I got out my Savage 12VLP with a 1 in 11 stainless steel super match grade Pac-Nor barrel and set up my target box 100 yards from my shooting spot, but before I could check the point of impact, a noisy prairie dog was challenging me to see if I could hit him with a bullet. I went prone, got the crosshairs on it and ended that prairie dog’s days on this earth. Here’s the Savage 12VLP with its first victim while wearing a suppressor.
I got the point of impact adjusted for my reloads that I used WW brass neck sized with a .225" Redding TiN bushing. My load for this rifle uses Remington 7½ primers, 27.2 gr. of H4895 and hBN coated 40 gr. V-Max bullets. This load usually turns PDs inside out and they do many fine acrobatic stunts too. The scope is a silver VX-III 6.5-20x40mm Leupold with a fine duplex crosshair. I used Burris Signature Zee rings and bought an EGW Picatinny style rail. I had my gunsmith thread this barrel for my silencer too and had not had it out after prairie dogs yet. I had Kevin Rayhill install his bolt kit in the bolt and it is one smooth action now. After making scope adjustments I had another prairie dog that didn’t believe I could hit it and I promptly ended his days on this earth. So I had shot 2 PDs before I even started to hunt in earnest.
I also had my Savage Target Action rifle in .204 Ruger along that I had used on my August 30 hunt and had cleaned the barrel and treated the bore with Graphoil. That treatment usually gets the first couple shots real close to my intended point of impact out of the clean barrel. I didn’t plan on using it, so I didn’t test fire it.
I moved the pickup so it was in the shade of a very tall green ash tree and also put my sun shace in the windshield and hung a white bed sheet over the inside windows of my topper to keep the heat out. My watch said it was at 9:20 a.m as I left the pickup and headed in a NE direction. It was 37º as I started off. I didn’t get more than 150 yards from the pickup before I had a herd of prairie dogs standing around their individual mounds making perfect targets for me. Most of them were only 100 to 160 yards away!!! By 10:30 I had shot 27 shots and nailed 26 prairie dogs. That was almost as many PD shot in a little over an hour as I had shot on each of the last two outings during each of those hunts!!! The 26th shot was one at 165 yards and it appeared I hit low but the bullet ricocheted up into the PD and killed it. The 27th shot was at a PD on its belly and facing me and my range finder said it was 187 yards away. My bullet is supposed to hit just a tad over 1.3" high at 175 yards and 1.0" high at 200 yards so I held the crosshairs right between his eyes and squeezed off the shot. The bullet must have hit the dirt in front of the prairie dog and the PD scampered back into its den. I decided it was time to check the point of impact again. I found a dead tree stump at 75 yards distance, got a steady hold and fired off a shot. It hit about a half inch low and should be hitting about a half inch high at that distance. I gave the elevation knob 4 one-quarter inch clicks up and fired one more shot. It still wasn’t hitting where I wanted. I had shot 24 shots through the barrel before doing my point of impact shooting this morning and decided the barrel probably needed to be cleaned. Since I was so close to the pickup I walked back there and got out my Savage Target Action .204 Ruger. When I went to remove the suppressor from the Savage 12VLP, it was slightly loose!!!! Aha!!!! I should have checked that earlier. I’m pretty sure that was the reason it wasn’t shooting to my point of aim. Anyway, I put the suppressor on the Savage Target action .204 Ruger and checked the point of impact on that one so I could use it for the rest of the day.
The first two shots at the target from 100 yards away went into the same hole, but they hit 2.25" high and aboout 3/16 inch right. I cranked on the elevation and windage knobs on my 6-24x50mm Nikon Monarch side focus scope and my next shot hit 1 inch high and about 3/8 inch right. I gave it 3/8 of an inch of windage adjustment to the left and the next shot was right on the money—time to go kill some more prairie dogs. One PD was barking at me and standing straight up at about 125 yards. Bad mistake on his part—One 39 gr. Sierra BlitzKing put an end to his time on this earth. By the time I got my target box put away and swapped out the ammo boxes it was 11:45 a.m. so I stopped for lunch.
After lunch, I moved the pickup so it would continue to be in the shade as the sun traveled to the west and was on my way to do some more shooting at 12:20 p.m. 35 minutes later I had shot 11 more shots and killed 11 more prairie dogs.—LIFE IS GOOD!!! I took a break at 12:57 to load the shell holder I have on the stock and get a drink of water. I shot 2 more PDs and missed one that was behind a thick thistle bush. I’m sure the bullet deflected off the bush.
I moved to another spot further north, and found the top part of an antelope skull on my way—no bottom jawbone though.
I removed one box of reloads from my backpack and set my backpack in the shade of a bush. I sneaked out of a deep washout and set up on a PD mound. There were lots of PDs to the NNE, N, NW, and W of my shooting spot. At 2:00 p.m I got a chance to get a double and suceeded! These were two big fat prairie dogs. They were straight west of me lying on top of their mound and the one closest to me was facing south and the other one was facing north. The closest one’s head and front shoulder were blocking the view of the other one’s head and front shoulder. When I squeezed off the shot, the front one flipped over backwards and wound up about three feet north of where it was when I shot and the other one was still close to its original position and its legs were up in the air doing the death kick. That was my first and only double of the day!!!
Here’s a photo of the two prairie dogs just as they laid after they were shot. The mighty Savage Target Action in .204 Ruger stands proudly alongside the brave prairie dogs that battled hard but lost the battle to a 39 gr. Sierra BlitzKing bullet.
Here’s another photo collage showing the two prairie dogs I got with one shot. The bullet exited both prairie dogs!!! The photo on the left show the exit wound on the PD that was behind his buddy. The right photo shows the front PD that did have its head pointing south and it was flipped over in the air several times and landed on his back with his head pointing north. So, the intestines you see at the top of the photo are on the exit side of that front PD.
I shot a few more shots from that vantage point and missed one shot at 165 yards??? I think I messed up on doping the wind on that one. I ran out of shells in the first box I had opened. My other box of shells was in my backpack back in the washout so I headed back there to get it and decided to take some photos of the double victims and also saw some flowers to snap photos of as well.
After completing the strenuous task of photographing the double kill and the flowers, I sat on a PD mound and ate a couple cookies and had some ice-cold water. Up to this point, with the Savage Target Action .204 Ruger, I had taken 35 shots. I had 2 missed shots, hit 32 singles and one double for 34 dead prairie dogs with 35 shots. I was a happy camper.
I took out my next box of shells and started walking back to the pickup at about 2:50 p.m. I missed a shot from 154 yards away with the 10 to 15 mph wind wafting almost 90º to my point of aim. Once again I thought I must have failed to dope the wind properly. I got lined up on another PD at 160 yards away, allowed a little more for windage and missed that shot. It appeared I may have allowed too much for windage as the bullet appeared to hit left of the PD. I decided it was time to shoot at another dead tree to check the point of impact. The tree was 75 yards away and the bullet hit about .6" high, but about .8" left. This scope has 1/8 minute clicks so I did 6 clicks right and 1 click down. I didn’t fire at the tree again, but started shooting at PDs and hitting them. I hit one at 155 yards and one at 150 yards before making it back to the pickup at 3:20 p.m. The total for the day so far was 4 missed shots, one double and 60 singles for 62 dead prairie dogs out of 66 shots taken. I’m still a happy camper!!!
I had skipped my normal nap I take after eating lunch and decided now was a good time to catch up on my sleep. I moved the pickup around to take better advantage of the shade of the tall tree, laid out my nice soft blanket on the tailgate of the pickup, slid my backpack under my head, and my elbow pads under my neck and was soon fast asleep. Forty-five minutes later, the alarm on my watch went off and I woke up and gathered up my gear and by 4:56 p.m. I was headed out to the west side of the dog town. I got into some excellent shooting in one spot and probably took close to 20 shots from one spot alone. The silencer was really effective and I was able to shoot three and four prairie dogs that were in close proximity and they did not dive into the holes after the first couple of shots. By about 6:45 I had almost emptied my last box of shells and started walking back to the pickup. I took a couple more shots as I walked back and finally ran out of shells. I found a complete badger skull on my way back to the pickup.
I was back at the pickup at 7:10 p.m. and set my rifle up on the tailgate. I removed the silencer and put the thread protector over the threads. Then, I removed the bolt, inserted the rod guide in the action, covered the stock with a stock protector and ran four or five patches soaked in Bore Tech C4 Carbon Remover down the barrel. I then covered the muzzle with a small plastic bag, wadded up a 3"x3" cotton patch and shoved it into the back of the rod guide, inserted the rifle into its case and put it into the back of the pickup cab with the muzzle lower than the action. I got all my stuff loaded in the pickup and by 7:24 p.m. I was headed for home. I stopped at the M&H Gas station and topped off the gas tank and was parked in my garage by 9:05 p.m. It had been a very long day for an old, decrepit guy like me, but I had a very good time today.
Oops, I almost forgot to put in the old obligatory “Hero Photo” in this story.
I took 107 shots at prairie dogs, had 7 missed shots, I hit on one double and 99 singles for a total of 101 dead prairie dogs for the 107 shots. Did I say “IT WAS A VERY GOOD DAY?!?!?”
Man I wish we had prarie dogs here in central mo.