I have been talking with some of the ranchers located in south east Mt. the last few weeks trying to set up some pd trips for this spring and summer.

It seems as though I have lost for the time being one of the best towns I have ever seen which we called the "Viagra town". The plague wiped it out. It was the most prolific town I have ever seen. The report is not a single pd survived.

From the information I have received, the plague is widespread in some areas and has not affected other areas at all. At least not yet.

Also access has been affected as many of the creek crossings have washed out with the abundant rainfall and it will take some time for the ranch hands to get them back in shape.

I was told by one rancher that there were two years that anyone could remember that there was this much rain. 1944 and 1978. All said they have tall grass already that is hiding the pds quite well. In one area the ticks are worse than they have ever seen them, to the point where they are killing the rabbits.

Jim

Well this good to know before I drive 1200 miles to Billings to find out that it all sucks this year, particularly at $3.00 to $3.50 a gallon!!!!

you might have saved me $400.00 with this post there pdhunter!

I've heard of a few other reports of the plague in Eastern MT. This really sucks.

Plenty of ticks in South Central MT this year also, lots and lots of rain.

Plenty of gophers though!

Thanks for the report.

There are plenty of gophers to shoot NW of Great Falls. Try the Choteau,Brady/Conrad, Tiber area. When I was home on leave all I did was ask around at the farms/ranches. Never got turned down. There's lots of grass. The kid and I wore out our guns and made some ranchers happy.

I have hunted p dogs in that are for years I lost several great ranchs to the plague.

It was a real schock to have square miles of dogs just gone form one year to the next.

But I just keep going back finding some dogs to shoot.

The forecast for this last Wednesday (?) was for a trace of rain. They got over 2 inches. Good for them.

My brother, father and nephew just got back from a trip out there. My 81 year old father, (shoots a 243 and a 204) said "it was a great trip, a whole lot better than the alternative at my age". In spite of his logic, they didn't get to shoot much as they were restricted to a few towns they could get to. I am headed out next week and am expecting to do more hunting than shooting.

Jim

pdhtr, You talking the Miles City/ Cohagen area?? The Missouri River Breaks?? GHD

Does anyone go up in the Texas panhandle p-doging? I go to a ranch that is North of Dumas and I have been told all the p-dogs are gone due to the plauge. I will be going p-doging at the end of July, so I need to find a new place to go. If anyone has any ideas please let me know. me and my wife go every year in July and looking forward to it.

Just got back a few days ago from the first trip and shooting was good in some area and bad in most.

First of all I must say thank you to a group of guys that drove out to that area from Coeur D'Alene Idaho. I don't know these fellows but they spent as much time on the road as I did and we met on a dog town that they had been shooting for many years according to them. I was there first and they respectfully moved on to another town and reported back later that the town they went to was hit by the plague. They are likely not members of this forum, but I feel I should mention the respect that was given under the trying conditions.

GHD: Yes. You want to see where I am going personally?

I just did a count and of 21 individual towns that I shot (last year) 17 of them have been wiped out by the plague.

I spent most of my time out there hunting, not shooting, and hence the handle pdhntr, not pdshtr. I have played this game long enough to know that hunting them is far more important than shooting them.

The towns that I did find that were good were towns that were isolated. Makes sense, right?

There are good times and there are bad times.

I will post a run down of the trip soon, but I have a family of bobcats that moved in to my wood pile that are taking up most of my free time at the moment. I will post on them also.

Jim

Plague is common in some parts of Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska. Plague and poison has greatly reduced my prairie dog shooting this year. Before comming out to what was prairie dog country contact the state game and fish to find out where the prairie dogs are.

talking to a friend this week and his favorite town in S.D. was hit with plague too. also wet conditions, didn't get to much shooting done. i've been to swamped at work to go this year, gues maybe that's OK, but the callous on my trigger finger is starting to peel off

This would be a good year to save your reloading time and money. That is what I am doing. I have enough reloads to do a second trip and that will be it for the year. I will concentrate on Bob's and 'yotes this winter.

My son and I will be leaving late July or early August for another week in Mt. and Wy. We will be scouting for more pd towns but I am figuring we will be hauling hay for the rancher for most of the time we are out there. It will still be better than looking at trees.

Even though things are bad I will shoot a couple for you Butchloc.

Jim

At our annual Red Mist event, now up to number eleven, we had only a fraction of the dog's to shoot as in years past. I would estimate that 90% of the pd's in my areas are gone, all to the plague.

It was a wet spring, lots of grass and my guess is the plague is God's way of protecting the prairie from a population explosion. After several dry years, it's not a surprise that we would see a population down turn.