Did a bit of prairie doggin'......

chris matthews

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 14, 2001
Messages
838
Location
Urich, MO
Did a bit of prairie doggin\'......

Got back late Tuesday night from a prairie dog shoot in Wyoming. Lynn, my wife, is Accounts Manager for CZ-USA and asked me to help out as nobody from CZ has been introduced to the wonderful sport of prairie doggin'.
We arrived on Saturday afternoon with enough time to confirm zero's, on over a dozen rifles CZ brought for the shoot. Two magazine editors, a rep for a major distributor, and CZ's top dealer made up the guest list of CZ. Making an appearance for CZ was Alice, the pres., Alice's husband, Robin (handles the web page for CZ), my wife and myself as the "technical advisor" and acting gunsmith/ guide.
Zero confirmation was a good chance for the guests to famaliarize themselves with the CZ rifles and their features.
Rifles for the shoot was as follows:
17 HMR, American Varmint Model
17 Remington American Varmint Model
204 Ruger, American Sporter Model
223 Remington, Laminate and Kevlar stocked
Varmint Models
22-250 Kevlar (HS) stocked Model
Lynn also brought her 22 LR Varminter in a
McMillan Master Silouhette stock that she
competes in Small Bore Silo. with.
And for the dangerous, saber-toothed sod poodles I brought my custom CZ 550 338 Lapua.
Saturday blessed us with partly cloudly skies (no mirage) and ZERO wind! We split into three groups going to different ranches.
Group #1 consisted of Lynn, James(writer) and myself. James and the outfitter drove the two track roads shooting over 500 rounds of 17 HMR. Kills were made from 10 to 150 yards.
Lynn and myself set up with a BR pivot bench and another from Coyote Jake's. She was deadly out to 400 with a 17 Rem and a 223. I handled the longer stuff out to 600 with the 223 and then got a few at 700-750 with a 22-250. I thought I had one at 850 but couldn't find a body to confirm the kill.
I think about 2000 rounds were burned the first day.
Sunday, although extremely windy, proved to be an excellent day of shooting as well. After spending the morning cruising ranches with the rimfires piling up bodies, the rep and I went to the high country looking for rock chucks.
Now for those of you who don't know, rock chucking is kinda like groundhogging. An exceptional day will yield 20 or so chucks. Tom and I killed over 100!!
Since the wind was blowing, the Lapua got brought out for the long shots ranging from 400 to a kill at 700. That shot took 4 minutes right wind to connect. First shot went a little high, windage perfect. Took off 1/4 minute elevation, same windage for the second shot = dead rock chuck launching off the rocks.
Used a 223 and 22-250 for the 200-400 yard sshots.
To sum it up- awesome time shooting. Had a few issues with the outfitter but to keep things on a good note he will not be mentioned here.
Bottom line: rifles performed flawlessly and quite accurately (yes, that's a cheap plug for CZ- gotta keep the Mrs. happy)
The Black Hills ammo used for the 223, 22-250 and the 338 was awesome! Thanks to Jeff Hoffman for a great product. Several of the 223 shot it into less than 1/2 MOA groups and the 22-250 were around 1/2 MOA. My Lapua does 1/4 MOA at 3000 fps (300 gr MK)with the BH load.
Brandon over at Leupold was kinda enough to loan us a variety of scopes. Some included the new Varmint Hunter reticle. Gotta love that good ol' American made optics!
The benches were great. However, I would tip my hat to the BR Pivot bench. It has a lot of great features and is rock solid. The Coyote Jakes has a few less bells and whistles but is reflected accordingly in the price. Many thanks to both companies for sending them out for our use.
And last but not least thanks to CZ for inviting me along. I love being up in the high desert, out in the sage getting a buzz from burning gun powder!!!
grin.gif


[ 06-25-2004: Message edited by: chris matthews ]

[ 06-29-2004: Message edited by: chris matthews ]
 
Re: Did a bit of prairie doggin\'......

Next time buddy.. ( with a bigger heads up ) I'll be glad to clean up what ya missed... I'll bring the digital camera and we'll post some pics... sounds like somthing I shoulda made time to head over for an afternoon.. sorry I missed it....

I'm working on a live feed camera set up... who knows maybe we'll broadcast the event....
 
Re: Did a bit of prairie doggin\'......

Chris

Sounds like a good time was had by all.

What about that humped back rock chuck, I've had a few groundhogs go humpback after a hit to the groceries at longer ranges. I still can't figure out what makes them do that but it's a repeatable behavior.

Got any used CZ's for sale????
 
Re: Did a bit of prairie doggin\'......

Cool pic, but prairie dogs are actually red spots randomly found on the high desert when viewed from a plane!!!!
grin.gif
 
Warning! This thread is more than 20 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.
Top