You poll up to the chosen 'dog town, rabbit warren or whatever habitat small furry creatures live in your neck of the woods.

Out comes old trusty onto the bonnet or wing mirror and with a judicious eye at the grass, tree tops and with your laser you start shooting.

There is some wind which is changeable, you have an accurate rifle but can spot bullet strike on a miss very rarely and you are on occasion pushing the range for the round eg 300 for 222, 400 for 22-250.

What is your hit rate for the first 50 shots or so? (we can't all manage thousands of rounds a day)

1894: On a recent morning of a Prairie Dog Hunt in Montana I hit things just right. No wind, new Dog Town (hadn't been shot this year yet), no Falcons, Eagles or Hawks about to spook my intended Prey! And I had parked the VarmintMobile behind a ridge and approached the town on foot with my gear and ammo in a day pack and a Keb-Lab cactus proof camo mat on one shoulder and a pair of heavy barreled Varminters in each hand (no slings on my Varminters!). As I crested the ridge I quickly set up and from the prone shooting position with the low sun at my back I ran both Rifles Moly-Coat dirty (50 rounds each).
I did not keep track but I am sure I was near 90% success that morning. I had a couple of planned doubles also. I was shooting (Laser Ranged) between 200 and 350 yards for the most part. That shoot will stick in my mind for the rest of my days.
Now just this past week I was shooting my 17 MachIV on a virgin Dog Town (unusual for this late in the season) but the wind was "whipping"!
I was limiting myself to about 250 yards and I got off 40 shots at one spot and hit about 60% success there. I was very proud of that showing though in that wind. I had left my wind gauge home but would guess the wind speed at 15 MPH.
I always get away from the VarmintMobile whenever possible to commence shooting. More targets stay around longer that way. So I seldom shoot off of the hood anymore. My prone setup I think is a little more "steady" than my usual hood shooting on the prairie (among other things the wind wobbles the VarmintMobile on an average day and the heat waves coming off the hood are ever present).
A couple of things over the decades have helped me get my percentage of first shot kills on Colony Varmints moving higher. In approximate order of their appearance in my arsenal are these improvements: "reliable" Variable higher power scopes, "Bondo" bedding jobs, a Tri-pod shooting platform system instead of Bi-pods, trigger jobs, Remington 40X's, then Jewell triggers, rangefinders then Laser rangefinders and more reliable (consistant), accurate and explosive (lethal) Varmint bullets.
External factors like wind, range (distnce), wariness of game and quality of my set up have a lot to do with the success ratio of my Colony Varminting. So the actual percentage changes from situation to situation but over 50% hits is usual for me.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

As far as varminting goes, I'd have to be honest and say my hit rate is less than 50%.

I've never hunted prarie dogs. We have rockchucks or "groundhogs" in these parts, and unlike many folks, I never walk up on those critters.

To each his own, but for me, 100 yard shots on groundhogs is Zzzzzzzzzzzz boring. The closest shot I take is 300 yards, but the vast majority of the groundhogs I spot are at 400 to 500 yards. I don't normally miss the 300 to 350 yard shots, but wind, recoil control (I normally use either a 270 or a 30-06), and scope cant (no cheatin' with a level!) cause me to miss better than half of the time at longer ranges. I use 3 to 9 power scopes, and my rifles are sporter barreled, and configured to hunt larger game with.

I don't mind the missed shots. Every miss is a learning experience, and misses make the hits that much sweeter!

It is my belief that varminting, unless done for the actual control of the pest, is best characterized as shooting practice for larger game; so I varmint hunt with my deer rifles. I used to carry Hubble scoped ten to twelve pound rifles into the field to varmint hunt with, but these days it seems to make more sense to varmint hunt with my deer rifles--and so I do.

The folks I groundhog hunt with have this rule: You can back up for a better position, but you can't walk up on one." And that makes hunting them more of a challenge, and a lot more fun than blasting one away at point blank range (defined here as 200 yards and closer)

My thoughts, my opinions...

Dan Newberry
green 788

[ 09-05-2002, 05:07: Message edited by: green 788 ]

I never miss. Yeah, right. Honestly I would have to say that my kill ratio probably averages 80%. I shoot ground squirrels in the alfalfa fields every spring. They are not as large as p-dogs, 8" upright is a somewhat larger size. Many are smaller, especially when they "baby up" and the young ones come up out of their holes for the first time. Shots run out to 500yds. Past 300 they make pretty small targets. Have got quit e a few doubles, and even a witnessed triple once. I planned that one. Yeah, right.

Yesterday after posting this I was supposed to go roe stalking but the weather was so nice I just wanted to relax with my 222. First shot a miss then 8 hits from 150 to 275. The last was great! Rabbit head facing directly away with body completely obscured. Check scope paralax, line up, wait for very light breeze at about 30degrees to subside and line up 2 inches over and favour just a tad into the wind. Rabbit jumps 3 foot at the shots and lies quivering. Later inspection reveals dead centre hit. Euphoria evaporates as new batch of ammunition and unoticed wind change across the valley result in 7 straight misses.

This really is a lot of fun.

[ 09-05-2002, 20:00: Message edited by: 1894 ]

On p dogs out to 300 yards 80 to 90% depending on the wind Past 300 as far as you want to shoot 60%. Have had days with a very stong wind that could hardly hit anything then other days when every thing was just right could hardly miss.

My hit ratio for rabbits and squirlls is about 95% but also I jump mine at extra close quarters, and hunt rabbits with dogs. The squirrls up here are dumb as bricks and just chitter till u zap em.

My hit rate on ground squirels is 75% or better on the 200-300 range shots. I rarly have much wind to deal with so that is a big reason and after installing a bypod that made my average go way up.