SmallCaliberCentral

Yesterday was opening day for prairie grizzlies here in Colorado so I loaded up and headed out to our biggest public land prairie, the Pawnee Grasslands. Took my R700 .22-250 "Varmint Special" and my R700 .204R SPS Varmint and about 100 rounds for each. Stuffed my backpack and walked out into the rolling hills of the eastern Colorado prairie.

I didn't take pictures. Sorry.

This thread is less about the hunt and more about love'n on the .204 Ruger. This was my first time packing both of them into the field with me and getting a side-by-side comparison on pDog shooting with them. I will say this... carrying two 10lb rifles will wear a guy out! I do all my pDog hunting by walking around and shooting from the sitting and prone positions. It is the best way to get into dog towns out here on public ground.

I shot 100 rounds through the .204R and about 80 through the .22-250. I would have shot a lot less through the .22-250 except that it had my tall bipod mounted on it so all shots that were from the sitting position were through that rifle. I need to switch the tall bipod to the .204R as I think the .22-250 may stay at home most of the time now. The .204R is such a pleasure to shoot!! The two rifles are nearly identical in weight but the .204R has a slightly longer barrel at 26" versus the .22-250 at 24". The little .204R has much less recoil and a lot less BANG, but... pretty much equal splat factor.

I was able to spot almost all my hits/misses with the .204R. The only time I couldn't spot hits were from awkward shooting positions and from my off-hand shots. Yes, I take off-hand shots at pDogs. If they are inside 100 yards I can generally whack them with the standing off-hand position 90% of the time. When walking around I will keep my rifle loaded and ready. There is always a dumb dog that is on alert duty and will stand up long enough for me to shoulder my rifle and puff him.

Oh, there were PLENTY of targets running around too! I even took a break for a while after clearing out a section of a dog town and pulled out my mouth call to see if I could lure in a coyote. No luck there though.

So yeah, loving the .204!

Know exactly what you mean, Trent. I also have a good-shooting Rem. 700 .22-250; recently put a nice B&C stock on it but have only had it out once since, to sight it in. My .204s (Rem. LVSF and Cooper 21V) for all practical purposes will do just as well, with less noise in this increasingly-built up area (sure wish I could wander the beautiful CO. prairie) and no muzzle jump. Not thinking about selling the '250, though - a fine cal. in its own right.

Trent: Know what you mean also. The 22-250 was what really got me into CF ground squirrel shooting way back in '68. I've owned a bunch of them, and right now, there's not one in my safe, and it's for the exact reasons you mentioned. If my 204's won't do it, then it's Swift time, but I'd MUCH rather shoot my 204's!

I've shot various 20 caliber cartridges since the mid-1980's, but I've always had one or two 22-250's in my safes, too.

In spite of what some folks might try to tell you, the 22-250 and the 204R are different enough from each other for some tasks that they both deserve to exist. And my 22-250's will do everything my 220 Swift will...........

JMO - BCB

BCB, absolutely. I love my .22-250 immensely and don't think I could bring myself to let it go. I love shooting it. It is a laserbeam and it has amazing factory wood on it. The .204r though... flat, fast, inherently accurate and kicks like a kitten. It's just pure fun.

I think:
- If I am headed out specifically for coyotes I will take the .22-250
- If I am headed out specifically for pDogs I will take the .204R
- If I am headed out for a mixed bag I will probably take the .204R

(I generally only keep one gun per given cartridge)

I had a beauty Sako 75 in 22-250 but after I got some hornets, a Calhoon and a pair of 204's I never shot it and had little desire to do so. I suppose if I lived in an area that had chuks or dogs I might have kept it. Dr.

Well, I started shooting ground squirrels (in California they are referred to as ground squirrels, not rats - because all the rats are in the Legislature ) back in the mid 60's with a Ruger M-77 Round Top in .257 Roberts rechambered to A.I.. Then I walked into the local Gemco Store (like an early Costco) and saw a special order Remington 40-XB with a 27-1/4" barrel and target sight blocks on sale that was never picked up by the fellow that ordered it. It was in .22-250 Remington and cost $264.00. That was the start of a massive die-off of Spermophilus beecheyi due to contact with high energy lead particles, neutrinos and cosmic rays. I still have that action, it's on its second barrel and stock. Come to think of it I still have a .257 Roberts A.I. too.

Now while the .204 Ruger is the greatest thing since sliced bread (it runs third to automatic garage door openers however - old guys know what I mean) the .22-250 is still a revered cartridge in my armory. So, I will extoll the virtues of the .204 Ruger, loving the light recoil and superb accuracy, yet never be without a .22-250 as link to an earlier time when I was young and foolish. It's a sentimental thing of bygone days. It was the gun I first loaded bullets so hot in that they left little smoke trails as they headed toward squirrel fur. Impact was was akin to a NASA rail gun pellet punching through an aluminum sheet - vaporized! Of course those bullets never made it beyond 150 yards, they disintegrated like little meteorites.

So my new build is a .22-250 Ackley on a Remington action. Now I don't really see the advantage of Ackley's cartridges these days, especially because they wear the barrel fire forming, and its tedious, but if Hornady still produces its custom shop hydraulic forming dies, that step can be largely eliminated. So, crank up the DeLorean and let's go back to the past. Wow! My joints are working again, and my pants just fell off, they're four sizes too large!