Just returned from my annual 3 day prairie dog hunting trip to South Dakota. Thought I’d recap it in a second thread for those that are interested.
For the first time in the last 4 years, we had great shooting weather and most importantly NO RAIN! In case some are not familiar with “Prairie Gumbo”, the problem in a lot of South Dakota is that rain turns the clay/silt soil on many off-road trails and field roads into a greasy, slick mess that virtually guarantees you’ll get stuck if you venture off road before things dry out. This has been a huge problem in the past few years, but wasn’t an issue this year.
I hire a guide for all my trips now, the land access alone is worth the guide fees. We shot last Thursday through Saturday and we had terrific shooting. Overall, the good news is that I saw the highest numbers of p-dogs I’ve seen on any trip in the last 10 years. Hopefully this represents a real long-term trend because plague and mass-poisoning had decimated the populations in western South Dakota to the point where going back 5 years ago I was afraid that hunting was about to be closed. It seems to me that the numbers have increased significantly in the area I hunt.
Thursday – We had a beautiful day and almost a total lack of wind, which was very welcome. We shot a new dog town that had taken over a horse corral and created a real problem for the rancher and one of his horses had already been injured by stepping into a hole. It was terrific, lots of .223 shooting at relatively close range, I even got 3 of them with a .22 rimfire before turning to the AR to shoot at longer ranges. It got hot in the afternoon and with it being virtually windless, we quit at 4:00 having had enough fun.
Friday – Another almost calm day, which is great for shooting, but a little tough when the temp is 98. We shot a very large dog town that ran up a draw and then over a hill. My dad was on fire with the King of the Varmint Calibers, the .22-250. Both his Tikka and my Savage Axis were running with hot barrels all day.
Saturday – The wind finally caught up with us on Saturday, with a blistering hot wind from the south and temps of 103. We were shooting a pasture of about 160 acres that was solid prairie dogs such that it had become unuseable. We spent the whole day in this area and it was terrific.
Overall it was a great trip. Some general observations for those who are going out this summer or are thinking of going out:
1. Mobile is better! Portable shooting benches are just too limiting. I didn’t even take one with this time and I will never take one again. Instead I have switched over entirely to Caldwell tripod cradle rests with a turkey stool for a seat. This setup allows 2 of us to move through the dog towns very easily and quickly and maximizes the ability to reach different parts of the dog town with quality shots. The guide I use has consistently said that our setup and method of “run and gun” produces far better results than bench-bound shooters who can’t move as quickly or easily.
2. The sun is just hellish in the summer and you have to be ready with protective clothing. IMO the best hot-weather hunting shirt ever is the Filson Feather Cloth shirt. Get one! A broad brimmed hat and light pants are also a necessity.
Also, if you don’t already have those blue cooling towels, get some! Soak them in water and keep them around your neck and they stop you from the profuse sweating that makes shooting impossible. I’m a huge fan!
3. Ammo – I often get asked how much ammo to bring when on a varmint shoot. I counted last night, and for the 3rd straight year, our average is shockingly consistent. We use the team approach, with one guy spotting and one guy shooting and using this approach we shot almost exactly 300 rounds per day for the 2 man team. So 150 rounds per shooter per day. What is interesting about this to me is that this was my first trip taking an AR and I thought our shot count would go WAY up but that was not the case.
It’s worth noting that we shoot for percentage so we are very selective with our shots and take our time. If you’re more trigger happy, you’ll obviously run through a lot more ammo. 900 rounds for a 3 day trip may not sound like a lot, but we had SOLID shooting all day, every day and were never lacking action.
4. The .22-250 is still AMAZING. I smile every time I think about how freaky-flat the .22-250 is. It’s like having a laser guided, prairie-dog-seeking missile. If you LOVE to shoot, the .22-250 is just pure fun.
5. Hot weather is tough on rifles. We carried 2 rifles with us when out in the dog towns and even then, we had to stop several times to let the barrels cool to safe levels.
For the first time in the last 4 trips, we did NOT have any rifle breakdowns, but I did have 2 stuck cases that required a cleaning rod to extract. I blame this on hot chambers because this end of the barrel is the thickest and therefore the slowest to cool. Bottom line is have a solid cleaning rod and basic tools with you at all times. Bore snakes are useless for pushing out stuck shell casings. Also, don’t go out there without a case extraction tool for each caliber of rifle in case of a head separation. This happened to me twice in the last 4 trips, both times I got lucky and was able to extract the case myself, but this is the kind of thing that happens with high-volume shooting in hot and dusty conditions.
Overall, it was a great trip. My father said this will be his last trip to the dog towns, he’s 75 and has decided to hang it up because hunting in the the searing heat is becoming unsafe for him. What a retirement party we had! 35 years after his first varmint trip, he closed things out with a bang.
Grouse