Have a buddy who is selling his Mini-14 to fund a varmint rifle for prarie dogs.
He's looking at a Tikka T3 lite in either .223 rem or .22-250 rem.
Seems like the .22-250 may be more expensive to feed, but possibly easier to find the ammo. He does not reload.

Which caliber would you pick or reccomend , and why ?

Thanks,

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JD 500

P'dogging is known to be high-volume shooting. .223 is going to be much cheaper to feed if he's going that route.

.22-250 has a good rep for being very accurate and making the red mist.

Either one should be fun, and the Tikka is a heck of a nice rifle. All comes down to dollars, and he should really consider reloading.

IMO, it primarily depends on what kinds of ranges he is anticipating his shooting. If primarily under 250-300 yards, the .223 would be the better choice, but if he plans on shooting at longer distances the .22-250 would be better. Both are fine cartridges and can do many of the same things, but each will do some things better than the other. The .223 will be much more economical to load and a bit less recoil, but just doesn't shoot quite as flat or buck the wind as well as the .22-250. Prairie dog shooting can be pretty high volume shooting and ideally you need two or more rifles to keep the barrels cool.

If he plans on serious PD'ing he needs to start saving his money to reload. With that in mind I would suggest the 223. It will handle just about all he needs to do for now without getting into reloading. There is plenty of ammo of different weights available if you look around for it. It is still reasonably priced, which he will need.

When I go PD'ing I take a 17HMR for anything inside of 100yds, a 223 for out to 250-300 yds and a 220 Swift and a 22-250 to swap out on for the long shots. Those two are hard enough on the barrels without adding to it by shooting them until they get too hot to touch. I also take a 243 along, it has saved more than one day of shooting when the wind picks up.

He could start with the 223 and a good scope and develop from there depending on how serious he gets. IMO

bob

Thanks much. I will relay your comments. We're shooting 100-300 yds.
My AR was great out there, and yes we definitely went through ammo, even though we had partly cloudy weather. I am trying to talk him into reloading. I currently load .300wm for him for Elk hunting, but had to draw the line as far as loading Pdog quantities of ammo in addition to .300wm on my single stage rockchucker.

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JD 500

yeah yo really can't go wrong with an AR I would love to own one, but I have to settle for shooting one of my brother in law's

I bought a Weatherby Vanguard .223 for under 400 bucks and put a Leupold VXI 4-12X on it and it is a wonderfully accurate rifle. The factory test target was about 3/4" and I was able to equal that with Winchester 50 round value-pak ammo. When the ammo availability situation gets back to normal the .223 should be much cheaper to shoot than a .22-250.

I love Prairie Dog "hunting". Just back from SD about 3 weeks ago. Was unusually hot for May out there (100 degrees). I usually take 3 rifles. .222 for out to 200-250 yards. 22-250 for 200-400 yards. .243 for 400 and beyond. If you shoot Prairie Dogs you MUST reload. First, the volume of ammo gets rather expensive, but most importantly tailoring a custom load to your particular rifle pays big dividends in the number of "hits". Just adjusting the seating depth to your particular rifle can trim your groups in half or better. A decent Prairie Dog rifle needs to shoot a half minute of angle.

The 22-250 is probably the best all around Dog cartridge. A 55 gr Ballistic Tip at >3700 fps gets fantastic results when it connects, at any distance. A Leupold custom trajectory elevation turret and a good range finder make hits a lot easier. Building a good portable bench rest is a necessity also. Doping the wind is the big challenge.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

.223 much cheaper and the Tikka is an excellent gun, except for the "rust protection" ...

I'd urge 223 all the way. The 22-250 is a little better at longer range, but the 223 is way more widely available and less expensive, very accurate and just an all-around great caliber, plus easier on barrels.

Great info guys, Thanks !

The comments seem to really mirror my initial comments to my buddy. (Glad to hear from you that I'm not off base.)

I do reload, and am interested in some of the comments here as it relates.
Think I'll start another thread, in reloading section, cause now I have questions related to my reloading for this endeavor.

Thanks again.

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JD 500

.223 all the way

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SWCA#2208
KK4EMO

I would also go with .223

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- The Federalist #46 -

Prairie dog rifles are easy: 223 Rem with 1:9 twist barrel, Remington 50 gr HP bullets. Scope: Luepold 12X fixed power.

I don't believe any praire dog knows the difference between 2,800 FPS and 3,800 FPS bullets. A hit is a hit and a miss means work the bolt again before the dog disappears. 233 brass is very plentiful and cheap. None of the other calibers are available as once-fired military brass.

Good luck shooting.

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S&WHF 366

Actually, if you are reloading and not dead set on a .223 for a shorter range varmint cartridge, take a look at the .222. Generally the tripple deuce is more inheirently accurate, less expensive to reload and even easier on barrels than the .223, though not my much.

I would suggest the 22-250 if you are only going to have one rifle. You will easily "beat" the 223 performance and have more "hits" in the 350 to 500 yard range. If you are not going to reload I would suggest the Winchester White box 45 grain loads in either 22-250 or 223. Out of my Remington 700's they both shoot 1/2 to 3/4 minute groups. One advantage of the 223 is less recoil enabling you to better see your hits but at the expense of shorter effective range. Like my friend ,H.Richard, I take a 17HMR, a 223, a22-250, and a 243 to buck the wind from 500 to 750 yards. On our most recent hunt over Memorial Day one of our party set up, with the rest of our help, a shot that killed a dog at a measured 1240yards. He used a Rem. 700 varmint in 6mm loaded with a 95 grain Berger VLD topped with a 8.5x25 Leupold 30mm scope with a top turret knob custom made to his handload. The hardest thing about making hits at that range is reading the wind and getting the dog to wait for the bullet to get there. It took 6rds. to make the kill. Not mentioned yet in this thread is the Ruger 204. According to another good friend it is the best thing since sliced bread and both he and his wife have quit using anything else since they switched to it. He said it has the distance of the 22-250 but the recoil impulse of the 223. I will give you a report after my next trip to the dog towns. I am currently working up loads for a 700 varmint rifle and will be adding it to my "dog" guns.

If you are going to do a lot of shooting...spring for a .223. If you want to squeeze out the last bit of accuracy and deliver a lot more punch, then go for the .22-250.

Just depends on what you want to do. They are both quite different.

If you are like me....get one....then get the other....and another....blah, blah, blah!

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G.P. Charlie

I started with two 223's then got real logical and went to a JP AR 15 (more accurate than most bolt guns) and a 40X in 220 Swift. The Swift put on the best show making the dogs into little hand grenades, but the AR was the most fun.

I then went to my final outfit two AR's a new JP and a Les Bear, I also carry a 17 HMR as a car gun. This set up is my final and best choice. Both AR's are 1/4" guns and the little 17 can reach out to about 175 yards.

Len

I might add to Len's comment about the 17HMR, We were pleasently surprised with the effective range of the 17HMR. My son was easily making kills out to 320 yards with it. It did not "blow" the dogs up but still killed them just the same. The four of us that shoot together are all taking "walking around" 17's from here on out.

Thanks again all. I think my buddy is leaning towards the .223 (for now) due to $. As it is, he will be borrowing an inexpensive 3x9x40 from me just to scope it. I think his next step after the rifle, will be to get good glass.

Regards,

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JD 500