This tale is too long for one post so I'll post the second part as a reply to this post.
We have had some terrible windy and cold weather up here in NW North Dakota lately, but last Wednesday the wind let up and the temperature got up to around 69º. I have two activities I like to involve myself in and they are golfing and hunting. Wednesday I chose golfing and had a great time. I had looked at the advanced forecast earlier in the week and Thursday was going to be extremely windy and cool, but Friday looked like the weather would be ideal for a fall prairie dog hunt—sunshine, with temperatures in the high 40s and low 50s, and winds maybe getting up to 4 to 6 mph!!! I had three rifles with me. One was my Savage Target action in .204 Ruger. The other two rifles were ones I had the BLACKNITRIDE™ treatment done on the barrels. One was in .204 Ruger and the other was a .17 Remington. I planned on utilizing the .17 Remington this day, but needed to shoot the .204 Ruger to get the scope adjusted since I had cleaned it and gave it the Lock-Ease treatment.
I didn’t leave town until 7:50 a.m. and when I was still about 25 miles from my destination the doggone fog had settled in where I was driving. I noticed a herd of about 7 antelope off to the west side of the road. Antelope were all but wiped out in ND many years ago when we had terrible snow storms that caused snow cover to be so deep the antelope couldn’t find food. Many of them had big gobs of dirt/mud in their digestive tract from eating dirt and weeds where the snow wasn’t very deep on summer fallow. They are starting to make a comeback. I finally got down to the dog town at 9:13 a.m. I parked my pickup and set up my target 100 yards from the tailgate of the pickup and got out the two rifles I needed to check point of impact on for my loads. I got the .204 Ruger out first and installed the suppressor. The barrel had just been cleaned and given the Lock-Ease treatment. The first 3 shots were low and left, but I figured that before I go cranking up and right on the knobs I’d shoot 3 more shots. Those three shots were high and right??? Now I was getting agitated because it usually only takes one or two shots to get the barrel fouled and shooting on target. I adjusted the elevation down and windage left. I took 3 more shots and they were low!!! What the heck is going on??? I cranked the elevation knob up and now the 10th shot is too high. I shot 6 more shots and it was still shooting high in spite of having cranked the elevation knob down enough clicks so it should have been right on the money. So, sixteen shots and I still didn’t have the point of impact hitting where I wanted it. This is the rifle I used on my September 26 hunt and it was shooting right on the money?!?!?!? I took the suppressor off and cased up the rifle and stowed it in the pickup. Here’s my setup for field testing rifle point of impact.
I got out the .17 Remington with the BLACKNITRIDE™ treated barrel, screwed on the suppressor, and loaded the magazine with some shells. My load for this rifle is one I worked up to use on coyote hunts this season. I’m using C.E. Nagel’s 30 gr. FBHP T-000 bullets and coated them with hBN. This rifle has a tight neck chamber and the ID of the chamber neck measures .1945". I am using Remington factory brass and the casing neck walls have been turned down to a thickness of approximately .00985" so the OD of my loaded rounds is real close to .192" which means I have a nice close fit around the neck of the loaded rounds. I’m using Tula Non-Corrosive Small Rifle Magnum primers and 24.1 gr. of N-540 and getting a muzzle velocity of 3,855 fps. Once again, this barrel had been thoroughly cleaned and then had two patches with Lock-Ease on them run through the bore.
I squeezed off the first shot and couldn’t see the bullet hole on the target which was 100 yards away. I walked up to the target to see where the bullet hit. It hit on the line and 1/8-inch right. The next two were slightly left and a tad bit higher. I did 4 clicks up, shot two more shots, which as you can see were 1 1/4-inch and 1 1/8-inch high and I like it at 1 inch high.
Since the scope on this rifle has 1/4-inch clicks, I decided to leave the elevation setting alone and try to remember the POI is a tiny bit higher than 1-inch at 100 yards. I got my stuff put away and drove my pickup out onto the two-track so anyone thinking about coming into the dog town would know someone was already taking care of prairie dog control issues.
It was about 10:50 a.m. and only 38º above when I got my pickup out where folks could see it and all my “stuff” ready for the hunt. I could see a couple prairie dogs off to the north of my pickup and got out my Leica 1200 Rangefinder and got some yardages on the two prairie dogs I could still see out. The closest one was 218 yards away and the way this rifle was shooting I figured it was up to the task. I had only been shooting paper with this .17 Remington until today, so I needed to get it blooded. I got the crosshairs on him and squeezed off the shot. WHAP!!! I could see the prairie dog stop in its tracks. I decided to go ahead and get photos of my first kill with the .17 Remington with the BLACKNITRIDE™ treated barrel.
The prairie dogs were very wary and since the temperatures were cold, I guess they were in their dens under their electric blankets keeping warm. I shot one PD at 210 yards, another at 144 yards and another one at 185 yards. I got up and started walking east again. I spotted three more PDs at 127 yards, 136 yards, and 107 yards. They all sat patiently and waited while I picked off each one. The suppressor must be working. The left photo shows the 136 yard PD entrance wound. The right photo shows the digging tools of that same PD. I wanted to post a photo of the exit wound on this PD, but it was MASS DESTRUCTION!!! and not suitable for this board.
So far, I has taken 7 shots and killed 7 prairie dogs. I kept walking to the east and by 12:10 p.m. I had taken 7 more shots at the following yardages: 140, 144, 165, 209, 233, 239, and 230 and luckily I had hit on all 14 of the shots I had taken so far. I stopped for a break to reload my magazine and my shell holder. I spotted some PDs way out yonder and hit the first one at 230 yards, but missed on one at 255 yards and missed another one at 236 yards. I must have been shooting high on those two??? The wind was not a factor and the rifle was doing its part so it had to be the shooter. I began heading to the northeast and would stop and shoot a PD or two and then continue walking. By 12:40 p.m. I had shot 6 more PDs and had hit on 20 of the 22 shots taken so far. I loaded the magazine and shell holder and planned to walk to the NE where there is a big wide open space full of PD mounds—shoot a bunch of PDs and then walk back to the pickup for lunch.
At 12:46 p.m. I found a real nice vantage point and settled in at that spot.
I took 8 shots from that spot, all of them from 200 to 225 yards and hit on 7 of the 8 shots. I stopped and filled my magazine and shell holder and took photos of my spot. Then I took three more 200+ yard shots and hit on all three of them. Shot count was 33 with 30 of those ending the lives of prairie dogs. The sun was out and I started back to the pickup. I shot 2 more PDs on my trip back to the pickup. The temperature was up to 47 above and the wind was still quite calm for North Dakota. It was a joy to be out pottin’ prairie poodles.
I'll post a reply to this one for the conclusion of the story.
We have had some terrible windy and cold weather up here in NW North Dakota lately, but last Wednesday the wind let up and the temperature got up to around 69º. I have two activities I like to involve myself in and they are golfing and hunting. Wednesday I chose golfing and had a great time. I had looked at the advanced forecast earlier in the week and Thursday was going to be extremely windy and cool, but Friday looked like the weather would be ideal for a fall prairie dog hunt—sunshine, with temperatures in the high 40s and low 50s, and winds maybe getting up to 4 to 6 mph!!! I had three rifles with me. One was my Savage Target action in .204 Ruger. The other two rifles were ones I had the BLACKNITRIDE™ treatment done on the barrels. One was in .204 Ruger and the other was a .17 Remington. I planned on utilizing the .17 Remington this day, but needed to shoot the .204 Ruger to get the scope adjusted since I had cleaned it and gave it the Lock-Ease treatment.
I didn’t leave town until 7:50 a.m. and when I was still about 25 miles from my destination the doggone fog had settled in where I was driving. I noticed a herd of about 7 antelope off to the west side of the road. Antelope were all but wiped out in ND many years ago when we had terrible snow storms that caused snow cover to be so deep the antelope couldn’t find food. Many of them had big gobs of dirt/mud in their digestive tract from eating dirt and weeds where the snow wasn’t very deep on summer fallow. They are starting to make a comeback. I finally got down to the dog town at 9:13 a.m. I parked my pickup and set up my target 100 yards from the tailgate of the pickup and got out the two rifles I needed to check point of impact on for my loads. I got the .204 Ruger out first and installed the suppressor. The barrel had just been cleaned and given the Lock-Ease treatment. The first 3 shots were low and left, but I figured that before I go cranking up and right on the knobs I’d shoot 3 more shots. Those three shots were high and right??? Now I was getting agitated because it usually only takes one or two shots to get the barrel fouled and shooting on target. I adjusted the elevation down and windage left. I took 3 more shots and they were low!!! What the heck is going on??? I cranked the elevation knob up and now the 10th shot is too high. I shot 6 more shots and it was still shooting high in spite of having cranked the elevation knob down enough clicks so it should have been right on the money. So, sixteen shots and I still didn’t have the point of impact hitting where I wanted it. This is the rifle I used on my September 26 hunt and it was shooting right on the money?!?!?!? I took the suppressor off and cased up the rifle and stowed it in the pickup. Here’s my setup for field testing rifle point of impact.
I got out the .17 Remington with the BLACKNITRIDE™ treated barrel, screwed on the suppressor, and loaded the magazine with some shells. My load for this rifle is one I worked up to use on coyote hunts this season. I’m using C.E. Nagel’s 30 gr. FBHP T-000 bullets and coated them with hBN. This rifle has a tight neck chamber and the ID of the chamber neck measures .1945". I am using Remington factory brass and the casing neck walls have been turned down to a thickness of approximately .00985" so the OD of my loaded rounds is real close to .192" which means I have a nice close fit around the neck of the loaded rounds. I’m using Tula Non-Corrosive Small Rifle Magnum primers and 24.1 gr. of N-540 and getting a muzzle velocity of 3,855 fps. Once again, this barrel had been thoroughly cleaned and then had two patches with Lock-Ease on them run through the bore.
I squeezed off the first shot and couldn’t see the bullet hole on the target which was 100 yards away. I walked up to the target to see where the bullet hit. It hit on the line and 1/8-inch right. The next two were slightly left and a tad bit higher. I did 4 clicks up, shot two more shots, which as you can see were 1 1/4-inch and 1 1/8-inch high and I like it at 1 inch high.
Since the scope on this rifle has 1/4-inch clicks, I decided to leave the elevation setting alone and try to remember the POI is a tiny bit higher than 1-inch at 100 yards. I got my stuff put away and drove my pickup out onto the two-track so anyone thinking about coming into the dog town would know someone was already taking care of prairie dog control issues.
It was about 10:50 a.m. and only 38º above when I got my pickup out where folks could see it and all my “stuff” ready for the hunt. I could see a couple prairie dogs off to the north of my pickup and got out my Leica 1200 Rangefinder and got some yardages on the two prairie dogs I could still see out. The closest one was 218 yards away and the way this rifle was shooting I figured it was up to the task. I had only been shooting paper with this .17 Remington until today, so I needed to get it blooded. I got the crosshairs on him and squeezed off the shot. WHAP!!! I could see the prairie dog stop in its tracks. I decided to go ahead and get photos of my first kill with the .17 Remington with the BLACKNITRIDE™ treated barrel.
The prairie dogs were very wary and since the temperatures were cold, I guess they were in their dens under their electric blankets keeping warm. I shot one PD at 210 yards, another at 144 yards and another one at 185 yards. I got up and started walking east again. I spotted three more PDs at 127 yards, 136 yards, and 107 yards. They all sat patiently and waited while I picked off each one. The suppressor must be working. The left photo shows the 136 yard PD entrance wound. The right photo shows the digging tools of that same PD. I wanted to post a photo of the exit wound on this PD, but it was MASS DESTRUCTION!!! and not suitable for this board.
So far, I has taken 7 shots and killed 7 prairie dogs. I kept walking to the east and by 12:10 p.m. I had taken 7 more shots at the following yardages: 140, 144, 165, 209, 233, 239, and 230 and luckily I had hit on all 14 of the shots I had taken so far. I stopped for a break to reload my magazine and my shell holder. I spotted some PDs way out yonder and hit the first one at 230 yards, but missed on one at 255 yards and missed another one at 236 yards. I must have been shooting high on those two??? The wind was not a factor and the rifle was doing its part so it had to be the shooter. I began heading to the northeast and would stop and shoot a PD or two and then continue walking. By 12:40 p.m. I had shot 6 more PDs and had hit on 20 of the 22 shots taken so far. I loaded the magazine and shell holder and planned to walk to the NE where there is a big wide open space full of PD mounds—shoot a bunch of PDs and then walk back to the pickup for lunch.
At 12:46 p.m. I found a real nice vantage point and settled in at that spot.
I took 8 shots from that spot, all of them from 200 to 225 yards and hit on 7 of the 8 shots. I stopped and filled my magazine and shell holder and took photos of my spot. Then I took three more 200+ yard shots and hit on all three of them. Shot count was 33 with 30 of those ending the lives of prairie dogs. The sun was out and I started back to the pickup. I shot 2 more PDs on my trip back to the pickup. The temperature was up to 47 above and the wind was still quite calm for North Dakota. It was a joy to be out pottin’ prairie poodles.
I'll post a reply to this one for the conclusion of the story.