Prarie Dog Scope

[tappedandtagged]

I've been looking at a few scopes for a 224 Valkyrie that I'd like to take shooting prarie dogs next spring. My friend who has invited me suggested a scope with a max zoom of around 20 power. My Nikon Monarch fits that bill at 5-25X, but the crosshairs are super thick. So much so that they nearly obscure a 1" dot at 200 yards. I don't see how I'd use that for prarie dogs at distance very well.

So far, I've looked at the following scopes (in ascending price)

Vortex Strike Eagle 5-25
Burris Veracity 4-20
Vortex Viper HST 6.5-20
Vortex Viper Gen II 5-25
Leupold VX3i FFP 6.5-20

With the exception of the HST, all are 1st focal plane.

So, I've not gotten into long range shooting before, nor have I gone shooting prarie dogs before, but I have an opportunity to do so now. Anyone have any experience with those scopes, or have a suggestion on a better scope in the same price range? ($500-725) The Leupold is at the far top end of my current budget, even with the Leupold VIP pricing. The others were priced on Expert Voice with LEO pricing.

[Jerry R]

I've been to Montana twice for prairie poodles. I would agree with your friend's evaluation on 20 to 25 as max power. Made a mistake before my first trip. Had a Leupold 8.5-25 with target turrets (those help a lot) and sent it out and had it converted to a 25-50x thinking better for distance. Mirage was so bad at 50x, you couldn't see the pups. It's great off a bench at 100 yards, but not good at distance (depending on weather and where you are shooting) Ended up shooting at 25x all the time. A fine cross-hair (or similar reticule) is definitely called for. A lot of the PD's are about the size of a 20 ounce coke bottle. Seeing them at 7-8 hundred yards is tough with a fat cross-hair. A range finder is a big help, and we took two rifles. When one warmed up, we wet patched it, let it soak in a Tipton cleaning vise, and brought out the second one. Rotating them that way seemed to help. If you will be using a portable bench, and walking it out into the dog towns, take a 22 pistol with you. They will pop up and bark at you from 15 to 20 yards away.

Geoff and I hope to make one more trip to Montana before the conductor punches my ticket.

UW will tell you I'm a Leupold fan-boy. I think you would do well with their 8.5-25 x 50 AO Target Turret model. We set our zero at 100 yards, and I wrote a "click-up" program to match ballistics on pretty much any cartridge. We verified it on our .243 and 223 rifles at River Bend's 600 yard range. Program was off one click at that distance. In the field, that let us range a dog mound, and dial in the clicks. Even with that help, our two person average for two trips combined was only 40 percent hits. The ranchers asked that we tell them how many dogs we took off each town, so we kept a log of each hit. I still have the spreadsheet that I sent to our host. Lists the dogs by day, by town LOL.

When you go, start a thread on WEVO. I would love to hear tales from the field.

[tappedandtagged]

That's a ton of good info. I'll definitely take my 22 pistol!

My friend is a veteran at this and has gone every spring for several years. He invited me this past spring, but I didn't have the gear at the time (just 5.56 rifles and deer rifles). Now I'm working on my gear list for next spring. I have a 224 Valkyrie that shoots about 3/4 MOA with Fusions, but I don't have a load worked up for varmints at distance.

I also need to work up a load for a Rem. 700 in 223. It already has a nice Burris on it, so I'm only needing to upgrade the 3-9 scope on my 224 that I've been using for hogs.

[mustangfreek]

Seen these in my email, along with a few other good PST/hst vortex scopes at close out prices at scopelist.com

Vortex 6-24 Pst -First focal plane model down to 550

https://www.scopelist.com/vortex-viper-pst-6-24x50-ffp-rifle-scope-ebr-1-moa-pst-624f1-a.aspx

[tappedandtagged]

Mustang, that's a smoking deal! Vortex's website is showing those as a "limited run." Not sure if they are truly a limited run, or Gen1 PSTs they're unloading. Either way, a deal on a FFP scope!

As a matter of fact, I just hit the buy button! $604 and change after tax and shipping. Thanks for the heads up!

[Jerry R]

I also need to work up a load for a Rem. 700 in 223.

I have a Remington 700 in 223. Older version with the 24" barrel, not the 26". I run Hornady 55 grain V-Max Moly coated bullets over 27.6 grains of WW748 and Federal Benchrest Primers. That is a "warm but acceptable" load in MY rifle. Groups around a half MOA (.568 to .639) at an average of 3,311 FPS. Pups look like a grenade hit them. If you choose not to use Moly bullets, I would suggest starting around 24.5 grains, and work up, if you want to use WW748. Current Hornady manual shows 26.4 as max loading for the 223.

[mustangfreek]

Mustang, that's a smoking deal! Vortex's website is showing those as a "limited run." Not sure if they are truly a limited run, or Gen1 PSTs they're unloading. Either way, a deal on a FFP scope!

As a matter of fact, I just hit the buy button! $604 and change after tax and shipping. Thanks for the heads up!

Nice !!
Glad I could help ya spend yo monies..[:D]

[Former11B]

I would look at the close outs on the Burris XTRII.

I’ve got a Gen 1 PST 6-24 and I get a lot of haze at 24x. I will be upgrading mine to something else at the end of the year....I’d rather have less magnification (18-20x) if the glass is better. The newer model 5-25 PST isn’t as bad I don’t think but I haven’t had them in the same conditions side by side

Mine is in great condition and I’d probably sell it For like $450 to put towards something else

I like the Leupold LRP 8.5-20 but the low end is just too high for me. Wish it was 4x....was shooting some 200yd speed targets at a match this past weekend and was on 6x and it was almost too much

[BoilerUp]

I know the OP already made a decision here, but I just got an email from Eurooptic that I thought I'd pass along on a sale price for the Leupold VX-6HD 3-18x50mm with illuminated varmint hunter scope for $1,300 (https://www.eurooptic.com/Leupold-VX-6HD-3-18x50mm-30mm-CDS-ZL2-Varmint-Hunter.aspx)which I believe is a pretty good price for what is pretty darned good glass.


I'm not a varmint hunter (yet), but I'd think Viper is the bottom end of glass that I'd personally want for all day long range shooting. I have at least two Vipers and I like them, but after shooting them for any period of time I notice the strain on my eyes a lot more than I do when spending time behind Razor, Zeiss, or Swaro. Luepold usually loses me with their reticles, but I've always been impressed by their glass and they tend to be among the lightest weight options available.

[Former11B]

I was able to use a $3000 (edit: $2800 lol ) Swarovski optic recently. At 15x, I could see more at 500 yards than I could with my Vortex at 24x. No brainer due to quality but it’s amazing how much better glass there is. Maybe one day I’ll have an S&B 5-25 or something on my match rig [BD]