ND PD Hunt on 8-15-08--Gory Photos--Part 1

[Silverfox]

All my hunting supplies were loaded and ready to go by about 7:45 a.m. There was a lot of dew on the grass so I figured I’d have some breakfast before heading out and give the grass a chance to dry off. I finally left town around 8:30 a.m. I drove through some thick fog for about 45 miles and when I was about 8 miles from the dog town, the fog lifted and the sun shined the rest of the day!!!

I decided I’d use my Savage 12VLP in .204 Ruger and my 40 gr. Nosler BT reloads in this first dog town. I had two prairie dogs barking at me from about 125 yards away from where I parked my pickup. I took a few minutes, loaded up my rifle, and put a stop to their scolding barks. A couple of magpies descended on their carcasses and were having a late breakfast a few minutes after I shot them. I think I must have shot 10 prairie dogs before I left the shade of the tree grove in which I had my pickup parked. Then I headed off to the SW to make a big clockwise circle around the dog town. These dogs had been shot at before, but there were still a lot of dumb ones, so it was pretty good shooting. Here’s a look at another one of the prairie dogs with real dark fur:

I worked my was south and shot the prairie dogs that were close to my position. I spotted a PD way out to the south of my position and another one way out to the west. I got out my Leica 1200 Range Finder and got readings on the distances. The one to the south was 190 yards away and the one to the west was 180 yards. By the time I got ready to shoot, both of them had disappeared. I saw two more out west. I held right at the bottom of the body as the prairie dog lay sunning himself. When I squeezed off the shot, the prairie dog was blown up and back a tiny bit and he slowly dragged himself into his den. I figured it was odd that I would hit low, since my rifle is supposed to be zeroed in to hit 0.8" high at 180 yards. I got the rangefinder out again and did a reading on the mound he had been on—I got a reading of 221 yards! Oops!

Another PD appeared back at the 180 yard mound and ran about 5 yards to the west and began to eat on the grass. I took aim and polished that little fellow off. Just then another PD appeared back at the mound that was 221 yards away. It sat on top of the mound and I squeezed off the shot. I could hear the WHAP, but couldn’t see the body. I figured I’d take a walk up there and see if I could find the body.

As I got near the mound, I could see the blood splattered around the entrance to the mound and when I got to the mound I could see the rear end of the prairie dog down in the burrow as pictured below:

I dragged the PD out of the burrow and here's a photo of the entrance wound side. There is a hole right behind his left front elbow where the bullet entered and it appears to have just exploded up out of his back from just above his left shoulder all the way over to his right shoulder and right on into his body cavity, blowing out the chest area on the bottom of his body.

The photo below gives you a look at the side opposite the entrance side. The bottom of this critter is totally cratered--hamburger!!!!

And here’s the long-anticipated “Hero Photo” with the 221 yard prairie dog dragged out of his burrow and up onto his mound for you to feast your eyes on!!!

[Continued in the post right below here.]

 

[Silverfox]

Part 2--

I kept walking to the west and north and wound up fairly close to the oil well site located in the WNW end of this prairie dog town. There were lots of mounds inside the fenced-in well site and I got into a position where I could shoot the prairie dogs and not be shooting at the pump jack or the tanks. Here’s a little collection of seven of the bodies that didn’t fall into their burrows.

There were other prairie dogs I shot at this spot that tumbled down into their dens and I didn’t bother to try to retrieve them. You can see PD mounds as you look up toward the pumping unit and tanks in the photo posted below here. There were prairie dogs out at these mounds, but they were too much in line with the tanks and pumper for me to shoot.

I was heading out of the fenced-in area when I heard some warning barks. I spotted two prairie dogs that measured 110 yards away on my range finder. It was a large adult and a young one. I got the crosshairs on the adult. The young one was right behind her when I pulled the trigger. I could hear the solid WHAP and knew I had hit the adult. When I got up to the mound I found I had garnered a double. The adult took the brunt of the shot, but something made it through and took out the back of the skull of the young one.

I headed back to the pickup and got there around 2:00 p.m. I loaded the .204 Ruger into its soft case and did a count on the number of rounds I had fired. Most of the shots I had taken were in the 110 to 175 yard range. I did have a couple of 50 to 75 yard shots and also had the nice 221 yard shot. There were lots of prairie dogs in that 110 to 175 yard range, so those were what I concentrated on shooting. The shot and hit count for the .204 Ruger was 1 missed shot, 1 double, and 39 singles for 41 dead prairie dogs out of 41 shots.

I was going to use the Lilja barreled .17 Remington in the south prairie dog town and had cleaned the barrel very thoroughly after my last outing with it, so I needed to check where the rifle was hitting. I set a box out at 100 yards with a target on it that has 9 aiming points and took out the 20 gr. V-Max reloads. I shot two fouling shots and the third shot was about 2 inches high, so I cranked the elevation knob down one inch and shot two more shots. They were dead on for windage and 1 inch high—right where I like it.

I had 20 rounds of 25 gr. Hornady HP hand loads I wanted to shoot up, so I fired three of those to check where they were hitting. They were hitting 1 inch high and 1 inch to the right at 100 yards. I also had 20 rounds of 25 gr. Starke hand loads I needed to shoot. They were hitting 2 inches high and dead on for windage. There were 45 rounds of 25 gr. Genco HP reloads I needed to shoot too, but they didn’t hit the paper at 100 yards. I moved the target box to 50 yards and those bullets were hitting 2.5 inches low at 50 yards. I figured that someday, when I didn’t have anything better to do, I’d adjust the scope just for those reloads and shoot them up in a prairie dog town. For now, the Gencos would have to sit idly by while the other reloads did the work on the prairie dogs.

I loaded up the Lilja barreled .17 Remington in the soft case and was headed to the south PD town by 2:30 p.m. I arrived at the south dog town and parked in the shade of a big old box elder tree. I got out my folding lawn chair, my lunch and soft drinks and sat in the shade of the tree while I had my lunch. I could hear the prairie dogs that were just across the creek. They seemed to be challenging me to try to shoot them!!! They would find out I would do just that in about a half hour. By 3:00 p.m. I had walked across the little beaver dam on the creek and was drawing down on some prairie dogs with the 20 gr. V-Max ammo. After shooting about 10 rounds I decided to try to use up the 25 gr. Hornady HP ammo on these closer prairie dogs. I’d try to use the 25 gr. Starke reloads too, if there was time.

The photo below is a close up of the prairie dog shot with my 25 gr. Hornday HP reloads. The muzzle velocity of this load is only about 3,750 fps, but it is one super-accurate load and seems to do quite a number on the prairie dogs. Most of the PDs I shot with this ammo were sunning themselves or out eating and gave me a big horizontal target. That’s what I needed because I forgot the ammo was shooting 1 inch to the right at 100 yards and missed a couple of PDs that were standing up at the 150 to 200 yard range.

After I missed those 2 standing prairie dogs, I decided to switch back to the 20 gr. V-Max ammo for the longer shots that were common now. While I was sneaking up out of the creek bottom, I noticed this little fellow pictured below. He was to my left and sitting in a prairie dog burrow. He was probably 15 yards away from where I had popped up out of the creek bottom. He didn’t seem terribly concerned with my presence and posed real nice while I snapped a bunch of photos of him.

Before I went to check out the June berry bushes on the west side of the dog town, I took a photo of one of the nice, cool shady spots I had been shooting from. You are looking almost straight west in this photo.

The dog town stretches out to the south about 400 yards and west about 500 yards behind the bushes on the left and continues around the clay buttes you see on the right for maybe 700+ yards. The dog town also continues behind where I was standing to take the photo for maybe 300 to 400 yards. The creek to the south and west of this town and the line of clay buttes to the east and north pretty much confine these PDs to just this area. There is a small colony to the north of the clay buttes you see on the right, but that is bordered on the west by the creek and high clay buttes to the north and east. That part of the dog town will probably not get any bigger either.

There had been a few green berries when I was down here on July 3, but when I got to the June berry bushes there were no June berries left. There were lots of ripe choke cherries available, but they are a bit too sour for my taste. I was pretty disappointed because I really enjoy eating raw June berries. Oh well, there is always next year to look forward to!!

On this end of the dog town, there were lots of prairie dogs in the 100 to 150 yard range, so I started shooting the 25 gr. Hornady ammo again. I wanted to make sure I shot all 17 of those rounds I had left after I checked them for point of impact earlier. When I fired the last of the 17 shells, I had 2 misses, 1 double, and 14 singles for a total of 16 dead prairie dogs for 17 shots.

There were still a bunch of prairie dogs that needed killing, so I went back to shooting the 20 gr. V-Max reloads. I got the barrel heated up way too hot and stopped to let it cool down. The bullets tend to miss the target when this barrel gets heated up too much. Well, I got impatient with all those prairie dogs running around just begging to be shot and missed on 3 of the last 4 shots I took. Patience IS USUALLY one of my virtues when it comes to letting barrels cool down—NOT TODAY!!! Anyway, the final tally for the 32 shots I took with the 20 gr. V-Max reloads was 5 misses, 2 doubles, and 25 singles for a total of 29 dead prairie dogs for 32 shots. Total count for the day was 86 dead prairie dogs for 90 shots.

Once again, the weather had been nice—very little wind and high temperature right at 80 degrees. Other than the fog I had driven through, which lifted just in time for the hunt, it had been a perfect day for “Pottin’ Prairie Poodles!”

 

[Dave223]

Top effort there Silverfox. I love the photos, that's some good destruction. Keep them coming.

Dave

 

[Airboatdriver]

Where were those pictures taken - I live in VA and have never been in country like that.

 

[Silverfox]

Dave223--Thanks for the compliment on the "little" writeup.

Airboatdriver--The photos were taken in Western North Dakota, quite a few miles south of the confluence of the Yellowstone River and the Missouri River. We have some beautiful Badlands-type country in this area.

 

[6BR]

Great write up!!!! North Dakota looks awesome. I am planning a trip for Wyoming in O9. I am planning on taking my custom Ruger 10/22, my new 6BR and AR-15 build. I will use the 22LR for th 0 to 100 yard shots, I will use the AR-15 for the shots from 0 to 300 yards and the 6BR for 0 to 1000 yard shots.

I am planning on using 50grn V-Max out of the 1-12 twist AR-15 and the 87grn V-Max and 105grn Lapua Scenar out of the 1-8 twist 6BR.I am going to bring 500 rounds of 22LR, 500 rounds of 223 and 700 rounds of 6BR. Do you think that will be enough ammo.

I have heard of guys going through rounds like crazy when they get to a Pdog town. That's why I've decided to use the 223 and 6BR, Long barrel life, easy on the shoulders and you can see your hits. If you have any suggestions for my trip, please, I would like to hear them. I am planning on going through an outfitter. I am currently looking at the Rockin7Ranch or Trophy Ridge.

 

[Silverfox]

6BR--It sure looks like you have some pretty good ideas on what rifles to use and at what distances.

As for how many rounds you need, your 1,700 rounds would last me 2 and a half weeks the way I hunt. How many days are you going to be hunting? I don't think I have ever shot many more than 200 rounds in a day, and I only shoot around 100 rounds a day on most of my hunts. I do spend a lot of time taking pictures and if you don't do that, you might shoot a whole lot more rounds than I do.

Will your guide service provide a shooting bench for you? If not, and you don't have one already, you may want to start looking around for one to purchase or build and take with you. Those 300 to 1,000 yard shots require a real steady rest, IMHO, and a shooting bench would be a must if I were to take shots at 300 yards and beyond.

I presume you have some way of getting references for these guide services. I have never used a guide service and probably never will, so I can't tell you much on what to look for, but I'd sure try to talk to someone who had used one or both of those guide services. You sure don't want some donkey who will just dump you off in the middle of nowhere and let you fend for yourself.

 

[6BR]

Silverfox, I will be on the trip for about three days. I am currently looking a shooting bench. I am looking at the Coyote Jake's Shooting bench. As far as references, I have a couple for Trophy Ridge and it looks like a real nice place to shoot. It's located next to the Devils Tower, and I've always wanted to see that in person. Regarding the Rockin7Ranch, I have no references yet. The lodge looks super nice, however, I am trying to find out about the Pdoggin.

I am also in the process of saving for a Swaro Range Finder $900 buck for that baby. I will be using a Nightforce NXS 8x32x56 on the 6BR, a Leupold M4 4.5x14x50 on the AR-15 and Leupold 4x12x40 VX-1 on the 10/22. My buddy has a real nice Swaro Spotting scope, so I think we will be set up with all the proper equipment and optics.

I am in the process of collecting parts for a 338 Lapua Improved build for the 1000 to 1500 yard shots, however, It wont be completed for this trip. I will be using a BAT action and McMillan MBR stock and those two things take along time to get. So 1000 yards will be our max range during this trip.Anyhow, I am looking forward to the trip. We will be driving to Wyoming, so we are going to have some fun on the way there. If you guys have anymore suggestions, please, I would like to here them.

 

[transdude]

6BR,

Feel free to PM me. I was at Rockin'7 in June and would be happy to tell you about my experience there.

-John

 

[Rtheurer]

looks like somewhere between Beach and Bellfeild. Great Mule country to boot. And of course Coyotes. Ah the clay and prarie of the Dakotas, I miss them already. Maybee I'll come up Phesant hunting this fall after all. You havn't lived unless you have been Coyote hunting in -20 weather for 6 hours.

Great article and Pictures. Its getting harder and harder to find a good place to pop Prarie Rats.

RussT

 

[Phantom]

I hope you are not picking them up with your hands . . ??? They can carry the Plague . . nasty stuff. Shoot them and let the buzzards take care of them . .

Here is a picture of the last place in that I went out P/D shooting . . we were having so much fun shooting I didn't take too many pictures. .
http://i38.tinypic.com/a1o4mv.jpg
As you can see - we had some long distance shooting to do, and even with 3 guns we had to keep changing guns to keep the barrels cool @ 95 Deg. with a 15mph wind. Oklahoma . .where the wind comes blowing. It is tough shooting in the shade - but someone has to do it. From here we were shooting at 180 deg. around the platform, we would wear them down on one side and then spin around and shoot them on the other side, kept that up for nearly the entire afternoon, till us old critters got tired of shooting . . and yes, I did shoot over 300 rounds in 2 days of shooting, the wind didn't cooperate with us much, but we had a good time.

 

[Silverfox]

Phantom--Nope, I never touch them with any part of my body, but you have to remember, the fleas that carry the plague can JUMP!!! When I gathered up those seven prairie dogs I used some rusty barbed wire and looped it around any part of their body where I could get a good grip with the wire. I usually don't do a gathering of PDs, but it felt like the right thing to do that day

That is one nice trailer setup you have there for pottin' prairie poodles. Many of my hunts are done on the National Grasslands and it is illegal to drive off established trails. Also, landowners on some of the private land I hunt, don't like to have you driving all over the PD towns either. I guess I am used to my walk-about style of PD hunting. It has worked well for me for about 38 years or so.