Well, I have been away from the forum for a few weeks; it looks like I have some catch up reading to do...

I have recently returned from a prairie dog hunting trip on the border of North/South Dakota near Mobridge. I flew first to Minnesota, where I met my uncle and a friend of his, where we prepped the RV and supplies. Thankfully, this included the ammo shipment of mine that UPS nearly screwed up. We arrived on Sunday at noon at the ranch we went to last year, and it wasn't long before we were in the Jeep and off to the killing...errr, hunting fields. I got the first two shots off the shooting platform on the front of the Jeep as we crested the hill into the PD town, and sent two prairie dogs into some video-quality flips with my .221 Fireball...heh, heh. My uncle's friend, who is 73 and had never been prairie dog hunting before, was instantly hooked. I think he liked to watch better than he liked to shoot.

The town had been hunted, and the volume was certainly down as compared to last year, but the weather didn't cooperate either...Monday morning dawned rainy and 47 degrees! In July, on the prairie. That happens probably...never. So, Monday we were completely rained out. Tuesday and Wednesday were better, although the wind was pretty fierce. Rain again on Thursday...what are the chances?!

Well, we did get a little good shooting in. I have to admit, my favorite rifle of this trip was my brand new Rock River Arms 20" varmint AR-15. That surprised me, because I never thought I'd be impressed by an AR-15. This one, however, is very accurate, and a great choice for prairie dog hunting. With the lead counterweight in the buttstock, I was able to get off multiple shots at mounds with more than one PD without losing the sight picture. That is great fun! The rifle really impressed my uncle, who admitted that he never would have thought it would compare to the other bolt guns we had with us. I used Black Hills 60 gr. V-MAX ammo, the only ammo I used that wasn't handloaded, and I'd recommend it for this 1:8 twist rifle.

The rancher (owner of the property we were on) decided to come out and shoot for a bit one day. He brought his trusty Savage 12FV pre-Accu-Trigger model out along with some old military ball ammo. He did hit a couple, but they crawled away. I thought maybe the 60 gr. V-MAX ammo would be a little too long to stabilize in his rifle, as I'm guessing it had a 1:12 twist. Anyway, we let him try a few rounds, and the results were a night and day difference apart. We cleaned his rifle for him and set our impromptu pizza box target at 100 yards, where I fired a 5 shot group of around .5" -- 4 shots touching and one JUST out of that group. Not bad for a prairie wind, bipod, and factory ammo in ANY rifle! He was really pleased though...he'd never even fired a group before, so it was nice for him to confirm that his rifle could shoot well. He took a cutout of the group, and asked me to sign it. I'm sure the benchresters would be laughing about that one...half and inch at 100 yards is decent, but it certainly won't go in the record books! When we left, we gave him 100 rounds of Black Hills as a gift...of course, this was in our best political interests, as well...

Got the Bug,

Glad to here you had a successful trip in spite of the weather.

I started out my pd hunting near Mobridge almost 25 years ago. I remember that first dog town like it was yesterday.

I also remember a trip to SD when I shot a grand total of 7 rounds because of rain. On a trip to ND I remember having to keep the pick-up running with the heater on because I didn't bring a snow mobile suit. (run over to the shooting bench, shoot once, retreat to the pick-up, wait for a half hour for another pd to show). Didn't shoot 30 rounds that day. Less than a hundred for the whole trip. You know things are bad when you have to set out cans to shoot at. Had several other trips totally flooded out. Never made the trip at all! Once again, glad yours was a success.


Later, pdhntr

Got_the_bug: I have been there before myself! The weather can be the pits it seems just when you need it to be pleasant for your Hunt! I have literally been "stuck" in the gumbo on several different Varmint Hunts as well as Big Game Hunts! My record for "gumbo stuck" though was from a Big Game Hunt 3 years ago where we were stuck in the rain and could not move our 4x4 trucks even with chains on for 6 days! Finally in the middle of the sixth night the gumbo ground dried a bit and that allowed us to move our trucks with chains and 4 wheel drive the 40 miles to pavement but it took us 5 hours of misery and torment to do so!
Last year I went on a Prairie Dog Hunt and waited on a gravelled county road for two days to see if the gumbo would dry out enough to allow 4 wheeling passage. It didn't - I went home cursing the weather man!
This year so far I have had two PD Hunts cancelled without even leaving home due to late spring rains and high winds!
I am waiting for obligations and the weather to cooperate at the same time so I can head out for PD land ASAP!
I have shot along side those slam bangers countless times in the Varmint fields and I am constantly amazed at their accuracy and reliability! I have never owned one! Its the Scottish in me I guess. I just can not imagine be able to control myself with one and would certainly run up an ammo bill that would break me or keep me chained to my reloading bench!
I am glad you finally got some shooting in!
Long live the Fireball!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

The last time I went P-Dog hunting it was a cloudy day early in the morning the wind was not blowing so we decided to stay. We had a great time shooting with plenty of P-Dogs popping out at various distances. We stayed into the late afternoon until it started raining and decided it was time to leave. On the drive home the hail started coming down and it was raining so hard that I couldn�t see 5ft in front of the truck. I dropped my friend at his house and by the time I got home the tornado sirens where blasting and my family headed to the storm shelter. That afternoon a tornado took out part of McConnell Air force base and leveled a trailer court in Andover. I drove back a week later to see what damage was caused by the tornado that is when I realized the tornado had been on my tail on the way back from our P-Dog trip. I didn�t have a chance to go back for a month or so by then the farmer had cyanided all of the P-Dog holes and filled them in with dirt and there were no P-Dogs to be found.

I've been out three times this year and first it was the feirce wind for three days....got a lot of shots but the wind was real tricky....percentage of hits was way down. Next trip it was rain and wind together....good thing the farm house was close...let us go back and forth between storms. Last time out it was 10" of mud.....we made it in to the field but everytime was a gamble. Tons of shots and lots of hits cause the field itself was firm ground....it was getting there that was the challenge.
Going again in two weeks and the weather should be ok....probably hot.....
So thus far I have not been shut down but there have been some pretty rough days........VG I second the Fireball!