Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Prarie dog hunting areas ?

can anyone recommend a prarie dog hunting area nearer to Michigan than south dakota? tired of the day & 1/2 drive...thanks !

north dakota?

there just aren't many prairie dogs made on the eastern part of the u.s...

Prairie dogs live where there's prairie. There's not any prairie east of South Dakota or Kansas. Acording to the National wildlife Federation, here's the range for prairie dogs: Eastern Montana and southwest North Dakota to southeast Arizona, New Mexico and northwest Texas. You may find a few here and there in other regions but not in suffcient numbers to plan a hunt around. Prairie dog populations are down 99% from their historical range and down around 50% from 1970. Recently they have been devastated by plague. If you can find good populations today, consider yourself lucky.

"Prairie dog populations are down 99% from their historical range and down around 50% from 1970. Recently they have been devastated by plague. If you can find good populations today, consider yourself lucky. "

Mine if I ask where that factoid came from and in what part of the country this pertains to. I am a member of a farming family on the plains of Colorado (roughly 12000 acres)and have never talked to any landowners that feel that statement to be true at all. In fact with the inception of CRP not only prairie dogs but deer, antelope, pheasants, rabbits and several other prairie animals are in abundance like no other time.
Its not that there are not many pds...its more that if you know where they are you certainly don't tell others. It quickly defeats all the reasoning for knowing in the first place. We have 'em...............we ain't tellin ya where !

Here's a link http://www.ci.boulder.co.us/planning/PrairieDogs/page3.htm ,.


I've been able to do some PD shooting the past few years but good populations seem to be harder and harder to find. The articles I have read lately, in response to this post bear out what other info gathering had previously indicated. Sounds like you have good populations in your area. Enjoy them and good shooting!

Ricky..........we have the article. Its posted on the bulletin board. It makes for a good laugh. Do you realize that the farming community believes that the number of prairie dogs was under estimated by 6 million in eastern Colorado alone. Give some thought to exactly how you would go about counting prairie dogs anyway.
The references used in that article came from the same group who has made it illegal to shoot prairie dogs on "public land" here.
You want irony...check this out. There are groups in the Boulder area that spend $40 per dog to "relocate the dogs". What they do is vaccuum them up from freeway islands and places they are a nusiance and dump them "illegaly" on private land. The dogs then populate areas that they were never in before. In essense your tax dollars are paying for these guys to put them out on the farm so I can shoot them. Its a wonderful life......that my friend is a factoid.
$40 to move a dog
$.24 to eliminate them
I like the math !!

Guys/ thanks, this is a part of my education that was lacking. appreciate it...

I've heard about that PD vacumm. Do they use a clear hose so you can see the little guys being sucked up? That would be pretty funny from several standpoints.

Nope, the hose is black - take a look.

http://www.prairiedog.info/Prairie_Dog_Vacuum.htm

Now it's official, I have seen it all!

That prairie dog vacuum would be awesome if it had a reverse. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

the vaccuum process has an extremely high mortality rate.....not nearly as much fun as my own method.