Hello, Just wondering If I ever make it out to South Dakota for a PDog shoot, what is the maximum accuracy(Group size) my rifle and I should be able to shoot to consistantly hit one of the little buggers at 300yds? Thanks, Jay

If a rifle shoots 1" at 100 yards it will work pretty good for PD's. The wind is usually the major factor you will have to contend with. The one thing I always remind guys of is that the worse thing that can happen is that you might miss- wounded PD is just fresh meat for the rest of the family in the hole- and after 30 years of shooting I have yet to be charged by a wounded PD bent on revenge,

Duane, What is the avg. distance most shooters shoot at Pdogs with the 223? MOA doesn't sound like you could hit one consistantly at 300yds, especially a little pup, I know what you mean by the wind being the biggest factor, had a little headwind today, and it was throwing the bullets into alot of vertical strings, left and right was less than 2" at 300, guess that should do the trick, or no. Jay

I like my p dog rifles to shot .5 or less but i have killed dogs with a 1 in rifle to.I Have a savage tactical that does .375 I get 1.5 in groups at 300 I have shot lots of pdogs past 400 with it. Just hold your shots to under 300 with a less accurate rifle and you'll hit most of them. But that is hard to do when the pdogs are really popping.

I measured a few old P Dogs and found that they are about 3X9 inches. The largest was 13 1/2 X 4 inches. I cut up brown paper bags into 3X9 inch targets and put a round one inch red glow label 3 inches from one end for a aiming point . By using two targets at 100 , 200, and 300 Yds a rifleman can check out a rifle and himself-herself. A rifle that shoots 3/4 inch groups @ 100 Yds may have 2 1/4 inch groups @ 300 Yds and 3 inches @ 400 Yds. With wind , range estimation and being 68 years old a 400 Yds shot is a miss most of the time ,but its fun to try. Have fun.

Jay, my 223 VS shoots 5 vmax into about .5 at 100yds, and that is probably the best you need for a pd gun.

The last trip i made i kept the shooting from 0-300yds with that gun and had a hell of an average. I personally like the 100-200yd pumpkin shots. I love when they peak their head out above the mound--then SMACK...its gone!! tried out to 600 and came damn close--but no bodies.

JB

I have shot a lot of sage rats and a rifle that will give you .75-1" will kill a lot of dogs.

Jay: I prefer to do my extensive shooting each year at Prairie Dogs at from 200 to 500 yards. On occassion I will take a poke at one 550 yards away. Seldom or never at 600 plus! So my accuracy expectations may be different than others. I prefer also to shoot at the full size (mature) Prairie Dogs! This helps on the longer shots as the mature PD's can be more than twice the size of the young of the year! I have killed some very large Prairie Dogs! I have pictures.
Anyway I own a bunch of Varminters and really like them to be capable of accuracy under .500" for 5 shots at 100 yards! This means that the individual Rifle is capable of putting all of its shots within 1/4" of my point of aim at 100 yards! Or within 1/2" of my point of aim at 200 yards! Now out at 400 yards the Rifle is capable of putting its bullets within 1" of my point of aim (or a 2" group at 400 yards!). I have many Rifles that can usually group real close to .250" for 5 shots at 100 yards! Which gives these measurements: at 100 yards the bullets will hit within 1/8" of my point of aim! And at 400 yards the bullets from these Rifles will strike within 1/2" of my point of aim or a 1" grouping out there! None of these measurements allow for field conditions like mirage, wind, dust in your eye or a Rattlesnake crawling onto your shooting mat! The external factors affecting accuracy are yours to deal with no matter how accurate your Rifle is! Those factors do not disappear when you come by a really accurate Rifle!
For Prairie Dogs I would like to recommend that you have a Rifle capable of shooting .800" groups of 5 shots at 100 yards and that Rifle has an excellent and crisp trigger pull! You can still Hunt with less acurate Rifles but your maximum yardage will have to be curtailed somewhat accordingly!
Good luck if you go and make every effort to do so as its a great way to go Hunting and have lots of good times!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

[ 10-23-2003, 23:20: Message edited by: VarmintGuy ]

Thanks for the replies, I did get some really good groups with 55VMs and 24 and 24.3grs. Benchmark yesterday at the range, 24 netted 4 shots @.313', 3 of the 4 went .070" had a flier about an inch low, this being at 200yds. 24.3 gave me 1/1/8", with no fliers, but none of the shots were touching either, groups with 52&53MKs(200yds.) netted 1&11/16" for both bullets, maybe I got lucky with them 4 shots of 55VMs, but will stick with them and work a bit more with the MKs, although the 10 shot groups I tried with them at 300yds would have been mostly clean kills on a bigger Pdog, vertical stringing with a bit of a headwind, left and right was less than 2" across. Jay

Jay

I use pop cans filled with water. If you can hit them you can take P'dogs. Just set them up at ranges that will test you and your rifle. With practice you would be surprised how well you can do out to 400 or 500 yards. Be sure to shoot in the wind some also.

muck

I have shot PD's with the 223 from 15 feet to a little past the 600 yard mark- I still find the nut behind the trigger to be the most limiting factor. I have friends who shoot stock factory rifles with off the shelf ammo and they kill plenty of PD's out to about 250, and some at 300.
I find that the ability of the rifle and ammo to shoot sub .5 moa really helps when you want to shoot beyond 300 with consistency- but don't let that be a road block in trying to do the best you can with what you have. I love the 221, 222 223, 22ppc 22Br etc for pd's but when the wind begins to blow a bigger 6mm or a 25 cal will extend you ability to hit with consistency quite a distance.

Jay,

A couple of thougths.

Once you're under 1 MOA at the range, you need to focus on how you'll do under field conditions.

Zero your rifle to hit DEAD ON at a 100 yds and then know your drop amounts out to 300. If you have the right scope with target knobs and repeatability, use clicks to dial in at longer ranges. When I started shooting PD's I did the 2" high at 100 thing and promptly shot OVER a lot of PD's at 200-250 yds.

Secondly, you need to figure out how to be very steady in the field, AND have triggers light enough that you don't pull the gun off line as you shoot. If the setup permits, I go whole hog and use a Bob Portus shooting bench..but it's not very mobile. If the grass isn't very tall you can lie prone and use a Harris Bipod. This is very good if you're young and can get up after lying on the ground for an hour...I use a large moving blanket to keep me out of old cow pies and cacti...

I've seen a plan for using ATV gun rack doohickies mounted to a piece of angle iron mounted to a stout tripod as a shooting rest. The guy actually uses velcro straps to hold the gun steady in the rig and the shooter sits on a folding stool...can't remember where I saw the plans--in some gun rag...maybe someone on the forum knows of a source.

I have found a shooting partner to watch your shots hit using a top notch spotting scope to be very helpful when shooting longer shots. We like to take turns spotting for each other. Also along this same line, try using lower power on your scope if you're shooting alone so you'll have a better chance of seeing where your bullet is hitting on your misses.

Use a laser range finder if you have or can afford it.

Lastly, try to set up with the breeze coming head on. Obviously this helps with windage, but it also helps carry sound back towards you. Occasionally I can get onto a good town with a 15mph headwind. I setup so the bulk of the PD's are around 275 yds. Seems like they don't spook as bad allowing me lots of shooting even with "educated" dogs...

Good Luck!

[ 10-25-2003, 07:43: Message edited by: rogerinneb ]

A good sized target to practice on is to copy the outline of a 1 litre pop bottle onto an 8 1/2 x 14 sheet of paper and place it at 300 yds.

Copy the outline of a 20 ounces bottle at 200 yds, and you will have a pretty good indication of what the size of your target will be.

Good luck.

If you are only shooting to 300 yards the Hornady 55SPSX works great and is cheap.The MKs will skip across the prairie like a FMJ.Plastic tips make the best video but are kinda spendy.
Others have mentioned pop cans and bottles,they will give you a good idea of how you are doing.With some scopes you can use the x hairs for 200 yards and the thick part of the x hais will be your 100 and 300 yard marks,a little range work will tell you what the exact #s are.
We found on the last trip out that a 22lr on a still day is good to 200 yards with a Tasco 3-9 with mill dots.With the scope set a 50 yards the mill dots workt good for 100,150,175 and for 200 yards we used the big post set at 7x.Got a couple at 255 yards but they got back to their holes and all we had was a blood trail.
The fun part about prairie doggin is that it isnt a competion its just plain fun!Take a lot of ammo and a few different rifles and learn as you go cause its addicting as all get out and you will do it as often as possible.
CJ

Your rifle should shoot about 1 MOA to hit one at 300yds, but it would be alot better to shoot 1/2 MOA or 1.5" at 300yds that way you have a little room or windage error.