2016 Prairie Dog Hunt #2

Hey guys,
As mentioned in the earlier post, I scheduled 2 prairie dog hunts in 2016. Hunt #1 went well. Unfortunately I had a last second work emergency so that I wasn't able to go on hunt #2. My friends who I'd invited on the hunt were able to go w/o him. They had a good time hunting the Rita Blanco National Grasslands outside of Dalhart, Tx. The semi-guided hunt was booked w/ Sagebrush Hunts.

I really wanted to go on a second hunt so I kept researching the internet. I came across a guide w/ open dates. Although I’ve been on a bunch of pd hunts, this one was the first to be fully guided and the first time to hunt the Oklahoma panhandle. A friend went with me. Travel went well, but there’s no way to make an 11 hour drive go fast. The motel accomodations were serviceable. We were in Beaver County OK, a rather desolate part of the state. There were only 4 restaurants in the county, including 2 Mexican restaurants and a Pizza Hut.

The first morning we woke up to 39 degree weather and frost on the windshield. I didn’t take off my hooded sweatshirt until nearly noon. The day maxed out at 70 degrees and was mostly sunny. It was windy in the morning, but calmed down in the afternoon. The guide had us shooting off the hood of his truck and the tonneau cover on the back. The shooting was pretty good in the morning and early afternoon. Shooting on one very busy town was messed up by the untimely appearance of cattle. In the late afternoon I developed some visual problems: I couldn’t find targets in my scope and everything was blurry. I shot my Remington XP-100 in 22 Rem BR the vast majority of the day. Late in the day I changed to my XP-100 in 6 Rem BR, but that didn’t help my vision. We shut it down a little early and ate some supper. Nevertheless, I had a pretty busy day for me, shooting about 120 rounds.

Day 2 was slightly warmer at 42 degrees when we started. The day was again mostly sunny and warmed up to a max of 77 degrees. This day the guide had us shooting off rotating shooting tables on his 16’ double axle trailer. I again started off w/ the 22 BR, but changed to the 6 BR early in the day and its heavier bullet once the wind kicked up. Again, the shooting was pretty good although we had one town go silent once a hawk and some buzzards showed up. I shot approx. 110 rounds through the 2 XP’s.

My friend and I both had fun hunts. The weather was much more pleasant than the usual pd hunts I’ve done in June, July and August. Shots were little shorter than usual, many inside of 250 yards. The guide was conscientious and did a decent job. My friend had been on his 1st pd hunt a few months earlier so he didn't have his own gun yet. He used my Stevens bolt action in 221 Rem Fireball and my son’s Stevens bolt action in 223 Rem. He enjoyed the pd hunts so much that he bought a Ruger bolt action w/ a heavy barrel in 204 Ruger a few months later. He's looking forward to more pd hunts in the future. I also had the pleasure of shooting the guide’s rifle, a Mossberg MVP in 223 Rem w/ Nikon 4-12X scope. I liked the gun. It had an adjustable trigger, a pistol grip type stock, a semi-heavy barrel, an attractive fluted bolt and a wide forend.

6 BR XP-100 on rotating table.