Favourites

05 May 2004, 18:41

M82A1Barret50Cal

Favourites

Just wondering what people favourite varmint rifles and varmint animals are. Personally I like foxes with a .17 remington. What's everyone else's opinion...

M82A1

05 May 2004, 19:56

craigster

A 222 Remington and OAT's. OAT meaning "only available target." Seriously, I've used the 222 for everything from ground squirrels to blacktails.

06 May 2004, 05:55

beemanbeme

22-250 and sage rats a loooong way out.

06 May 2004, 11:18

VarmintGuy

M82A1Barret50Cal: I often consider this very question. It is difficult to narrow it down to just one Varmint and one caliber. But here goes - my favorites as of now are - Hunting Western High Country Rock Chucks with a long heavy barreled Varminter in caliber 22 Remington Bench Rest!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

06 May 2004, 12:12

Stormbringer

While I enjoy all species and shoot several calibers my favorite species is an easy choice. The rockchuck is my favorite varmint/predator to hunt. I use several calibers to shoot them but my favorite is the 6mmBR. From a pure spectators view (I rarely get to see the hits) the 7MMSTW sure makes a mess out of a chuck shooting 120 grain Vmaxes 3600fps!

06 May 2004, 19:21

M Jager

Whatever one is in my sites at that particular moment.
I like crow calling - Beretta 390 super sporting
Pigeons- shotgun or .223 (or similar) depending on where its at and what its doin.
Prairie dogs are a nice change up.
Calling coyotes is a rush- love that HK630
Sparrows and starlings are a nice relaxing way to spend an afternoon with your favorite .22
Flies at 50 yards (white paper smeared with honey) with an accurate .22 are also intertaining.
So I guess I am pretty equal oppurtunity.
Matt

07 May 2004, 15:34

Skinner

Quote:

Personally I like foxes with a .17 remington.

Sounds kinda familiar, but I use the .17 Rem. for bobcats and a reduced load in a .222 Rem. or a shotgun for the grey foxes. Greys are a bit smaller than the reds you take and the .17 causes too many blowouts, I hunt for pelts for the fur trade and taxidermy so the pelt damage needs to be minimal.

But the .17 with a 50gr. Berger match is perfect for cats, almost never exits and drops them like they've been electrocuted. Sometimes they do a pretty good backflip though.

07 May 2004, 17:04

Mike-OR

My favorite combination is Sage Rats with my .22 Hornet.
Next are Graydiggers and the Hornet or .223

08 May 2004, 12:38

Fiftydriver

M82A1,

Living in Montana I am pretty lucky to have a wode variaty of varmint to hunt and I love hunting them all. I will list my favorite for each critter as they all need some special attention.

Gophers/ground squirrels: One of my favorites is my 1962 vintage XP-100 handgun in 221 FB. This handgun still has the 2x leupold on it from when I baught it and even though I would like alot more power in the scope, the little 221 hits everything out to 150 yards with scary consistency. Its favorite load matches the original factory load in performance but drive the 50 gr Ballistic Tip to 2650 fps with 17.0 gr IMR-4198 over a CCI-400 primer.

For rifles, I would say my 22-250 Ack Imp would be my favorite for these small critters. Its 50 gr Ballistic Silvertip at 4100 fps flat pops them well past 1/4 mile.

Prairie Dogs: Again the 22-250 Ack Imp is my favorite.

Chucks: We do not have alot of chucks in my area but there are enough to hunt. To save colony populations, we hunt these big varmints at extreme range, usually outside 800 yards and very often at over 1000 yards. We do not kill alot but anything close at those ranges in the Montana wind is a good shot. For these, my current favorite is a custom 6mm-284 built around a fast twist 30" Lilja barrel. Its favorite load is a coated 107 gr Matchking over 56.0 gr Rl-22 and lit with a CCI-BR2 primer. This load is good for 3550 fps and will hold 1/2 moa well past 1000 yards in perfect conditions even though I can not always do the same.

I also use my 50 BMG alot for hunting chucks at extreme range.

For fox and coyotes I just want to kill the little game eaters, no desire to save pelts so my favorite rifle for them is actually my wifes hunting rifle. Its a Ruger M77MkII in 25-06 Rem. This is the most accurate factory sporter I own as it will drive 100 gr Ballistic Tips into sub 3/8" groups as they clip along at near 3500 fps. Really hammers dogs with authority.

Well that covers most of the varmints here in Montana, basically, whatever I have in my hands when I see a critter is what I like to use but those are my favorites if I have a choice.

Good Shooting!!

50

08 May 2004, 15:10

700vlssth

Rem 700 in a 22-250 and anthing that is destructive.