CO prairie rats (prelude)

[mriddell]

I've been forced to listen to tales of ray and rick and rod on sunny days afield, thinning the prairie rat herd and reaping the fruits of labor from these guns we put so much into. It's more than a little annoying, I tell you, although I would be hard pressed to skip over such a thread. It seems like each of my Fridays are spent with my elbows up to mud, or digging holes in some fantastic Colorado Concrete ( dirt), or watching small animals blow by my patio window, and my last population control expedition was over a year ago.

I wait no longer. No one will be getting any sprinkler work done tomorrow, at least not by me or the boss (Pops). I had to go to 5 different places, but the ammo is secured and packed along with cleaning supplies, optics, etc. The .17s are ready got get back out there, our 'guide' will be bringing along the 22-250, and my new .204, the new pup of the pack, is ready to bark. Dads last shoulder surgery appears to have been worth the trouble, and it seems his range of motion will allow something besides drinking a beer and looking for dogs for me to shoot. It is a shame though, I'll feel a little guilty out-shooting the old man on Fathers Day weekend.

Hopefully I'll remember to get the camera out of my fishing bag. Not exactly sure why I keep it in there anyway.

[acloco]

Ah....I can the see the BIG ONE on the right, valiantly FLIPPING through the air with such ease. His cousin, Julie, watching the antics, waiting for her turn.

Sweeeeeet!!!

[brokeasajoke]

Dang. Wish we had some of those here in western NC. The groundhogs are even thinned out now.

[skb2706]

I've been forced to listen to tales of ray and rick and rod on sunny days afield, thinning the prairie rat herd and reaping the fruits of labor from these guns we put so much into. It's more than a little annoying, I tell you, although I would be hard pressed to skip over such a thread. It seems like each of my Fridays are spent with my elbows up to mud, or digging holes in some fantastic Colorado Concrete ( dirt), or watching small animals blow by my patio window, and my last population control expedition was over a year ago.

I wait no longer. No one will be getting any sprinkler work done tomorrow, at least not by me or the boss (Pops). I had to go to 5 different places, but the ammo is secured and packed along with cleaning supplies, optics, etc. The .17s are ready got get back out there, our 'guide' will be bringing along the 22-250, and my new .204, the new pup of the pack, is ready to bark. Dads last shoulder surgery appears to have been worth the trouble, and it seems his range of motion will allow something besides drinking a beer and looking for dogs for me to shoot. It is a shame though, I'll feel a little guilty out-shooting the old man on Fathers Day weekend.

Hopefully I'll remember to get the camera out of my fishing bag. Not exactly sure why I keep it in there anyway.

Where you from in No CO ?
I just got back from a few days of shooting pds out east and I am already ready to go back.....except for the lack of ammo.
My 15 year old son has been able to outshoot me for at least the last 5 years....trust me your dad will just be glad to spend time with you. He doesn't care whether you out shoot him or not.

[mriddell]

Wow. What an awesome day! Sun shining but only about 70 degrees, wind had is moments but really came and went, allowing some calm moments for shooting. We bounced back and forth between two spots, it seemed like just as we got to one spot the dogs were relaxing and coming back out. Some FAT dogs out there, our last trip last year was in May and it's surprising what a difference a month can make!

I won't naysay anyone's choice of weaponry, but other than the occasional 30 yard shot, I won't be shooting the .17 HMR anymore, at least not on critters. My new .204 (newly dubbed Roscoe aka the Prairie Hammer) was absolutely MEAN out there. Even my 2 shooting partners, with close to a hundred years hunting between 'em, were very impressed with the punch and accuracy this gun had. I was under orders to call my shots because both of them wanted to see every hit. After a while I just put the .17 away and finished running through my 32 grain V-Max. I had some crawlers with the .17 but I can honestly say that not a single .204 hit made it back to a hole unless it fell in.

SKB: I'm in Fort Collins but we were shooting in Morgan County, out east. And you're 100% right about Dad. He declined every offer to take the trigger, just sat there in his cowboy hat, laughing and getting me to aim for the 'flip zone'. We both had a great time.

As for pics, y'all know what prairie dog spleen looks like, and eastern Colorado doesn't have a lot of photo ops besides cactus flowers and cow skeletons (got pics of both). So here's the obligatory hero shot:

[Steve V]

Eastern Colorado...ah, the memories. First place I ever got to shoot pds about 33 years ago. We shot north of Ft Morgan on public land (missile sites). First rifle was a Sako sporter 223; it got rebarreld to 221 10 years later and still has a place on my shooting bench. My last trip pd shooting(2 weeks ago in Montana) found 2 204s in my arsenal. And after giving the Ruger 77 VT and the CZ 527 Varminter a work out, I truly think the 204 is THE ultimate pd catridge.
Is eastern Colorado still well populated with the little critters? I may have to sneak back out there someday.

[mriddell]

Steve V, it seems to be pretty good for the little buggers out there. We hit two different towns pretty good last year and this was a different spot altogether. Seems everyone chases coyotes out there but surprisingly enough, the prarie rats don't get as much pressure. We expended over 300 rounds in about 5 hours, so to say it was a target rich environment would be an understatement. It was very hard to pace myself to let even my bull barrel cool. Several mounds had several casualties, and at least 3 different pass-through doubles occurred! Unfortunately no rattlesnakes, and a few doves were very lucky to have been out of season. lol One also must make sure not to mistake an owl for a rat.

It was interesting to see a few mounds out in the edge of the wheat field. The new wheat had been wiped out for about 40 yards in every direction but the rest of the field was coming along nicely. One could clearly see how much damage a town can do to a crop. Glad to do my part to help an American farmer.