Inexpensive P-dog hunting

WhitBri

WhitBri

New member
Myself and two other guys are looking for an inexpensive route to go p-dog shooting. We've went on a few trips paying a "guide" in Gregory SD the first two trips, had great shooting the first trip with him and was a fair price so went back for year two and had horrible shooting. It was all private land but owners were letting multiple "guides" hunt their land for a price so dogs were all scared and shot up. Went to another outfitter farther west in SD by Mobridge and got had a little bit, not bad shooting but had to drive forever to get to shooting and not much land.
My question is: I've heard of guys just going out lining up permission to hunt on private land at no cost and shooting a ton. How do you do it? Where to go? Don't want to spend the gas and stay and not find any land to hunt, but sick of paying "guides" to show us spots that are all shot up. There has to be a better way without paying a fortune. Of course I'm willing to pay a reasonable fee to shoot good land but $350 a day that some good guides charge seems high for me to shoot rodents.
 
I have heard of these fellows too. I am one. It took awhile but I can shoot til I either ran out of money or freeze to death and not ever run out of pd shootin. The trick is finding who has them and how badly they want to get rid of them. There are some instances where they will find you...its happened more than once. I have been followed all the way back to the farmhouse from the pasture to be asked if I would shoot a certain place.

How do you do it?
find dogs, find landowners, ask permission, shoot dogs, go home
Where to go ? the obvious answer is where there are prairie dogs. Since some of us live amongst them it is not really a difficult problem. For you that don't you won't have alot of luck asking long time members exactly where they go. It is coveted information. But I would call around to areas that you can find that have been known to have pds. Generally if there is an area that has a shootable population of pds you should be able to find that out from county government offices but focus on weed/pest/land admins.

$350 / day seems more than high but if it were me and I thought you'd pay, I'd be all over it.
 
What skb says is dead on. BTW- what do you consider good shooting? 150 -200 rounds a day? 500 plus? 100 yards out? 250-500 yards? Not nitpicking, but "good shooting" is a pretty relative term.
 
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Good shootin in Jan is far different than good shootin in May. In Jan. it might amount to 150 or so shots in a day if the weather allows. Last weeekend it didn't allow for that much. In May "good shootin" can be three times that much.

Good luck but like obaro said ...you need to define what you would except.
 
The key for GOOD shooting in SD is going in May or early June. Once late June and July and August roll around, everyone and thier uncle have already been there (guided areas). If you plan a May hunt you don't have the crowds of people yet and there are plenty of pups out by then that give you many opportunities.
 
I'm with WhitBri on this.. There has got to be a better option when it comes to shooting prairie dogs in SD. Myself and a few buddies have gone twice now to SD prairie dog shooting and it is completely hit or miss with the different guide services.. I've been hearing that hunting the public land might be an option. Does anyone have any experience with this? Is it even worth your time? I'm done paying $150 - $250 a day just for a guide to take you out on private land that has been shot up already. Then having to pay for my own meals and lodging on top of that. $1000 a day to take 4 guys out and watch them shoot prairie dogs? (assuming they can find you any) I want that job! I have yet to go to one of the higher priced all inclusive ranches that run around $400 per day. I just can't bring myself to spend $1200 and risk not having good shooting. The best part is chatting it up with the locals when you are in town grabbing some food. Apparently the general consensus is we're nuts to be paying that much to kill pests.. I'm starting to think they are on to something..
 
I'm also curious to what people consider good shooting.. I don't care about how many shots people take. I wanna know how many dogs they see that they can shoot at. I'm sure there are guys out there that can shoot 500-600 rounds a day and only take down 30-40 dogs.. That being said there are probably guys that can take down 100 dogs with 150 shots.. How many dogs do you have to engage to consider it a good day?
 
The last prairie dog compatition in my area took the gold with 100 rounds and 186 prairie dogs in 8 hours. Every shooter had a judge. Oh yeah, second place took 146 dogs with 100 rounds in 8 hours. That includes travel time from the local pub to the dog town and back.
A good day for me is about 300 rounds and 400 dogs.
 
OH yeah, the local SWAT team took 86 dogs and figured they won the compatition. It was fun watching them strut in and find out us lil country boys outshot them using our cheap Savage rifles.
 
I take enough ammo for 300 shots per day average during the best times, sometimes I bring home ammo and sometimes not.

I could actually shoot alot more than I do but the novelty of it wore off along time ago so its a social occasion with family that includes shootin some pds.
 
You have seriously killed 400 dogs in one day? I wanna go where you were! That would be worth the money.. I doubt the places I have hunted we have even seen 400 dogs in two days..
 
Yes. I've shot in the middle of a pasture where we just pivot the table around and never move the truck...all day. Went back the next day. I've seen as many as 50 "birds of prey" on the ground feasting on the results at the same time. Any more I go and take friends and they do alot more of the shootin.
Considering its free....its worth the money.
 
Chz,,, When we go to "our place" in Colorado, there are usually 3-4 of us....we have access to a 75,000 acre ranch and a couple more that are in close proximity...

We each take four rifles and 1.000 rounds for each (minimum) and will usually exhaust most of that in 3-4 days...we are all pretty fair shots, but I've never kept track of our kills vs shots ratio...but 400 per day is not unrealistic..

We found out on our first trip, that we needed to take a hand held GPS unit to find our way back to the various gates to get back to the bunk house...our first trip we wasted 2 1/2 hours getting back to the main road by having to follow fence lines to the gates...
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This place is a great way to start the day...there is a PD town 300 yards from the bunk house and we sit out on the deck in the early morning shooting Prairie Dogs while having our morning coffee...I generally cook and the others clean up, so I get a little earlier start..
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Quote:It was fun watching them strut in and find out us lil country boys outshot them using our cheap Savage rifles.

Outlawkyote,,, Hate to jump the thread,,,but I know what you mean... I used to shoot on the police pistol team and retired from it in 1985...After that, most of the pistol team was made up of the Tactical Squad members and they'd show up at regional matches in their matching jump suits and tactical gear...

I still held a Deputy Sheriff's commission and shot on their pistol team and we were a "T-shirt & Jeans" bunch...as were most of the sheriffs departments in the area....I'd always get a chuckle when some of us, with good old 1100 shotguns and 1911s would smoke them with their fancy HKs and Benellis...
 
I would consider 300-400 shots a day good. When I'm talking bad shooting was when I fired 150 rounds in 3 days and most of those were 500yrds plus as one shot and all the PD ducked in the holes and stayed there. I guess I've heard the stories of guys hunting one ranch for 3 days shooting over 1500 rounds and picking and choosing how far those shots were.
 
Here in Texas we expect to shot 200 to 500 shots per day at ranges from 200 to 600 yds. Never really took to the time to count bodies as we were to busy shooting. I mean once youv'e seen a blownup prarie dog they all start to look the same. I would guess that good prarie dog shooter would average about a 1 in 3 kill ratio
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I have heard a lot about "come out to South Dakota and get all the shooting you can stand for almost nothing..." What I have found is that it is pretty common for the gunshop guy, the media, the guy at the range, prospective guides, and even your buddy to tell you about the "best" day of shooting and pass it off as the "regular" day of shooting. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that if it was easy, all of the prairie dogs would be dead!

Find a full time guide that rotates his hunting pressure on his dog towns. Don't waste time going out with a guy that is a rancher and "can find you some dogs". Guides are like most people in that they want your business. Most of them are part-timers so they take you hunting to get a little extra money. Look for a guy who does it for a living and insist that he supply you with all of the names of last year's clients. If he won't do that, he probably has something to hide. If he will, at least you know that he is proud of how he takes care of his clients.

Guess what, a guy like that is not going to be free. When compared to the money you will throw away traveling and searching for a 'plan B' when you get out there, an excellent guide IS cheap. Try out Jim River, I hear he is the best in the business.
 
I'll tell you it takes alot of time and leg work. It's hard enough to find the property but then try to get a hold of the rancher is a nother story. But if you can find just 2 or 3 little towns (60-70 acre) towns that everyone looks over IMO are the best blasting you could ever want. Dogs are not shy and you can work those towns over pretty good for a couple of day and will have a shoot of a lifetime. But this is my oppion. Best of luck finding a new spot.
 
$350 per day.....Owww
I have a rancher friend that only charges $75-100 per day out here for shooters on his place. PM me for his info if you want to go to WY.

** I do not shoot his place & get nothing for trying to set him up with shooters** Just trying to help him out in these economic times.
 
Ah, I have several comments.

My first PD hunt was with a pro guide in SD. He put me on the dogs but his personality was a bit lacking. To me a trip with a $400 per day tab rates a bit of hand holding, good food, good lodging, and good company both in and off the field.

If you hire a guide don't be the only one that he takes. It's much more fun with others.

Don't hire a guide if he is going to shoot as well.

It's easy to shoot high percentages and get the mist effect if they are under 100 yards. The challenge is the long shots.

I took a 223 and 204 in AR and a savage 22-250 single shot. I ended up shooting 400+ rnds with the single shot. Used the AR very little. Just ended up that way. Rained me out the second and last day.

Whitbri, What happens in Gregory Stays in Gregory! It's the code.
 


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