I would like to shoot Prarie Dogs this year and I am wondering if any of you can reccomend a guide service. I will be flying anyway, so state is not important. I will bring rifles, ammo, optics, but no other equiptment, so I need a full-service hunt with food and a place to stay.

I want to be able to shoot ALOT of them...at 17HMR range to all the way out there.

Any ideas for me??

Thanks!

South Dakota, On the indian lands? I believe its called Rose Bud? Do a google and then contact them. They will charge a fee to hunt on their lands and I believe you could find someone to guide for you?

If you want to shoot in Montana you might try Sage and Sun Outfitters in Forsyth. Seems like their web site is in tough shape though. I think the guy's name is Dave Potts. About 6 or 7 years ago a buddy of mine brought a guy from Japan and one from Brazil and asked me to hook him up. I went along. It was a gas. Tons of prairie dogs, the town was miles and miles long. you stay in his house in the basement, basic but decent, he cooks breakfast and brings lunch and snacks. Way fun, tons of shooting and you avoid having to knock on doors or shooting on over shot public land.

Best of luck.

#1). Try http://www.ultimateprairiedoghunting.com/

#2). Beware.
a). There is plague in the furballs. Don't handle pieces unless you have the biologists kit, gloves, flea powder, etc. They say they can cure it now with antibiotics but why bother? Leave the pieces for the scavangers. Recycle!
b). There are seasons somewhere. (Like a no kill time for Orkin when they go after the mice in your home, or roaches...Imo). Don't go afould of them or you could "do time" / "pay fines"... You'll be SORRY...
c). Black footed ferrets, a weasel, only want to eat p'dogs and are endangered/protected. Harm one and it is Fed time if you are caught!
d). Locals mean well, but they do not "stay on top" of populations and do not what to lose business, etc. If the population is down, they won't tell you if they know. Best check with gov types. Extension. USDA/ADCA (gov hunter) is on top of this and you is free help to him/her.

I never got to Montana. No license required in Wyo, last I checked and I ran out of ammo (reloads, M's). Supposedly a "town" between Douglas and Newcastle 26 miles in Diameter. Areas now closed for the ferrets (who hunt at night, makes real sense...)

Damn fool ag types still think less dogs more grass for cows. More recent research seems to think new grass, cut by dog and re growing, more nourishing...

Good Luck. Happy Trails. Wish I was going along.

Oh yes, South center SD, Rosebud Rez (Reservation in local speak). To west, Pine Ridge. North Center, Eagle Butte area, Standing Rock, Northern Cheyenne. Pierre, home of VHA, a club with a magazine, near Lower Brule... Better fishing I suspect (Ohae, dammed lake on Missouri river).

b).Most big game guides offer p'dog shooting as a fill in when a customer has filled a tag(s). They will fix you up in the off season for big game. Nicer accomodations, more accomodations, more experience. Grandson of one of my grandfather's army buddies (WW I, yes I), Ron Scherbarth, Chadron, NE. Enjoy.

Leopard

You might give Perkins outfitters in Miles City, MT or Powder River outfitter in Broadus MT a call.
Both have hundreds of square miles to hunt on.

Good luck

ii

You might lisen to the "Damn fool ag type".
What do prairie dogs eat? What to cows eat ?
Does grass cut by a dog regrow better or is it any more nourishing than that cut by a cow ?
Cows pay the bills.

Hal

Check with your airlines, but in the past I have been limited to 11 pounds of ammo. Not enough for a pd shoot.

quote:

You might lisen to the "Damn fool ag type".
What do prairie dogs eat? What to cows eat ?
Does grass cut by a dog regrow better or is it any more nourishing than that cut by a cow ?
Cows pay the bills.

I'm a cattleman, and have been all of my life. Cattle like to graze in concentrated areas when ample forage is available because that's where they've clipped the grass and the tender regrowth is the most palatable and nutritious. They tend to eat these areas exclusivly, thus allowing grass in other areas to grow tall, course, and unpalatable. Then when the weather dries out, all they're left with is course grass they won't eat, and which has inadequate nutritional value even if they would eat it.

Prairie dog towns provide palatable grass when other places don't. Millions of bison got fat and happy living among billions of prairie dogs. Thinking that the grass consumed by prairie dogs equals grass unavailable to cattle is simplistic.

To expand on the "damn fool ag types"...

Over 100 years ago the US government showed up "to help" the farmers. It has been down hill since.

At one time the Fed recommendation was to collect the manure and dump in local water course, stream, river, etc... Try that today... No I am not joking... Look it up...

Today it is chemicals by baboon bureaucrats. One guy I know put down atrazine, gov required, BUT it did not rain and the atrazine was still there. Next season they required planting of alfalfa. Guess what atrazine does to alfalfa. He had to but used minimum to minimize losssss)

Rotational grazing goes back about 100 years in France. Andy Voisin? I think that is the spelling. And the New no till... Been around long time too.

Alan Savory, formerly of Rodesia (and chased out by the local, native, black people) and now of Arizona also proved, among cape buffalo...

Cow or bull urinates. It is like a huge garden hose. Couple gallons. He mapped these spots. 1 year later when rains came the grass shot out of the ground. BUT it had high mineral content and tasted bitter. Bovines ate it once and id'd it as bad tasting and this grass got to go to seed. Seeds incorporated by cloven hooves trampling thru. and next rainy season? Lots of grass.

Now you think Monsanto? Cargill? etc. are promoting this. No. Chemicals (for which we are paying and will pay more) and now genetic engineering...

If the farm types would trust less and think harder, they would save a ton, go broke less often, and the world would be better offfff (and there would be more p'dogs. Had a Fed biologist tell me that in the 20th century 90% of the p'dogs that died, died of government spread poison...) (He also told me that there were two groups of Indians from SD in DC. One wanted the gov. to poison all the p'dogs so they would have better pastures to rent while the other group wanted money to promote shooting p'dogs... Sounds like a herd of Chicago Democrats... As Will Rogers put it, "I do not belong to an organized political party..." GRIN... "I'm a Democrat!) Happy trails. I go back to Churchill who said, "Democracy is the WORST form of government..." Hump, Hump..."Except for all the rest..." Luck to us all.

Ranger you sure did hijack and shit verbose wet poo all over this thread.

I am not knowlegeable about Montana P-dog guides.

I HAVE hunted P-dogs there though. Never learned about guides because everywhere I stopped, from gas stations to BLM offices, would give me the names, locations, phone #s, etc. of ranchers from Great Falls to Big Sandy who were tickled to see my partner and I show up to shoot them. (The BLM offices each maintained a list updated daily of local ranchers who had asked them to direct any P-dog shooters their way. One REALLY helpful BLM office was the one on the highway, just west of town at Havre.)

One guy we asked about where we might be able to hunt very early one Sunday morning even closed his bait shop (which he had just opened for the day), took us to his home, fed us breakfast, and had his brother come over to help us out. His brother was the country road grader operator (pretty much all gravel roads around there). He drew us some maps showing us where the bigger, less shot up, dog towns were.

To quote the last lady rancher on whose place we shot for two days, "Hope you boys kill all them damned things....!!"

Other than our gasoline and cartridges we didn't have to pay a penny for our hunts. Several of them also invited us back to hunt deer.

Great state, great people.

AC: Your story reminds me quite a bit of my father-in-law's experience hunting pheasants in South Dakota just a few months after the end of WW II.

He and two companions simply took off in the old sedan with their shotguns for SD. They drove around until they found the best looking area and simply knocked on a farmhouse door. The farmer agreed to put them up in his basement, his wife fed them three meals a day, they were allowed to shoot all of the pheasants they wanted on the farmer's land, and he let them fill up an empty deep freezer with their birds. They paid him some very nominal token for the room & board, and returned happily to Texas after three or four days of shooting more pheasants than you could shake a stick at.

True, things have changed in more than 60 years, but there are still a lot of friendly, generous, and accomodating people across the countryside.

You might try
www.wyomingprairiedoghunting.com or
www.texasvarminthunting.com

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:
AC: Your story reminds me quite a bit of my father-in-law's experience hunting pheasants in South Dakota just a few months after the end of WW II.

He and two companions simply took off in the old sedan with their shotguns for SD. They drove around until they found the best looking area and simply knocked on a farmhouse door. The farmer agreed to put them up in his basement, his wife fed them three meals a day, they were allowed to shoot all of the pheasants they wanted on the farmer's land, and he let them fill up an empty deep freezer with their birds. They paid him some very nominal token for the room & board, and returned happily to Texas after three or four days of shooting more pheasants than you could shake a stick at.

True, things have changed in more than 60 years, but there are still a lot of friendly, generous, and accomodating people across the countryside.

My last PD hunt there was only less than 10 years ago...the people still just as friendly, just as happy to see shooters of PDs.

National grasslands, national parks and BLM offices or employees are not currently allowed to give out information about prairie dog towns. The tree huggers are calling those shots. Small town gas stations and especially feed stores will frequently be helpful.

Swamp shooter is right. Damn fool bunny huggers, BUT the "cheat" here is to find the government hunter. To them you is free help. Don't look like a terrorist or other fool and they should be able to "connect" you. Just don't shoot your mouth off and get them in trouble. Farm stores know where they "hang" and can be approached... Luck.