SmallCaliberCentral

I headed down the road a bit before 8:00 a.m. on Thursday and parked the pickup near the south dog town at 9:35 a.m. The weather was perfect today. The wind was out of the SSE and blowing about 5 to 8 mph with temperatures that started out in the 70s and eventually got up to about 95 degrees. I had driven by another dog town on this private ranch to get to the one I planned to shoot on. There appeared to be lots of PDs at the north town and if this south town was a bust, I planned to head back up north.

It takes a bit of doing to get to this little dog town. When you finally get your vehicle parked, you have to wade across a creek that isn’t very deep, but about 20 feet across. The bottom is very muddy and you sink into the mud about 6 to 8 inches on almost every step. The water only comes up to below my knees, but I was very happy I brought my chest waders along to make the fording of the stream a “cleaner” operation. I got to the other side and got the waders off and put my boots back on. I hung the waders in a big, old box elder tree and left them there. Then, there is a little climb to get up out of the creek bottom and up to the land where the prairie dogs live.

I was on my belly, working forward so I could see the prairie dogs on the east end of this dog town and took my first shot at 9:45. I had 5 customers right off the bat and probably should have taken the shots a bit slower to keep the barrel of my .17 Remington with the super match grade 1 in 9” twist, 3-groove Pac-Nor barrel cooler, but I got carried away. I had to wait about 15 minutes before I took shots 6 through 10 from that very same spot. Here’s a photo of my rifle and a prairie dog that was doing his annoying barking at me and only showing me his head. He paid the price for getting my attention!



Here’s a closer look at the kind of “decapitation job” these 25 gr. Hornady HPs do when hitting the junction where the head meets the neck!!! A skull emptying experience!!!



After shot #10, the PDs in this little end of the town were skitterish, so I backed down to the creek bottom and hiked in to the west a few hundred yards.

I crept up the bank so I could see the PDs and was greeted with a view of dozens and dozens of prairie dogs, none of them were more than 150 yards away!!!! I would shoot until the barrel got pretty warm and then back off down the bank and sit in the shade of some chokecherry bushes and green ash trees and let the barrel cool off. I shot a total of 18 prairie dogs from that one spot.

You may have noticed how dark the belly was on the decapitated prairie dog. There are quite a few real dark prairie dogs in this town. Below are photos of another real dark one. The first photo below shows the entrance wound



and the photo below here shows the exit side!!!



I kept working my way west along the creek bank and finally, at around 12:45, I was getting hungry so I began walking back to my waders to make the creek crossing to my pickup for some lunch and to replenish my water supply. By this time it was about 85 degrees out so I needed to keep drinking water to keep from getting dehydrated. I got back to the pickup around 1:10 p.m. I had shot 47 shots with my 25 gr. Hornady HP load which has a muzzle velocity of 4,055 fps. You may not believe this, but I had not missed a shot during that string!!! I hit 46 single PDs and had 1 double for a total of 48 prairie dogs down for 47 shots. None of the shots were more than 150 yards and the majority of them were 100 yards or less. Like the song says, “That’s My Kind of Town.”

I made it across the creek safely and got my waders off and my boots back on. While I had been on the other side of the creek during my morning hunt, I had spotted a beaver dam that looked like it could be used to cross over the creek instead of using waders to get across. I drove my pickup west near that spot on the creek and took a closer look. Sure enough, that dam was a great “bridge” to the other side. At least in dry weather, that should be a great place to cross the creek. I even found an old plank and placed it across the top of the dam for a more level surface for walking. I hid the old plank up in some bushes in case I want to us it in the future.



I checked out a spot to park my pickup and found a very old box elder tree that would afford a tiny bit shade for my vehicle. I cleared out all the broken branches from the ground around the area so I would not puncture a tire. Then I drove my pickup over there and parked it. It was close to 1:30 and I needed to eat and get back to the job of shooting prairie dogs.



[Continued right below here in the first reply.]

I grabbed my Savage 12VLP in .204 Ruger and took along about 120 rounds of ammo for the afternoon foray. I was sure that was way more ammo than I needed, but I didn’t want to be in a situation where I might run out of ammo as hordes of prairie dogs began charging my position. The ammo I took along was my 40 gr. Nosler BT reloads. The 40 gr. BT is absolutely EXPLOSIVE on prairie dogs! It literally blows them up at just about any distance. The “take 4 or 5 shots and then let the barrel cool routine” was again the order for the afternoon hunt. I hung my little Caldwell Wind Wizard up in a shaded bush and the temperature read 90º in the shade. Then I hung it up on a dead sage brush branch out in the sun and got a reading of 98º. The wind was barely moving and the peak wind speed was around 5 mph! FANTASTIC shooting conditions for North Dakota!!!

The next photo shows my rifle and the effects of the 40 gr. Nosler BT on an adult prairie dog shot at a distance of 170 yards as lasered with my Leica 1200 Rangefinder. This prairie dog was standing straight up with his belly towards me. The impact flipped him up in the air about 2 feet and back off his mound about two feet and he landed on his belly. I flipped him over before taking the photo and he was a real mess!



Here’s a closer look at the devastating effects of the 40 gr. Nosler BT. The last time I ran this bullet over the chronograph I was only getting 3,650 fps at the muzzle, but in chronograph tests with this same load last year, I was getting 3,869 fps at the muzzle!!! I set up my trajectory and wind deflection charts based on the MV of 3,650 fps and that worked to perfection today. The difference in amount of wind deflection and drop between those two velocities is pretty negligible when shooting shots less than 250 yards or so. I will chronograph that load again before I got after the cunning, crafty, and ever dangerous prairie dogs again.



One of the last prairie dogs I shot this day was sitting in the front of his burrow facing me at 150 lasered yards away. There was a real “SLAPPING” sound when the bullet hit and I could see parts go flying back and the prairie dog went backwards out of sight. When I approached the mound, I could see a beautiful “red mist spray pattern” with some green vegetation mixed in for extra color which painted the inside area of his mound. The red arrow points to a long piece of intestine and my rifle is sitting just behind that.



The colorful spray pattern is pictured below. I thought the prairie dog looked very peaceful and contented as he laid in this very colorful decorative pattern on his mound.



I had some chores to do around the house and yard to finish before the 4th of July, so I quit shooting at 4:30 and headed back to the pickup. I dispatched a couple prairie dogs on the way back to the pickup. Shot count for the second outing with the .204 Ruger was 39 shots. I did miss one shot. I got 34 singles and 4 doubles, so with the 39 shots I tallied 42 dead prairie dogs. Total tally for the day was 86 shots garnering 80 singles, 5 doubles and 1 miss for 90 dead PDs for 86 shots. That is about the best day I have had in a number of years. I definitely could have shot a bunch more prairie dogs, but I don’t like to heat up my barrels and when they begin to get to the point where you can’t stand to touch them, I shut it down and let the barrel cool.

I got back to my pickup, got my gear stowed, and was on my way back home by 5:05 p.m. I arrived at the M&H Gas Station in Williston at 6:48 p.m. and filled the tank. The pickup is a 1997 Ford Ranger 2-WD with an automatic transmission and honkin’ big 4.0 liter engine. I averaged 21.1 miles per gallon, which is WAAAY better than my honkin’ big 1999 Dodge RAM 1500 four wheel drive with the big 360 cu. in. engine would get by about 6 or 7 mpg. I headed home and had my pickup parked in my garage at 7:02 p.m. Now, it was time to unload all my gear, get some solvent in my barrels to soften up the crud, and then crank up the lawn mower and mow the lawn. It had been a pretty fun day, even if I had to end it by mowing the lawn.

All that red and green kinda reminds me of chrissmas..........

Nice shootin' Silverfox!!! I used some reloading information you sent me last year with H-4895 powder and 32 grain Hornady V-max bullets. With 28.5 grains of powder I can shoot pretty good at 100 yards and can blow pop bottles up every shot at 235 yards. I only have a Tasco 4-16 power scope on my .204 so the real long shots are a real challenge. My 8 year old son fell in love with the .204 the first day of spring gobbler season when he busted a 20 pound gobbler with it. It wasn't too pretty of a sight but dead all the same. I was wondering about the ballistics of the 32 grain bullet at 250 plus yards. Thanks, elvis

Nice day indeed Thanks for taking us along on your hunt! Great pictures to go with it. Have you tried any of the Barnes Varmint Grenades yet?

Elvis1971--It's good to hear the reloading data worked for you. Tell your son that he needs to make head shots on those turkeys with that .204!

Sidewinderwa--I'm glad you enjoyed the prairie dog hunt. I have to get back out there and thin out the prairie dog herds a little more one of these days.

I have not tried any Barnes Varmint Grenades. I'm pretty well settled in on the 39 gr. Sierra BlitzKings and the 40 gr. Nosler BTs. I have a pretty ample supply of the 39 gr. Sierras and the 40 gr. Noslers, so I'll be shooting those for quite a few years. There are some custom bullet makers out there who make some interesting .172 caliber and .204 caliber bullets and I might just try some of those before I run out of the Sierras and Noslers.

Silverfox, Great story and pics! Looks like you found a great spot. Gary