Prairie Dog From Ballistic Technologys
Published on 10-14-2014 08:03 PM
Number of Views: 13567
Web Site: http://www.ballistictec.com
Writer: Willy Snyder
Date: 7/24/2005
Background
I'm back with my second review. This time we were able to test the ballistic polymer prairie dog. The prairie dog itself is about 7 inches tall weighing a little over one pound. It's made out of the same material as the ballistic sniper cube which we tested the same day, and this little dog is still suppose to take any caliber, any projectile from any distance. I do have to start off with saying that the detail in this prairie dog is very nice. It looks like it has fur with detailed eyes, ears, face, and a 3 1/2 inch tail. So, off we go.
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Test Shot 1
Our first shot we did was at 25 yards shooting a 300 Weatherby with a 180 Grain Sierra Round Nose bullet using 83 grains of R25. It entered the dog through the hands and exited out the back of his head. The entrance hole was about 1/8th of an inch, but the exit hole was about 1/4 of an inch. It blew out a surprisingly large hole out the back of it's head. In tests done with the sniper cube, the exit and entrance holes were roughly the same diameter. Maybe this was just a fluke, since there was a gap between his hands and his neck, (as the pictures show) the bullet might have expanded and gone into the neck larger, thus blowing more out. We were not really sure why it blew out so much more at this point, so we went on.
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Test Shot 2
Our second shot was using a Winchester .270 with a Nosler 130 Grain Ballistic Tip at 25 yards as well. We were using a fairly hot load and it was a bit sporadic. We wanted to place a shot directly into the belly, but it went to the left and shot him in the side. Entrance hole was very minimal not even an 1/8th of an inch. But the exit hole measured exactly 1/2 inch. It almost seemed that this prairie dog was a bit harder causing a larger throughput expansion thus causing a larger exit wound. The material just did not want to close the gap behind the bullet.
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Test Shot 3
Well, we were a bit scared for the prairie dog for this test. Shooting a 12 gauge 1oz HP slug into the animal from about 15 feet away. After seeing the exit wounds on these other two calibers, we though for sure a slug would blow a large hole out the back of the dog. But, we were wrong. We shot him into his right side and he spun around and jumped all over the place until he finally landed about 15 yards away. The entrance hole was a little under 1/2 inch and there was NO exit hole! Although it was slightly cracked where the slug should have exited. The slug only had about an inch and a half until exiting, but it stayed in. The little prairie dog took it, and quite good too.
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Point Blank Test
Well, it's time to see what kind of beating a shotgun slug will do to the prairie dog at point blank range. We loaded up the same type of shotgun slug used in our last test and shot it right in the hands. It blew one hand off completely and half of the other one and took a large piece of his neck with it. If you remember from Test Shot 1, this is about the same place the .300 weatherby hit it, so the smaller hole was already there, and probably helped the slug go through easier.
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Point Blank Test 2
We really liked that point blank test with the slug to the neck, and though we might as well give it one more try. This time we used a 12 gauge 3 inch BB (Double B) shot directly to the neck. It took the hit very good with minimal damage.
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From a Distance
Well, we tested the dog against some various shots. Now lets see how fun it shoots from a distance. We setup the prairie dog about 195 meters away on a small rock hill and took a shot. This was really neat to look through the 6 x 18 scope and see this little guy sitting atop this hill. I actually shot high the first round, and the second round I got him low.
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After All The Shots
After we got done, and counting up the shots, here is what we shot.
Weapon | Times | Bullet Type | Bullet Type |
12 Gauge Shotgun | 7 | 1oz Rifled HP Slug | BB (Double B) Shot |
.270 Winchester | 9 | 130 Gr Nosler Ballistic Tip | 130 Spitzer Boat Tail |
.300 Weatherby | 8 | 180 Gr Sierra RN | 180 Gr Core-Lokt (Factory) |
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In Conclusion
The Good
This little guy was a riot to shoot. The detail on him was great and you could really make out what he was from a distance through a scope. You could really practice your long range varmint shooting with this. In one instance we buried him half way down so only the top half was showing and shot him to get the feel of one standing in a hole. Overall very exciting and we really had a great time with this.
The Bad
The hog itself didn't seem to close very good after the shots like I thought the polymer would do. The bullets exited the hog with large wounds, and we only shot 24 rounds through this guy and his neck is more than half way gone. The first shot on the tail almost ripped it completely off, and the second shot took the tail clean off. We shot the hog about 4 times with the .270 and .300 about an inch from the ground and it blew a pretty large hole out the backend. (You can see from the picture above called "Back"). We intend to shoot many more rounds through him and give some updated pictures as time progresses.
Neck
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Special Thanks
I would like to thank everyone who read this review and found it insightful. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed shooting it. I would also like to especially thank the people at "Just Shoot Me Products" for allowing me to shoot their fine targets and give a review.
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