I had my old Savage 12VLP in .204 Ruger along and wanted to get the scope adjusted on that one too. (I bought this rifle in early June of 2004 and have a little over 2,700 rounds through the barrel.) I haven’t had it out in the field for two years because I was going to let my son use it when we went out after coyotes and prairie dogs, but he hasn’t been out with me since 2010 so it has just been sitting in the gun cabinet for over two years. I had 139 rounds of 39 gr. Sierras loaded for use on prairie dogs and 20 rounds of 35 gr. Bergers loaded for coyotes. I got the scope adjusted and put it back in the pickup and got my iced water bottles, snacks, elbow pads, bean bag for the rear of the stock, about 100 rounds of 29 gr. FBHP Genco bullets coated with hBN and seated in casings I formed from WW .204 Ruger brass. I use Remington 7½ primers and 21.4 grains of IMR 8208 XBR powder and this combination gives me a muzzle velocity of 3,817 fps.
I left the pickup at 9:30 a.m. The temperature was about 67º and there was just a whisper of wind. Excellent weather!!! I shot the first PD at 165 yards with the suppressor on this rifle at about 9:30 and shot a couple more before stopping to take a photo of the first suppressed kill with the Predator .17 Remington. The photo of the PD is of the exit wound side!!!!
The trail I take into this dog town usually has not been traveled very much at any time during the year. This day, the trail looked as if there had been hundreds of vehicles that had been on the trail. Not only were the trails well traveled, but I found well-traveled trails all over the dog town where there had not been any wheel tracks or trails in years gone by. Again, this is National Grasslands acreage where it is illegal to drive off of the roads and established trails. Very disappointing to me because I try to obey all the rules and walk around PD towns.
I took a break at about 10:19 a.m. to fill my stock mounted shell holder and put the empties in my cartridge box. The shots I had taken on PDs had been at distances from 90 yards on out to 194 yards and I had hit on 10 of those 11 shots. The one shot I did miss was where I had the crosshairs on a prairie dog on top of his mound with his back to me and just as I was squeezing the trigger the little bugger scooted off his mound and the bullet went right over his rear end. Lucky PD!!!
It was 10:28 a.m., 70º above and the wind was still almost dead calm. I had noticed there were some blossoms on some of the plants when I was belly crawling up to ambush some prairie dogs and decided I had better snap some photos of them so I don’t disappoint the blossom enthusiasts.
When I got done taking photos, I decided to keep on walking along the south edge of this dog town and generally headed in a westerly direction. In the past there are usually some fairly big numbers of prairie dogs in this end of the town. I wasn’t wrong!!! I set up in one spot and had shots ranging from 110 yards to 185 yards and hit on 8 of 8 shots. The silencer seemed to be doing its job and I was able to nail 2 or 3 prairie dogs who were close to one another. They just didn’t seem real alarmed at the sound of my shots. They only got alarmed when pieces of their neighbor came raining down on or near them. Even then, many of them didn’t move very far and soon sat still and posed so I could draw a bead on them and send them to where their departed friend had gone—into “Red Mist Land” on the prairie.
I was near a little juniper tree up on a hillside and heard a PD barking to the north of there. I set up just on the NE side of the juniper and shot one more PD. It was almost 11:00 so I decided to take break and do some artsy craftsy photos of my hunting gear and the juniper. I entitled the photo on the left “Tools of the Prairie Dog Hunt.” The right photo is entitled “Tools of the Prairie Dog Hunt and Welcome Shade.” The photo below the rifle, backpack, shooting sticks, and Leica 1200 range finder is what the white blossomed flowers look like after they are done blooming and dry up in the hot prairie sun. The almost look like they turn silver colored and amazingly, the one blossom kept most of its petals!!!
After taking the photos I put empties away and filled the shell holder. I had hit on another 7 shots out of 7 tries in the SW end of this PD town. The silencer is still doing its job!!! It was about 11:22 when I started snapping photos. I started walking back to the pickup at 11:55 and shot a half dozen more PDs on the way back. The shooting pace wasn’t real fast, but somewhat steady. I had shot 31 shots and killed 30 prairie dogs.
It was 12:20 p.m. when I got back to the pickup and the temperature had climbed to 80º. I decided to drive the pickup to the southwest end of the dog town and carry my lunch up to the shade of a little juniper tree on the hillside. I took along a nice soft blanket to lie on when I got ready for my afternoon siesta. I had a nice lunch and got my blanket in place and used my backpack as a pillow and proceeded to take a 45 minute nap. My wrist watch alarm had awakened me and I figured I could use another 20 to 25 minutes of shuteye so I set my alarm for 25 minutes. I had laid back down and was ready to sleep when I heard the sound of a high-power rifle shot coming from the NE of where I was located. I had my pickup in a location where no one could see it from the main dog town. I decided right then and there that I had better forget the nap, get my lunch stuff put away, and head out to the NE to let these folks know they had someone else in the dog town. I got my stuff and headed to the NE of my location and saw a crew cab pickup sitting on a little knob on the NE side of the PD town. It looked like there were two men there and one of them seemed to be picking up spent brass. I didn’t wave at them or anything but I was only about 500 yards east southeast of them and they appeared to be looking my way. I spotted a prairie dog to the north northwest of me and took up a position to shoot him. I wondered if these guys would hear my silenced shots, but figured they would. I shot the prairie dog and the two men boogied into their pickup and drove off the hill and headed to the south on the well-worn trail through the dog town.
It was about 1:55 p.m. when they drove out of sight. I got back to stalking prairie dogs. I have usually had real good shooting in the north end of this dog town. I walked from 1:55 to 3:23 and only got 6 shots. Very disappointing. There are a few American elm trees at the top of a little draw in the NW end of this dog town so I headed towards them to sit and have a cool drink of water in the shade. I was extremely disappointed at what I found in this little grove of trees. It was littered with plastic bottles, a beer bottle, and broken glass from a Jim Beam bottle.
The sight of that garbage was bad enough, but these idiots did a little more damage that can’t be picked up and throws away. The shot a nice old American elm tree trunk with high-power rifles and split off a pretty big chunk of the side of it. Close-ups of the top & bottom damage!!!
Someone needs to get a life and quit damaging these old North Dakota patriarchs!!! There aren’t many trees in ND, especially out in the National Grasslands—we need to preserve them!!!
It was about 3:30 when I started to head back to the pickup. On that nearly 1 mile walk back, I heard one prairie dog, but couldn’t locate it and finally spotted one I could shoot. This PD was 155 yards to the SW of me. The photo on the left is of the entrance wound side and the photo on the right is the exit wound side!!! Can you say RED MIST!!!
I had to fish him out of the hole with an old stick.
At about 3:50 p.m., I was fairly close to where the PU was parked when I heard another prairie dog barking at me. I got the range finder out and located and ranged him and then let the old Predator actioned .17 Remington do its job one last time for the day. I had been using my electronic ear muffs most of the day, but on this shot, I left them off so I could hear the SPLAT a little better.
When I got back to the pickup I set the rifle up on the tailgate, removed the silencer, replaced it with the thread protector, took out my .17 caliber Pro-Shot SS rod, got my rod guide in the chamber and ran three patches soaked with Bore Tech C4 Carbon Remover down the barrel. I left the rod guide in the action and blocked off the rear end, put a small plastic bag over the muzzle, cased up the rifle and put it into the pickup with the muzzle end angled downward. The afternoon hunt was kind of a bust. I only got 7 shots and did manage to hit on all 7 of them. Total shots for the day was 38 and that accounted for 37 dead prairie dogs.
I left the dog town at 4:13 p.m. and when I got back to Williston I filled the gas tank and was parked in my garage by 5:24 p.m. I hope you enjoyed the hunt.
I’ll bet some of you thought I had forgotten to take the obligatory “Hero Photo” but no such luck for you. Here I am in all my resplendent beauty with one of the Predator .17 Rem’s victims.
Bill K 
