Friday, 10/13/2017 Unlucky for ND PDs

Talk about hunting the hunters and their prey.
Post Reply
User avatar
Silverfox
Senior Member
Posts: 937
Joined: Tue Feb 01, 2005 1:51 pm
.204 Ruger Guns: Savage 12VLP purchased in June 2004 + 2 other custom .204s
Location: NW North Dakota

Friday, 10/13/2017 Unlucky for ND PDs

Post by Silverfox »

I woke up Friday morning and the weather forecaster was right!!! It was 27º and somewhat cloudy. I reset my alarm and got another hour of sleep. I didn’t leave my garage until 9:22 a.m. and it was still only 33º. When I finally reached where I was going to park my pickup it was 10:14 a.m and the temperature was already a balmy 37º and I was kicking myself for not bringing my insulated coveralls with!

The plan for today was to shoot the 25 reloads I had for my tight neck .17 Remington. I worked up a load this summer and didn’t get the scope totally adjusted. The bullets were hitting the 100 yard target about .200" left and about that same distance low. The neck OD in the chamber is .1945" and requires neck turned brass. This rifle was built on a Remington ADL action converted to BDL, the trigger is a Jewell HVR with the top right safety. It has a 24" stainless steel 1 in 9 twist Remington Varmint contour Lilja barrel with 5/16" flutes. The barrel was given the BLACKNITRIDE™ treatment and is threaded for my suppressors. The stock is an H-S precision Remington 700 BDL stock, it was camo painted by me and it has been skim bedded. The scope is a Leupold VXIII 8.5-25x50mm with the Varmint Hunter reticle and has a bubble level just in front of the rear ring. Here’s a photo of the rig in my field pod.

Image

I had been using a.190" bushing for neck sizing, but switched to a .189" bushing for better grip on the bullet and had a load of 23.6 gr. of IMR 8208XBR pushing 25 gr. T-000 FBHP Nagel bullets out of my barrel at a muzzle velocity of 3,872 fps. Not blazing fast, but very accurate. I had been shooting the 30 gr. T-000 FBHP Nagel bullets on the hunt I posted about my Friday, July 7, 2017, hunt, but wanted to save those bullets for coyotes. This was the first hunt with the 25 gr. T-000 FBHP Nagel bullets and I was anxious to see how they performed on live targets.

The prairie dog town I was at had lots of PDs right near where I parked and I didn’t have any problem shooting 19 of those rounds in the first 30 minutes. I walked a little to the NE and finished off the last 6 shots. The 25 gr. Nagel bullets performed quite well on prairie dogs, but since the wind was wafting from right to left out of the SE from 10 to 15 mph at about a right angle to most of my shots, plus the bullets were about .200" left on my last trip to the range, I had to allow quite a bit of windage and missed on several shots in the 150 to 200 yard range. Even so, I hit on 21 of the 25 shots and will probably use this load again next summer in the prairie dog towns. The wind and the balmy 37º temperature made it feel—BRRRRR!!! COLD, COLD, COLD!!! I hustled back to the pickup and cranked up the engine and turned on the heater. I planned on staying in the pickup until the sun came out. This would be a good time to take my usual nap and then eat lunch!

It was 11:40 when I set my cell phone to wake me up in 50 minutes, put my hat over my eyes and settled in for a nap. About 30 minutes into my nap, someone texted me and woke me up. Thirty minutes wasn’t long enough for my nap so I set the cell phone to give me another 40 minutes of nap time. I started eating lunch around 12:50 and after lunch I prepped my Savage 12VLP with the BLACKNITRIDE™ treated barrel for the afternoon hunt. This barrel is a super match grade stainless steel 1 in 11 twist three groove Pac-Nor barrel. The stock is a Bell & Carlson Tactical Medalist Style 2 for the Savage 10-16 Short Action and it is the tan color with black webbing.

I had 73 rounds loaded in virgin Norma brass. I was using 27.2 gr. of H4895 powder, Remington 7½ primers, and hBN coated 39 gr. Sierra BlitzKing bullets. The reamer I used for this rifle is the same one I used for my Savage Target Action .204 Ruger and has a .230" neck ID and .042" of freebore. All of the brass is neck turned. I loaded up the magazine and the shell holder and was preparing to leave the pickup at 1:05 p.m. when it started to rain!!! If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all!!! Thankfully, it didn’t rain very long and by 1:36 I was heading out to go shoot some more prairie dogs, but the sun still wasn’t shining and the wind was wafting harder than earlier. The temperature was all the way up to 42º, I’d guesstimater the wind chill factor made it feel about 32 º. BRRRRR!!!

My shooting started right where I begain with the .17 Remington and I walked on the outside of the fence line towards the SW corner of the dog town. The shooting wasn’t super fast, but I took my time and would shoot a shot, eject the empty, take a loaded cartridge from the holder on the stock and place that round in the chamber and close the bolt. That way the barrel stays cooler (not that it was going to get hot on a cold day like today). I wanted to get up to the NE side of the dog town and pulled my Schwinn cart along the south side of the dog town and finally crossed under the fence to take a photo of one of my victims.

Image

I worked my way up northward along the east side of the PD town blasting targets of opportunity. One of the prairie dogs I shot was 75 yards to the NE of me right in front of his mound which was about 2 feet in front of the fence line. I could see lots of carnage exploding through the scope. Innards were flying and the prairie dog went flying backwards to the other side of the fence. Parts of the PD were hung up on the fence wires, a piece of his fur was stuck to a steel fence post, and the inner wall of his den was plastered with prairie dog goo!!! It was quite a sight to see that all in motion through my scope which was set at 20x!!!

Image

I texted my son, who was sick and couldn’t go hunting with me today, and told him, “This PD is for you!!!” That was about 3:20 p.m. and I thought I would probably quit and head back to the pickup around 4:00. I had 48 shells left to shoot, but I was cold and the warmth of the pickup was beckoning me. However, when I got to the top of the next hill, I could see that there were far too many prairie dogs that needed some 39 gr. Sierra BlitzKing medication for me to quit until I was totally out of PD medicine. I continued to shoot at a leisurely pace and by 4:30 I was down to 28 shells left to shoot. There was an old water truck parked on the hill near me so I took out a chocolate chip cookie, nestled in behind the front tire out of the wind and munched on that cookie while I collected my empty casings and put them into the box. My cart was right beside me and I felt the right side tire and it was low on air. I checked the other tire and it too was low on air. However, there wasn’t much weight in the cart so the wouldn’t be any problems continuing to use the cart.

There were still a few blossoms out there today.

Image

I looked off to the northwest of my position and spotted a bunch more PDs and shot several of them. Then I headed west and shot a few more PDs and was down to only 4 shells left to shoot. I began walking south towards the pickup and fired those shells before I got back to the pickup at 5:15 p.m. I had taken a total of 98 shots and connected on 88 of those shots. Not a real high percentage, but I was happy to be out even if I almost froze my buns off.

It was 7:00 p.m. when I parked the pickup in the garage. It was good to be back home, except now I had two barrels to clean and a bunch of gear to haul into the house. In order to make this story complete I have to add the “Hero Photo”. This photo was taken in the afternoon with my Savage 12VLPs in .204 Ruger. YES!!! Those are ear muffs over my ears to keep the icy cold wind out of my ears.

Image

I hope you enjoyed the hunt.
Catch ya L8R--Silverfox
User avatar
jpx2rk
Senior Member
Posts: 137
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2016 5:25 pm
.204 Ruger Guns: Savage 12FV, R783/20P combo
Location: East TN

Re: Friday, 10/13/2017 Unlucky for ND PDs

Post by jpx2rk »

Just like being there. Thanks for posting.
Master Piddler ;)
User avatar
Silverfox
Senior Member
Posts: 937
Joined: Tue Feb 01, 2005 1:51 pm
.204 Ruger Guns: Savage 12VLP purchased in June 2004 + 2 other custom .204s
Location: NW North Dakota

Re: Friday, 10/13/2017 Unlucky for ND PDs

Post by Silverfox »

jpx2rk--You are most welcome. I'm happy to share the stories about my little hunts.
Catch ya L8R--Silverfox
Post Reply