1st ND PD Hunt of 2016
Posted: Sat May 28, 2016 8:01 pm
I finally made it out for some scouting in a couple of prairie dog towns on Thursday, May 26, 2016. I usually don’t start shooting prairie dogs until the pups are up out of their dens. I was pretty sure they’d be out by now, but wanted to make sure.
I didn’t leave home until around 2:00 p.m. and as I got close to the first dog town I wanted to visit it started raining real hard. That rain could make driving on the two-tracks a bit messy, but I kept driving on the paved road. It quit raining when I got near my selected dog town and the country roads weren’t muddy and the prairie trail wasn’t muddy either so I headed out on a two-track to check for PD pups.
I actually got my silencer on my rifle and was going to try to shoot PDs when I first got to the one dog town. I hadn’t shot the rifle since I cleaned the barrel last August, so I needed to take a couple fouling shots and also needed to check point of impact. After 3 shots the rifle was shooting right on the money—0.9" high at 100 yards. By the time I finished shooting those 3 shots it was raining fairly hard but I spotted one barking PD so I took an off-hand shot at him and missed. I went back to the pickup and I dried off my rifle and put it away. I had never driven to the extreme east end of this dog town so I decided to do some sight-seeing. I spotted a few PD pups and then ran out of dog town, but the trail kept going to the ESE so I kept driving. When I got to the top of a little rise, I could see a small PD colony I had never seen before. I decided I was going to shoot a few shots so I parked my pickup so it faced into the wind and I could set up on the tailgate out of the rain. I found two PDs that wanted to die. One was at 108 yards and that was an easy shot. About 5 minutes or so later I heard another one barking and finally found it in my range finder 175 yards away. That one died too.
I stayed up at the pickup and used my telephoto lens on my camera and snapped photos from right there. The photo on the left is the 108 yard PD and the one on the right is the 175 yard PD. I think I had the telephoto cranked up to 120x or so. The photos get real grainy, but you wouldn’t have been able to see the PDs if I hadn’t cranked up the power.
Here’s a photo of the pickup set up for the shots on the two PDs pictured above.
I put my rifle away and headed back towards the main road. When I got about half way there I spotted a bunch of pups out on several mounds. It had quit raining so I rigged up my rifle with the silencer and started to walk towards the PDs. It started to rain again so I ran up to a fallen tree that gave me a bit of a rest to shoot at a standing PD—I missed!!! I ran back to the pickup, wiped the rain off my gun & silencer, put it in the gun case and headed out of there. I drove about 4 or 5 miles north and the sun started to shine and it quit raining. I decided I would head east on a prairie trail to another dog town and try to do some more shooting. I parked the pickup, got my stuff ready and had some good shooting before it started to rain again. I nailed a couple of doubles on pups and shot lots of singles. Here’s the “Hero Photo” of the rifle, a double, and me!!!
I could hear the thunder rumbling up north of my location and decided I better start heading back to the pickup. I had only a few cartridges left from the first box I was shooting from and decided I would quit shooting as soon as the box was empty. Finally, I was down to my last of 24 shells and as I was circling around to head back to the pickup. Just then, I spotted 6 pups on a mound and decided to try to “flock shoot” them. I lined up on the front one, pulled the trigger and I’ll be darned if I didn’t nail 3 of them with one shot!!! Bodies went flying in every direction when I shot. The photo on the left shows the happy trio that just received a 40 gr. V-Max fired out of my Savage 12VLP that has a 25" Pac-Nor 1 in 11 twist three groove barrel. The photo on the right shows the green paint job done on the entrance to the mound when the bullet hit the cute little critters.
It started to rain shortly after I shot the triple with my last shell in that box. I had reloaded those shells back in August of 2014. I took a total of 24 shots at prairie dogs. I missed on 2 of my shots, hit 19 singles, bagged 2 doubles, and got one triple for a total of 26 dead prairie dogs with 24 shots. I can’t wait to get back out there when the weather is nicer and the pups are a little bit bigger. FUN TIMES FOR SURE!!!!
I didn’t leave home until around 2:00 p.m. and as I got close to the first dog town I wanted to visit it started raining real hard. That rain could make driving on the two-tracks a bit messy, but I kept driving on the paved road. It quit raining when I got near my selected dog town and the country roads weren’t muddy and the prairie trail wasn’t muddy either so I headed out on a two-track to check for PD pups.
I actually got my silencer on my rifle and was going to try to shoot PDs when I first got to the one dog town. I hadn’t shot the rifle since I cleaned the barrel last August, so I needed to take a couple fouling shots and also needed to check point of impact. After 3 shots the rifle was shooting right on the money—0.9" high at 100 yards. By the time I finished shooting those 3 shots it was raining fairly hard but I spotted one barking PD so I took an off-hand shot at him and missed. I went back to the pickup and I dried off my rifle and put it away. I had never driven to the extreme east end of this dog town so I decided to do some sight-seeing. I spotted a few PD pups and then ran out of dog town, but the trail kept going to the ESE so I kept driving. When I got to the top of a little rise, I could see a small PD colony I had never seen before. I decided I was going to shoot a few shots so I parked my pickup so it faced into the wind and I could set up on the tailgate out of the rain. I found two PDs that wanted to die. One was at 108 yards and that was an easy shot. About 5 minutes or so later I heard another one barking and finally found it in my range finder 175 yards away. That one died too.
I stayed up at the pickup and used my telephoto lens on my camera and snapped photos from right there. The photo on the left is the 108 yard PD and the one on the right is the 175 yard PD. I think I had the telephoto cranked up to 120x or so. The photos get real grainy, but you wouldn’t have been able to see the PDs if I hadn’t cranked up the power.
Here’s a photo of the pickup set up for the shots on the two PDs pictured above.
I put my rifle away and headed back towards the main road. When I got about half way there I spotted a bunch of pups out on several mounds. It had quit raining so I rigged up my rifle with the silencer and started to walk towards the PDs. It started to rain again so I ran up to a fallen tree that gave me a bit of a rest to shoot at a standing PD—I missed!!! I ran back to the pickup, wiped the rain off my gun & silencer, put it in the gun case and headed out of there. I drove about 4 or 5 miles north and the sun started to shine and it quit raining. I decided I would head east on a prairie trail to another dog town and try to do some more shooting. I parked the pickup, got my stuff ready and had some good shooting before it started to rain again. I nailed a couple of doubles on pups and shot lots of singles. Here’s the “Hero Photo” of the rifle, a double, and me!!!
I could hear the thunder rumbling up north of my location and decided I better start heading back to the pickup. I had only a few cartridges left from the first box I was shooting from and decided I would quit shooting as soon as the box was empty. Finally, I was down to my last of 24 shells and as I was circling around to head back to the pickup. Just then, I spotted 6 pups on a mound and decided to try to “flock shoot” them. I lined up on the front one, pulled the trigger and I’ll be darned if I didn’t nail 3 of them with one shot!!! Bodies went flying in every direction when I shot. The photo on the left shows the happy trio that just received a 40 gr. V-Max fired out of my Savage 12VLP that has a 25" Pac-Nor 1 in 11 twist three groove barrel. The photo on the right shows the green paint job done on the entrance to the mound when the bullet hit the cute little critters.
It started to rain shortly after I shot the triple with my last shell in that box. I had reloaded those shells back in August of 2014. I took a total of 24 shots at prairie dogs. I missed on 2 of my shots, hit 19 singles, bagged 2 doubles, and got one triple for a total of 26 dead prairie dogs with 24 shots. I can’t wait to get back out there when the weather is nicer and the pups are a little bit bigger. FUN TIMES FOR SURE!!!!
