Ghosted some prairie dogs

[Franklink]

Hadn't been to these fields since last summer but touched base with the landowner and he told me to please come kill as many as I could.

Leaned on this fence for maybe 10-12 of them.

With all the grass, this area is kinda tough. All in all, spent about 2 hours and popped 35.

Used the Ghost and the JSB .20/15.89 pellets at around 920fps for just shy of 30fpe. Closest was about 30 yards, furthest was 184. Stuck to pellets because of the vicinity of horses.

At the gate I met the lady who leases the fields for her horses and she suspiciously asked what I was up to. Told the truth, shooting prairie dogs. I saw a flash of concern so I told her it's a relatively low power airgun capable of pdog head sized precision and that the only thing that will have extra holes when I'm done is the pdogs. That eased her concerns. She watched for a bit and then came over to tell me where more were, I presume because she saw that I was safe to her horses.

One extreme large one was lumbering around and I dropped him. I usually don't retrieve but I needed to see this chunker up close. He was a monster, by his BMI, MORBIDLY OBESE. Might be the biggest one I've ever seen.
Large one on the left here, next to him is the average size of them for my area, the two on the right are young ones, probably this year's pups.

Ghost is just the perfect tool for this.
Lots of fun!

 

[Impact701]

Good shooting !

That one is definitely a chunker !

 

[L.Leon]

The big one almost counts as a double…

 

[WoodWelder]

The big one is definitely corn fed?

 

[Franklink]

The big one is definitely corn fed?

Lol, alfalfa, but that's what they're all eating.

The big one almost counts as a double…

Airlines would have made him purchase two seats.

 

[Franklink]

It cooled off so I'm back at it, sitting under this salt cedar tree. Dry area to my left where all the pdog holes are, irrigated area to my right. Fett ng em running back and forth.

Storm trying to brew a mile or two east (left) of me.

Yes, that's a spare bottle in my pocket. Another 480 cc is much easier to carry than a big scba tank. The valved bottles in the Ghost are the shiz. Although it's looking like I'll run out of daylight before I even need to swap out the bottles.

Current Pdog count is 19 from right here.

Man I love being outside!!!

 

[Franklink]

Snapped a couple photos of my tree on the way out...

 

[woogie_man]

Awesome area to be shooting!! Wish there were places like that up in my area

 

[Contndr35BB]

Hadn't been to these fields since last summer but touched base with the landowner and he told me to please come kill as many as I could.
View attachment 484447

Leaned on this fence for maybe 10-12 of them. View attachment 484448

With all the grass, this area is kinda tough. All in all, spent about 2 hours and popped 35.

Used the Ghost and the JSB .20/15.89 pellets at around 920fps for just shy of 30fpe. Closest was about 30 yards, furthest was 184. Stuck to pellets because of the vicinity of horses.

At the gate I met the lady who leases the fields for her horses and she suspiciously asked what I was up to. Told the truth, shooting prairie dogs. I saw a flash of concern so I told her it's a relatively low power airgun capable of pdog head sized precision and that the only thing that will have extra holes when I'm done is the pdogs. That eased her concerns. She watched for a bit and then came over to tell me where more were, I presume because she saw that I was safe to her horses.

One extreme large one was lumbering around and I dropped him. I usually don't retrieve but I needed to see this chunker up close. He was a monster, by his BMI, MORBIDLY OBESE. Might be the biggest one I've ever seen.
Large one on the left here, next to him is the average size of them for my area, the two on the right are young ones, probably this year's pups.
View attachment 484449

Ghost is just the perfect tool for this.
Lots of fun!

Great job on the shoot and educating the equestrian.

 

[Ranchibi]

Wonderful shooting on those pdogs! That one is HUGE, ghog like big! Great pics

 

[lbc_PSI]

Ahhh..the cure for diabetes in pdogs is a Ghost and the JSB .20/15.89 pellets

 

[ZekeZX10]

Fine Job!!

 

[roaoro]

It cooled off so I'm back at it, sitting under this salt cedar tree. Dry area to my left where all the pdog holes are, irrigated area to my right. Fett ng em running back and forth.

Storm trying to brew a mile or two east (left) of me.
View attachment 484555


View attachment 484554

Yes, that's a spare bottle in my pocket. Another 480 cc is much easier to carry than a big scba tank. The valved bottles in the Ghost are the shiz. Although it's looking like I'll run out of daylight before I even need to swap out the bottles.

Current Pdog count is 19 from right here.

Man I love being outside!!!

Does your Ghost lose all of the air that's in the gun when you take the bottle out? My first time swapping, the air stayed in the gun like I thought it should, but now it drains everytime I take the bottle off.

 

[TN_Yankee]

Get that boy some Ozempic!

 

[Bowhunter73]

Great shooting and pics keep up the good work!

 

[Franklink]

Does your Ghost lose all of the air that's in the gun when you take the bottle out? My first time swapping, the air stayed in the gun like I thought it should, but now it drains everytime I take the bottle off.

Nope. The small chamber between the bottle and the reg DOES depressurize, but it's tiny so not much air ioss, less than bleeding the line on a fill station.

What should happen is that after the bottle is unscrewed, the bottle pressure gauge reads zero and the regulator gauge should read whatever the reg is set for. Ie the plenum I still pressurized to the pressure the reg is set for.

I do vaguely remember losing the air in the plenum with a bottle unscrew one time. It was when testing really low reg pressure, don't remember exactly but I wanna say it was 70-80bar.

With a reg of at least 90 bar I've not had the plenum degas when unthreading the bottle.

 

[Mr.H]

Just a PSA, but when ever I've gone PD hunting in the Dakotas, the locals always say don't touch those critters! Earlier this summer, there was a PD town by the Black Hills that had tested positive for the plague. Stay safe out there!

 

[Franklink]

Just a PSA, but when ever I've gone PD hunting in the Dakotas, the locals always say don't touch those critters! Earlier this summer, there was a PD town by the Black Hills that had tested positive for the plague. Stay safe out there!

100%

I shoot em and leave em lay. The fat daddy was an exception, and I used gloves.

Their fleas can have Yersinia pestis, aka the plague, aka the black plague. I've read conflicting reports that when their fleas pick up this bacteria the dogs themselves have a massive die off, versus the fleas have it and it doesn't kill the dogs. I'm aware of a couple towns that have completely disappeared, never to recover so I tend to agree with the plague killing dogs when it comes through.

There was a time when prairie dogs were sold in pet stores, due to their very social nature. That trend mostly went away b/c people got sick from living with the dogs. I wanna say salmonella? But don't remember exactly right now.

I don't even like walking through areas where theyve got holes. They defecate and urinate all around their mounds and there is always a bunch of flies buzzing right around the entrances. Flies and cleanliness don't go together.

So, between the damage they do to the ground with their digging, the crop loss from their foraging, the potential diseases they carry, and how fun they are to shoot, well, let's just say i wage war on them starting July 1st when season opens, til mid October when they hibernate.