I live in MN and i'm in the preliminary stages of planning and prepairing for a prarie dog hunt  i want to do in 2005.  Anyone know of a good spot to go plug a bunch of these little critters thats within a 1-1 1/2 days drive from central Minnesota?

any advice on what to bring besides liquid nitrogen to keep the barrel cool and about 1000 rounds of ammo?

Quoted: any advice on what to bring besides liquid nitrogen to keep the barrel cool and about 1000 rounds of ammo?

a rangefinder, 1000 rds PER day.
A sturdy rest. You probably won't be accurate enough offhand.

Get an Indian Reservation license in South Dakota, West of Mobridge in SD.  YOu'll probably need a SD state license too.  

Head over to www.varminthunter.org there is a ton on info there. 1000 rnds? Your not going to shoot much eh?

If you are planning next spring ... IM me ... I have some spots West River. How many days do you plan to shoot ?

looking at about 2 days of shooting

how many rounds do you guys usually go through out there in 2 days?

on average how many rounds can you pump through a factory savage BB (.308)?

I am planning in the spring or early summer sometime to get out there and have some fun.

also i'm picking up a spotting scope here pretty soon for the trip and any opionions on  one up to $200?

the range finder will have to wait for a while cause i don't have the funds for that even though its almost a necessity out there.

I don't understand these +1,000 round guys. I have spend 2 trips (3-4 days each) in South Dakota and only burned through about 500 rounds at each one.

Maybe I'm not finding the BIG PD towns?

There are a lot of lodges that book hunts.  The LWR Ranch in Martin has excellent guides, a very nice lodge and a the food is great.  John Wik runs it.  

I would advise a decent pair of binoculars over a spotting scope.  The scope is too slow. 10X50s will work well.  We didn't use anything beyond a 16 power scope.  Mirage gets bad beyond that.  If you don't reload, Black Hills .223 is very good stuff and you can get it right in South Dakota.

If you can only take one gun, take a .223.  You won't need the liquid nitrogen.  If you get very lucky, you'll have a lot of shots.  Sometimes our barrels got hot, so we just switched rifles for a while.  A .17HMR works well for shots less than 200 yards.  It will kill out to 300, but that's a stretch.  We had really good luck with V-Max bullets and soft lead tip ones too.  Some places won't allow FMJ due the problem of ricochets.  

Prairie dogs have got to be some of the stupidest rodents I've ever seen.  We've seen 4 on a mound and killed 2 before they realized what was going on and went underground.  I've shot at some at extreme ranges and missed a few times to the point where the little shit was shaking the dirt off, but he wouldn't go in his hole.

South Dakota is a great place to go.  Northeast Colorado is too, but you'll need to find private land because public range E. of I-25 is prohibited.

Watch out for rattlesnakes.  I carry a Ruger Vaquero with snakeshot rounds

i plan on having about 1000-1500 round of reloaded .308's.  As to the specs on the rounds i'm not sure yet, going to try a variety.  As you can tell i'm pretty new at this,  i have the drive to learn anything i can as long as you guys are willing to keep spilling your knowledge.

truthfully how many rounds do you guys on average go through /day out there?

i don't plan on shooting so much i have to replace the barrel when i get back.

i have a tack driving savage 10fp-le2 that  will be the work horse out there.

Quoted: I don't understand these +1,000 round guys. I have spend 2 trips (3-4 days each) in South Dakota and only burned through about 500 rounds at each one. Maybe I'm not finding the BIG PD towns?

depends on the size of the town yes but it also depends on the time of the year. If you go in the spring they come back up from thier holes faster and you don't have to wait as long. Towards late summer & fall they are more skittish and stay down longer. Also I usually shoot more than one place in a day.

Quoted: i plan on having about 1000-1500 round of reloaded .308's.  As to the specs on the rounds i'm not sure yet, going to try a variety.

I wouldn't want to shoot a .308 all day - my shoulder is too wimpy. An AR is neat because you don't lose your site picture and can watch the aerobatics

truthfully how many rounds do you guys on average go through /day out there?

depends on the wind, weather and location. You don't want to run out and have to buy ammo at a local hardware store - WAY too expensive.

i don't plan on shooting so much i have to replace the barrel when i get back i have a tack driving savage 10fp-le2 that  will be the work horse out there.

Then bring a second gun so you can keep shooting while your savage cools down.
If you shoot on the reservation, there are some gigantic towns.

Hello Savage,

When poping prarie dogs I spend my time near Martin South Dakota.  
A rancher firend of mine who runs prarie dog hunts.

He has a motel in Gordon NE where he puts you up, about 22 miles from there to the ranch.
He provides a Chevy Suburban that has benches and tables.
He has some real big dog towns.
He has people from NY who come out every year.

Drop me a line if you would like the info I can hook you up with him.   Bob
[email protected]

www.dogbegone.com/

'Nuff said...

BTW...

This is something I'd REALLY like to do sometime...  I think I'm 'gonna start looking into it...
A trip out West is in my future...

dogs

you might want to IM dpmmn, he has some experience p'dogging.  he lives in mn too so he might know some good nearby spots to hit.

in that maxamum carnage video, on the prarie dog be gone site.  whats you best guesses  as to what calibur they were using on those PD'S?  i'm curious because i think most of them were being shot with .223, 22-250's in the other videos.

tag a pdog

Quoted: depends on the size of the town yes but it also depends on the time of the year. If you go in the spring they come back up from thier holes faster and you don't have to wait as long. Towards late summer & fall they are more skittish and stay down longer. Also I usually shoot more than one place in a day.

This is a really good point--it seems to me if you find pdogs that have never been shot at, they're dumb as rocks. First year I went I hiked maybe half a mile across a creek that I'll bet no one had driven across and found a fairly smallish town. But they were so stupid I shot about 90 of them in 2-3 hours. When they've been shot at, you have to wait a lot longer for them to come back out. These ones, you could pick one off and have another one standing on the same mound, not go to ground.