Varmint hunting advise needed

a family member just bought a place that has some p. dogs on it. I just purchased a 2 1/2 x 8 variable scope since I could hardly see them in my 2 or 4 power scopes.

so my question, which contender barrel do I put it on, I have a .22 WRM, and a 221 rem fireball both in 10 inch to choose from.

I know the 221 fireball is a better round but my concern is which one is least likely to ricochet?

I currently have CCI 30 grain maxi-mag HP+V for the 22 mag. and 40 grain Nosler varmageden with the plastic tip for the 221 at 2700 fps.

my current method is to hike out into the field and lay down and wait for them to come out again. shots could be from 25 to 150 yards. but shooting from prone leaves the bullets hitting the ground at a low angle. while I pick my targets with only open country behind them, I have to worry about rounds flying off at odd angles due to livestock and houses in adjacent properties.

any thoughts?

l have been shooting pds for about 20 years now. 221FB is a fine ctg for them and is least likely to ricochet due to the higher velocity. My experience has shown they are best shot off a bench. They are not unduly alarmed by one... They deserve a clean humane kill and your 221FB will provide what they need...
lf lucky, you may witness that ''RED MIST'' :-)

How about using both if you can? The 22 mag would be cheaper to shoot and work on the shorter end of things with a 4x scope while the 221 a bit more expensive and working well on the longer end. As for ricochet, I don't know how the 22 will do, but i suspect the nosler would come apart pretty easily. I've shot a lot of the V-max (.17, .22 and .30) and they come apart pretty fast on impact. Maybe the 22mag with the Vmax bullets? That will gain you 200fps at 100 yards and increase your range a bit.

From my experience, I enjoy walking p-dog towns with my 12" 17HMR barreled contender and 2.5-8 scope with a bipod (chronoed at 2500 fps with a match chamber). Headshots up to 125 yards are a gimme, beyond that the slowing bullet wind start causing problems. I have to be strategic about where I choose to lay down/shoot from to take advantage of the rolling fields. Also a good chance to practice various field shooting positions. I've wondered if a 17 wsm might give me a little more range in a cheap to shoot portable package.

Either one will do but I had the most fun shooting them with a Super 14 in 22 WRM. It was more of a hunt than just a shoot. I'd stalk to within range of a town and used my day pack as a rest to plug away.

To me it was great practice.

The .221 is excellent, and least likely to ricochet, with 50 gr. or lighter bullets.

ok thanks for the replies, I put the scope on the .221, we'll see how it does.

for the record I did have some 50gr v-max at a modest 2200 fps, they had performed poorly, very accurate on paper but in the field I got zero instant kills, and I heard several ricochet. I don't think they were going fast enough to expand.

I agree that stalking them is great practice, I have belly crawled 100 yards to get a shot and waited an hour with a p dog only 50 yards away with only his head above ground only to end up taking one behind me at 25 yards (with the .22 mag).

This should be of no surprise. Fields are full of small stones and shooting from prone will find them more often than if standing, whether shooting a 22 Mag or 221. Even a 22 LR will bounce, albeit not as far. You might try a lighter weight frangible bullet in that 221.

With a 40gr VMAX in 221FB you get an EXTRA 500FPS over a 50gr.
Thats when things start to get a bit MISTY :-)

I've never taken a PD with it but, hope to soon and have shot several coyotes with it old Redfield 2&1/2x6 in Leopold mounts came with Burris mount but, had trouble with eye relief so changed to Leopold and it came together. My XP in .223:

Steve

Nice classic XP. Looks like great PD medicine.

I found that I needed a 3-12 Burris to be in the ballpark when I went PD hunting a few years ago.