I am planning my first prairie dog hunt for next May or June in South Dakota and need some advice on bullet weights. We will be shooting .223s and .22-250s. Should I opt for lighter bullets and more velocity or heavier bullets with more retained energy? I am not planning to shoot past 500 yards. :roll:
Going on First Prairie Dog Hunt, Need Advice on Bullets
- Thread starter Jerryq
- Start date
- Nov 4, 2004
- 24,345
- 6,655
Jerryq,
I use the 50 gr BT in my 22-250 Rem with great results.
Its a great compermise bullet.
Regards,
JD338
I use the 50 gr BT in my 22-250 Rem with great results.
Its a great compermise bullet.
Regards,
JD338
I have to agree with JD338. A 50 grain Ballistic Tip would probably be my first choice.
I have found the 55 grain BT to be a bit too long to stabilize in 22-250 rifles sometimes. I had the same problem with the Sierra BlitzKing. They are so long and pointy that they sometimes will not stabilize well in a 1 in 14 twist. In the 1 in 12 or faster twists that are usually in 223's they may work, I have not tried them.
And, for whatever reason, I have simply found that even when shooting more conventional bullets (non-plastic tipped) I have often goten better accuracy with 50 grain bullets in any number of 22 caliber rifles that I could get with 55 grainers.
Having said that, I have one 22-250 in the safe right now that just shoots great with 55 grain Hornady V-Max bullets. You just have to test.
But, if you want to simplify things try the 50's first. They are a good compromise between good ballistic coefficient and velocity.
I used to shoot 40 grain bullets in my 223 Remington and was well pleased. Great terminal performance. However, they do give up a little in regard to wind deflection on the longer shots. I have now switched to the 50 BT in it as well. Partly for more energy on coyotes and partly because the throat is going away and I needed to seat the bullets out longer.
The energy available with any of these bullets is plenty for prairie dogs. The wind deflection and drop is of more concern.
If you want to buy some bullets that are a little less money than the BT, I have found the plain old fashioned Sierra 50 grain spitzer to shoot well in a number 22 caliber rifles. This is sort of an overlooked bullet with all the fancy tipped versions out these days, but it still works just great.
Also, if you decide to shoot the 50 grain BT, remember you can get seconds from Nosler for a pretty good price. The last batch I bought may be seconds, but they still shoot under a half inch in one of my 22-250's.
I have found the 55 grain BT to be a bit too long to stabilize in 22-250 rifles sometimes. I had the same problem with the Sierra BlitzKing. They are so long and pointy that they sometimes will not stabilize well in a 1 in 14 twist. In the 1 in 12 or faster twists that are usually in 223's they may work, I have not tried them.
And, for whatever reason, I have simply found that even when shooting more conventional bullets (non-plastic tipped) I have often goten better accuracy with 50 grain bullets in any number of 22 caliber rifles that I could get with 55 grainers.
Having said that, I have one 22-250 in the safe right now that just shoots great with 55 grain Hornady V-Max bullets. You just have to test.
But, if you want to simplify things try the 50's first. They are a good compromise between good ballistic coefficient and velocity.
I used to shoot 40 grain bullets in my 223 Remington and was well pleased. Great terminal performance. However, they do give up a little in regard to wind deflection on the longer shots. I have now switched to the 50 BT in it as well. Partly for more energy on coyotes and partly because the throat is going away and I needed to seat the bullets out longer.
The energy available with any of these bullets is plenty for prairie dogs. The wind deflection and drop is of more concern.
If you want to buy some bullets that are a little less money than the BT, I have found the plain old fashioned Sierra 50 grain spitzer to shoot well in a number 22 caliber rifles. This is sort of an overlooked bullet with all the fancy tipped versions out these days, but it still works just great.
Also, if you decide to shoot the 50 grain BT, remember you can get seconds from Nosler for a pretty good price. The last batch I bought may be seconds, but they still shoot under a half inch in one of my 22-250's.
shrpshtrjoe
Beginner
- May 15, 2005
- 32
- 0
Howdy. 50 or 55 gr balistic tips witch ever shoots better i shoot the 50 gr bt pushed by benchmark in my 12fv and they shoot in the .6s consistantly and they perform very well on ground hogs 
remingtonman_25_06
Handloader
- Nov 17, 2005
- 2,804
- 391
I went on my first pdog trip to Montana this last spring. It was a blast. It was a family trip to, so we had a number of people out there. I have a Remington 700 ADL, wood stock, in .222 Rem. I have always wanted a .222REM ever since I got into reloading for the simple fact they were designed for benchrest, so they will inherently be very accurate. I am not to fond of the .223, since everybody and there dog has one, I just like to be a little different. I also have a Ruger 77 VT in .220 Swift. I have always wanted one of these just for the raw speed they produce. They are afterall, the grandaddy of varmint cartridges for the speed category. I handload for all my rifles and go for accuracy. In my .222 it took me 2 loads to find something that shot less than 1/4" at 100 yards. I was amazed. Since then, it has shot at least 10 groups under 1/4" with several different loads with the 40g BT and a max load of IMR-4198. With a CCI BR primer. The velocity is 3550fps out of my 24" bbl. My swift on the other hand I shoot the 55g BT. With a stiff load of IMR-4064, and CCI BR primer, it will put 3 of those 55g's into a .3 cluster every time. I have got lucky and shot a couple groups under 1/4". They are scooting right along at 3900fps. I learned the Montana wind is not very forgiving to light bullets. My .222 was deadly out to 250 yards with the 10 mph wind we had. After that, it was just a toss up. The terminal performance was still great, it would literally flip them off there mound still. If I had a target turret setup like I do on my swift, I would have tried the longer 400 yard shots. I left that to the swift with the Leupold vx-2 6-18 Target. I made a couple kills right at 500 yards with my swift. The damage was still awesome at that distance with the swift and 55g BT. What I did notice that the swift was a lot better at bucking the wind. My dad on the other hand was shooting a RUger 77VT in a 22-250. I worked up a super accurate load that shot in the .2's with the 40g v-max. They shot 4100fps also. However, by the end of the week, he was wishing for at least a 50g bullet. It was just blowing the 40g all over the prairie. My swift accounted for well over 100 pdogs out of 150 shells fired. MY .222 accounted for well over 200 out of 300 shells fired. My advice is to go with the 55g and dont look back. I will be testing the 50g out of my .222 just for the wind bucking ability. Hope this helps some.
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