South Dakota prairie dogs

[Hollywood1009]

Is there really a state plague out for the dogs??

If so, is anybody traveling to different locations ?

 

[rickiesrevenge]

I stopped at a few towns last month. Not very many dogs to be seen. TONS more in the other states I drove through.

 

[Hollywood1009]

I stopped at a few towns last month. Not very many dogs to be seen. TONS more in the other states I drove through.

Where did you end up driving to then?

 

[its only light]

I went out last July to Pierre SD grasslands. Not much around, we shot a few but ended up fishing more. People said there was a plague but we blamed it on the fact that the thermometer in the truck read 113 deg at one point. My buddy is going out there on Thursday. I will tell him to give me an update.

 

[STS]

The plague cleaned them out in the area I usually shoot.

 

[deadwooddick]

Few and far between this year. Not only the plague, but also ranchers fed up and poisoning off the towns.

 

[drgunlimited]

went out today... probably 30% of the numbers we saw same time last year... still spent the day shooting but did a lot more moving and waiting...

 

[mikegaiz]

Just got back. Some tribal lands have shut down shooting all together. That is hard to do when they loose their income from it. Some are still saying come on out (need your money). The plague combined with recent droughts is bad news in surrounding dog states. The hay day of dog shooting may have passed. :'( More hunters and less dogs, not good.

 

[DaveWhite]

The hay day of dog shooting may have passed.

This is a very sad thing to hear. My bucket list still includes a safari to SD to shoot PDs. The plan was five rifles with 500 rounds for each, and returning home with no live ammo...

 

[CT10ring]

My experience last week, yup, plague killed 90 %. After driving 2 1/2 days,
Not good. My advice, check out WY, I- 25, north of Chugwater WY.

Rickies Revenge, uh pretty general. Tons more, thanx fer that. What states-
Hawaii, Maine and Louisiana, right?

 

[yenak]

Was in South Dakota in May. The ranch we shot on the last 2 yrs. had only a third of what was there previously. Last yr. the rattle snakes were terrible. This yr. nothing. Rancher felt that the extreme heat of last summer took it's toll on both. Looks like the drought will continue through this year also. The winter wheat he planted didn't come up. He didn't know if he was going to plant over or not.

 

[redrockranger]

The South Dakota i was in was wet, water standing in fields and ditches. This was Wednesday and Thursday. Yes many reports of plague and low numbers. Many private ranches will let you shoot for a $25 - $ 75 fee. They don't tell you there have been 50 shooters already there. It did not look good.

 

[CT10ring]

Rickie, sorry for the wise a** reply, not necessary.

My South Dakota experience June 10-14 -- plague- this is in Wood SD on one of my favorite (last 5 years) ranches. Rancher said no dogs, , also had same experience in Montana, some shooting, but not burn out your barrel shooting.
Well, couple times Southeast Wyoming was good shooting. that's my bit of mid June 2013 shooting.

 

[John from MN]

I take a yearly trip to a reservation in north central SD.

Word we got from one of the ranchers up there was that the tribe keeps increasing the pasture rent and in return they'(the tribe) have agreed to a widespread poisoning program to increase the number of cows per acre the ground will support. I can't swear to the truth of it, but there were a lot of dead towns.

A side effect of this seemed to be more shooters funneled into the few good towns that remain. The pd's were very easily spooked.

As long as property value keeps rising along with good prices for beef and grain, I expect it to get even tougher to find good shooting.

 

[roadkill61]

Don't bother with Montana either. Went to five areas in the past that were very good. They have been plaqued out. The remainder areas have been hit so hard by shooters that any left are really spookey. Alright I guess if you want to set up benches and shoot 20 shots a day at 500 + yards

 

[deadwooddick]

Word we got from one of the ranchers up there was that the tribe keeps increasing the pasture rent and in return they'(the tribe) have agreed to a widespread poisoning program to increase the number of cows per acre the ground will support. I can't swear to the truth of it, but there were a lot of dead towns.

To confirm, looksee at their holes… if "painted" that's clear evidence poison has been placed, since it eliminates dosing the hole twice.

 

[roadkill61]

Our rancher friend near Pierre SD called and said to get down as the dogs in his area are anything but plauged out.

 

[remy3424]

On my recent SD trip I would say south of 90 the plauge has taken care of the towns and north of the interstate the ranchers are posining like crazy.