Taking my Dad and Uncle out to pop a few over labor day weekend... anyone have any tips on places to go?  The further East the better.  We've done one of the state wildlife areas last year, good dog town but was a 6 hour drive.  Thinking about the Cimarron National Grasslands, but thats a good 7 hour drive.

Any other ideas?  Anyone else enjoy popping the little suckers?  We had a number of good hits in the 350 yard range, was pretty challenging.

From my experience researching dog hunting in KS, either you know someone or you pay a $100 a day per person.

I was pretty discourage the last time I checked, I stopped looking for spots in KS.

Wish you luck,  love shooting dogs with my dad and family friends.  We drive 6 hr plus out of state to do it.

Also when you are looking to go is the first weekend for dove hunting in KS.

You would have better luck getting a dove hunting spot.

Yeah... Pop isn't a wing shooter.  :(

Looks like we'll head out to the national grasslands, long drive but even with the plague looks like they've got a bunch of prairie dogs out there.

Justin

I have always wanted to try to go there, just haven't had time to research it.

At one time you could request a map of the public areas and the roads around them for hunting in that area.  I got one about six years ago, I will have to see if I still have it and look up where I got it.

I found my info packet

The return address is

Usda forest service
Cimarron national grassland
242 hwy 56 e p.o. box 300
Elkhart, KS  67950

Good luck and have fun

Thanks.  I've got their map.  It really is pretty nice they printed off a little single page map with dots on known PDog towns and a large fold out map to find your way around.  I was hoping someone knew of a closer location or private landowner in need of pest control.  Looks like we'll head to the grasslands for this go round.

Thanks guys.

Justin

look forward to hearing a range report

@Watman

Any news on how the shooting was at the south west corner of the state?

Good timing....

So we headed out Friday about 10AM which put us in the grasslands about 6PM.  Starting checking the locations the park had provided in the Cimarron Grasslands.  They said the population was down, they were not kidding.  We glassed at least 6 towns in really tall grass, hard to shoot even if you did see one, finally found a promising area and saw a couple dogs.  Set up camp.  Did some dove hunting the next morning early while Dad, Uncle and my Son were getting coffee and breakfast going.  If you're a good wing shot you'll have a blast dove hunting.  i'm not (think more flak cannon), I still enjoyed it and got a few.  Really good near sunflower fields.  Guys set up on waterholes looked to be making a killing.

However even this promising dog town in the morning we didn't see a single prairie dog... keep in mind I swore I saw a few in the Binos the evening before.  So we packed up and moved on.  Finally found a town with a few dogs running around, but man they were wary, a shot or two and they were all underground.  And I'm talking 20 mounds or so with 3-4 pdogs.  I ran into guys out there from Indiana who had a big cargo van and a nice platform in the bed of their truck.  They were pretty disgusted and said a few shots every thirty minutes and all small towns in the ones they had checked too.

We had a great time camping, doing a little hunting a some target practice though.  Come Sunday we headed North towards 70 and then back to KC.  I will say we stopped off at a state wildlife area and my 9 year old got a few prairie dogs and my Dad and Uncle got to shoot at a few.  Not too many hits as they were skittish and to get them unawares it was 300-400 yard shots.  This little spot was the most active we saw though.  I recommend touching base with the Agent that covers the area, if you're looking shoot me a PM and I'll send his and the area information.  Theres not much out there (No shade) lots of mosquitos and no camping conveniences.  But they do have dogs we also went here last year and then we saw 30-40 at a time and spent a really good morning two days in a row shooting em up.

So it looks like between plague and drought the populations are severely impacted.  Last year we also went in June so they hadn't been hunted so hard and probably still had a lot more pups around.  The ones we saw were all pretty good sized.  

In closing, if you are open to doing some dove hunting or just want a camping get away with a chance to maybe pop a few go for it.  If you are really serious about volume shooting you probably need to pay for one of the places in Colorado or other states.

Justin

I forgot to chime in...... You should've just went to Hutch... They have a couple in town.... But they'd probably frown upon you commencing fire....

Shooting from the Lowe's parking lot might be looked down upon

Thanks foe the feedback.  Sounds like you still had fun.