Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Prairie Dogs this summer?

Hello all!
I may have the opportunity to travel west this summer. If so, I would like to designate a couple of days to shoot Prairie Dogs. I have shot them several years ago with a guide in the Murdo, South Dakota area, and before that in the Badlands unguided. I think I am correct shooting is no longer allowed in the Badlands. I'll be travelling if the trip comes together in South Dakota, Wyoming, and maybe Montana. Are there places you would recommend? Guided or not? I don't really want to spend a mint but do want some good quality shooting and I know it doesn't come cheap. Please let me hear your suggestions.
Thanks, and take care,
Rick

Asking the same questions here.

Call ahead to feed stores, co-ops etc. ask them if they know any ranchers who have dogs that they’ll let you shoot. Shootin pdogs used to be easy. Not the case anymore. Takes a lot of lookin around, phone call and nocking on doors now. And luck!

The good news is that rarely have I asked and not received permission. They look at me like I’m crazy for driving 20 hours to shoot rodents. It’s amazing how good a judge of people they out there😂

Prepare yourself...a lot if not most PD shooting nowadays is pay to play.

I was expecting to pay, not a fortune of course, but to pay. I'll probably be able to designate a couple of days to shoot and I think that wouldn't be enough time to find them.
Thanks for the info,
Rick

Lots of free places have been gobbled up by corporate ranches. I shot some ranches in this area for over 30 years. The owners even offered to let me charge a case of .22's I usually used centerfires, but it was a great jesture. All that changed about the turn of the century. Those are now corporate ranches $300/day.. Like the buffalo, it is gone.

Unless you have access to private property in p/dog locations w/o any fees

Remember.........p/dogs like irrigated property

With that means a $250K irrigation pivot system (per field)

Land owners are reluctant to let Joe Blow come in and start shooting

Livestock is another issue

Being the UPS guy for 27 yrs helps though.........

I looked last year and the going rate was $600/day. I was hard pressed to find cheaper.

I had an ag guy in the northwest tell me a few years ago, as he was giving me a list of names &phone numbers, "never pay to shoot PD's. Poison is expensive and time consuming".

Our motto is be polite, leave no trace ie; trash or brass, leave the gates as you find them and don't wander around the property without asking if that is OK. If it has rained in the last 24, walk in with Tri-pods. If you shoot a fence wire, fix it. Eleventh trip is coming up.

Go to the oklahoma panhandle. They'd prolly pay you to kill them out there. Alot of the ranchers lay down poison on huge tracts then break it out for farm ground with pivots. Those dog towns are snake pits too.
Also tons of dogs in SE Colorado and Western Kansas.

Along with that....

Don't shoot these guys....

So damm cute......they take their share of p/dogs

This one almost crawled up my pant leg........

I'm thinking of heading out west this spring to see if I can find some pd shooting. Going with no high expectations, but going to explore some places I know have prairie dog populations; just hoping the ranchers are willing to let me shoot. From '02 to '08 I had two ranches that welcomed me to shoot pds instead of them having to poison. In 08 the plague hit and there wasn't one dog where there had been hundreds before. Both ranches have changed owners and last time I drove by, in '12 or'13, pastures had been torn up and wheat had been drilled in what used to be prairie dog towns. I know there are still a lot of prairie dogs in Wyoming and Montana, it just is going to take a bit more time and effort to find the right places to shoot.

i plan on going Prairie dog hunting out west again ,i have a new toy to shoot Hornet 17 . i am all lined up free land and i don`t need a license either , bar has cold beer and great steaks too.

17 Hornet is awesome on PD's. If you are rolling your own you can shoot it cheaper than an HMR and the view is more scenic

Total agreement on the 17 Hornet. Cheaper than 17 HMR and MUCH cheaper than the 17 WSM.

Made me search 17 cal bullets at Larry's

Only 17 I've ever used & still have is the 'M2' rimfire

Bought the Eley ammo in the hayday of pricing

Inside of 100 yds the M2 really smacks 'em

17 Hornet sounds interesting

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1010922351?pid=160595

That would suck!!!


Shot one at 500 yards the other day, with the 308w, with my SWAT buddy watching through the spotter. The dog didn't want to come too far out of his hole, so I shot. I saw the dog flopping around after the shot, but couldn't quite make it out through the NF. Buddy said, "you shot his damn head off". I said, I didn't know if I hit him, but I saw him flopping around.


Right now, with it snowing off and on, our opportunities are very few and far between. Good luck to the OP. Hopefully he finds a great place to shoot..

Refuse to pay to kill prairie dogs. It has become another cash crop to eradicate rancher/farmers vermin. MTG

I generally stand in the sidelines and listen to your $hit. That is not a prairie dog. That’s a gopher, ground squirrel, example of your bull $hit.



😘

BSA1917 I encourage you to look closely at my facial hair and you can see the juices of your mother.