SmallCaliberCentral

John: You're way ahead getting an outfitter for the first time out that way. Do a good recon while there, maybe even knock on some doors for future ref if applicable. Take more ammo than you think you'll need, be safe, and remember the camera.

TD-Max wrote:Well I broke down and hired an outfitter to guide us. Just wanted to be sure we had the best chance of finding some good shooting and didn't get stuck driving all over. We'll watch and learn this trip and hopefuly go it alone next trip.

Are you shooting on reservation ground? That's exactly what I did last year near Winner, so I hope that you have a better experience than I did.

I did call one "guide" in the Winner area who said that poisoning on the Rosebud along with plague had done quite a number on the dogs. Fortunately they ran out of poisoning funds.

We went to Mobridge this year. Our guide was clean cut, decent, and friendly. The bridge is under construction with a 10 minute red light which really sucked. We stayed at the Casino which was so-so. The ventillation system is screwed up and essentially teh room exhaust fans (constant on) draw the smoke from the Casino right down the 1st floor hallway and into the rooms. Friday night we missed the restaurant close time of 10pm (Casino follows central time even though they are across the line) so we had to run to town. Even BK closed the lobby at 10pm. Rest of the town was pretty deserted so we did the drive up at BK. Saturday night we made the restaurant by 9:06. Sat down and waited over 10 minutes and nobody came to take our order so we got up and left disgusted. Hauled butt to get across the bridge and to the steak house above the Wrangler before they closed. Good service, good food and they weren't in slow motion like the entire Casino seemed to be. I'd probably look elsewhere. The Breakfast buffet was good though. Apparently that's the ticket. Get the buffet so you don't need service as you will not get any.

On to the shooting:

Friday evening we went out for a couple of hours of shooting. This proved to be the best action of the trip. This was one of those towns where they started poking back up in the 50-100yd range after a while. I basically owned everything within 200yds with my first 4 shots connecting. Beyond 200 was tricky with the wind. Glen had one pop up 10' from his bench. I had time to get to the truck and get my pistol. When Glen got off the bench he ducked under, but came right back up within a minute or two and it was game over for the little fella.

Saturday we were taken out and dropped off at a town down near the river. We were on a berm with waist high grass. Most of our shots were 300-400yds so we quickly learned to dope wind which was pretty nasty. We got tired of this town and moved to another that was pointed out on the way in, but no dogs wanted to present themselves. Ended up with 2 kills total here. Back to the motel and met up with the guide again. Took us out for an evening shoot and had a bit of action, but these dogs were very wary also. Most shots again were in the 300yd plus range and lots of wind. I'd say we went through less that 200rds each.

So we have progressed in that we probably could have gone another day if the weather and shooting had been better and we are in the 300-400yd range with wind. The 204 was bing held off the scale on the Leupold VHR to get the windage.

One more word of advice if hiring a guide. Make sure all of the details are understood beforehand. In our case we wanted a brief evening shoot. This cost us a full day of guide service for just a couple of hours of shooting.

I'd have expected the shooting to be better for the $$$ spent, but I also understand that Dogs and Nature are tough to predict and impossible to control.

TD: I assume that you were shooting on reservation land? It sounds like your experience nearly mirrored mine from last year. Plenty of dog towns, but mostly skittish animals that kept shooting limited to 300+ yards.

Mike wrote:TD: I assume that you were shooting on reservation land? It sounds like your experience nearly mirrored mine from last year. Plenty of dog towns, but mostly skittish animals that kept shooting limited to 300+ yards.

Yes reservation land. Hoping to get back out to some better shooting again this year.