And so it begins...

[Rocky Raab]

Another prairie dog season, that is.

I've written here of the rancher who has such a terrible infestation that his 100-acre pasture and tens of thousands of dollars in irrigation gear are ruined. This year, he begged us to come shoot the place early to get as many nursing mamas as possible - and thus the pups which are still underground. Normally, I refuse to do that as cruel and inhumane. But this isn't a sport situation, it's truly an eradication attempt.

So my shooting buddy and I went out there Tuesday while the weather was good (70* and near calm, partly cloudy) before a forecasted front. When we got there, we learned that a whole family had just shot the place for a week solid. It was either that or poison the whole ranch, and as they have horses grazing, that's not a viable alternative.

Anyway, there were still a few smaller dogs (males, probably) and much larger ones (the females) up and about. We settled in and began. Standing on the tailgate and using the pickup shell as a bench, we'd glass and shoot until the dogs went down, then move a couple hundred yards and start over. We don't need to shoot much beyond 275 yards this way, and I made some hits with the Hornet even at those ranges before the wind came up, then switched to my .223.
My buddy By Smalley uses his 5mm/35 SMc round exclusively for this. I would use mine, but my supply of brass is low and I'm still working on test loads for him. His 5mm/35 launches 30-gr Berger bullets at 4500 fps and really does a number on a PD.

We worked at it until 5 pm but the shooting was slow. Partly due to the heavy shooting the week prior, and also due to the increasing clouds. PDs do NOT like to be in cloud shadow, as they can't see the wing shadows of eagles unless it's sunny. Every time a cloud rolled by, they'd quickly go to their holes until the sun came out again. But we managed to kill 50 or so by the end of the day.

We'll go back as soon as the good weather returns. It was sunny and 70* Tuesday, but it started spitting rain by that evening, and on Wednesday we got three inches of snow. Still cold with mixed rain/snow this morning, and four more days of storms forecast. Time to reload more ammo! We have three other ranches almost as badly infested, and we have promised those ranchers to shoot their places, too.