Prairie Doggin': Video from last weekend's hunt

[Six-Gun]

Here's a short clip and some photos from last weekend's Colorado prairie dog hunt. The video is of two shots: one I made followed by one my hunting partner made. Both were good long range shots into the wind. The day was very productive and I'm sure the rancher who let us on his land is happy with our work

*WARNING* Some pictures and the video are graphic! *WARNING*


The video:
http://www.antarcticbeach.com/resources/Colorado+Prairie+Dog+hunt.wmv

The landscape of eastern Colorado - dry and barren, but loaded with pdogs:


My hunting partner, Mike, on his 6mm Remington rig:



My other hunting partner, Keith, and his Remington XR-100 Rangemaster in .22-250:


Since I don't have a good pic of myself, here's a pic of my rig - Remington 700VSF, lefty, in .22-250:



Here's the graphic photos of a few of the kills:

Video capture of my headshot on a large adult:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2002-10/61371/headshot.jpg

Miker's shot through the back of a mid-sized pup:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2002-10/61371/backthroughabdomen.jpg

Mike's low gut shot on a larger pdog:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2002-10/61371/lowgutshot.jpg

If you haven't gone varmint hunting before, let me just tell you that it is some of the most challenging and exciting hunting there is to be done. In a day of hunting prairie dogs, you can easily go through 300+ rounds of ammo and take out 250+ pdogs. I am definately making this trip again!

 

[Lennyjoe]

Gotta love the V-max. I load them over Varget for my Savage 12FLV lefty rifle and they do a number on jackrabbits.

Looks like a good day in the field.

 

[Six-Gun]

Gotta love the V-max. I load them over Varget for my Savage 12FLV lefty rifle and they do a number on jackrabbits.

Looks like a good day in the field.

Hey Lenny - how do you like that Savage? I'm looking for a lefty .243 for some longer range prairie doggin and Savage keeps coming to mind.

Do they offer anything in an HBAR in .243?

 

[killzone]

Hey Lenny - how do you like that Savage? I'm looking for a lefy .243 for some longer range prairie doggin and Svage keeps coming to mind.

Do they offer anything in an HBAR in .243?

Get the Howe 1500 in .243 You will be happy...Its a good gun to own.

 

[Lennyjoe]

So far so good. It's shooting just fine and the accu-trigger is awesome. Only downfall is the flimsy stock. I plan on throwing a Choate on it shortly.

 

[TMM]

ooh, that's one nasy picture, the last one...

i'd like to do that one day. .30-06 scoped boltie... probably a remmy 700... hehe. "prarie dog? what prarie dog? ooohhh, you mean that red mist over there?"

~TMM

 

[Six-Gun]

LOL - yeah there were quite few rough lookers after thatday in the field. These are some of the toughest varmint critters around, as the guy who introduced me to this told me.

One shot I made, my partner watched in the binoculars: said that I took the back end off of one, and his front end continued to claw its way back into a nearby hole. Yeechh...not for the faint of heart.

Only problem I see with a 30-06 is volume of fire. Prairie dog hunting usually involves A LOT of sjhooting: 250-500 shots a day, and sometimes more depending on the activity of the buggers. An '06 would probably need a good 3 minutes between shots if you don't want to scorch the throat.

I went with the .22-250 because I could shoot about 20 shots of it for every one shot of .300 Win Mag I could put downrange. It payed off greatly, as I could easily pump out a round every 30 seconds with no heat issues whatsoever. However, a 30-06 will DEFINITELY be an awesome gun for shooting them at range and into the wind.

 

[Six-Gun]

Nice!

So far so good. It's shooting just fine and the accu-trigger is awesome. Only downfall is the flimsy stock. I plan on throwing a Choate on it shortly.

Looks great, regardless. I agree that a nice wood or laminate stock would look great on that gun. I am seriously considering one.

 

[GunGoBoom]

Head shot on a rodent at 400 - no biggie.

 

[Six-Gun]

It was a big eye-opener for a guy who typically shot out to only 100 yards prior to this excursion. I never before imagined myself thinking "300-yard shot...boring..."

By the time my partner had showed me the ropes, this is exactly how you start to feel. You don't start giving yourself praise again until you punch a few at 500+ - then you can sit back and think "damned good shot."

Don't get me wrong: shooting into the wind at long range will never be routine shooting. You can only account for so many foactors before luck has to play in your favor, too. Once the bullet leaves the barrel, there's plenty of factor mother nature will account for that you have little or no say in. A wind shift after a well-planned shot takes all of your mental calculating and throws it right out the window.

 

[Tarvis]

Do you guys always shoot from a bench? Kinda takes the hunting spirit out of hit I think. I'm a bipod man .