Posted: 1/22/2010 1:20:59 PM EDT
| Hey, everyone I got a quick question for you. Me and some buddies have some time off on President's Day weekend, and were thinking about driving to Wyoming to shoot some prairie dogs. Is this a good idea? I've never actually been prairie dog hunting, but I've heard that there are some areas of Thunder Basin have a lot of prairie dogs, but I'm worried that the cooler temperatures will keep them in their burrows most of the time. Has anyone been out this early in the year and had success hunting prairie dogs? If it's not a good idea, can you offer up some inexpensive small game hunting ideas in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Kansas, or maybe even Utah, Arizona or Nebraska? We'll probably all be shooting .223 so we can't take any big game, and don't really want to have to clean anything as big as a deer either. |
| Coyotes sound fun. The only problem is that I know less about hunting coyotes than I do about prairie dogs. Do you think there is much of a chance of a group of three guys bagging a coyote or two without a guide? I'd love to try it, but if it's more of a single person type hunt I'll need to try it another weekend. |
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Yeah the p-dogs and the snow don't go so well together, but you'll still see a few out there. Not nearly as many as the summer and fall, though. First time out coyote calling with a few uneducated coyote hunters? Yeah it could be done, but not without some hard work, some quick learning, and a little luck. You might also just get lucky and see one or two runnin around out there. If you just want to shoot something, I'd stick to p-dogs.
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Check with the Thunder Basin office in Douglas as a lot of the national grassland has been declared off limits to p-dog shooting due to the introduction for the endangered ferriet in the area. Used to hunt there a lot about 5-10 years ago but it is off limits now. 
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There are five species of PD and two subspecies. The WY PDs are Black Tail and I'm more familiar with White tail. However in general PDs semi hibernate. Older dogs become less active as early as September. The first ones out are the one year olds and that is not until April-May. Individual PD will come outlooking for a bite to eat on a warmer winter day if it is above freezing. Traveling any distance to hunt PDs in Feb is a waste of time. In Utah you can't hunt until the spring born are weened meaning officially June 15th. Don't know about WY.
If it were me I would call the division of wild life and department of Agriculture or state farmer associations and ask about areas that are over populated with Jack Rabbits. JR populations explode an a seven year cycle and if you catch one, (best in early June-July but still good in winter), you can not carry enough ammo to put a dent in the population. Forget about the PDs in winter, look for the JR. Good luck |
| Thanks again for all your help. I'll try looking for some good rabbit places, and might be out in the next weekend to see if I can call in some coyotes. I can call turkeys in for a mile around and I know that calling coyotes is different, I hope my turkey calling skills can transfer. |
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The skills you've picked up calling in turkeys are pretty much the same skills you'll need for calling predators - you just won't have to sit there as long! Full camo, sitting still, being quiet, quick and accurate shooting, and moving to and from stands as stealthily as possible are just a few of the skills that will cross over.
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