SmallCaliberCentral

I got home last last night from my second trip out to western Nebraska. This one proved to be much more rewarding than last year (even though last year was enough to get me hoooked). The weather ended up holding out and we had plenty of dogs to keep us busy. Within the 1st couple hours, I had already shot and killed more dogs than I had in 3 days last year. The sun was out, the dogs were up and we kept the barrels warm!

This year I took the LRVP and 950 rounds of .204 loaded up with 32 grain V-Max, H322 powder and a Remington 7 1/2 primer. I also took my newest toy, the new AR. It's a Rock River lower, White Oak Arms upper with a 26" barrell with a 1-12 twist chambered in .223. I loaded up 500 rouds using a 50 grain Sierra Varminter bullet with Reloader 10x powder. The trigger is a Williams set trigger which proved to be very nice out in the field.

My 3 best shots. The longest was with the AR at 460 yards, a new personal best for me, topping the 425 yard head shot I had last year. Probably the best shot I made was a 400 yard belly shot that I had to compensate a foot and 1/2 to the left of the little dog to made. My 1st attempt landed about 2 ft. to the right, with an update from my spotter, I made a correction and turned the dog inside out on the very next try! It's amazing what that little 32 grain V-max will do even in the wind at long distances! My 3rd best was a 2 for 1 shot with the AR at 350 yards.

One of the guys in the group picked one off at 738 yards with his new 6mm Ackley Improved. It took a good number of shots but once he made the shot, he walked out and one of the other guys in the group used a range finder to get the distance!

Here's a few pictures of the scenary and better yet, some of the aftermath.

Let's start off with some scenary pictures...

Mmm Beef!





One of my buddy's new 6mm Ackley Improved waiting for her turn to play...



My new AR and my makeshift shooting mat, another buddy was using my new Midway mat so I had to improvise



The Carnage!

Head shot



This little guy was thrashed by the .204 at about 75 yards...never could find the lower 1/2 of the body



But I did find this...the upper portion of the body and the foot were about 5 feet away from each other...no lower body to be found!



Par'd this one!



.223 to the belly



3 in one hole!



More V-Max belly damage









No body to be found...



On our walk about we found a soft shell turtle munching on the head of this dead prairie dog. When we got close he calmed up. We ended up seeing two turtles while out there.



Finally this little guy was in the middle of a prayer when he was smacked...




All in all we had a great trip. We ended up with 600-700 dogs down, the ranchers were happy and we will be headed back next spring for sure. My plans for next year include picking up something a bit larger to really reach out there. At this point I'm thinking a 6.5 x .284.

Squatting Wolf--Great report. Thanks a bunch for the great photos!! Love that red mist on the prairie!!!

I'd suggest that you try the 39 gr. Sierra BlitzKings instead of those 32 gr. V-Max bullets, especially if you are fighting wind deflection problems. The 39s will make wind deflection guesstimations a whole lot easier.

Glad that you had good weather, nothing worse than waiting a year and having it ruined by rain. I am heading to my parents place on friday and will be there for nearly 2 weeks, so I should get a few good days.

I also hope to surpass my personal best, got some 39 Grain SBK's loaded so if I have good conditions I hope to get some regular kills past 350 yards.


I never knew that a turtle would feed on a carcass, but I guess that if snapping turtles eat fish, the rest of the turtle family must have similar appetites.

Silverfox - I've got a box of 500 39 grainers just waiting for some once fired brass. I should have plenty of it now so I should be able to start working up a new load. I picked up a box before they went up in price last year, figured they would keep until I ran out of 32's!

surfclod - I was glad the weather worked out as well. It sounded like that area had been pounded the last few weeks with nasty weather and it was pouring down rain the last 100 miles we drove. When we got close, most of the fields had standing water in them so we were worried we wouldn't even be able to get back to some of the places we were to shoot. All turned out well though, the rocky, sandy soil dried up pretty quickly though and it wasn't muddy at all. Good luck on your shoot, hope the weather turns out well and your bullets fly straight!

I should be getting some additional pictures from some of the other guys so I'll post them as I get them!

Awesome. You forgot to call me.

acloco wrote:Awesome. You forgot to call me.

I left town without checking the forum one more time and missed your message until I got back. We'll definitely have to exchange info though, we are planning on shooting the same area next year. I was in a bit of scramble mode this year to get ready, a couple days before I had just gotten back from a trip to the Smokey Mountain National Park so when I got home I had to unpack a few things, pack my bags back up and do a little bit of last minute reloading for the AR!

Nice photos of the carnage. The "turtle" thing is pretty neat. We don't have any of them down here.

Wolf: Glad the trip went well (for you, NOT the dogs!). Thanks for posting the trip; nice carnage courtesy of the 204 Ruger.

Got any more shots of your equipment and crew to share? Looks like nice typical PD country....typical by way of having to shoot around cattle. Don't want to buy a steer 'accidently'! Glad you had a great time.

Mmmm.....where's the BEEF? Enjoyed the pic's.... wish I was there.

Rick - I'll have to check to see what other pictures I have. I think I have some more of the land and maybe some equipment shots. Last year I took a lot of pictures because the shooting was slow, this year the dogs were up everywhere so I figured the rifle in my hand was better than the camera! I know I didn't get any pictures of my LRVP or my buddy's .243 Cooper which I should have but someone else in the group may have.

Every place we have access to has cattle so you have to be a little careful there, I would rather buy another varmint rig rather than an Angus! . After a long day of shooting they begin to look pretty tasty though!

Great post enjoyed the pics. Never new a turtle would eat a PD head. Learn something new every day

Awesome!

Thanx for the pics and story!

Here's a few additional pictures of the crew and some of the toys. Looks like next year I need to take a few more pictures of the equipment...this year I got too excited when I saw how many dogs we had to shoot!

Bob on the lookout for dogs with his Remington 700 chambered in .223.




Getting things set up




My buddy Adam ranging with my Leica range finder




Yours truly loading up clips for the new AR




My buddy Adam giving his Cooper chambered in .243 a workout




Finally my buddy Rob on the spotting scope, Adam dialed in on his Cooper and me watching the aftermath through the scope on my .204 LRPV

That was awesome! Glad you had a great time.

In Christ,

Song Dog

Squatting Wolf,

Great write up and pictures, reminds me of the scenery where we were. Glad you had a good trip this time. It doesn't look like there is anything in counrty like that, but to me, it looks beautiful with the wide open space. Thanks for sharing your hunt with us.