I was about ready to lock my pickup when a fellow in a white pickup pulled up behind me. I thought it might be the land owner, but it wasn’t. It was a fellow who said he came to shoot PDs in this town too. I thought, this is going to be interesting!!! He told me he uses a .17 HMR and has it sighted in so it is dead on at 200 yards. He said he had been shooting prairie dogs in this dog town for 30 years and usually comes here daily to shoot a few dogs.
I had planned on starting out on this NE corner of the dog town because the PDs were in the farmer’s wheat field here. They had moved in from the prairie to the west and absolutely mowed down his wheat crop where they had their dens. Well, the fellow with the .17 HMR said he wanted to shoot a couple prairie dogs. I thought, why not let him shoot a couple and maybe he will be on his way. He walked down a prairie trail to get a little closer to several that were out. He lay down, took aim at a prairie dog about 125 yards away, and shot. I had my scope on the PD he was shooting at and his bullet hit about 10 inches in front of the PD and down all the PDs went into their dens. I told him he had shot low. He looked back at me and said, “But it was right in line with him wasn’t it?†I told him he was pretty much in line. If his scope was sighted in to be dead on at 200 yards and he hit low at 125 yards I wonder when he last checked his point of impact on a paper target?
He didn’t look like he was going to go to his pickup and get out of there so I told him, I’m not going to stand here waiting for you to shoot more shots, I’m heading off into the prairie dog town. I told him I would appreciate it if he didn’t shoot any shots my way and reminded him that when bullets hit rocks they ricochet and I didn’t want any stray bullets coming my way. He assured me he would be careful. I told him, I would prefer it if he didn’t shoot any shots while I was in the dog town. I guess he might have thought that since he had been shooting in this dog town for 30 years, it was kind of his private dog town, but I had other ideas.
I started walking out toward the west where the main part of the town was located. I finally spotted a prairie dog about 205 yards away and lay down to shoot. The 15 mph wind was blowing at a 90º angle to my line of sight. All I could see of the PD was from his front shoulders up and I missed the shot. Not a very good start. A .17 HMR hunter who wants to shoot in the same dog town I’m in and I miss my first shot!!! I looked back to where I had left him and he wasn’t there. His pickup was gone too. Good, I thought, now I don’t have to worry about getting shot. Well, that ornery cuss drove his pickup over to the west side of the dog town a half mile away and that was exactly where I was heading. His pickup disappeared out of sight to the SW. I didn’t know where he was going and I didn’t dare shoot over to that direction with him over there. This day was not going as I had planned.
I sneaked up to the fence line on the east edge of the PD town and got lined up on a victim and squeezed off a shotâ€â€WHAP!!! It was a good hit. I spotted several more PDs and was getting in some fair shooting. About that time, I spotted his white pickup driving on the west side of the PD town and then he headed on the road to the east and left the area. Good, now I don’t have to worry about where he is lurking.
There weren’t a lot of prairie dogs, but that way I wasn’t going to burn up my barrel. Here’s a photo taken from WSW of where I parked my pickup. It shows some of the prairie dog mounds out in the stubble. The dark areas in the stubble are where the PD mounds are located and they have mowed all the wheat plants to the ground.
By 12:20 p.m. I had taken 14 shots and hit on 13 of them. I stopped to do the obligatory “Hero Photo†below:
It was still pretty cool out and the wind was still blowing 10 to 15 mph out of the NW. The action slowed down a bit and I moved to the west and began to look for prairie dogs downwind from my position. I shot one at 150 yards and then spotted another one out at 240 yards. I usually try to get closer than that, but thought I would see what the gun would do. The shot was pretty much with the wind and when I squeezed the trigger I could see the bullet move the PD off his mound about 3 feet. I checked around for any more PDs, but they were all underground. I walked over to the spot where I had shot the PD from 240 yards away for some photos.
The bullet made about a 50¢ size hole going in and a little bigger hole going out, but no “Total Devastation†on this one. Here’s a photo of the entrance wound.
Here’s a photo of the exit wound.
It was about 12:30 and I headed back to the pickup. I thought I’d drive around to the west side of the dog town, have lunch, take a wee bit of a nap, and then exterminate a few more prairie dogs. I had to get back early so I could make it to church choir practice. There were several opportunities to shoot prairie dogs on the walk back. Here’s one of those PDs with the dark fur that I shot out in the wheat stubble. This is a photo of his belly along with my rifle. The belly really looks dark from the angle I shot the photo. It really isn’t quite that dark.
Here’s a photo of his back:
Here’s a belly photo:
I made it back to the pickup at 1:20 p.m., drove to the west side of the dog town and started eating lunch around 1:30. I did manage to shoot one prairie dog during lunch, so by 2:00 p.m. I had shot 20 shots and killed 19 prairie dogs. I got in my nap and left the pickup at 2:40 for a walk around the south end of the dog town. I got back to the pickup at about 4:40 p.m. and had taken 24 more shots in that time. I managed to miss two more shots so the count for the day was 43 total shots and 40 dead prairie dogs. My shot distances ranged from about 35 yards out to 240 yards with the majority of the shots in the 100 to 150 yard range. Here’s a photo of the south end of the dog town. There’s not much green grass left around this dog town.
Even though it was pretty windy and never got warmer than about 57º, it was still a good day. Like they say, “A day of hunting is better than a day of work anytime!!â€Â
