...than SD. Last 2 years we've gone to Eagle Butte, SD and had a great time, made some friends and found several places to shoot. Some free and some not so free. Anyways, the reason we were going to SD is to meet a friend and it looks like that won't be happening anymore so I'd like to find a place closer to GA with better accomodations. The one motel in Eagle Butte is a shit hole, to put it mildly.

Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Prairie dogs are where you find them.



Kansas is closer to GA than SD. I doubt you'll get the same number of shots per day, though.

George

In my experience, numbers and access wise, SD or western ND are where its at..... you can shoot colorado, or kansas, or nebraska, or even north texas, but in general there arent as many easy towns, and you will certainly be paying for access...

There are plenty of good towns in any of the states covered by the range map above. Some places, like S. Dakota and parts of Nebraska/Kansas may have a greater acreage of towns, but the quality of your hunt depends not so much on where as on which particular towns you our your guide have access to.

It's a helluva long trip to any PD country from Georgia, so I'd advise simply to go wherever you can locate access to a good town or towns. The closest to in terms of hours on the road would be Northwest Texas/Oklahoma. It is nearly all private land, so your best bet would be to locate a well-recommended guide who has access to some good towns. Yes, you'll have to pay something for the service/access, but it is very nominal compared to your travel and ammunition costs. If you just need access and don't want guide service (other than to point to the town and say "There ya' go, fellas"), then the cost will be very nominal.

It's also not a bad idea to pick out some medium-small cities in PD country (about 5,000 pop or so) and call or email the local Chamber of Commerce inquiring about PD hunting and accomodations. Those little C of C's are always excited to be contacted and can be very helpful.

However, in terms of the current year, be forewarned that most of the PD habitat in N. Texas, OK, and S. KS suffered greatly from last year's severe drought and is not expected to offer much if any shooting until PD numbers have a year or so to recover.

Forgot to mention: On the map above, draw a line from the S.E. corner of the Texas Panhandle (where the 100th Meridian intersects the Red River) and the S.E. corner of New Mexico. You'll find very little in huntable prairie dog towns south of that line, so concentrate your search on areas north of it.

Re: North Texas prairie dogs. I corresponded with an acquaintance who just returned from a weekend PD hunt near northern extent of the Texas Panhandle. He described the hunt as "worthwhile", but numbers as about 1/3rd of normal. Although plague is an ongoing problem in the vicinity, the landowner attributed the decline in numbers to the drought.

Just curious why the p-dogs hadn't migrated to the Midwest? I wonder if the habitat isn't good for them? Plenty to eat that's for sure!! farmers would have a fit if if they did move here

quote:

Originally posted by oneshotonly:
Just curious why the p-dogs hadn't migrated to the Midwest? I wonder if the habitat isn't good for them? Plenty to eat that's for sure!! farmers would have a fit if if they did move here

Prairie dogs have to have fairly significant expanses of uncultivated, non-forested grassland for their burrows. In the midwest if it is not plowed it is likely treed. This leaves little if any potential PD habitat.

Prairie dogs have never (at least not in know history) inhabited anything east of the Mississippi. When Lewis and Clark made their trek the began to see PD's somewhere up the Missouri from Booone's Lick and they were a completely new animal to all in the party. They captured some (lord knows how!) and sent them back with a group of early returnees, eventually getting a couple of live dogs back to President Jefferson in the White House. Until Lewis and Clark stumbled back to the Missisippi three years later, the prairie dogs and early notes from the expedition were about all the evidence that Western Civilization had of their trip.

#1). P'dogs are the tree squirrels of the grasslands. No trees so they live in holes like rats, mice, rabbits, etc... ALL cousins. Problem is predation. Nice meal for cats, dogs, etc. Not to mention flying raptors. With cover available in treed areas they do not survive in useful numbers. Knew one fella made a deal with a land owner. Did not want them all killed with poison so they put out a number of straw bales (cheap then) and this cover permitted predators to sneak up, grab a meal, keep numbers down etc.

#2). Once shot with a man from CO in SD. He said that the "sales" of SD was over done. He would never travel again. Just as good a shooting in CO but no "sales" effort. In fact the tree huggers in the city... yuck. One tv special showed "catch and release." So if you can find small town assistance in CO, KS or SW NE... and it is there, just not marketed for beans; chamber of commerce, etc. Great shooting, just a lot harder to find. Luck. Happy trails.

PS NE (nebraska) had a damn fool nazi law from around 1900. All, repeat ALL prairie dogs had to be killed by 1 Nov each year. Big pain so no one talked about it and the annoyed took care as they saw fit. --LAW REPEALED in 1998 (by bunny huggers for the black footed ferret)???-- Still you ask about p'dogs and they look at you like you might be a NARC or other form of vermin. LUCK.