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Dog Stone

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Hello:

I am an avid hunter and shooter but have recently gotten in to some longer distance shooting with my son, my nephew, and some other friends. We are hoping to do a prairie dog hunt this spring/summer out west as we are all from Ohio and Pa. Any excuse to get a gun in my hands!

Not so much interested in a guided hunt but a simple camaraderie based trip where we can get on some land where the owner wants the dogs taken off.

I am eager to learn what you guys have to say about what ammo, where, when, and how to enjoy our upcoming hunt.

Thanks
 
Can`t advise on the prairie dog hunt as I have no experience but I can welcome you to TFL . Soooo, glad to have you here and WELCOME fellow Ohioan!
 
When you say "ammo", are you asking for brand recommendations or cartridge/caliber recommendations? If you want brand recommendations then it would be helpful to know what cartridge you have chosen.
 
Welcome to the fold!

As far as PD shooting goes I'd look towards Eastern Montana and Wyoming as well as the Dakotas right now. We usually have a few prairie dogs around but the last couple of years my good towns have been wiped out either by poison or plague. Can't shoot pasture poodles in CO except on private land so I'm back to square one searching for new places to hunt as well.

As far as varmint ammunition goes if you are shooting .223 or .22-250 Black Hills makes some pretty awesome varmint rounds. Really just find whatever shoots well in your rifle and see where you can buy it bulk. It isn't hard when you get into a good colony to shoot 300-600+ rounds a day.
 
welcome to the forum.

I am a native South Dakotan and my adivce on p-dog hunting is to get a good bull barreled gun (my favorite is a remmy 700 VSSF in 22-250) or a couple regular to heavy sporter barreled guns. this is because if you get in on a good p-dog town you will have a lot of shooting to do and barrels heat up real fast.

optics are important as well as a solid rest or bags. I like the burris signature series scopes as well as the burris elite series. good glass with higher power magnification is a must.

calibers for p-dogs (and will list them for yotes as well) (also look at the Ackley improved models of many of the chamberings)

.218 bee
.220swift
.222
.223
.22-250
.243 win
6mm rem
6.5x55

etc.... list goes on and on. and get into old, obscure and wildcat loads.

me i have new chambering i need to try out when I get back home to SD this fall.. I took an old martini-enfield and rebarreled and rechambered to .219 zipper. should be some good p-dog medicine.

best bet to find places to hunt is go out west and ask around at the cafes and feed stores. many ranchers and farmers are more than willing to let you thin out the herd of p-dogs and yotes.
 
Okay, I have outfitted my Ruger M77 Mark II .243 with a tactical scope, bought a Remnington 700 SPS in .223 and fixed up an old 22 Mag.......I am good to go! Getting sub MOA accuracy with the .223 using Fiocchi ammo.

We are headed to Winner South Dakota next spring to shoot PD's.

Anybody have any experience with Schoeny’s Lodging?
 
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These are from a little trip we did at my hunting camp in Ohio. We were able to shoot 1 gallon milk jugs at exactly 1/2 mile.......pretty amazing!
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Don't forget about Coyotes! Many States allow you to shoot them all year long. Some Military bases will open up to the public to allow the thinning of Coyotes. Fort Campbell, Ky. used to allow civilians on post to hunt Coyotes and Fox right after deer season ended and also around the first of May or June. They had a horrible rabid Fox and Coyote issue back in the mid to late 90's and I bet I removed at least 30 Coyotes over the decade I was stationed there.

Also, Fort Campbell offers some awesome Turkey and Deer hunting, often allowing you more than what the counties and States will allow you to harvest. However, I've not been to Fort Campbell in a few years or Fort Drum. Drum used to have a nice a moose season IIRC. Just give any local military base a call and see what their rules are. Since I've not had time to hunt much of anything since 2003, and I left Campbell in 2001, they may have vastly different rules about it. I know here at Fort Rucker, you can hunt on post as a civilian. But Rucker hasn't had a Coyote hunt in the last two years.
 
Welcome,

if you need some cheap entertainment, start a thread about ; Mini-14's, varminting, High Point, ethics or self defense and watch the eruption.....just kidding,sorta........

any who, there is a lot to learn here, I lurked for a couple of years before I joined.
 
Welcome to the playpen! Any number can join in! :D

I've used a light sporter .223 on PDs. I just didn't shoot rapidly, allowing some cool down time.

I loaded a bunch of 55-grain bullets for my .243; they worked quite well.

I was pleasantly surprised that 7X and 9X was plenty good to 300 yards on the little critters. 400 is a bit of a stretch, though--but it worked out okay.

We did lazy man's shooting: Just drove around the pasture, stopping to shoot a few and then moving on. Social chit-chat while meddling along.

I always zero for 200 yards. At 300, holdover ran about five to six inches. Much of the time it took four to six inches of windage, against the breeze...
 
I always zero for 200 yards. At 300, holdover ran about five to six inches. Much of the time it took four to six inches of windage, against the breeze...

I was quite surprised that our windage at 880 yards was as much as 42 inches. We all had mil dot scopes so we didn't have to use any hold off.

We didn't hit the milk jug every time but I was amazed that we could be within a couple inches of it every time. If it had been a deer we would have hit it every time but at 125 foot pounds it wouldn't have done much.
 
I have a 22" hanging steel plate at my 500-yard range. With my '06 during what didn't seem like all that much wind, I was holding a foot of daylight to hit the center of the plate. Wind can certainly be deceptive...
 
Welcome to the forum. You picked the best one in my book. Some great folks that really know there stuff. Can't help much on the P.D. never done it but always wanted to. I think a 22-250 would be a great one, but there are a few real good calibers for this. I have the Browning heavy barrel with the boss system in the 22-250, plus I reload. It will shoot one hole groups if I do my part, but most the time it's better than I can shoot it. I have a Leupold 6.5x20x50mm on it. I do need to correct a big mistake I use to have it, I recently sold it. Hard to get use to not having it. But anyways it was a real nice set up. Like I said and what was posted there are some other great calibers for this. Good luck, and again welcome to forum.
 
Dog (OP) just noticed that you said you were going to be in Winner South Dakota.

Small world. My ex wife has family up there and they have around 3k acres and I still hunt it (the relatives realized she was a liar, cheater, etc... and I was on the up and up :cool: ) . lots of p-dogs, yotes and if you go in the fall lots of pheasant huniting.

I also have a guy that works for me and his dad still has a small farm right outside of winner. PM me and I can send you some contact info for the folks you should talk to about hunting yotes and p-dogs in/around winner.

also, my folks still have a little over 4k acres around springfield SD and Niobrara Nebraska, but no p-dogs, mostly yotes and coy-dogs (half dog half yote). I will be back home in August and plan on doing some yote hunting during my prescouting for fall/winter deer season (more like making sure my permanent stands are still useable and putting some new stands out). you guys are welcome to shoot on my family land, but either my dad or i will need to accompany (lots of cattle and we had issues in the past with folks taking shots with the cattle in the background).
 
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