I read of people shooting PD's until there barrels
are too hot from shooting. Where is a place to fire in this volume. I live near Sun Valley, Idaho. I'd
prefer not to have a guided hunt for these little flea hotels. Although the local guides can get you into the best places. I read that in some parts of Montana which isn't far from here, has volumes of PD's. Out of the way public land is my interest.
I've seen in the photo's shooters with the tables, would a resonable person bring a shooting stand with them.? Is the ground that flat? or is this just for long range purposes ?

In those area where hundreds of PD's are killed in a day, the coyotes and other creatures must be fat as pigs, and I would think that the place would stink? . Seems a bit unhealthy. Those who have shot like this what are the facts. Where I shoot I will shoot maybe 5 in a draw, then move to the next draw. It seems to me that 800 dead PD's is a mess. And when my 30-06 110 gr. vmax hits them there are just parts every where. I have a .223 this doesn't make quite a mess .
Whatcha think ?

Don't worry about the mess, nature will cleaan it up. In fact I have seen white tailed PDs eating their dead. Coyotes, badgers, ferrets and bugs have to eat to.
As to where to hunt? Don't expect more than general directions such as NW Wyoming. There are a lot of good, friendly people on this board but nobody wants to give away a favorite fishing hole. Over the past 10 years I have recorded nearly 50 prairie dog towns using a GPS. They cover three states and five species of Prairie Dogs. I down loaded the data on to maps using the National Geographic maps software. I print out maps to plan my hunts. I would not trade those maps for a new rifle. At the end of next month I will be taking an 11 day PD hunt. I will be covering some new ground near where I spotted some PDs from the freeway on a recent trip. I hope to add new towns to my maps. Ya gotta earn good fishin holes.

Thanks for reply.
I know better than to ask about fishings holes.
So let me rephrase that question. Is there public lands in SW Montana that contain good populations of PD'S. Is it worth my driving around that region. I do like Montana regardless. In our area their are no true prairie dogs like I use to see in Colorado.
We have a few species here that act just like the PDs except they are smaller, several species of ground squirrels . A larger one is 10 inches standing. Today I lost count of the amount I saw . So guess my need to travel more then 10 miles for varmint is a mute point now. Winter is finially ending and they are coming out in adundance.
Got to go , looking for bears this evening.
MJN

Just returned (in fact, still too tired to shed my long underwear) from a 2-day shoot in Harney County, OR. -- my first -- for sage rats, which I believe are the Belding (?) branch of the ground squirrel family.

The weather at 4,000 feet was cold, windy, broken cloud with rain/snow squalls all around us -- but none overhead. Only the rats' severe case of cabin fever gave us any opportunity to shoot at all. Still, I was amazed at their numbers whenever the sun managed to emerge for 15-30 minutes duration, which it did a few times. I shot my .17 hummer (scoped), plus a 1938 gallery 62 with Aguila shorts (1950 fps)for rats at under 100 feet. The leader in our little group was a class act from central Oregon who really whacked 'em (some out to 150 yards) with a bull-barrel .22 and a cranked-up scope. A jaunt across his killing fields was not unlike a game of hopscotch. Twenty in a row was his best unbroken string on Saturday.

The amount of devastation these rats can do to an alfalfa planting is quite alarming. Every rat's paunch was stuffed with legume; I counted 14 teats on a dead female, which says something about litter size. And yes, many a carcass mysteriously disappeared into the critters' tunnels, from whence emanated the sounds of munching. Or so said one of us, over his own lunch.

In all, a strange experience. Like shooting fleas off a giant dog's back. The hummer's virtual lack of recoil lets the shooter stay focused, and I witnessed 5 propellors -- the first coming as quite a shock ("Did I really do that, or are these wascally wodents practicing back-flips?").

My thanks to a gent named Mike Gibson. Are you out there, Mike? Can you hear me? Did all the copper come out?

I haven't seen many varmint hunting reports, so I didn't know if they are done here. But, seeing the post above I though that I'd add one also.

I have access to 1800 acres of private land here in South-Central Kalifornia and swat the pasture rats when I get a few extra hours to play.

I went out Saturday morning and the weather was in the low 50's with 15-20 mph winds coming out of the north, so I set up in the lee of a hill and shot with the wind, down a little valley.

The first gun is a left handed, Savage 110 (1982 vintage) chambered in 243 Winchester and re-stocked in a fiberglass MPI stock. On top of that I have a Weaver V-16 adjustable objective scope with fine crosshairs and an 1/8 minute dot. I'm shooting Hornady ballistic tip, 58 grain V-max bullets with 44 grains of IMR4064 powder running right at 3600 fps.

The second gun is a Ruger 10/22 SS with the factory plastic stock and a Weaver 2.5-7 power variable rimfire scope on top, using Remington golden bullet hollowpoints.

I warmed up by literally exploding a half a dozen rats at about 150-200 yards and then let the big gun rest while I went over the hill with the 22 and stalked the squirrels sunning in front of their dens. I took around 10 of them when a jackrabbit popped up at about 20 yards and cut right in front of me. I switched the scope down to 2.5 power and waited for him to stop, which they always do. At about 40 yards he stopped to see what was chasing him and I let him have a hollow point right in the boiler room. He took off again (jacks are tough) and I hit him twice more before finishing him at about 60 yards.

I went back to the 243 and spotted one of those Grandma big pasture rats sitting up at 300 yards. Since I'm sighted in 1" high at 200 yards I put the 1/8 minute dot on her smile and the gun delivered the plastic tipped slug directly into her chest. Even at 300 yards the Hornady bullet literally flipped her two feet in the air and cut her in half.

I spent the next three hours alternating between long range sniping with the 243 and stalking the rats with the 22 rimfire. I finished the morning going through about 200 rounds of 22rf and 60 rounds of 243 handloads.

well this may not be what you want but I seen on tv some guys in wyoming shooting 1000's of dogs in "cities" with hawks coming in and even yotes cleaning up the mess. These are rodents so believe it or not they also eat each other. I took down the number of Steve Sheafer outfitters. I have no idea what he charges but most of them are around 100 bucks a day. His number is 378-240-0307. like I said I seen him on tv and it seems like a good outfit but i have never been there yet.

Thanks for the replies.
especially the "Steve Sheafer" one

absolutely, bring your bench, some water, a cooler(for the water, and in case you have to toss the ammo in there now and then)...and a couple good varmint guns. i toss em all in the back of the truck, find a spot, set up the bench, put up my shade umbrella, then my buddy and i take turns shooting and spotting. we usually put about 200 rds downrange a day. if we are on a good town. use a different town each day. we have a few ranchs in OK that we hunt on and only go once a year, so the dogs are plentiful.

Mjn...Let me know how the steve sheafer thing goes....I'm in utah and would like to try it sometime if it is cool