I have never been prairie dog hunting and live too far from it to drive at today's gas prices. I do have enough frequent flyer miles to take a trip or two. I was wondering about a prairie dog location that is within and hour or two driving distance of an airport that is on American Airline's or one of it's partner's routes.

Your best bet for a fly in and shoot within a short distance would probably be Cheyenne WY.

Cannot disagree with Cheyenne. Wyo does not require, last I knew, any license. Outside the "tree hugger land" (government offices areas like cheyenne) you will be welcomed with open arms. You are like Orkin coming to your home and offering to kill off the mice in your basement for free.

You might also look into Rapid City, Sd. for the fly in. In Wyo, between Douglas and Newcastle, there was a p'dog town 26 miles in diameter, just to the west of Rapid C.

Never got to Montana, ran out of ammo (used up), in Wyo. East MT has grass and p'dogs.

There are public lands in ND around Theo Roosevelt Nat. Park. No idea about air ports.

And in SW corner of KS there is a nat. grassland. Cimmaron? You could explore the fly-in ops there too.

Beware: Plague in the furballs. Leave the pieces for the scavangers or get a bigger rifle or ?? Transmitted by fleas. If you must have a trophy, bring the hazard protection materials.

BEWARE!!! There is a "tree hugger" project to re introduce black footed ferrets to the wild. Areas closed to shooting! Weasel that was about wiped out by a house cat disease, I am told by fed biologists. There are areas closed to shooting. Weasels only like to hunt, kill, eat p'dogs. REPEAT: CLOSED to shooting. Shoot there, fed crime. You don't wanna play that game!

I would call ahead. Lots of help from Chambers of Commerce in small towns in these areas. Luck

skb2706 and iiranger,
Thanks for the tips. Especially about the Chamber's of Commerce. I remember being in New Mexico in 1990 and several people being killed by the hantavirus in the 4 corners area. I remember laughing at kids referring to it as the rat turd disease. I also remember something about the ferrets in Arizona.
Only problem with flying is how to haul lots of ammo and rifles with me.

quote:

Only problem with flying is how to haul lots of ammo and rifles with me.

You're limited to 11 pounds of ammunition (if they bother to check). In .22 Centerfire, this works out to about 400 rounds, depending on exact caliber, which is enough for a couple of days. If you take a .223 and/or .22-250, plenty of factory ammunition will likely be available at your destination.

American is going to charge you for your checked baggage these days, and I don't know what kind of "surcharge" they may come up with for rifle cases.

You might try the Chambers of Commerce in places like Dumas and Dalhart, Texas, both of which are less than two hours from Amarillo. There are a lot of guys who do part time "guiding" for prairie dogs. Hiring one of them would probably be cheaper than renting a car for a "do it yourself" hunt.

Another advantage of using a "guide" is that you could ship him a supply of ammunition just prior to your hunt and he could ship your brass back to you.

quote:

Originally posted by iiranger:
Cannot disagree with Cheyenne. Wyo does not require, last I knew, any license. Outside the "tree hugger land" (government offices areas like cheyenne) you will be welcomed with open arms. You are like Orkin coming to your home and offering to kill off the mice in your basement for free.

When I was a kid growing up in Wyoming prairie dog shooting was considered to be something that some ranchers did, but it was mostly an out of stater thing.

My parents live in Wyoming and I spend a lot of time there every year.

You will not be welcome with open arms on any ranch, you are not allowed to hunt in Wyoming on any piece of private property without permission. Most of it will be posted, and if it has cattle on it you won't be allowed to hunt at all.

Prairie dogs are not completely hated, by everyoone in Wyoming.

You need to drive out, or rent a truck that will get you out into the countryside to do this.

Shooting PDs on public land is a good option, lots of good suggestions are listed above. I would call the game and fish and the National Forest Service or BLM office in the areas are you intending to shoot to make sure there is not some moritorum on PDs right now for either PD conservation, Burrowing Owls, or Black Footed Ferrets.

Good luck, enjoy our American west, and don't burn up your barrel.

You can order goverment maps from the BLM that show what is private and what is public. If it is checkerboarded private/public that means it is private so don't enter those properties.

Fly in to BFE CO and i show you places to shoot......

Addendum -2-

#1). With the airlines so annal and mercenary, I was thinking of Black Hills Ammo in Rapid City, SD. Never needed them, but if they don't have a factory store, I suspect they can direct you to a friendly FFL. If you gun likes their ammo, might want to reserve a case. I won't promise you a 500 round day. That depends. I will promise that there have been 500 round days. (And with one rifle, new barrel time!)

#2). Couple decades back, in Douglas Wyo, I was shown a government list of ranchers begging for shooters to come out and thin the herds of furballs. It was well handled/"thumbed." 4 pages, as I recall, typed, double spaced. (Yes,
"typed.") Federal rules permitted the revealing of the rancher's name and address but NOT phone #. It was on top of a phone book, also well thumbed. While I am sure that there are "friends of the prairie dog" -??- You will also find those who cannot be rid of them quick enough. Then there are those just lonely for someone to talk to. Please leave a "gratutity" for those who share their land. Ham? Fruit basket (well, not around Broke Back Mountain), case of Coke? (the drink), Bottle of ??? like that. Please.

LUCK!

quote:

Originally posted by iiranger:
Addendum -2-

#1). With the airlines so annal and mercenary, I was thinking of Black Hills Ammo in Rapid City, SD. Never needed them, but if they don't have a factory store, I suspect they can direct you to a friendly FFL. If you gun likes their ammo, might want to reserve a case. I won't promise you a 500 round day. That depends. I will promise that there have been 500 round days. (And with one rifle, new barrel time!)

#2). Couple decades back, in Douglas Wyo, I was shown a government list of ranchers begging for shooters to come out and thin the herds of furballs. It was well handled/"thumbed." 4 pages, as I recall, typed, double spaced. (Yes,
"typed.") Federal rules permitted the revealing of the rancher's name and address but NOT phone #. It was on top of a phone book, also well thumbed. While I am sure that there are "friends of the prairie dog" -??- You will also find those who cannot be rid of them quick enough. Then there are those just lonely for someone to talk to. Please leave a "gratutity" for those who share their land. Ham? Fruit basket (well, not around Broke Back Mountain), case of Coke? (the drink), Bottle of ??? like that. Please.

LUCK!

With a name and address it is possible to get most folks phone number by using "Switchboard"
Best thing I ever gave a rancher was a 3 D cell Maglite. It worked about 15 years until he died.

#1). Maglite, GREAT IDEA. It was, long ago, that those in the wide open spaces didn't see much of the luxuries of civilization... Now with Wally World everywhere that is less. My point was the idea...

#2). Internet and "switchboard.com" or "whitepages.com" or ??? are about 20 years old along with sidespread public use of the internet. This was before that a bit. Big computers were in use, but the desk top, rare, and the lap top unheard of for all but the very, very rich. Gave my sister a catalogue for the museum of computers (if she can find one). They had a 286 for $3,000.-! Showing my age. luck.

I am in Rapid City, SD and can give you what ever info you are after or I can direct you to the place to get that info.

Ammo is NOT a problem around here. two large places in town to buy stuff and an even larger will be opening this fall. email me at sigshooter13 at yahoo.com