Prairie Dogs

[Jmnhunter]

anyone ever get after them? i live out here and havent made it out, plan on getting out SW of bismarck sometime in May or so. Primary gun i'll be using will probably be my 22lr with the 22-250 when i want to poke out far

[GatorBait]

I don't know, I enjoy watching them go splat at about 200yds away personally. Last time out there I was up in the reservation of Northern S.D. and just shot till I couldn't shoot no more. Only thing ruining my trip was the amount of rattlers out there. WOW, nothing like being prone in a dog field and looking over 2ft away to see that looking ya down. Prolly try the mounted shooting tables in back of truck next time. Sure is fun though. I have a Savage Mdl 12 BVSS .223 with a Tasco 10-40x50. Fun gun

[waskawood]

I am planning on going for the first time this year. I am mounting a scope on my latest addition to the prairie dog arsenal tonight. I will be taking 4 guns. A 6BR, 223, 204 Ruger, and a 20 VarTarg. Shooting dogs has been on my bucket list for years. I figure my time is running out.

[Bass Whacker]

I did it last year out in wyoming last year and it was a riot. It was about 4 hours of non stop action. bring pleny of rounds my brother ran out after about 2 hours. I used my 204 and my brother used his 223. hopefully i can get back out some day

[Jmnhunter]

how close can a guy get to them as i will be primarily be using the cheap shooter so under 100yds would be ideal?

[GatorBait]

20-30yds wouldn't be rare. I've plucked them out as far as 80yds with my ol ruger .22lr. Best is to stay prone, play the wind and just wait for them to pop up.

When I was in Montana, the dogs had a town right off a fence line. We literally sat on the line and just wrecked havoc on them from 10-25yds away. Good times there.

[mrklean]

i have always wanted to try it out but dont want to pay a guide, where can a non res go and find some?

[GatorBait]

When I went to S.D. we hunted out of Eagle Butte. Seems to be a large population on the reservation, plenty of places to hunt and plenty of public land too. I also hunted in Montana for them while visiting my brother in law on the A.F. Base but I don't recall where we were.

[mrklean]

do you need a samllgame license or anything?

[Jmnhunter]

SD has a season on them on public land and you can not shoot them until June 14th there, its open out here in ND all year round and a non res license for pdogs is around $20. You have to travel West river a ways and what i understand the national grasslands has tons of them and have them marked on maps

[gunmunky]

Back in the early 90's, I would go shoot them every other weekend. We were right on the Kansas / Nebraska boarder. We used every thing from 22LR to a 460 Weatherby. My favorite calibers were the .223 and the 7 mag. My farthest hit was guesstimated at 650-700 yds. We had one area that we could get about 1100 yds. The best shooting we ever had was in the spring right as the little ones were coming out. I didn't believe it until I saw it but you could have 8-10 pups on one mound and you could just shoot one at a time and the others would just sit there and watch them fall! I long for the day when I can go shoot at them again!!!

[Jmnhunter]

went out scouting the other day, found a large town and through the binos, there were only a handful that i could see, didnt walk all the way to them as it is a hike, that will be tomorrow's plan. found another town on private land with a few mroe out there, but i still cant see how a guy can shoot non stop. Are there good times of the day to see more of them?

[GatorBait]

Windy days aren't very good as they are unable to hear predators very well. If you see any predators in flying around, best to move on to another area. Usually all day is good if it's a populated town, you'll find a good one sooner or later.

[Jmnhunter]

Hey Gator, just got back from a town, seemed pretty populated, they were everywhere when we 1st pulled up, then when we set up they all ran to their dens and disappeared, we tried sitting and waiting but nothing so we walked to another spot got a shot off, then teh same thing. It was pretty windy today, but sunny. so I'm guessing the wind keeps them in the burrows? I always thought you could dam near set up a table and "shoot all day"

I fired 5 shots and my friend fired about the same

[GatorBait]

Yeah, they are very spooky when the wind is up. They communicate with each other to warn of near predators, but with the wind it makes it harder so they get spooked easily and tend to burrow much longer.

The other thing that may be hassling your chances right now is they have their babies in March and April. I've never hunted this early for them, but I would assume to think that this may be why you aren't seeing the numbers you should be. Most families are 1 male and several females. So your prolly seeing alot of the males right now. Just a thought....

[Raider4ever]

The other thing that may be hassling your chances right now is they have their babies in March and April. I've never hunted this early for them, but I would assume to think that this may be why you aren't seeing the numbers you should be. Most families are 1 male and several females. So your prolly seeing alot of the males right now. Just a thought....

So is now like pre-spawn?