Doggin' it: .17, .22.3+.204 = fun Les Baer and Kimber prove walnut and plastic mix on the prairie dog field

Guns Magazine, Oct, 2004 by Holt Bodinson

Want some fun-in-the-sun, open spaces, fresh air and enough hot-barrel hunting to keep you in tiptop shape for the fall season? Try doggin' it.

Given a mixture of Hornady. 17 Mach 2 and .204 Ruger ammunition, plus Leupold-scoped precision varminters by Kimber and Les Baer, the prairie dogs and ground squirrels of the West and Midwest were on risky ground this past summer. Doggin' it in Kansas and Wyoming, I came away from the field with some strong impressions about our newest varmint cartridges, rifles and optics. Frankly, you're going to love 'em.

Hornady. 17 Mach 2

I've called cartridges a lot of things, like squat, fat, sleek and efficient, but never "cute." I've saved that one for the girls. I've finally found a "cute" cartridge, though. It's so petite, so well formed with its little neck and pointy polymer-tipped bullet, so utterly seductive, it's actually, yes, "cute."

The handiwork of Hornady and CCI, this little squirt uses a rimfire Stinger ease necked down to accept a 17-grain, .17-caliber boattail bullet hastened along by about four grains of ball powder. It breaks 2,000 fps, or a bit more in a rifle, earning it the "Mach 2" label. I hunted with it, chambered in Kimber's 17 Pro Varmint rifle. With its fluted 20" stainless barrel topped with a Leupold Vari-X 111 3.5-10X-40mm scope, the 17 Pro Varmint proved to be an elegant, little "walking varmint" rig. That's the way I hunted with it--walked a bit, stopped, glassed and shot.

The Mach 2 is perfectly adequate on prairie dogs out to 100 yards, with the bullets exhibiting reliable expansion and flat trajectories. Out at 130 yards, which was the farthest shot taken, you better plan on making a head or upper body shot on small varmints. My sense was the light 17-grain pills were pooping out of energy as the range crossed the 100 yard line.

Coming down the pike will be a bevy of handguns chambered for the little one. Shooting a Kimber 17 Rimfire Target 1911 clone on backyard bunnies, all within a distance of 20 yards, the results were less than satisfying. Bullets zipped through the cottontails without obvious expansion. Result: Some lost bunnies. Bringing up the rifle and taking the same shots at the same distances resulted in an immediate and serious decline in the cottontail population.

It will be interesting to chronograph the .17 Mach 2 in pistol length barrels. My hunch is handgun velocities will prove insufficient to guarantee consistent bullet expansion with the bullet currently loaded. On the other hand, I solidly nailed several small prairie dogs with the .17 Rimfire Target I was packing, but then small prairie dogs don't require expanding bullets.

Conclusion: Accurate, flat shooting, very quiet. A great little varmint rifle round within limits, but don't sell your .22 Magnum. (Editor's Note: Watch for Charley Petty's story in a future issue with more on the. 17 in rifles and handguns.)

.204 Ruger

When this .20-caliber round based on the .222 Magnum case was first announced, I heard this voice in the back of my head asking "Why?" Now that I've hunted with it, the voice has shut up. The .204 Ruger is a heck of a varmint cartridge.

My 204 Ruger doggin' rig this past season was a Kimber Model 84M Varmint model sporting a 24" barrel topped with Leupold's Vari-X111 4.5-14x40mm Long Range scope with side focus adjustment and a ranging reticle. Superior varmint scope!

The .204 Ruger cartridge loaded with a 32-grain VMAX bullet at 4,225 fps exhibited four qualities that will endear it to varmint hunters. It shoots exceedingly flat, just like my beloved .220 Swifts. It's very accurate. In a moderate weight rifle, there is so little recoil you can actually watch the impact of your shot through the scope. And it accomplishes all this with a modest powder charge that will not burn out the throat of your barrel in quick lime (Note: Hodgdon already has loading data available).

The furthest shot I took on game larger than a prairie dog was at a standing jackrabbit that lasered-in at 212 yards. Bullet performance was "destructive." I do look forward to Hornady's upcoming 40-grain VMAX loading at 3,900 fps which should prove to be a better bullet "out yonder' on the windy prairies.

All in all, an endearing mix of qualities in a varmint round. Efficient, fast, accurate with minimal recoil. Kimber Model 84M Varmint models are classy quality through-and-through, with benchrest accuracy. Afterthought: Considering the appearance of a new .17 rimfire and a new .20-caliber cartridge, maybe it's time Remington reintroduced their old hotshot--the 5mm (.20-caliber) Remington Rimfire Magnum, albeit in better quality rifles. With a 38-grain bullet at 2,100 fps. the 5mm RFM was simply deadly and light years ahead of its time.)

ARs on the Prairie

I've never seriously thought in terms of a scoped "Black Rifle" as an ideal varminter; that was, until I put 1,200 rounds of Winchester 55-grain Ballistic Silvertips through a Les Baer .223 Super Varmint AR while doggin' on the Wyoming prairies with Spur Outfitters.