A prairie dog hunt. Part one

[davecole]

Wind. 

I hate it.

But if you are going to hunt prairie dogs in NW Kansas you might as well learn how to shoot in it or be miserable.

We are finishing up day four up here where I swear you can make out the curvature of the earth. Nothing to stop the wind except barb wire fences.

We hunted here last year and the dogs count is again high but so is wind speed. More so than we recall in the past. We did have one afternoon the wind dropped below 5 mph for about two hours and the number of 100 yards + kills went up significantly. The remainder of our time here has been no less than 10 mph. Oh well, enough about the wind. At least it didn’t rain on us...

Being out in the fields and away from home for ten days straight, we all brought a backup gun. You never know what may happen. Our first year we had a gun suddenly and for no apparent reason decided to release all of its air through the fill port. So if we think we may break it or lose it, we take a spare. 

Our guns of choice are;

Joe’s FX .22 Crown shooting the new JSB Knockouts at 950s looking for targets through his MTC Viper Pro. His backup is his FX Impact tuned by AZ shooting a variety of slugs. Mark is shooting a Wildcat Mk1 .25 using JSB Hades at 925fps and glassing dogs with his Athlon Argos with his backup being a Taipan .25 Standard. I am shooting my .25 Cricket with a Georgia Airguns power tune slinging JSB Kings @ 1050fps with a Athlon Argos mounted on top. The Taipan Veteran Compact In .25 is my backup. 

We continue to learn something every year we go on our prairie dog hunt. The very first year I hunted, I could hear ‘em but couldn’t see ‘em. I learned you had to be well camo’d and be patience. A quality range finder is a must and you really need to know your holdovers (or clicks if you’re a clicker)at distances you and your gun are capable of shooting. 

If you’ve not hunted prairie dogs, one of the things they do is, they will just put their eyes just above their mound and “yip” alerting other dogs. Sometimes they won’t alert. They will just watch you. With heads about 2-3” in size, at distances beyond 50-75 yards, particularly in windy conditions, can be a challenge. 

We also would go out into the middle of the field and just sit and wait scanning the mounds. They got used to us being there after 30 minutes of waiting. Occasionally, a few would pop up behind us only to be shot at. 

Here is a collage of a few dogs that wondered out of the safety of their burrows only to not make it back.

We arrived in Colorado this evening. Weather is promising. Small chance of rain but no incessantly wind.

I’ll be doing a follow up report this week.

 

[L.Leon]

Good stuff, despite the wind... you guys are doing what many of us wish we could. Good for you... thanks for sharing.

 

[Bob_O]

Good stuff, despite the wind... you guys are doing what many of us wish we could. Good for you... thanks for sharing.

Exactly. 

Maybe I can try it this summer. I'll be taking a couple of months off to travel and shoot.

 

[jaird]

Good stuff, despite the wind... you guys are doing what many of us wish we could. Good for you... thanks for sharing.

Exactly. 

Maybe I can try it this summer. I'll be taking a couple of months off to travel and shoot.

Wow Bob...”couple of months off”, wife and I used to go to Montana for 2 weeks to shoot PDs and we had a great time. 2 months would be outstanding. So many places to go and time to do it. More power to you. Hope you have a great time. 

 

[Ranchibi]

Happy hunting! That looks very fun, enjoy and be safe!

 

[apqsdad]

I haven’t yet had the chance to pop prairie dogs. It sure would be nice if more of the powder burning community would have the opportunity to see how much fun some critter control can be with a quality air rifle. I only have one conventional varmint rifle now and have improved shooting it. This is almost all because the PCP allows so much versatility in when and how much I can shoot that trigger mechanics have improved.

 

[koodjack]

You said you have a taipan veteran compact, can it kill these at a 100yard? Ty

 

[davecole]

Speaking to hunting prairie dogs, yes sir, it can.
Of course typically, the exposure, distances and wind would ultimately determined if I took the shot. 

Know, we typically encountered three different target exposures; 

The standing shot was almost a guaranteed hit out to 125 yards. I had several shots make contact around 140 yards. 

The feeding shot was where they would be on all fours eating grass and grazing and a shot I’d take out to 100 yards where I had a half mildot tolerance on hold over. I’d have to say the success rate on these shots were in the 75% range.

And we had a lot of “peekaboo shots”. A peekaboo shot is where they would just peek over the edge of their burrow and yip. The peekaboo shots were more luck and skill at 100 yards as your target is like hitting a golf ball on a pile of snow because they’re color camouflages them on their mounds. These would have been a 10-20% kill at 100 yards. Out to 75 yards, the percentages were more than doubled.

I had it zeroed at 60yds. Holdover was 3 mildots @ 100y. Muzzle energy is 44 fpe and 100 yard energy is 25 fpe. Ammo used were JSB Kings.