Great story. Love the bench!!
5 Day Prairie Dog hunt with new rifle and new bench
- Thread starter powderbrake
- Start date
powderbrake
Gold $$ Contributor
Thank you. I am very happy with the way the bench has evolved, and I am not making any more changes in it.
Lee Whitsel
Silver $$ Contributor
did you have any problems with getting permission to shot on tribal lands? and what is the cost??
^^^^ Glad to see you had your bolt open when image was captured.
On my first trip with former partner I walked past the bench as he’s was set up on a dog to get a picture. I never was in front of muzzle but he totally went into safety Sam mode. I thought at the time was ridiculous and over reacting, but after years of shooting he was totally correct.
On my first trip with former partner I walked past the bench as he’s was set up on a dog to get a picture. I never was in front of muzzle but he totally went into safety Sam mode. I thought at the time was ridiculous and over reacting, but after years of shooting he was totally correct.
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Klong
Gold $$ Contributor
Great story, thanks for sharing. I like the table, obviously has lots of experience engineered into it.
I have hunted PD’s years ago and was always great fun. We used 223’s and 50 gr. sx bullets. We shot most within 400 yards but a few out to 600 yards. Rarely hit at 600 on fist shot due to wind and skinny young dogs. We kept track of kills by turning case mouth down in the ammo box. Anything with mouth up was a miss. We would also try to line up two at a time and shoot 53 gr hollow point in order to make up for misses.
The rancher lived on the property and came by after the first afternoon of hunting and wanted to know how we were doing. We had killed 75 and he seemed unimpressed. The next morning he set us up across from his house and we noticed he was on the front porch watching us. He came again to check how we were doing. He told us he did not believe the number from the day before until he saw what we were doing the next morning. He was impressed then. We offered to let him get behind the gun, but he said for us to keep killing since we were “ killing machines” .
He invited us back any time we wanted!
I have hunted PD’s years ago and was always great fun. We used 223’s and 50 gr. sx bullets. We shot most within 400 yards but a few out to 600 yards. Rarely hit at 600 on fist shot due to wind and skinny young dogs. We kept track of kills by turning case mouth down in the ammo box. Anything with mouth up was a miss. We would also try to line up two at a time and shoot 53 gr hollow point in order to make up for misses.
The rancher lived on the property and came by after the first afternoon of hunting and wanted to know how we were doing. We had killed 75 and he seemed unimpressed. The next morning he set us up across from his house and we noticed he was on the front porch watching us. He came again to check how we were doing. He told us he did not believe the number from the day before until he saw what we were doing the next morning. He was impressed then. We offered to let him get behind the gun, but he said for us to keep killing since we were “ killing machines” .
He invited us back any time we wanted!
powderbrake
Gold $$ Contributor
Well, this is a 6 year old thread, and some changes have been made.
To Lee Whitsel : We hunted the Rosebud Reservation, you need a couple of Tribal licenses, and you MUST have a guide with you at all times. The present Guide cost is about $100 to $150 /day for each shooter. I have been shooting there for 30 + years, and it is tough shooting there now. It gets a lot of hunting pressure, and the towns are much smaller than years ago.
to Mark T:
a little sarcasm there.... and deservedly so, as the bolt is closed , not open. I can tell you I made the gun safe before the guy who took the pic walked in front. the following pic is more current, with the bolt OPEN.
You caught me there and I am ashamed that I had the bolt closed.
Same gun, but a few things have changed. This is barrel #2, and this years PD shoot will be it's last, I have a new barrel blank on hand for next year. The bench top was flipped over for a left hander. Due to a retina problem in my right eye, I now shoot lefty. I went to a SEB Mini front rest with F Class Products adjustable bags and sideplates. The Kestrel 5700Elite running Applied Ballistics is on a telescoping mast with a windvane. The iphone is on a fixed rest, parallel to the rifle and mounted away from metal parts in the table.
I range the dog with my Leica Geovids, enter the range on my iphone, and touch the Direction of Fire button on the phone, and the Kestrel then sends the windage and elevation clicks to the iphone, which I then click into the scope. The Nightforce scope has a NP2DD dot reticle, and I twist the knobs for each shot.
To Lee Whitsel : We hunted the Rosebud Reservation, you need a couple of Tribal licenses, and you MUST have a guide with you at all times. The present Guide cost is about $100 to $150 /day for each shooter. I have been shooting there for 30 + years, and it is tough shooting there now. It gets a lot of hunting pressure, and the towns are much smaller than years ago.
to Mark T:
a little sarcasm there.... and deservedly so, as the bolt is closed , not open. I can tell you I made the gun safe before the guy who took the pic walked in front. the following pic is more current, with the bolt OPEN.
You caught me there and I am ashamed that I had the bolt closed.
Same gun, but a few things have changed. This is barrel #2, and this years PD shoot will be it's last, I have a new barrel blank on hand for next year. The bench top was flipped over for a left hander. Due to a retina problem in my right eye, I now shoot lefty. I went to a SEB Mini front rest with F Class Products adjustable bags and sideplates. The Kestrel 5700Elite running Applied Ballistics is on a telescoping mast with a windvane. The iphone is on a fixed rest, parallel to the rifle and mounted away from metal parts in the table.
I range the dog with my Leica Geovids, enter the range on my iphone, and touch the Direction of Fire button on the phone, and the Kestrel then sends the windage and elevation clicks to the iphone, which I then click into the scope. The Nightforce scope has a NP2DD dot reticle, and I twist the knobs for each shot.
powderbrake
Gold $$ Contributor
Do I range each dog?, generally, except when they are in the same rage as the last one I just shot.
Or....... did you mean are my shots "spot on" the dog each time? I wish I could say yes, but between the wind and the lack of perfection in my technique, I do manage to miss a few..... or a lot.
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