I don't remember them being so small

[dsandfort]

I grew up shooting white-tail pdogs. Nice and fat and tall. Just got back from a shoot where we were in black-tail country. It took me a while to decide we were actually shooting adults and not young of the year.
Sadly, most white-tail dogs are gone in Colorado and Wyoming. Even the black-tail dogs are fewer in number. I think it's the extended drought south and east of us here in N. Colorado that's cutting in to the black-tail population. No idea on the white-tail population, although I "worked" my butt off trying to decrease their number back when.

Killed several hundred over a day and a half (3 shooters), including 3 really large rattlesnakes. Used 204's, 223's, 17 HMR, 17 Hornet, 22 LR and even a 9mm. On day 2 the wind was so strong I had to dial 9.5 moa at 365 yards. That's a lot in my book. Taking a leak on the prairie required much deliberation and it's own moa calculation.

Anyhow, I miss the big ole white-tail variety.

Del

[toasty]

The only thing I hunt are white tailed prairie dogs and they can get big. We hit our longest shots of the year in the spring before breeding season when they are big and fat and we don't have to sort through the pups. Big dogs, make big targets. I've never weight them, but there are some we kill that probably weigh as much as a medium sized cat.

On a typical 3-4 hour hunt, a group of 3 of us will only take about 15-25 dogs out. I think our best day came in june a couple years ago where we put down about 60 dogs in about 5 hours. The problem with them around here is they get pressure and then, you're lucky to get shots inside of 300 yards. I have hunted them on private with no pressure and that was some good hunting. I could definitely see taking 100-200 dogs in a day in those areas. Populations seem to neither be growing or shrinking here, they have been about the same for the last 15 years.

[dsandfort]

Not only are the numbers down, we had some serious competition.

[dsandfort]

Toasty....what part of the country are you finding white tails? We shot them in NW Colorado and Southern Wyoming.

[toasty]

Southwest WY, eastern Utah. We hardly ever have barrel burner shoots, but there are plenty of dogs around if you can shoot them 300-500 yards. I've never seen a rattlesnake while hunting p dogs, hopefully this isn't the year I am going to see one. I hate rattlesnakes.