Does anyone one here have any stories on prairie dog hunting? I searched for threads but didn't find any. I would love to hear someones experiences on this; whats needed, how its done, average shots etc.. I would love to go on one when I get my equipment in order someday. How much is the average cost for a trip, can you do it without a guide? I like long distance silhouette shooting for fun and think it would be fun to do someday. I would love to hear some good stories.

Doc "Zero"

Go to youtube and do a search for prairie dogs. Very interesting.

Here in Idaho we don't have any of those critters. We do have ground squirrels and rock chucks (big marmots) and I hunt those every spring and summer. If your looking for PD hunt info go over to the Predator Master's forum and take a look there. Lots of varmint hunters over there and it's pretty much dedicated to coyote and PD hunting. Here's the link.

I shoot both a 243 and a 204 Ruger for varmints and have to change out the low power variable I use for a calling scope for the 8 by 32 target scope I use for ground squirrels and rock chucks in the next couple of weeks if we get some nice warm days. I use these rifles with sitdown bipods and shots range from 100 to 400 yards. We handload 32 grain Hornedy V-max's for the 204 at 4300 fps and 55 grain Nosler Ballistic tips at 3950 fps for the 243's. Very destructive for the ground squirrels.

Check out their forums.

http://www.predatormastersforums.com/

Hey Doc! Dad and I used to go out prairie dog shooting from time to time, but for us, it was a simple matter of driving to some pasture ground of a friend about 15 miles south of town, so the "cost" of such a trip wasn't that high.

Our prairie dog hunts pretty much started out as a nice summer day without a lot of wind and I say to Dad, "hey - you want to go out prairie dog shooting?" He'd call out to his friend to ask if anyone else was there and if not, we'd pack up some stuff and go - a few boxes of ammo, the two rifles we were going to use, a handgun or two just for kicks if we managed to see a prairie dog up close, a couple of snacks, binoculars and a cooler full of water.

The rifles we would use were (him) a Mauser 98 sporter in 25-06 with a 3x9 Variable Redfield scope and (me) a Sako Vixen .223 with a Leupold Vari-X II, 3x9 Variable scope.

Once we got out there, we'd find a good place out in the middle of the pasture to park, start looking for targets and take shots accordingly. Eventually prairie dogs will spook and they'll go down into their holes so you can do one of a couple of things:

1.) Move - go to a different section of the prairie dog town far enough away from where you were shooting so that you once again have some "targets"

2.) Wait - eventually the dogs will forget that you were there and will come back out of the coolness of their holes to get some sun

Shots ranged anywhere between 50 and 300 yards, although 300 yards was about my max. Dad was always a better rifle shot than me though and he was pretty consistent out to 300 yards and didn't miss much. He just had a better feel for distance and windage, although I tended to do fairly well too.

Dad loaded up lighter bullets for his varminting loads - I want to say 80-100 gr for the 25-06 and 50-60 gr for the .223.

Both of those rifles were very accurate and we managed to keep them both from being sold when my Mom decided to sell off his gun collection. I got the 25-06, my sister got the Sako .223.

We have a few Pdawgs out here. The plague has really decimated them. When I am in the area of Eastern Colorado I usually take the time and shoot some dawgs. Great target practice. They are more nervous than the gophers(ground squirrels), so you have to hit them with 1 shot. An AR15 sure is alot of fun in a good dawg town.

Man, that sounds like fun. We don't have anything like that here in Kentucky. You can sit and wait to see if opossum or skunk walks into the field, but thats about it. I will probably shoot a few coyotes this spring, but I hate to take more than a few, the deer population is too large as it is.
Bob, how big do the rock chucks get?
Patrick, it sounds like you had some great days hunting with you Dad; it got me thinking, I have never been hunting with my Dad. We have fished a lot together but never hunted. He likes to shoot but not into hunting much since he was a kid; I think thats something I will work on changing.

Doc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppx-kDb1xi4

Rock chucks are near the same thing as the Eastern ground hogs (big marmots). They can stand 16 inch to 18 inches high standing on their hind legs. They make really good long range targets. Out here they like rocky ground and banks.

Our ground squirrels are much smaller and the folks that run cattle like to see them eliminated. The ranchers say a dozen can eat as much grass a day as one cow. They like big meadows and it doesn't take them long to dig up a bunch of ground. We have one protected species here in Idaho, but they live in Southern Idaho so don't have any effect on my shooting.