Thread: Need some advice

Hi Guys im hoping i could scratch a few of the collectives heads here, i'm a novice when it comes to varmint calibers so please be gentle with me.

The other day i was out on the in-laws farm going after plovers and magpies with a .22 and a 12ga, it was great fun chasing them round the paddocks but thats because we had the whole day to do it. I noticed that we always saw them at 200-300m and they wouldn't move until we got closer to them which made things difficult with our short range weapons.

My thought was would it be good to have a small cal. (22-250/204/.22mag) rifle that can reach out that far, but i don't know anything about the.

So my question is what IS a good small cal. that can comfortably shoot at that range?

I'm not worried about brands of rifle or bullet just caliber and i know i could use my .270 but that will scare the other game/farm animals so that out (unfortunately).

rr

17HMR or 223 likely to be the most cost effective things to buy/borrow. I can imagine the 204 would be a lot of fun for the job though.

.223

If you reload, any of the 22 caliber centrefire options : 223, 22-250, 204 etc. also gives you options for larger animals using projectiles like Barnes... Be carefull about choosing a twist rate that matches your intended projectile weight.

If not reloading one of the 17 cal rimfire offerings, but anything beyond 200m might be pushing it a bit.

.17 hmr cheap to buy and cheap to run, having lot of fun an success on rabbits with mine, without the hassle of reloading, look at the .22mag bit heavier projectile but gives the 17 a nudge, I might buy a cheaply to compare?

.223 it can reach out far enough, is cheap to purchase and cheap to run plus there's likely to be an endless supply of ammo for many years to come due to its ongoing popularity.

Walk into a gunshop and see how many different ammunition calibres there are, then look at the stock levels.

i have a 17hmr and .223 the .17 can be hard work in the wind. at those ranges id use a .223 every time, why make it harder than it needs to be. you will get a better hit/miss ratio with the .223 and from memory the .223 ammo is bugger all extra money.
and not to mention those dumb little birds are not that dumb they tend to learn your range, soon 300 will be 400 if you give them a hard time.

I would agree with bully..300 will become 400 and once you start getting pies at 400 you will want to shoot them from further away.
I do alot of pest work in berry farms so longer shots are constantly required.

Currently were shooting out to around 550m, the distance is forever increasing..
We had been using 223s however at around 300m with wind gusts down the rows we were struggling to get them..

A 6mm was built and suits the job well..
Failing that if you just wanting to rid magpies pre bait them with bits of meat in small cubes after a week slip a ibuprofen into the meat..unlikely you will encounter that magpie again.

Go 6MM you wont regret it

22-204 would be my vote mate, anything inside 500 is gone burgers

or trap the buggers and shoot em with a slugonator at no cost.

i have a .17hmr and .223, the .17 is good out to 250yds for magpies, but the HAS to be NO wind. I haven't really used the .223 out past 300 meters but it definitely handles the wind better than the .17, but on the other hand ammo is a lot more expensive.

223 I reckon

I looked at this a couple of years ago and opted for the 223 over the 12HMR as there was very little difference in price with reloading. It also gave me more versatility being able to use it on DOC land and to go for slightly bigger game too.

223 is the obvious good choice in this suituation

using your 270 would be good for practice. bonus for the short term

alternitivly think about a 243 as they make fantastic varmiting calibers, infact i use one for basicially all my hunting these days
slightly higher per bullet cost, but also alot more capibility

anything that is going to be shot alot id reccomend you look into using a suppressor

Originally Posted by Dawg

i have a .17hmr and .223, the .17 is good out to 250yds for magpies, but the HAS to be NO wind

How is that working out for you living in Wellington ?

What is a realistic distance with the 17hmr for the 99.99 % of the time that the wind is pumping ?