I made 3 trips this summer to shoot pds. Two of us went on the first trip, 2 others and myself on the second and third. I put roughly 6000 miles on my pickup, the 5 of us firing approximately 4730 rounds and killing roughly 3800 pds.

The following is the chronicle of the first trip I made this summer.

Day 1
E-rod and I arrived at the motel and checked in at 4:30 in the afternoon. It was cloudy and looked like rain was coming in soon. We headed out for the ranch hoping to shoot some pds until dark.

When we got to the ranch, E-rod and I decided to check out the creek crossing to see if we could get across the following morning. We got to the crossing and it looked like we could make it as long as there wasn’t any more rain up in the hills. While we were looking at the creek we felt some rain drops. We started back to the pickup and it started raining harder. By the time we got to the pickup we were soaked and it was raining hard. The prairie was not all that dry and became gumbo in an instant. I put the truck in 4wd and hit the turbo. We made it back to the ranch with a (white) truck totally covered in gumbo. We headed back to town and $10 later at the local car wash everything was white again.

Day 2
Woke up to a hard rain. It was obvious there was no way we were doing any shooting unless someone tried to break into the motel room. That area needed the rain so there was no way I would, as the cowboys say, “curse the rainâ€. Our spirits were at a very low point to say the least. We spent the rest of the day watching TV, eating pizza and drinking beer.

Day 3
Early morning we headed out to the ranch. The rain had stopped but the sky was still cloudy. We tried to get into a dog town just off the road, but we couldn’t even walk into it as the gumbo was so bad. It became obvious that we were just going to have to wait until the prairie dried out a little more. We went back to the ranch and did some welding and maintenance on machinery for the ranch.

E-rod and I were taking a break and began looking at the ranches ATV, and a plan started to take shape. We had towed out my ATV and if we borrowed the ranches, we may be able to get on the prairie after all. 20 minutes later we had the gear lashed to the ATVs and were heading out for the nearest dog town. After being rained out for almost two days, we didn’t hold anything back. We shot our 250s until they were too hot to touch and then grabbed the .223s and shot them until they were too hot to touch. “Stove-piping†the 223s we again went back to the 250s and it didn’t take long and they were too hot to touch again. There we sat, two guns each, too hot to shoot. There was usually 5 and sometimes 7-10 dogs sitting on what seemed like every mound. Easy shooting, so I am not going to brag other than to say I set a new personal record for number of dogs before a miss. E-rod was shooting very well with several runs into the 30s before a miss. Doubles were not that uncommon. In the 25 years I have been doing this, that afternoon ranked as the 2nd highest concentration of dogs and shooting that I have seen. We joked with the ranch foreman that he must have tried to poison that town using oats laced with Viagra!!

Day 4
The prairie was still too wet for us to use the pickup, so we loaded up the ATVs again and headed out. This time we left the 250s behind (we joked they were still too hot to shoot) and E-rod took his Sav. 223 and I took my CZ 223 and my AR. We strapped our buckets (with a couple of sand bags on the lid) on the front racks. All we had to do was pull up to the town and while sitting on the ATV, lay the rifle on the sand bags and start shooting. A real advantage of this is that we were able to get to some towns that we never would have made it to even in the best of conditions. Late in the afternoon we returned for the 250s and set up on the “Viagra town†and shot it again until dusk.

Day 5
The foreman wanted us to do some “cropping†on a town that had sprung up at the far side of the ranch. It was too far to run the ATVs and he figured we could get the pickup in off the highway the ¾ mile to the town. The first 200 yards off the highway was going real well, and then the pickup started sliding one way and then the other……E-rod was over in the passenger seat just shaking his head. I told E-rod, “hang on, I’m goin’ for itâ€. I pulled it into 4wd and floored it. A couple of times I was lock to lock on the steering wheel and there was gumbo flying everywhere, but we made it to the town and found a high spot to park. We got out our 223s and cushions and walked through the town stopping at the best spots to sit and shoot.

In the afternoon we headed back to the “Viagra town†and by then the prairie had finally dried enough for us to get the pickup in. The shooting was spectacular again but by 4 o’clock we decided we had had enough. We field cleaned the guns, put everything away and sat on the tailgate drinking beer, listening to pds and enjoying the view. For E-rod it would be another year before he could enjoy this again. I would be back in about a month with my brother and dad to shoot this town again.

On the long trip home the next day, while I drove, E-rod tallied our destruction. He shot 1250 rounds and I shot 1180 for a total of 2,430 rounds in a little less than two and a half days. I was able to account for 1070 kills for a rate of about 91 percent, E-rod accounted for 1087, for a kill rate of about 87 percent.

Jim

sounds like you guys had a hell of a good time - makes me drool

quote:

Originally posted by butchloc:
sounds like you guys had a hell of a good time - makes me drool

butchloc,

Yes we did.

As I said it was the second highest concentration of dogs I have ever seen, and it was the closest shooting I have had in years.

Jim

Pdhntr1: Great story for all of us to peruse!
I love Hunting Prairie Dogs but I hate Gumbo!
I have been stuck four times in that crud for more than 24 hours! The longest duration of "Gumbo stuck" I have endured was 6 days (Elk Hunting in October!)! That will screw up your plans - believe me!
I was stuck about 12 hours once in the drive (1 1/2 miles long) up to a Ranch I had permission to Hunt on! I slept and read books to pass the time and then I noticed a GIANT Raccoon coming down out of a tall Cottonwood tree that was nearly 300 yards from my stuck spot. I harvested that giant Boar Raccoon with one shot from my brand new never been "blooded" custom 17 MachIV Varmint Rifle!
Then I shot some barn pigeons from the same tree. Then the next morning at sunrise just before I was able to get traction and get out of there I shot two Jack Rabbits. So that "short" duration "Gumbo stuck" was still slightly productive Varminting wise!
Great shooting there by the way hitting 91% of your shots! Yep some times the ranchers are just at their wits end with the Prairie Dogs and I suspend my normal policy of not shooting anything closer than 200 yards (and nothing further than 600 yards) and shoot at everything that moves!
Many happy returns of your Hunt!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I have been rain out also I joke with the ranchers that they should pay me to bring rain. The last 5 years it has rained some every time I have been out. I haven't been struck yet but Iam very careful first I do not like tearing up the ranch roads 2nd I hate being struck it is just plain hard work and a pain in the but.