Another question for you hand rollers

[John]

My brother and I have been looking at murdering some priarie dogs, we both shoot 06's, and neither of us own what you would call a varmint gun...I suppose my 22 mag would work if the little buggers would be within 100 yds, but I understand you have targets way out beyond that.

My question...do the 110 gr bullets that are available in 30 cal make a good dog round ?

Are we gonna have to be in the market for a "real" varmint rifle ?

[jhalcott]

those110gr pills will diassemble pd's very nicely. some guns like them,some don't.they would explode on the way to groundhogs in one of my guns(3800fps) Once you discover the fun of prairee dogging you will almost certainly start looking for a dedicated p.d.gun!!!merry christmas!

[skb2706]

You are already in the market my friend.
Your -06 will work but consider that you are using 50-58 gr. of powder and a bullet that is easily 3-4 times larger than necessary .......it is just not efficient. Kinda like swattin flies with a garden rake. Will it work ? sure......but there is no long term solution but to buy a dedicated pd rifle.
Targets can be much farther than 100 yds. ....actually many times that far.

[Reed1911]

depends on how far you are shooting, how many rounds you need (size of the PD town) and how much you want to spend. 150 surplus bullets downloaded to reduce the recoil work very well if your rifle will not shoot the 110g V-max's accuratly. Some towns here in OK are limited to 100yds or less in which case the highpowered rifles are not needed. Then again, some folks think they will like the practice, but end up doind it once or twice and never again (kinda like handloading). My suggestion is to find a PD town you can shoot at, figure out the median range, load up some rounds that will shoot, and try it out a few times. If you really like it I would invest in a high-power 17-24 cal rifle and getafterit.

[Questor]

You better becha gawl dangit! Get some V-Max bullets and prepare to be vastly impressed with the terminal ballistics when you hit a prairie dog with one of those.  I used them in .270 and the gun came down from recoil and settled back steady on the sandbag and the prairie dogs were still falling.  

Spot each other's shots because it will help you zero in on the prairie dogs. The 30-06 has enough recoil that it's hard to spot a miss unless you have someone helping you.

[Arrroman]

If you have a good shooting 06 you could load a .22 bullet in a sabot. The velocity will put most varmit rigs to shame. It would be a great way to keep a good relationship with the rifle year round too.

Good luck hunting!  >>>------------>

[Reed1911]

The only problem with the sabot method is that it normally takes a Whole lot of trial and error to find a load to shoot accuratly.

[Steve P]

Shoot the Sierra 110hp bullets.  I was using them on ground squirrels and rock chucks out of my .30-30 bolt actions with great success.   Best shot was 440 yards (measured by 32' railroad rails) hit a rockchuck in the head with only head showing over a rock.  

Steve  

[Jerry Lester]

You'd most likely end up with better accuracy, and flatter trajectory if you'll just stick to a mid weight bullet like the 165g Nosler balistic tips, or pretty much any other mid weight spitzer style bullets.

Light bullets start out fast, but at extended ranges(300+ yards), the mid weight bullets usually end up having a flatter trajectory. When using something like the 30-06 on prarrie dog, or groundhogs, it's gonna smack'em hard no matter what bullet style you hit'em with.

With the recoil, and handloading component consumption of the 30-06, you'd really come out way better in the long run if you bought yourself a good 223. Even if you just bought a NEF Handi-Rifle($250 or less) you'd get a lot more fun out of it in my opinion.