hey you all. If you want another video to look at here is one. It is from Advanced Action Videos and it is called "EXPLODING VARMINTS" There are 2 parts. They cover everything from how to hunt them, getting premission to hunt, to rifles that they use.

Ray