Prairie Dog Hunts #2 and #3

I was fortunate and got to go on three pd hunts this year in the panhandle of OK. I took the first one in May with some of my usual hunters. In June I went on the second hunt. I called the June hunt “The Three Generation Hunt” since it had a grandfather, son and grandson. I just got back from the third hunt. This last one was unique in that I hunted alone.

Hunt #2, June. I went a day early to check out some new pd towns. The owners of the local feed store gave me the name of a local land owner with prairie dogs. When I told the new guy I was from Louisiana, the fist thing he said was, “Where you’re from do you have any boudin, crawfish or shrimp?” I like to give the landowner some sort of tip after the hunt so guess what kind of tip he’ll get? I shot 2 small towns the first afternoon. One town was only a couple hundred yards from his house. Although I only hunted a few hours, it was very productive. Ranges were close (mostly 100-150 yards) and the wind was favorable. The next day we hunted the landowner’s “big town.” It was a good shoot w/ lots of dogs. The last day was spent shooting two established dog towns, the “Windmill Pasture” and the “Cell Phone Pasture.”. All told, we had a good hunt. The weather was hot (upper 90’s to low 100’s) and, at times, windy, but dry. We finished off the hunt shooting at the pasture next to the landowner's house. He and his wife visited with us during the shoot. It turns out they’re both tired of the pds and plan to poison the town next spring. Consequently, we shot the pasture harder than usual. I shot approximate 300 rounds total for the hunt. About half the rounds were the 17 Remington Fireball. The other half were split between the 20 VarTarg and 223 Remington Ackley.

Hunt #3, October. Prairie dogs are sometimes a little scarce and more spooky on fall hunts. On the other hand, the weather is noticeably cooler and that’s nice. The first thing I did on arrival was deliver some Scott, LA seafood and boudin to my new rancher! I arrived early enough on Wednesday to get in a nice shoot at the pasture next to the house. I normally shoot from a rotating table in the back of my truck. Last month I made an impulse buy on a Bogpod Death Grip tripod. I finished up at the hose pasture with the tripod and the 17 Remington Fireball. I was pleasantly surprised to find that shots inside 150 were usually deadly. Although it was only a 3 hour shoot, I burned #88 rounds. The next day I shot two reliable pd towns and gave the tripod and the 17 RFB another good work out. Using the tripod I was able to shoot areas of the pasture where pds would normally be spooked by a truck. At the end of the day I ate supper at a “new” restaurant (that makes a total of 4 restaurants in the county). I had a hearty serving of chicken fried steak and it was good. In conversation with the waitress, she said she lives on a ranch with lots of prairie dogs. Her father owed the restaurant. She gave me his business card with his cell number.

The third day I called the new rancher. He said he’d show me 4 pd towns. Unfortunately, one of the towns had been poisoned heavily and I saw only a few dogs at the other 3 towns. I don’t know whether there weren’t may dogs or whether it was just too windy. I finished the day with a decent shoot at one of my regular towns, but it was still a slow day. The last day I started at the “Big Town” from June.The wind was gusting to 43 mph, making it tough to get a hit. It was tough gauging the wind without a spotter so I set up to avoid cross wind shots. I finished the day at the town beside the house to make another good hunt. Despite the wind, it was a pretty busy day. All told, I had a good time and ended up shooting a little shy of 500 rounds for the entire hunt.

New Equipment Review:
Leupold 12x50 binocs-I bought these on a whim after seeing on tigerdroppings.com they were on sale. They were my main binocs for all 3 hunts. They’re a little clearer than my previous go to binocs, the Vortex Diamondback 12x50. On the other hand, the Leupolds are nearly 50% more expensive. My only complaint is the neck strap. The part that attaches to the binocular is extremely thin and broke on the 3rd hunt.
Vortex 15x56 binocs-I bought these on a whim also. Yes, I’m a sucker for binocs. They were factory refurbs from Sierra Trading and cost only $180. I like them, but they’re not useful unless the wind is calm.
BogPod Death Grip tripod: I like it. It’s not a steady w/ a handgun as w/ a rifle, but still pretty still for fairly close shots. BogPod used to make an adaptor that I’m told worked well w/ handguns, but it’s been discontinued. I’ve seen
Hornady 25 gr V-Max-Until the last hunt, I’d exclusively used 20 gr bullets in the 17 Remington Fireball. At 3600 fps, the 25 gr is 150 fps slower than the 20 g. With the same point of impact at 100 yds, the 25 gr becomes flatter shooting at 300 yards. The heavier bullet seemed equally destructive at the lighter bullet. More testing is needed.
“Hand clicker counter.” I bought 2 clickers for $6 from Amazon and I really like them for keeping track of hits.

Three generations of hunters


17 RFB w/ tripod


20 VarTag ruined a family reunion.