Pasture poodle beatdown in 3 weeks!

My annual prairie dog trip to South Dakota is just 3 weeks away and I’m getting pretty revved up. But it’s a lot of work getting to this point.

The last two years have been a MASSIVE struggle to find enough reloading components to even make this trip happen. Putting together 1500+ rounds of high-accuracy center fire ammo, all at one time, has been a chore that has consumed every month of the gap between trips.

It used to be that I could start ordering the supplies I needed and start loading in January and easily be done by March. Now, hardly a day goes by when I’m not trolling the net for powder or other supplies that are hard to find in quantity.

So far I have 1,200 rounds of center fire ammo loaded for a .223 and .22-250 and I’m just starting to load for the last .22-250, so about 300 more rounds to go. Average consumption for a 3 day trip is about 150-200 rounds per person.

This is not the high-volume shooting we used to enjoy in the 1980s, but it’s reasonable and given the ammo situation these days, it would be very difficult for me to go back to 300-400 rounds per day simply because I cannot find that much powder these days.

This year I’m breaking in a new .22-250. I decided to retire the Tikka 243 from varmint duty. Although it’s wind-bucking whollop will be missed, I wanted to save the barrel as I was rapidly approaching the 1k round count after just 3 years. It’s simply too nice of a rifle to shoot it apart in less than 10 years.

So in it’s place comes another modded Savage Axis in .22-250 that I picked up last winter. I added a drop in trigger and an old stock Bushnell Elite 6×24 MD. These rifles are a ballistic version of a guilt free pleasure. Cheap to buy, lights-out accuracy, and the aftermarket parts are now there to take care of all the shortcomings, and I won’t shed a tear when the barrel goes.

Pasture poodles of South Dakota, you have been warned!

I can’t get enough of the BOOOOOM……… WHOP! It’s a lot of work to get there, but once we cut loose on the first town, it’s the ultimate party for the rifleman.

Grouse

Have fun! I am embarassed by how long it’s been since I have even pulled a trigger.

I wish I had the patience, equipment, and time to do videos of the shoot like Randy does. It would be terrific to have them, but shooting decent footage of a p-dog getting splatted from a quarter mile away is dang difficult and requires some real gear. And I’m just not that patient, all that putzing with gear instead of shooting is not my thing.

I’m hoping the rain doesn’t wipe out our shooting. Things can get ugly if it rains out on the plains.

Also, I’m hoping we don’t have any gear malfunctions. Last year I had a .223 case head separate in the chamber. Of course, not being an AR guy, I don’t carry an extractor with me everywhere I go, so I had no way of getting it out.

So here’s a shout out to Steve, my brother in law over in the UK. I know he reads this site and he was with me last year on the trip.

Steve made a great suggestion that got the .223 back in action. After we got back to the hotel, he suggested we put the barrel on top of a towel full of ice and chill it down. Hopefully this will contract the metal and make it possible to slide the split case out.

So after 20 minutes, I ran a brass brush from the muzzle down and the separated case fell out. Victory! That was a real win as it was the only “light” varmint rifle we had with on that trip, so we would have shot through our “heavy” ammo supply a lot faster and probably would have had to quit early.

Grouse

Grouse

Wish I could go with….it would even be worth the extra 8# jug of varget on my bench. Its been 6 months since I was painting the rat holes red and that feels much too long. Finding myself looking across field while driving hoping to find some locally to shoot

Which bullets are you using? I loved the performance of the Nosler HP’s in my 22-250’s for the P-rats

As for the videos I shoot, I keep it simple. Canon VIXIA HF R32 with a 51X zoom. Most of the time for the little stuff, I just use windows movie maker.

Randy, I was wondering if I could just get away with a consumer camera with a 50x zoom. Does it need to be OPTICAL 50x or is a digital 50x good enough to get decent resolution?

Re bullets, it’s split up a little. The Tikka 22-250 likes Hornaday V-Max 50 grain. My .223 Axis likes Nosler ballistic tip (orange tips) also in 50 grain. I use the same bullet for my .223 Contender pistol, but with a different powder.

I’m still in testing phase on the new Axis .22-250. Varget and the V-max 52s show the most promise so far, but with the Varget supply officially gone, I’m now testing XBR, 760, and even kicking it old school with 3031. I have 50 test rounds loaded for this weekend, I need to settle on a load so I can get the last 300 rounds loaded.

Grouse

I found the optical is better than digital…though in many digital cameras now, there isn’t most are digital. Its the problem with the mosaic affect when zoomed all the way out. i know you watched that rat video I did last year. most of those shots were in the 400ish range. Tripod and and set on them and BOOM! Myself and a few friends have these Canon Vixia in various models and for a basic consumer grade camera, they aren’t bad. Regardless, get a couple extra batteries

Ran out to Timber Lake, SD last weekend for my first ever “poodle shoot” and while it wasn’t a shoot fest, it was still WAY more action than I get hunting anything else so I was happy as all get out.

I don’t have a great set up in anything but I took .17HMR, .22WMR, .223, and .22-250’s with me. I used the .22mag and the .22-250. The furthest I was able to zero my Axis .22-250 before I left was only 150yds and the .22WMR was right there with it! Anyway, as it turns out, my Savage LOVES those Winchester HP’s in 45gr.! Made me wish I had more because they’re impossible to find right now! As it goes, I blew dirt all over a couple rodents out to 400yds but my furthest confirmed kill was 257yds with the Axis. My furthest with the .22WMR was 219yds.

I thought about trying videos the way Randy did them. I even bought a tripod for the camera but I was so into just learning the game and judging cross hair adjustments that I never gave it a second thought……. until it was all over that is!

Anyway, hope you had a GREAT shoot Grouse! Can’t wait to hear about it!

Oh yeah, found a box of Hornady Super Performance in 50gr. Vmax……. I’m going to see if the rifle likes those okay. If so, I’m going to have to score up some more and save them for next time!