Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Prairie Dogging Near/East of Helena?

Just asking about any possible leads, not familiar with MT. I plan to visit a friend in Helena this June, fishing, but also thinking about a day of dogging.

He said there’s prairie dogs near when he’s fishing, so far no spots to shoot. Planned to look up to a 3 hour drive, private ranch with a fee is O.K., no need for high service lodging.

I just started looking, thanks for any tips.

None of these are really near Helena but perhaps one of these folks can provide you with a lead -

https://www.ultimateprairiedoghunting.com/usa/montana/

drover

Theres nothing close by Helena...gotta go east about 90 miles, then get lucky. Otherwise your idea to be willing to pay to play is your huckleberry. The days of free dog shooting are virtually gone, unless you have long standing connections.

As above, I can think of nothing between Helena and Three Forks for PD killing. Gotta go East of there for that.

That does not sound good for those of us that don't have any connections at all.

It is even getting hard to find good gopher shooting fields, lots of them are leased up by outfitters. I don't blame the rancher/farmer for leasing them though it helps control the rodents and gives them some extra dollars.
Luckily I have some good ranches to shoot but only because of a long time connection with them. They restrict access to just a few known shooters, if someone they don't know asks they will likely be denied.

If someone had told me 30 years ago that people would pay hundreds of dollars a day to shoot gophers I would have said that they were nuts, today it is a big business. Basically it is a case of too many shooters and not enough PD's and gophers.

drover

I can’t help the OP.
I hunted PDs free in sodak in the 90s. Many times myself and a shooting partner would be asked “please come shoot at my place” by ranchers.
That ship has sailed for all but a rare few lucky few that have connections. I’m a paying PD shooter but about ready to quit. It’s hard to even find a decent place to shoot PDs.

Thanks for the tips, I’ll look. Yes, fishing is the main goal, not as far to drive.

The best PD shooting I’ve had was in WY, near where the North Platte flows out of the mountains.
The native tribes in South Dakota require a separate hunting license. Near Buffalo Gap on the reservation in the 1980’s there was a PD town that was about 10 miles wide and I don’t know how deep. The Bad Lands used to have fantastic PD shooting near Wall,SD. Then libatards got the PD shooting outlawed there. Black plague was the result.

Each year now my friends and family including cousins go to the same large ranch.

I’d suggest when going to a new state and having no leads, call the state game fish and parks people. They’ll likely know where ranchers have PD’s and want them killed.