Sierra 30 cal 125 grain bullets for prairie dogs

[bulletstuffer]

Just picked up some of these bullets and will work up loads for the 06 and try them out as soon as the blizzards over:)  Has anyone shot these at PDs and will I have to worry about bullets skipping across the prairie?  Hoping they have thinner jackets. 

Thanks,

Bulletstuffer

[PowPow]

I understand the Sierra 125 gr Pro Hunters have the thicker jackets.
I use them for deer and get pass thru shots. Pretty accurate though.
But no PDs around here. No prairies either.

Sierra makes the .308 110gr HP intended for varmint hunting.
I found an accurate load for my 06 using the 110s also.

[james]

I tried some in a Rem 788 in .308 and never could find an accurate load with 4895 and some other powder that I can't remember.  That was 30 years ago so some of the new powders may work.
They did shoot good in a 30 Herret Contender.

[tuck2]

I live in prairie dog country. Before big game hunting I use to take out my  25-06, 270 Win and 308 Norma Mag and shoot a few p dogs to see if they were shooting ok.  If you can get a reload with the 125 Gr bullet that groups under one inch at 100 yards you got a p dog rifle.  But the ft/lb of recoil from shooting a big game rifle can get to a point where its not much fun.  Also the muzzle blast will get the p dogs heading into their holes after a few shots.  I have a 243 heavy barrel varmint rifle with a 6.5-20 X AO scope whIch I have used for p dog shooting but in a shot over town I have seen p dogs out to about 400 yards spooked by the muzzle blast.

[Wyo. Coyote Hunter]

  bullet, when I was a young man I shot a lot of these in an 06 at woodchucks..they were good killers, but in that country a skid was difficult to see..you had to hear it..Since that time I use varmiters mostly for varmit shooting..but I have used the 125's in several .300's..Shot one deer with one, and as stated, it did pass though..I also used it in a heavy barrelled .300 for coyotes..I really could not see much difference in destruction between it and the 150 Serria in the same caliber..so I would guess they have a pretty thick jacket..Nosler 125 BTBT are a different story..They are BOMBS..compared to Serria's produce..you could call serria and see what they say on their hot line number..

[huntswithdogs]

Somewhere or sometime, I ended up with some 110HPs(hornady, I think) and some 130HP speers. Just fooling around, they were loaded in a 300WM and later in a 300UltraMag. Accuracy was pretty good ,but we never shot anything other than paper with them. I kinda expected them to blow up before reaching the target out of the Ultra, but they didn't.

Like stated earlier, muzzleblast and recoil out of these was pretty wild. Ya probably wouldn't get but a shot or two before the PDs left the country or started digging in deeper.

I loaded some of the 130HPs in front of some IMR3031 for my .308 788. I shot one deer with them and switched back to 150gr bullets. Damage to the deer was kinda wasteful...


HWD

[shot1]

The 125 Sierra is a thicker jacket game bullet. If you want to shoot a 30 cal 125 gr bullet on PD get you some Speer 125 gr TNT bullets. They are varmint bullets and explode on impact. They are very accurate also. 

[bulletstuffer]

Thanks guys!  I do agree with replys.  I just happened to have several of these 125 grain bullets.  I called sierra and the tech had a good laugh when I asked about the 06 and PD's   Got to take it out tonight and do a test run with some loads.  Still needs some tweaking but is definitely minute of PD    The 22 and 243 calibers are much better for the PD game but what the heck, I'm just having some fun shooting with buddies anyway

Bulletstuffer

[T.R.]

I've loaded this bullet in my 30-30 for antelope. At approx 185 yards, the bullet passed through the chest and was not recovered.

Of course, 30-06 is much faster.  You should consider testing your hand load by shooting into a thick bundle of phone books or newspapers to determine penetration.

TR

[Larry Gibson]

Not shot any PDs with the Sierra 125 SP out of an '06 but I've shot a lot of rockchucks, jack rabbits and a few coyotes out to around 400 yards.  I worked up to 54  gr of H4895 (pretty much case capacity in WW cases with WLR primers which ran 3150 fps (chronographed) from the 24" barrel of the M721 Remington with right at MOA accuracy if the barrel didn't get too warm.  The jacks were turned into 'bits (a bit went here, a bit went there)  and the coyotes were DRT with gaping holes out the offside.  Had one rock chuck run out of a field and do the "Bhudda" right under a barbed wire fence at about 300 yards.  The 125 Sierra took him midsection and he exploded with the head and chest cavity being launched straight up and the bottom half just a mess with a very decent bursting radius.  The 125 Sierra worked for me out of the '06 and I wouldn't hesitate to use it again.

Larry Gibson 

[Muddly]

Another GOOD bullet to try is the 130 gr Hornady single shot pistol. Used to launch them at 2500fps from my 30-30 and it homogenized woodchucks very nicely. Hornady says not to dirve them past 2600 fps for deer, but at '06 velocities... Btw no ricochets at 2500, they just went to pieces. Killed 1 deer with them.Bang-flop on a rear quartering shot and got a fist sized exit hole.

[drdougrx]

OH....NOOOOOO.....I was re-thinking a TX exotics trip that includes javelina.  I was going to take a 35whelen and a 223 for Javs.  Now I see this post about 125gr 308 caliber bullets and am now pondering a 165gr load for the big stuff and a 125gr load for javelina and taking only 1 rifle.....why do you guys do this to me?

[bulletstuffer]

Don't do it drdougrx    IMO never take one rifle on a hunt if you have the option to take two   Murphy is always watching  

Bulletstuffer

[drdougrx]

Good point Bullet........

[parkergunshop]

Haven't tried the 125 grain Sierras, but the 130 grain Sierras are excellent.

1903 Springfield, 19 inch barrel.

130 grain Sierra, xx grains H380 velocity 2821 group size .532 inch

150 grain Hornady, xx grains H4895 velocity 2508 group size .592

165 grain Sierra, xx grains H380 velocity 2315 group sizes .679, .877 and .931

The 130 grain Sierra was more accurate than any other bullet in my 06.

The 130 grain is an excellent deer killer on a par with the 130 grain 270 Winchester.

You should easily get over 3000 FPS with the H380 load above in a 24 inch barrel.
'

[squirrellluck]

 You might want to rethink the 125, seems marginal for p-dogs. Chipmunks... maybe but p-dogs?My understanding is that p-dogs have gotten tougher just as deer have.