Prarie Dogs

[K_Josh87]

anyone have any ideas on when, and where to hunt these pasture rats? A few of us are looking to give this a try possibly this summer. Non of us care to spend a grand to go hunt rats for a couple days, and we would be okay somewhat taking care of ourselves once we are pointed in the right direction. (basically we wouldn't mind help or guidence, but don't need someone holding our hands the whole time) Or, maybe someone knows s rancher/ farmer that would like someone to just help them out.

[Raider4ever]

I would also post this on the appropriate boards in both the Dakota forums if you already have not done so.

[K_Josh87]

thanks for the tip, i have not ventured into those forums

[fishattacker]

You could try the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. I just checked and their license for dogs is $75. When I went out deer hunting there we saw plenty of towns and plenty of dogs when it warmed up and that was mid november. We stayed in Mobridge for about 60 bucks a night. Best time to go is spring from what I have been told. They have not been shot at as much and you will get more to shoot at.

They have a pretty good HSOforum. You just need to google Standing Rock Sioux hunting and fishing.

[fishuhalik]

kj, i'll be going out sometime this spring. hopefully around late may. i'll hit you up when we get a date figured out. we get by cheap. my uncle knows some good towns that farmers let us hunt for free & hotels are pretty cheap in that area (sodak/nebraska).

[K_Josh87]

That would be awfully nice of you. We just don't know where abouts to even start looking on where to go at this point.

[fishuhalik]

if you wanna go out on your own, just head to sw sodak & start driving. if you see a good town, the farmer will more than likely let you hunt it, maybe for a small fee. just stress that you'll pick up all trash & brass & you wont rip up his field. make sure you have a portable shooting station for that reason. if it's wet you dont wanna be rutting up his field

[K_Josh87]

that very well may be what we end up doing... Would be pretty fun to just wing it

[live4chrome]

they really arent pests...150 species directly rely or benifit from prarie dogs. Ever notice that where the prarie dog villages are there is an absence of leafy spurge?

[fishuhalik]

they arent pests? tell that to the cattle farmer thats putting down cows because of broken legs

[JBar]

[K_Josh87]

Yeah. Thinking there are plenty of them to help support the necessary parts of the ecosystem... no reason not to keep them in check.

[Carpenter]

We are looking to go outnfor our first timr too. Does one need to shoot soft tips, or will fmj be fine?

[fishuhalik]

Ballistic tips are alot more fun. With fmj it'd be kinda tough to tell if you hit em. When you hit something at 500yds, it's alot easier for the spotter to see a dog fly 10' in the air as opposed to just seeing a puff of dirt and the critter fall over, which is what would happen with fmjs. I've been doing a little shooting in north dakota around the watford city area when I'm not working. Man, I forgot how much fun it is!!! The towns aren't the greatest since they get shot quite a bit the dogs are pretty spooky, but we still have been getting a good amount of shooting. Now I just need to get a varmint gun. I've got 1 confirmed kill at 600 with my deer rifle but it's not consistent enough at those ranges. And I wanna start getting into the 800yd+ ranges.

[fishuhalik]

Found a new prairie dog field on my way to a rig site few weeks ago. We finally got a day off and was able to go check it out. Being that I couldn't be with my family, it was a great way to spend father's day! The field was perfect. There was a large drainage ditch that we were able to sneak along and pop up at different locations. Every time we'd pop up there'd be dogs sitting along the edge. Had a ball with my 77/22 and my buddy brought his ar-15 with a 4x acog and hand grip, perfect for this kind of shooting. After we'd killed a few dozen this way we set up on an elevated position and plinked away with the long range rifles and got another 40 or so. We also saw my first rattler, which was pretty neat. And I found out what NoDak quicksand is like, not alotta fun walking around with 20lbs of mud from your waste down.

[K_Josh87]

good to hear you can have some fun while your are busting your nuts out there!