223 on gophers - > richardson ground squirrels

[prosper]

I tried the 45gr out of my Savage 22" barrel .22-250 and they broke the advertised 4000fps on my Chrony. They averaged 4010fps if I remember correctly. I was pleasently surprised.

Yeah, my Savage shoots 'em fast too, 4100-odd fps. My buddy's 26" remington barely cracks 3900. Haven't used those particular ones on gophers as the idea of shooting factory ammo in my baby... ewww. (I only shot a couple to see how fast they went) Handloaded 52gr HP match bullets at a tad under 3900 work well. VMax's REALLY make a mess

FMJ's work on gophers in larger calibers, 7.62x39 milsurp works OK, if you can hit 'em.

 

[thebaron]

I find the 55grain .223 in JSP don't open enough either on groundhogs/beavers. But the 45grain HP's in WWB work great.

 

[Suputin]

Nothing beats a high velocity polycarbonated tipped bullet. The effect is ......... gruesome!

 

[lcq]

If you reload 50gr vmax are brutal in 223. If you are not setup the winchester 45gr white box is $15 and change for 40 at Walmart, deadly accurate to 300M and positively explosive on varmints. They don't feed in my AR180B so I use them in my BVSS. The 180B loves the little 50gr vmax though.

Brian

 

[joe-nwt]

I've used V-Max's with good results - also Nosler Ballistic Tips. Last Sunday I tried some 50 grain Hornady SPSX's in the .223 (with a less-than-max load of BLC-2) and had very good results (lots of "air" and explosive tissue destruction on the gophers).

X2 IMHO, they are "THE" 223 varmint bullet.

 

[thebaron]

Nothing beats a high velocity polycarbonated tipped bullet. The effect is ......... gruesome!

Yeah, I bought a box of these last week, but personally, I dont think any beaver/groundhog is worth the 1$ the cartidge cost me.

 

[catnthehatt]

I use either the Speer TNT's or the Seirra Varminters, they work very well .
Cat

 

[todbartell]

I bought a box of these last week, but personally, I dont think any beaver/groundhog is worth the 1$ the cartidge cost me

heh...you shoud handload

I can make a box of Nosler BT or Hornady Vmax for 32 cent$ a shot

 

[prosper]

heh...you shoud handload

+1 to that. Particularly for a varmint gun, where high-volume precision shooting is the rule, I couldn't afford NOT to reload. Plus, my .204 is really picky, and only shoots ~1 MOA with factory ammo (which, when you're shooting at 2" of squirrel is only good for 200 yards). With handloads, I can repeatedly shoot 1/4 MOA groups

 

[thebaron]

+1 to that. Particularly for a varmint gun, where high-volume precision shooting is the rule, I couldn't afford NOT to reload. Plus, my .204 is really picky, and only shoots ~1 MOA with factory ammo (which, when you're shooting at 2" of squirrel is only good for 200 yards). With handloads, I can repeatedly shoot 1/4 MOA groups

Yeah... But a 90lb beaver doesn't require much accuracy
I usually sit on the top of the hill overlooking the swamp (roughly 200 yards) and pick em off.

They are so dumb. They just stand there while what's left of their buddy rolls off the dam haha.

Back when I was too young my dad used to go out with his buddy. He said his record was 26 beavers in 1 day.

 

[Suputin]

Yeah, I bought a box of these last week, but personally, I dont think any beaver/groundhog is worth the 1$ the cartidge cost me.

HERESY! Of course its worth it, where else can you buy that much entertainment for $1?