Prairie dog assasin

[deemus]

Got to do something this weekend I've wanted to do for a long time. Blasted a bunch of prairie dogs in Wyoming.

Started out at 160 yds, and out to 240 yds. I couldn't see them too well beyond that distance with my scope. But the bull barrel AR is a ton of fun, and crazy accurate. I'm thinking I need better glass on it.

I forgot to take pics in the excitement.

 

[robertc1024]

Nice. After vmax's report last year on his prairie dog hunt, I've had the itch.

 

[Younggun]

Yep.

Used to stay in a hotel in Odessa with a prairie dog town right across the road. Always wondered if any gun shots would just blend in with the usual Odessa gun fire. Would love to get out in the open on some.


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[vmax]

PD hunting is some of the best fun you can have with your clothes on.
I took 2 guns this year, my Savage 10 -223 for closer shots and my Savage 25 - .204 Ruger for longer range poppin...

Did you fly or drive?

 

[deemus]

Flew to Denver then drove to WY.

 

[SloppyShooter]

PDLM too, you animal!!! Sounds like a blast.

Playing sniper with little critters, take me with ya next time. LOL.

 

[EZ-E]

Sounds like a fun trip. I too, would like go shot some prairie dogs one day.

 

[orbitup]

How many rounds did you burn through?

 

[SloppyShooter]

How many rounds did you burn through?

Sounds like a "loaded" question.

 

[FireInTheWire]

I'm jelly man! I will be doing this with my kids when they get a little bigger

 

[SloppyShooter]

I'm jelly man! I will be doing this with my kids when they get a little bigger

How far out are you going to let them get before you shoot?

 

[karlac]

Fond memories.
Our family following a seismic crew in West Texas before I started first grade, we briefly lived in Brownfield and Monahans ... great prairie dog shooting in those days, the late 1940's.
My first experience shooting something besides my Red Ryder - Dad's 218 Bee - a great varmint round and especially so on prairie dogs.
Shooting's been a slippery slope ever since ...

 

[Mowingmaniac 24/7]

I've been a hunter all my life, deer to doves, quail, ducks and all kinds of fish...another form of hunting) but never understood varmint hunting unless they were killing your chickens or somehow creating havoc and needed killing...

Pollyanna, I'm not.

Killing something I've no plans to eat (crows come mind too) as a target just for the hell of it, I don't get. Ah, unless you DO eat them.

Do you?

If not, and they aren't causing you grief, shooting them is something I'd like to understand.

Why shoot them?

What do I not understand?

I did mention, I'm not anti-hunting. Just the opposite.

This year, health permitting, I will bag a deer for the meat and if lucky, a hog or a turkey too.

 

[Younggun]

I've been a hunter all my life, deer to doves, quail, ducks and all kinds of fish...another form of hunting) but never understood varmint hunting unless they were killing your chickens or somehow creating havoc and needed killing...

Pollyanna, I'm not.

Killing something I've no plans to eat (crows come mind too) as a target just for the hell of it, I don't get. Ah, unless you DO eat them.

Do you?

If not, and they aren't causing you grief, shooting them is something I'd like to understand.

Why shoot them?

What do I not understand?

I did mention, I'm not anti-hunting. Just the opposite.

This year, health permitting, I will bag a deer for the meat and if lucky, a hog or a turkey too.

http://icwdm.org/handbook/rodents/PrarieDogs.asp





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[karlac]

If not, and they aren't causing you grief, shooting them is something I'd like to understand.

Why shoot them?

What do I not understand?

Historically here's one important and practical reason why: Prairie dog holes, especially at night, caused major "grief" to the practice of tending to and driving cattle from one place to another by horseback, especially to the cowboy's most important tool, the horse he rode on.

A broken leg on your only means of transportation when tending, and/or driving cattle could be the matter of life or death, not only to the horse, but to the rider who went down with the horse when its leg went into a prairie dog hole.

That's why old time rancher's in cattle country would open their gates to anyone who wanted to hunt prairie dogs.

Yep, times have changed ... but it's always something that was done in cattle country. A reason that is still valid in some parts of Texas.

YMMV ...

 

[Younggun]

Not to mention that P dogs can chew through 20% of grazing needed for cattle.


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[SloppyShooter]

Not to mention that P dogs can chew through 20% of grazing needed for cattle.


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Cows? We don't need no stinking cows.

 

[FireInTheWire]

How far out are you going to let them get before you shoot?

I ask my wife the same question about me when I bring a new gun home

 

[Vaquero]

Historically here's one important and practical reason why: Prairie dog holes, especially at night, caused major "grief" to the practice of tending to and driving cattle from one place to another by horseback, especially to the cowboy's most important tool, the horse he rode on.

A broken leg on your only means of transportation when tending, and/or driving cattle could be the matter of life or death, not only to the horse, but to the rider who went down with the horse when its leg went into a prairie dog hole.

That's why old time rancher's in cattle country would open their gates to anyone who wanted to hunt prairie dogs.

Yep, times have changed ... but it's always something that was done in cattle country. A reason that is still valid in some parts of Texas.

YMMV ...

Having grown up depending on the livestock for clothes on our backs, food on the table, and a rare shopping trip to town, I'll tell you why these, and other vermin have become targets.

P-dogs aren't malicious. They're a nuisance and very costly to a rancher just the same. Uncontrolled, they'll strip hundreds of acres of vegetation. And, they carry diseases.

When a predator (coyote, bobcat....) goes on a hunt, they know where the dog town is. The coyotes will do their best to crowd and herd the chosen victim to that area. One wrong step and the pack eats well, the rancher loses revenue.

Many a good cow horse has been put down due to a broken leg from a cave in from a prairie dog tunnel collapse.

The tunnels become snake dens and rattlesnakes take over too.
Loose a few cows, a good horse, your dog to the snake bites.

I'll shoot prairie dogs. No need for eating them. No need for even picking the things up. Buzzards need something to do.

Yeah, they'll drag the dead back in the hole. Cannibals they are.

 

[Younggun]

And on top of all that I will admit without shame that it’s a hell of a lot of fun. Especially with a few good trash talkin friends.


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