This late in the season, we could tell these prairie dogs along the trail had been shot at a few times and were kind of skitterish, but we still got in some good shooting. We’d stop and set up on a PD mound, shoot several PDs and then get up and move another 100 to 200 yards to the NE and set up again. We did that about three times and finally got on the south side of the NE end of the dog town where we could look out over the dens up north and west of us and we stayed there and shot for maybe an hour or so. We paused to let our barrels cool off quite frequently and to get drinks of water and replenish our ammo supply. By 12:15 p.m. I had taken 21 shots and missed on a 293 yard-shot, but connected on the other 20 shots. Jeff had taken 27 shots and connected on 25 of them.
Jeff noticed a big raptor on the ground up NW of us and it appeared to be feeding on a prairie dog. It was a very large bird and at first glance I could see its white head and thought it might be a bald eagle or maybe a juvenile golden eagle. The bird took flight and Jeff got out his camera that takes 10 frames a second and snapped a bunch of photos. Here’s a photo of what turned out to be a Ferruginous Hawk, which is the largest hawk in North America. This one looked like it had a wingspan of four and a half to nearly five feet!!! It sure was giving us the evil eye as it gracefully soared above our heads checking us out. It certainly was a beautiful bird!!!
At 12:20 we decided to walk back to the pickup for lunch, but planned to do some shooting on the way. We got back to the pickup at about 1:30 and Jeff shot 12 more shots and connected on 11 of them on our walk back and I shot 8 more shots and connected on all 8.
We were fairly close to the pickup and Jeff spotted a PD standing broadside to us and he told me to get ready to shoot it and he would take a burst of photos while I shot it. Here’s the action he captured on his camera with the PD presenting a perfect broadside shot to me. The 50 gr. Z-Max packs a pretty damaging punch at about 75 yards!!!
Below you can see the impact blowing pieces of the PD up in the air and spreading chunks of the PD in all directions around the mound while the PD disappears down into his mound.
Here’s what the PD looked like after we pulled him up out of his den.
When we got back to the pickup and started getting our lunch out, there was a noisy PD just to the north of our picnic area. I told Jeff to shoot it, but he didn’t have any ammo in his rifle. I told him my .22-250 had ammo in the magazine so go ahead and shoot that. He lined up on the noisy PD and nailed it so his count for the first part of our hunt was 36 prairie dogs for 39 shots and one additional PD with my .22-250.
Jeff got his lunch out first and was getting comfortable under the shade of a nice big green ash tree.
We ate lunch and laid down to take a nap at about 2:30. During my nap, Jeff was awakened by a barking PD and he loaded his rifle and shot the PD. That was a rude awakening for me and I almost fell off the tailgate of my pickup where I was lying for my nap, but I got back to sleep quickly. There was a tiny bit of a breeze blowing, but sometime during our nap a huge blast of wind started blowing and blew about 20+ mph for about 2 or 3 minutes and then quieted down to a tiny breeze again. I got up around 3:45 and checked out the PD that Jeff shot during my nap. We replenished our water supply, got our ammo in order and I switched from the Tikka .22-250 to the Savage 12VLP in .204 Ruger. It was about 4:40 when we left the pickup and started walking to the north.
We followed the same routine as in the morning. We’d stop and set up on a PD mound, shoot several PDs and then get up and move another 100 to 200 yards to the NW and set up again. We did that few times and finally got on the north end of the dog town near a lease road. There is a little community of PDs north of this road and we got in some good shooting there. The PDs were out in the grass feeding and while it was hard to spot them, we definitely found them and popped quite a few of them. Here’s PD taking a nap by my Savage 12VLP in .204 Ruger.
Here’s what the exit wound looks like on the sleeping prairie dog.
By 6:10 p.m. Jeff had taken a total of 62 shots for the day and hit on 56 of those shots. I had hit on 48 of 50 shots for the day. We had some water and a little snack and headed west towards the area of the dog town the rancher wanted us to thin out the prairie dog herd. We had shot maybe 45 or 50 PDs in that little area when we were in this dog town back on June 27, 2015. We sneaked up to the top of a little rise on the NE side of this part of the dog town and saw a few PDs to the west. By the time Jeff and I got into position to shoot, just about every prairie dog had gone down into its den on Jeff’s side of the area. Jeff managed to shoot just one before they all disappeared. The PDs on my side of the area were a little bit braver. I managed to shoot 9 shots from our position and hit on all 9 shots. We walked south and Jeff managed to shoot a few more PDs on our journey back to the pickup. Here’s the official “Hero Photo” for today’s hunt.
We were back at the pickup by 7:35 and got back to Williston at 9:30 p.m. Jeff had shot 71 shots and hit on 65 of them. I had taken 58 shots and hit on 56 of them. If you add up the shots and the hits, between the two of us we knocked off 121 prairie dogs with 129 shots. We didn’t nail any doubles or triples today, but I have to think our percentage of hits was pretty respectable. The weather was superb, the prairie dogs were somewhat cooperative, and it was a GREAT DAY because I got to hunt with my son!!!
