Prairie Doggin

[Colokeb]

My shooting hobby is controlling PD's for the local ranchers, grass strip airports, and here, a 90 acre veggie farm. I have a 3-ring binder with maps on maybe 30 different ranches I can go to.

I have had 4 sessions here, one with a friend who is an FFL, and while the dog tally is about 360 so far, there are lots more. I use a 22 LR, and for this place have thoroughly enjoyed my CZ 452 ZKM bolt rifle. I have been picking them off way out to 240 yards... some even longer. ( Last summer I got one at 346 on the airstrip ).

Most shots are at about 80-110 yards. I sit for several hours at a spot using a portable bench, AM Radio, sandbags and a clicker - counter.

In the photo you see a reddish shed in the center top. I picked off 3 about 40 yards closer. The lady owner just called and said, "just tell me how much ammo to buy for you!"

Oh yes, I also use a Ruger 22-45 with an old German Bushnell 1.2 power scope.....got one today at 20 yards.

The productive area of this converted ranch is way south off the photo, but these critters migrate in all directions to go for the green. If you guys like seeing this, I will get more photos added.

He got 63 with a HK 22LR semi. I picked off 83 that day.


Here is an aerial from Google Earth. Lines are shooting lanes we used. Black was yesterday.

Here is why Ranchers who must grow hay for the winter dislike PDs: BTW some holes get large enough to fit a horse leg to the hip.

PDs were out in the snow.

And a late winter snow shot with a Marlin 60 on the airstrip.
You can see my San Angelo shooting bench tipped on its side to make a laser target.

This was essentially same place but one field west.

Here are the 22 tracks coming from my position about 25 yards past that power pole.

 

[Lee Barner]

i sure miss plinking pasture poodles. did a lot of it in NE and KS when i lived out there. used everything from .22lr to .223 but mostly a marlin 882SSV in .22 mag. lee

 

[mwtdvm]

Do you want/need help?

Have gun will travel..

 

[Colokeb]

Sure. I have a spare shooting bench and a guest house.

 

[Mickey D]

Sweet. Buzzards gotta eat.

 

[enidpd804]

I had several places to go when I lived in SW KS and the OK panhandle. I moved 70 miles SE of the panhandle and no dogs.

 

[chud333]

Went for years to the "Rosebud" Indian Res. In south central
S. Dakota --- We stayed in Valentine Neb.
Then the tribal elders decided to make it mandatory for all P-dog
shooters to hire a "Guide" to be with them at all times on the Res.
Goodbye Rosebud !!, and all the income that used to come in to
the Oglala Sioux people.

Chuck

 

[Buckey08]

Once gas went outa sight, My past time went with it! Sucks being poor.

 

[Viss]

I did this once in South Dakota, most fun shooting I ever had. Then a plague went through the area the following year and wiped out a lot of dogs.

I really need to check and see if it's possible to get back there.

 

[Ironhand]

Went for years to the "Rosebud" Indian Res. In south central
S. Dakota --- We stayed in Valentine Neb.
Then the tribal elders decided to make it mandatory for all P-dog
shooters to hire a "Guide" to be with them at all times on the Res.
Goodbye Rosebud !!, and all the income that used to come in to
the Oglala Sioux people.

Chuck

How long ago was this? I used to blast away at prairie dogs with my old #1MKIII Lee-Enfield around St. Francis 20 years ago or so. I even managed to kill 3 with one shot at around 300yds. I had a spotter with binoculars walk me up to a rock where several were standing, whereupon I let loose a shot. I hit the rock but killed one with a bullet, and two more when the bullet hit the rock and shattered it.


I played it off like I meant to do it, but it was a trick-shot all the way....

 

[chud333]

How long ago was this? I used to blast away at prairie dogs with my old #1MKIII Lee-Enfield around St. Francis 20 years ago or so. I even managed to kill 3 with one shot at around 300yds. I had a spotter with binoculars walk me up to a rock where several were standing, whereupon I let loose a shot. I hit the rock but killed one with a bullet, and two more when the bullet hit the rock and shattered it.


I played it off like I meant to do it, but it was a trick-shot all the way....

The Res. went to the guide requirement about ten years ago.
We went a couple years following that and shot on private ground only as we had made friends with a few ranchers out there. But the ranchers dogtowns we're'nt nearly as full of dogs as the Indian ground. Reason being the ranchers poisoned when they could afford to. You get a large population of p-dogs established in one area and they can put a hurtin' on a guys livelyhood real quick. They move towards the good grass eventually and compete with the cattle for the sparsely available grazing areas. A buddy out there in south-central South Dakota told me one time how much area per acre/per cow it takes to graze in a year and it was unbelievable how much land is needed to range cattle out there due to the majority of it being so poor. When the U.S. Gov't put the Oglala Sioux on that parcel of land they were'nt doing them any favors. Also the plague has hit that area as well about 5 years back. We used to have 600,000 square acres of ground to shoot upon for the price of a tribal license," about 25 bucks". Some of the Indian guides would charge 100 dollars per man per day. Just like everyone else the tribe got greedy. People moved on to other states or areas. Ranchers who don't want to poison or don't want to spend the money to do so, like to have "Responsible" shooters come in and at least keep their numbers down somewhat. We met a rancher once who had a "blaster" as he called it. It was a long wand with a hose attached to a portable propane tank. He shot gas down the p-dog hole and then it had some kind of igniter. We we're laughing so hard as he was explaining to us how he almost blew himself up one time. There are also firms with big industrial sized vaccums on trucks that they use to "suck" live p-dogs right out of their burrows. I've heard they are sold overseas as pets to Japanese for big money some times.
It's much more fun to shoot them at long range with centerfire rifles i agree.

Chuck

 

[H Richard]

I travel to SD almost every year, in the Winner - Gregory area. Just North of the Rosebud. Will normallr clean off around 300 - 350 over three days of shooting. I prefer the 22-250m but aqlso use a .222 and .243. My challenge is 600+yds. My old eye's make it more difficult.

 

[Ironhand]

When we lived north of Sturgis around Bear Butte back in '98 we had them in the pasture behind our house. I used to raise the kitchen window and shoot them with my Remington 597 from the dining room table. We had lots of king(or were they rat?)snakes around the house that did a good job of keeping the prairie dog and rattlesnake populations very low. While we were there there were warnings on the news about a large PD colony over in Sundance WY that were discovered to be infected with bubonic plague. Any PDs I killed were left where they lay or quickly picked up with a shovel and flung down into a gulley if they were too close to the house.

I'm actually from S. Dakota, and was born in Pierre, but have been living in Tennessee since I was a baby. My biological parents were from Rosebud and Yankton, respectively, but due to having been adopted I can't be legally recognized by either tribe.

 

[Mickey D]

Has a whole different meaning to my son.

 

[Iggy]

My family has a ranch in SE Wyoming. I have managed it for several years. Typically shooters killed 12 to 15 thousand each year. Several members of this forum have been out there in the last few years.
There have been shooters that have killed a thousand a day in past times.

I think WYO from here on the forum may hold the longest shot record, shooting one with a .50 cal at 600 yards.
He's shooting at a rock between the rocks you can see across the canyon there at 1000 yds in this pic.

On the other hand, two brothers from AZ shot 500 in one day with scoped Ruger 10/22's.

Last year the plague pretty much wiped them out. From a ranchers point of view that is great as they are very destructive to grass land.

I saw one the last time I was out there.

I expect they will be back in a couple of years and so will the shooters.

 

[Wyo]

In fact, I was up there a couple of days ago. Pretty slim pickins' for the p-dogs, but my son had a new 17 HMR he wanted to try out. I've been using one up there since late last year, and that thing is just a hoot and a real 200 yd. p-dog cartridge.

As for shootin' one at 600 with the .50, all I can say is there was one standing on a mound at just a hair over 600 (lasered) when I pulled the trigger. He wasn't there when the dust cleared and neither was the mound, so I guess I got him.

 

[chud333]

My family has a ranch in SE Wyoming. I have managed it for several years. Typically shooters killed 12 to 15 thousand each year. Several members of this forum have been out there in the last few years.
There have been shooters that have killed a thousand a day in past times.

I think WYO from here on the forum may hold the longest shot record, shooting one with a .50 cal at 600 yards.
He's shooting at a rock between the rocks you can see across the canyon there at 1000 yds in this pic.

On the other hand, two brothers from AZ shot 500 in one day with scoped Ruger 10/22's.

Last year the plague pretty much wiped them out. From a ranchers point of view that is great as they are very destructive to grass land.

I saw one the last time I was out there.

I expect they will be back in a couple of years and so will the shooters.

Not to brag Iggy, and i probably could'nt do it now but i've got
a measured and witnessed kill of 1080 yards north of Mission, SD with a .300 ultra-mag. This shot got me into the "Varmint Hunters" 1000 yard club. I'll try to dig out some old photos and the copy of the The magazine that recognized my shot. My buddy spotted for me with a leupold 60X spotting scope and we measured with a surveyors wheel and also with our Leica range finder--Geovid--

Chuck

 

[doublesharp]

Having never been exposed to the real thing, I always think of that Chevy Chase Vacation movie when I hear the phrase "prairie doggin". Pull over NOW!

 

[Iggy]

Not to brag Iggy, and i probably could'nt do it now but i've got
a measured and witnessed kill of 1080 yards north of Mission, SD with a .300 ultra-mag. This shot got me into the "Varmint Hunters" 1000 yard club. I'll try to dig out some old photos and the copy of the The magazine that recognized my shot. My buddy spotted for me with a leupold 60X spotting scope and we measured with a surveyors wheel and also with our Leica range finder--Geovid--

That's some prime shootin'. I have hit a full sized Buffalo silhouette at a 1000 yards a few
times with a Shiloh Sharps 45-70. Sure couldn't do it now.

 

[chud333]

Not to brag Iggy, and i probably could'nt do it now but i've got
a measured and witnessed kill of 1080 yards north of Mission, SD with a .300 ultra-mag. This shot got me into the "Varmint Hunters" 1000 yard club. I'll try to dig out some old photos and the copy of the The magazine that recognized my shot. My buddy spotted for me with a leupold 60X spotting scope and we measured with a surveyors wheel and also with our Leica range finder--Geovid--

That's some prime shootin'. I have hit a full sized Buffalo silhouette at a 1000 yards a few
times with a Shiloh Sharps 45-70. Sure couldn't do it now.

Darn fine shootin' Iggy
I could'nt see 1000 yards without optics let alone hit a silhouette with an old Sharps. Makes you appreciate the
old Buff hunters and such don't it?

Chuck