In relation to a prairie dog shooting thread that I started in the varmit hunting section, I am wondering if any of you can give your opinion as to how many rounds can be fired through my my Savage M12 in 204 Ruger during the course of an 8 hour day without burning out my barrel???

I am trying to decide on how much ammo to bring for this gun, and how many rounds you guys typically fire through one rifle on a day of PD shooting.

I will be taking other rifles to switch off, but I see the 204 as my primary weapon.

Thanks!

depends on how many and how fast you're shooting. knocking off 50-80 at a time isn't going hurt, providing you leave the barrel cool between. on the other hand i once shot out a swift barrel in a 4 hour shoot. i just kept shooting it fast as i could load & shoot. could hardly hold on the forend it got so hot. No to bright, but it sure as hell was fun

Some people take a lot of shots that only hit dirt. I like to hit my target the first time if I can. I don’t shoot “Hale Mary’s”. I don’t shoot just one rifle all day long. I don’t shoot from one position all day long, or over 1 dog town all day long.

For a 3-day weekend of PD shooting, I take 3 rifles, 200 rounds for each and I usually have rounds left over.

Hawks, eagles, and vultures are what shutdown my setups and force me to move on. Sometimes the PD town looks like a barnyard full of chickens.

Mick is right plan on a couple hundred rounds a day per gun and set 2 rifles up so you can shoot 5-10 out of one and set it to the side and do the same with the next.
Most people don't have that kind of self control and get in a groove and burn up a barrel or 2 before they figure that tactic out.
Ask me how I know!

On a brisk cool day you can shoot a lot more than when the temps start climbing. You can feel the barrel just ahead of the chamber with your hand and tell when it is too hot to continue shooting. If the barrel has enough heat that it is no longer easily comfortable to hold it is in need of a cool down. Heat is the premature killer of a rifle barrel long before actual round count comes into play.

Time your shots...one a minute, or even better one every 2 minutes... 25 or 30 in an hour...

you can shoot all day, and it won't hurt something... and with a Savage, once you burn the throat out, the way the barrel is contoured, you can have the throat set back and rechambered... that will cut about 2 inches each time you do it...

so you can do that 3 times and it will be down to 20 inches, the same length used on "tactical rifles"....

limiting your shots to one or two, at the most 3 every 2 minutes...I ran one 223 barrel 15,000 rounds, and never had the shoulder set back.. I was going to, but took it down to see about a trade in on a Savage 12 BVSS in 223...

I paid $300 for the rifle used, and it had a Tasco World Class Custom Shop Scope on top, (8 x 32)... the guy at the gun shop gave me $400 for it in trade toward the Savage... and gave me a price of $135 more for the Savage new...

he already had a customer on the line looking for a user Ruger 77 Varmint rifle, and had a $500 budget... so he had my old rifle sold the same day...

worked out all the way around...

I practice that timing my shots, and I have several 223s with 5,000 plus rounds down their barrels and they are still tack drivers...

besides on Savage Shooters Supply, you can get an new barrel for $300 if you want to go that route instead of setting back and rechambering.. and you can install that yourself, quite easily...

key thing is to have fun...

In hot weather, if the stock is synthetic, take a couple of jugs of water with you and cool it down quickly whenever needed. Dry, clean, and lube as needed at the end of the day.

You can shoot out a barrel in less than an hour if you smoke it. 100 rounds in about 30 minutes will take care of it.

I usually let the warmth of the barrel tell me all I need to know. When it starts to get uncomfortable to the touch, time to set it aside!

With high quality barrels, I am not sure it matters. For high volume prairie dog shooting, bring lots of ammo, and don't forget the 17HMR. I usually shoot 500 per day from my 17's, 300-500 with my 204 & 223's and 50 or so from the boomers.

Keep them clean and you won't burn out any barrels too quickly.

quote:

Originally posted by seafire/B17G:
Time your shots...one a minute, or even better one every 2 minutes...

I always respect Seafire's comments, but limiting your shots to as few as one per minute is totally impractical if you want to take a second, third, or even fourth shot at that prairie dog dancing on the edge of his hole while a capricious wind and shifting mirage blows your shots just an inch right of his ear, then a half-inch over his back. Prairie dogs at 200-300 yards (and especially more) typically will give you subsequent opportunities, and "walking your shots in" to a puzzled, alerted, prairie dog that is just about to give up and dive down his hole is a big part of the fun.

I don't shoot a .204 Ruger, but I suspect that its barrel heating is very similar to a .223. If that is the case, then I don't think you'll do any significant damage to the barrel by shooting as many as ten shots within a couple of minutes -- so long as the barrel throughly cools before the next round. I've been shooting .222's .223's, and 222 Magnums using the approximate "10 round" limit as a rule of thumb and I have not seen any deterioration in any of my rifles.

Again, not being a .204 shooter, I can't say, but with a .223-class rifle, I usually don't worry about cleaning the barrel until 60 or 80 rounds have been fired (you need to take a little break at lunch, anyway!) Barrels will certainly vary with how quickly they foul and lose accuracy, but smooth, high-quality barrels will shoot a lot of shots before fouling noticeably impacts their accuracy.

My advice is to take more than one rifle, two or three would be nice. I'd take enough ammo for at least a couple of days shooting, It's hard to quit after just one day of shooting dogs if you get into them good, especially if you do not have dogs where you live. I generally shoot about 100 rounds in an average day, but have went through 2-3 times that when we got into them where they were active and abundant.

Shooting prairie dogs is not like playing a “Wac-a-mole” game in your living room. There are a lot of natural factors that slow down your shot count. Like hawks, eagles, cattle, horses, cars and trucks, and ranchers. Take 600 rounds if you like. But I doubt if you’ll have the chance to do your rifle harm.

quote:

I always respect Seafire's comments, but limiting your shots to as few as one per minute is totally impractical

Stoney,

just for clarification... I agree with you, if you have one on the run, and you can take a second or third shot, then do it...just a little hesitation on letting the barrel cool just a little since you last got another one, is discipline... it keeps from getting the barrel too hot, or getting to excited and just start wasting ammo...

I believe in sniping at them, instead of strafing them...

of course I have this option as I usually set up with two 223s and ONE 22.250 on the hood of the 4 Runner... and a 22 learning up against the front bumper or the tire, that I can grab real quick..

so I can get picky, and it is not like I am not well armed, when I go to shoot varmints..

I'm usually hunting varmints, rockchucks here in Idaho, either with a hunting buddy or a son so there are two of us shooting. We usually take 5 shots apiece at our own pace and then the other guy shoots 5 shots. We each have 2 centerfires or sometimes 3 and also have 10/22's for the close work.

For us that means each rifle will get shot after about 15 rounds and that has been working good for many years.

Now when I've shot prairie dogs the action is fast and furious but it still would seem like a doable deal. When one guy is shooting the other guy is filming, watching through a spotting scope and laughing.

Seafire . . . we're in agreement; as typical, we just stated it a little differently. It's a hoot when the one you just barely missed runs through the grass from one mound to the next, hesitates momentarily on the lip of the mound, and you quickly and deftly vaporize him just as he was diving for the hole.

Well like they said in the Army: if they ain't Airborne, they ain't Sh*T...