Who said these are the best Varmint guns?
The ammo is expensive, the Throat on a 22-250 barrel wears out fast, neither has won a national championship match, they are unstable at extreme distances, brass wears out fast. And no Lapua brass!
Want to shoot a Coyote? 30-06 with 130 grain Barnes TTSX. For all the above reasons.
Merry Christmass to all.
And Merry Christmas to you as well. I agree but 17hmr will do a real decent job. I just bought a box of 130 gr. Barness ttsx …lol
17 HMR seems a pretty short range cartridge. .30-‘06 is a LOT of cartridge to shoot prairie dogs with. My best C-T-C 5-shot group (back when I could actually shoot) @ 100 yds with my 20 Tactical was 0.283 inches. That was with probably half or less powder charge of a .30-‘06. Then again, one shoots what one has; if all you have is a .30-‘06, that becomes your “varmiint” gun. BTW, you can probably load the same spread of bullet weights with WinMag - just goes a little farther out.
I agree a 30-06 can and will deal with varmits but in the prairie dog world repeatablity is key . I think a smaller round that literally produces miniscule recoil is thd key . .24,17hmr,.223,can be shot over and over and over and over and not wear out the shoulder.
PLUS in the prairie dog world I hunted in, self-spotting was key. A .30-‘06 will be much harder to spot your shot with, whereas my 20 Tactical was a breeze. We were ALL there to shoot not spot.