Prairie Dog Shooting

Ernie Bishop

How many of you guys shoot pd's chucks, or ground squirrels?

I confess, I have been doggin more times this spring, than ever before.

It has got me shooting a lot, and I have been shooting at steel for drop confirmations while I am out there-Double Joy!

For me it is a great get away right now.

In the past I have typically focused on LR dogging...1K+, but recently I have been doing close up and personal, and have been staying under 1000 yards.

In fact, most of it has been under 500 yards.

Taking three different specialty pistols with me today.  Not taking steel out.

My AR pistol, with the 7" shorty upper... I need to get an optic zeroed at 50 yards, and I want to just play some as well with it too.

15" Rear-grip 221 Fireball Improved XP-100... It loves 50 grain V-Max's (MV 2639 fps).

Dan killed a pd with it several weeks ago at 653 yards. 

It required 6.5 MOA of wind, and it wasn't even that windy!

Previous to that some of my first kills with it was in the 350-400+ yard ranges.

The center-grip H-S Precision HSP in 6XC with a 15" barrel. I have about 150 loaded with the 107 Smacks, and I want to get them shot up and start using the 105 A-Max, as it is a better all-around bullet for both dogs, yotes, and deer and antelope.

JerryBobCo

It's been a while, but I used to enjoy the sport.  My results no doubt pale in comparison to yours, as a 400 yard shot was still a long poke for me the last time I tried it.

I have a Savage Model 10 chambered in .204 Ruger with a Leupold 6-18x scope on top of it.  It has a heavy, 28 inch barrel.  I have only used it on 'dogs, but like the results I get.

I also have a cheap Savage model 340 .222 Remington that sports a really cheap BSA 4-16x scope.  For such a cheap rifle, it's accurate, and I use it as a back up and to provide relief to my .204 during a shoot.

I used to live within a few miles of a decent prairie dog town, and could shoot whenever I wanted to.  I moved from Colorado nearly 3 years ago, and haven't shot either rifle since.

I miss it.

Zee

I used to shoot them in Montana. Then, a couple times since. 

Not really my thing. I start feeling bad after a few. When they stand there after their buddy explodes, wipe the body parts off their head and wait for their time to come.........it just ain’t fun for me. 

I understand why folks do. Not my thing.

JerryBobCo

The plague can wipe out prairie dogs darn quick.  About 10 years ago Mike and I found a HUGE town where we antelope hunted.  We went to hunt it in January, and the town was nothing but empty holes.  I just wish the land owner would have filled us in one this little bit of info before we made the drive.

We did manage to find a couple of other towns, so the day wasn't a total bust.

Linefinder

From 2004-2010, Pdogs were my life.  2-3 days a week, year round. Even dead of winter. (Pdogs can stay underground only 3 days at a stretch, then they've got to feed or else dehydrate). I averaged 350-500 rounds per trip, depending on season, although admittedly, winter days could average only ~125 or so.

My longest hit on a pdog was 800 yards, though 600-700 was fairly commonplace. (I think I hit one at a tad over 900, and while I could clearly seem him dead atop the mound from my bench, I couldn't actually drive to him. Too much downed barbed wire to dodge and as soon as I took my eyes off the spot I couldn't locate it again. After 3 tries I gave up.

My preferred range was 375-550 yards. Hit rate was almost always well above 90% once the wind got figured out. 

I used a 6mm Rem past 550 yards or so, and a couple .223 Rems for the closer work, but the .223's got stretched considerably upon occasion. I once posted about a 700+ yard hit with a .223 Rem and Dan Johnson (rather snarkely) asked how many spotters did it take and could I do it again. I told him, "Sure I'll do it next trip out". That weekend I tagged 4 consecutive at 720 with 5 shots. Emailed him the results. Never heard about it again. LOL!

I have no idea how many pdogs I dispatched, but I'm not as efficient as Mother Nature. In 2009 plague swept through this state and the thousands of acres of dogtowns I'd shot became ghost towns within a one month period. Populations, although rising again, are nowhere near what they were. I haven't seen a dogtown in years that was worth the drive to go shoot.

Mike

snake284

Ernie Bishop said:

How many of you guys shoot pd's chucks, or ground squirrels?

I confess, I have been doggin more times this spring, than ever before.

It has got me shooting a lot, and I have been shooting at steel for drop confirmations while I am out there-Double Joy!

For me it is a great get away right now.

In the past I have typically focused on LR dogging...1K+, but recently I have been doing close up and personal, and have been staying under 1000 yards.

In fact, most of it has been under 500 yards.

Taking three different specialty pistols with me today.  Not taking steel out.

My AR pistol, with the 7" shorty upper... I need to get an optic zeroed at 50 yards, and I want to just play some as well with it too.

15" Rear-grip 221 Fireball Improved XP-100... It loves 50 grain V-Max's (MV 2639 fps).

Dan killed a pd with it several weeks ago at 653 yards. 

It required 6.5 MOA of wind, and it wasn't even that windy!

Previous to that some of my first kills with it was in the 350-400+ yard ranges.

The center-grip H-S Precision HSP in 6XC with a 15" barrel. I have about 150 loaded with the 107 Smacks, and I want to get them shot up and start using the 105 A-Max, as it is a better all-around bullet for both dogs, yotes, and deer and antelope.

I'd love to try it sometime. All I know about it is what I've read about Linefinder and Jerrybob's exploits, but they used to be interesting to read.

But 700-900 yards? I have to strain to see a deer at that range, much less a dot that size. Wow! And you say you've shot 'em way longer than that. You must have the Hubble telescope on your rifle, LOL!

minnesotashooter

My son and I make several trips to some private ground in South Dakota every year, usually late May or early June. Lots of fun

JerryBobCo

I have a question for those who have done some prairie dog shooting.

Have you ever paid to shoot them?  I've seen ads from land owners asking $300-$400 a day to let people come in and shoot on their property.  That seems crazy to me, as the shooter and land owner both benefit from the activity.

I've never paid to shoot them, and don't think ever would.

Zee

Nope

Ernie Bishop

JerryBobCo said:

I have a question for those who have done some prairie dog shooting.

Have you ever paid to shoot them?  I've seen ads from land owners asking $300-$400 a day to let people come in and shoot on their property.  That seems crazy to me, as the shooter and land owner both benefit from the activity.

I've never paid to shoot them, and don't think ever would.

Never paid to shoot them

Linefinder

A rancher I shot pdogs for introduced me to a friend of hers. He had a small pasture behind his house where his young grand daughter liked to ride her pony. A very small colony of pdogs had moved into it and he was concerned that the presence of pdogs might attract rattle snakes. He asked me if I'd take care of them for him since he couldn't get within "range" of them. I told him sure.

The next day as I was setting up my bench, he asked me, "You're not charging me for this, are you"? LOL......

I spent 2 very long, hot days to take out 5 pdogs. They were the most skittish pdogs I've ever witnessed.

Mike

jaywapti

I hunted PDs from 1984 thru 2001, never had to pay to hunt them, started on ranch's and farms in the Winner area of S.D. A guy I worked with had family on the Standing Rock Reservation so for the next 15 years or so we hunted the S.R. and Cheyenne River Res.

My rifle of choice was always a Win. M-70 .22-250, we would try to hunt twice year, for myself i would buy 1000 rounds of Rem or win 55gr. shoot them up than reload them. over the years I replaced a few barrels, tried, McGowen, Douglas, shilen, etc both CM and Stainless, all my reloads were always Sierra 52,53, & 55gr. moly coated with IMR 4895. 

Longest shots were 400 - 500 yards, most were 100 - 300 yds, My longest shot was about 1200 yds, ( rangefinder only went to 1000) took 5 - 6 shots not sure if i hit the dog as the whole mound exploded I was using a 50 BMG, 750gr. A-Max with a 24X Unertl scope

Once in a while we would go to a friends farm North of Aberdeen S.D.and hunt Ground Squirrels with 22 L.R. pistols and rifles.

 At night we would hunt barracudas in town.

JAY

minnesotashooter

Besides buying a license, we’ve never paid the landowner to shoot them. He wants us to come and “don’t leave until they’re all dead. 

JerryBobCo

minnesotashooter said:

Besides buying a license, we’ve never paid the landowner to shoot them. He wants us to come and “don’t leave until they’re all dead. 

In Colorado, if you shoot on private land, and can be considered an "agent" for the land owner, you don't even need a license.  I'd have to check, but I'm pretty sure that applies to both resident and non-resident shooters.

Ernie Bishop

In Wyoming, you don't need a license whether you are a resident or a non-resident.

Linefinder

In Colorado, if you are shooting private land with the owners permission, you are considered an "agent" and no permit required. On public land, a permit and habitat stamp is required, but......

Most pdog towns are on the plains east of I-25. Practically all land east of I-25 is privately owned. The millions of acres of public land in Colorado lies mostly west of I-25 in terrain pdogs aren't partial to.

Mike

snake284

I've never been pdogging, but this subject and the stories you gu ys tell about it were one of the main draws for me here. For years I never went anywhere but here. To read stuff like the prairie dog hunts kept my interest up for years. I was always looking forward to reading more about it. I don't know why, I mean ya can't eat the damn things, well I guess you could if you were hungry enough, and it requires long range shooting which I don't normally like to do with game animals, but they aren't game animals. Even though I'm sort of negative about shooting game at long range because too many bad things can happen, shooting at Pdogs is kind of like shooting at hogs. Just do whatever you can to eliminate a few. Anyway, I'll be happy when more threads like that are on here again.

JerryBobCo

Snake, we've found that telling land owners we load our own ammo with frangible bullets such as the Sierra Blitz King or Hornady V-Max eases their concern about letting us shoot.  If you ever make it to the prairie dog woods, be sure to use bullets of this nature.