If you want a real challenge, try fishing for prairie dogs. Spread a circle of kevlar fishing line in a circle around an active prairie dog hole and wait. When he pops his body out of the hole, jerk your rod like you're setting the hook on a worm with a bass. Success rate is about 1 in 10 but is pretty entertaining if you actually catch one.

Buddy of mine in college was from the panhandle and his gun of choice for this was a .50...

Little dudes would just evaoporate.

I lived on the old Roswell AF base (yes that one) as a kid. I went to school with a few ranch kids and their dads and neighbors encouraged us to bring our 22 long rifles to help them manage prairie dogs. My family only had an old Remington Model 514 single shot. I got pretty deadly with that thing. I'm sure that is the reason the Corps marksmanship test seemed easy compared to city kids.

I'm not sure we dented to populations too much, but I believe the pressure helped keep them from expanding their territory. If you see the takeover of ball fields and every public roadside around Lubbock in the past 10 yrs, it is easy to see that lack of any predator pressure allows rapid population booms and territory expansion. Left unchecked they are rough on the range conditions for sure.

Worst PD infestation I've ever seen is between Pueblo and Canon City, CO.

https://www.google.com/maps/@38.3720411,-104.9241751,706m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu

We've got those little *******s south of our house. It seriously gets old after you kill 15-20.

We use .22 or .17 hmr. More .22 now purely for economic reasons.

Just popped up on my FB feed.

No one calls them sod poodles

As a kid growing up in the Panhandle, .22 was the weapon of choice. Never much success, but always a good excuse to go shooting.

Just a FYI, rattlesnakes love to take over old Prairie Dog holes.

CanyonAg77 said:

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No one calls them sod poodles

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I guess it's a good thing I didn't call them that, just passing along some relevant information in case OP is still looking for a place to shoot. I guess someone calls them sod poodles since there is a baseball team called that.

Just commenting on the link you put up, which did call them that.

No one, ever in history, called them Sod Poodles. But a few years ago, Amarillo was getting a new minor league baseball team. Some genius decided to have a naming contest.

In the spirit of "Boaty McBoatface", a radio station in the rival town of Lubbock came up with "sod poodle". Their listeners flooded the poll, and Amarillo now has a baseball team with the dumbest name possible.

While I do agree the name is the dumbest out there, but a ballgame in that stadium is a hoot!

Last season my son played the National Anthem on his cello at home plate. His first love is baseball and getting to share his cello talent on a baseball field was pretty great for him.

This is probably one of my favorite pictures of him. Cowboy hat, Cello in hand in the tunnel of a baseball park!

That's great stuff. Share a link to the video sometime. We'd like to see it.

Very cool, congrats to your son

They are a good minor league organization. The name is the only thing I can't stand.

Ironically, it's so bad, it's good. Gets them tons of attention and notoriety that a normal name would not have garnered. And any publicity is good publicity

country said:

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Yes. We were at a long range shooting facility in South Dakota. A place where military training occurs for snipers. We spent 2 days on the target course and then the live action shots were the following two days on the dogs. I don't remember the numbers but I believe the 204 had somewhere around 14' of elevation to hit at 1600 yards. It had barely enough terminal force to penetrate a dog. The 17 was effective out to 500 yards. But as I said the only thing that made those calibers effective was the lack of wind. We shot a lot of 223/556 as well. The week before we were there the corse record was taken by a sniper who hit a dog at 2400 yards with a 556. Most dogs were taken <500 yards which made the 204 and 17 REM a blast. The extreme shots were nothing more than luck attempts. The owner of the facility had some impressive glass that made going for those long shots too tempting not to try. But at <500 those two rounds were deadly.

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A 90g 5.56 starting at 3250 fps would drop 3400 inches (or 283 ft) at 2400 yards and go subsonic around 1500 yards becoming unstable (from my limited knowledge of ballistics). So 40mRad of elevation.

The ballistics calculator I'm using could be wrong however.

The OB delivers! Buddies have been following the thread and are fired up (meaning, a great reason to add more gear!).

I'm planning on rolling with lightweight rounds with big optics, so AR platform 223, 204 and 224. Quick follow ups seem to be important.

Will likely throw in the 22CM RPR as well.

Great reason to learn how to use Christmas tree reticles and becoming a better shooter, even if my typical shot is less than 300yds during hunting season.

Wyoming, SD and CO is what we're narrowing down now.

Open to your thoughts.

Gig'em

SHIP

IMHO, rapid follow-up shots are less important than being able to spot your shot impacts in the scope. For that, a heavy bolt action is way superior to an AR. When you are using high scope magnification, you have narrow field of view. This combined with significant heat mirage at about 400 yds and beyond makes it difficult to see your bullet impact in the scope if the rifle moves much at all during the shot. Bolt movement in an AR during the shot makes this difficult for me. Any little jolt of the gun is magnified in the scope at high mag at distance. It's tough to know how to correct for missed when you can't see where your bullet impacted. ANY tiny gun movement combined with mirage makes this even more difficult. Even with low recoil rounds like .233, you really need a heavy rifle on a very steady rest to spot bullet impact at distance through the mirage.

Get a good AR with a great trigger and great glass.
Once you figure out the drop / distance you'll be making one shot kills at a few hundred yards. Don't overthink the set up.

If you want to borrow my BOG shooting chairs (2), let me know.

Also I have an 8-32x NF scope you can stick on one of your uppers if you wish to abuse it.

Not sure where you're located?

agracer said:

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country said:

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Yes. We were at a long range shooting facility in South Dakota. A place where military training occurs for snipers. We spent 2 days on the target course and then the live action shots were the following two days on the dogs. I don't remember the numbers but I believe the 204 had somewhere around 14' of elevation to hit at 1600 yards. It had barely enough terminal force to penetrate a dog. The 17 was effective out to 500 yards. But as I said the only thing that made those calibers effective was the lack of wind. We shot a lot of 223/556 as well. The week before we were there the corse record was taken by a sniper who hit a dog at 2400 yards with a 556. Most dogs were taken <500 yards which made the 204 and 17 REM a blast. The extreme shots were nothing more than luck attempts. The owner of the facility had some impressive glass that made going for those long shots too tempting not to try. But at <500 those two rounds were deadly.

---

A 90g 5.56 starting at 3250 fps would drop 3400 inches (or 283 ft) at 2400 yards and go subsonic around 1500 yards becoming unstable (from my limited knowledge of ballistics). So 40mRad of elevation.

The ballistics calculator I'm using could be wrong however.

---

Perhaps the sniper 2400 yard shot was a 308 rather than 556. It's been a while. But I do not think your drop is correct. We shot the 556 at 1400 yard targets and had about 8' holdover if memory serves. Although doubling would lose the energy and nosedive. At any rate, what we got to do is nothing I would be able to do on my own. I also think the 204 maxed out around 1000 yards and our long prairie dog kills were with the 556 the more I think about it but I just don't recall we were shooting so many small calibers. We had true experts that were selecting rounds and setting scopes.

My main point in this thread was that 204s and 17s are fun as heck on prairie dogs and work really well out to around 500 yards.

country said:

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agracer said:

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country said:

---

Yes. We were at a long range shooting facility in South Dakota. A place where military training occurs for snipers. We spent 2 days on the target course and then the live action shots were the following two days on the dogs. I don't remember the numbers but I believe the 204 had somewhere around 14' of elevation to hit at 1600 yards. It had barely enough terminal force to penetrate a dog. The 17 was effective out to 500 yards. But as I said the only thing that made those calibers effective was the lack of wind. We shot a lot of 223/556 as well. The week before we were there the corse record was taken by a sniper who hit a dog at 2400 yards with a 556. Most dogs were taken <500 yards which made the 204 and 17 REM a blast. The extreme shots were nothing more than luck attempts. The owner of the facility had some impressive glass that made going for those long shots too tempting not to try. But at <500 those two rounds were deadly.

---

A 90g 5.56 starting at 3250 fps would drop 3400 inches (or 283 ft) at 2400 yards and go subsonic around 1500 yards becoming unstable (from my limited knowledge of ballistics). So 40mRad of elevation.

The ballistics calculator I'm using could be wrong however.

---

Perhaps the sniper 2400 yard shot was a 308 rather than 556. It's been a while. But I do not think your drop is correct. We shot the 556 at 1400 yard targets and had about 8' holdover if memory serves. Although doubling would lose the energy and nosedive. At any rate, what we got to do is nothing I would be able to do on my own. I also think the 204 maxed out around 1000 yards and our long prairie dog kills were with the 556 the more I think about it but I just don't recall we were shooting so many small calibers. We had true experts that were selecting rounds and setting scopes.

My main point in this thread was that 204s and 17s are fun as heck on prairie dogs and work really well out to around 500 yards.

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A 308 or some other large caliber would make more sense. Honestly you can't get a 90g bullet to 3250 in a 556 bc you can't cram enough powder into the case!

My uncle has a Ruger 204 that is a laser beam and vaporizes prairie dogs inside 300 yards.

agracer said:

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country said:

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agracer said:

---

A 90g 5.56 starting at 3250 fps would drop 3400 inches (or 283 ft) at 2400 yards and go subsonic around 1500 yards becoming unstable (from my limited knowledge of ballistics). So 40mRad of elevation.

The ballistics calculator I'm using could be wrong however.

---

Perhaps the sniper 2400 yard shot was a 308 rather than 556. It's been a while. But I do not think your drop is correct. We shot the 556 at 1400 yard targets and had about 8' holdover if memory serves. Although doubling would lose the energy and nosedive. At any rate, what we got to do is nothing I would be able to do on my own. I also think the 204 maxed out around 1000 yards and our long prairie dog kills were with the 556 the more I think about it but I just don't recall we were shooting so many small calibers. We had true experts that were selecting rounds and setting scopes.

My main point in this thread was that 204s and 17s are fun as heck on prairie dogs and work really well out to around 500 yards.

---

A 308 or some other large caliber would make more sense. Honestly you can't get a 90g bullet to 3250 in a 556 bc you can't cram enough powder into the case!

My uncle has a Ruger 204 that is a laser beam and vaporizes prairie dogs inside 300 yards.

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This is very true, more like 2600-2700 MV, and not a 16" barrel.
Which also leads to... a very experienced PD shooter from the B-CS area, put together a fast-twist 22-250, 15+ yrs ago. The applicable bullets available were the 80-90gr Matchkings, he was ready for some 800-1000yds shots, but quickly found the match bullets penciled through the PD's, runoffs were the norm, can't call it a kill. He shelved the project, until some heavier weight varmint HP's (Bergers) were available.

Thanks Doc. Very generous offer for sure.

looks like our outfitter will square us away on benches and rests. As for gear, I never pass up a good excuse to add to my kit!

Fixating on flat small caliber (204, 223, 224) and a larger magnification optic. Also may be a good time to upgrade triggers on lowers.