2023 South Dakota PD Shoot Report

[RMB]

Just got back from 3 days shooting around Winner/Carter SD. Again, a good time was had by all. Lots of dogs and the pups were out. So, lots of shooting. It rained the day before we arrived and rained every night we were there. So, we could not get out until about 10:00 am. But we shot until 5:30 PM every day.

Day One:
We shot alone (my son and I) and set up on a town with the longest shot at about 420 yards. There was basically no wind and we only shot with 223's. It was almost perfect shooting. We both shot about 400 rounds each, This was probably the highest hit percentage of any shooting in all the years out there.

Day Two:
We shot with 2 guys from North Carolina, It was pretty windy and the town was HUGE. Longest shots were about 825 yards. The guys from NC brought 17HMR's and 22LR. My son and I agreed that we would only shoot 250 plus to give these two guys at least a chance to hit a few dogs. I used my 223 and 243. MY son used his 223 and 6mm CM. Now, I am not a Creedmoor Fan Boy, but I gotta say that 6mm with the 115 GR load was putting my 243 with 87 GR vmax to shame. I need another gun like a need a hole in my head but I am going to look into cost to buy/build one.
We broke for lunch and I you could tell the boys from NC were less than impressed with the experience. I told them I made the same mistake. And, to just learn from it.
That night it rained almost 1 inch.

Day Three:
Could not get out until about 11 AM. And it was W-I-N-D-Y. They set us up on top of a hill shooting down into a pasture with shots from 250 to 800 yards. The 223's were only good out to about 300/250 yards. My son shot his 6MM CM and I shot my 308 (168 GR SMK). I have never shot with the wind this strong. I was holding off up to 12 MOA. I normally just use the reticule and hold off for wind. I dialed in 8 MOA and then used the reticule based upon the range. We did not hit too many but as the guide said...."you boys gave a lot of free haircuts today".
The guys from NC had enough fun that they booked the same two days next year and we will shoot with them again. I asked them if they were going to bring the same rifles and they just laughed.

It is really "green" out there with all the rain. The only time I have seen more rain and wet conditions was 2018. The dogs had to be on or near the mounds as you could not see them in the grass as it was too tall. The roads were really slippery and driving in the fields was challenging. We normally go twice a year (end of May and end of June) but this year cannot make it work due to family commitments.

The side view of my truck is from this year and the second picture is from 2018.

 

[Cowpokey]

Good to hear some parts of SoDak getting some rain. I grew up north of Kimball, pretty dry around those parts for the last few years, including this year. There was a pretty good size PD town on our neighbor's property just north west of our farm about a mile away, used to take my .22lr over there and plug away at them all the time; of course being on "home turf" I only went when the weather cooperated with shooting .22lr. Dad and Grandpa would get together a couple times a year and take them out with Dad's .222 and Grandpa's .223, both factory Rem700 in wood stocks.

 

[JG26_Irish]

PD's at long range is about as much fun as you can legally have with a rifle. Many fond memories of my son and I blasting PD's

 

[Dakotaman]

Great writeup. I do that a couple of days per year as well and I agree with JG26 above... tons of fun. We usually go the first week or two of June when the grass is still low enough to see them at long range. We were limited to a little over 900 yards due to tall grass this year but shot about 1000 rounds each typically from about 700-900 yards. Two of us were shooting 6mm Creedmoors with 105g Bergers. They rarely missed, even in winds up to about 15 mph. I consider that cartridge to be one of the most accurate you can shoot out to 1400 yards. Two of us shot 6mm Dashers which were even a little better in precision with that same bullet and a lot better on barrel wear. I actually consider the 6mm Dasher to be my top PD shooter at 1000 yards.

One of my buddies shot a .220 Swift AI which performed well at that range too with the 80g Bergers and I have shot my .22-6MM in the past which is very similar (both barrel burners). I had fun with a .223 bolt rifle and an AR from about 200 yards to 800 yards. As you said, wind blows them but they were deadly out to about 600 yards and I spent an afternoon shooting 50g VMAX bullets transitioning to subsonic at about 800 yards. The windage and holdover are crazy with 25 mph winds but the PDs don't even know you are shooting at them so you can walk your shots in and it never took more than three shots to hit one at that range. I also tried a custom cartridge I designed. I call it a 6mmAR+. I blew out the base-to-ogive length on a necked down 6.5 Grendel for about 100 fps more velocity than the 6mm ARC. Using the same Berger 105s, it's good to 1000 yards with no problem. The 6mm ARC would be highly effective too but I didn't bring one. I did take a 6.5 Creedmoor too but it can't hold a candle to the 6mms at those long ranges and I hate shooting those heavy bullets because of the ricochets. I really don't want to shoot somebody's cow over the hill.

We all use good muzzle brakes so we can spot our own shots and that really helps, especially on the 800 yard .223 shots. With the AR, you can put your cross hairs right back on the PD while you wait 2.5 seconds for your bullet to arrive. Then you can instantly adjust the hold and fire again before the wind changes direction of velocity.