Need advise for P.D. trip
- Thread starter T
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I thought there used to be a fellow from Wyoming that had a guiding service that did prairie dog hunts, but I checked the advertisers and his ad isn't there. Anyway, if you get the Varmint Hunter magazine, there are tons of folks that advertise guided prairie dog hunts in there. You can also call the state game and fish departments of states like Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, etc., etc. and get some information on where to find guides, etc. The local tourism department or chamber of commerce in cities that are located close to prairie dog towns might also be a place to look.
I know there is an outfitter up near Ingomar, MT that sells prairie dog packages. In 2002 the price was $150 a day per hunter. You got your room and he would point to the prairie dog towns and you were on your own. I think he had something like 250,000 acres leased for PD hunting and you pretty much had a huge area all to yourself or your hunting party. Meals at the Jersey Lil Saloon were fabulous!!! Prices were pretty reasonable too.
If you don't want to pay for the privilege of shooting prairie dogs, you'll have to start doing your homework early to find places to shoot. Not many fellows are willing to tell you where their honey holes are located. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
I know there is an outfitter up near Ingomar, MT that sells prairie dog packages. In 2002 the price was $150 a day per hunter. You got your room and he would point to the prairie dog towns and you were on your own. I think he had something like 250,000 acres leased for PD hunting and you pretty much had a huge area all to yourself or your hunting party. Meals at the Jersey Lil Saloon were fabulous!!! Prices were pretty reasonable too.
If you don't want to pay for the privilege of shooting prairie dogs, you'll have to start doing your homework early to find places to shoot. Not many fellows are willing to tell you where their honey holes are located. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
I have a couple of friends from Ohio who have been coming west for 15 years PD shooting. They finally convenced me to go with them and I met them in Colorado for my first trip 4 years ago. I got hooked. We have shot in Colorado, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma and South Dakota. Every trip has been great with lots of dogs.
We have never paid a guide or any extra fees except for licenses. All we do is show up in an area with known dog populations and go to the local sporting goods store to purchase state license, feed store, or to the local cafe where land owners eat. Simply mentioning what we are there for has always brought phone calls to our motel or the store gives us directions to many areas. Landowners beg us to come out to their place and shoot. We have found a few supposedly good areas that were heavly shot but if shooting is too difficult, move on to next invite. We checked into a motel in Sturgus, SD this past June about 3:00 in morning and the girl at desk ask us what we were doing in town and we told her. Oh, my father in law has some on his farm. Next morning, she told us he really wanted us to come out. I was amazed, his place had a town about 3 miles by 1 mile with kazillions of dogs. We shot 5000 rounds in 4 days.
All in all, I have never seen anything like the hospitality offered dog shooters everytime I have gone.
Maybe your first year, you should team up with someone who has been before and learn the ropes or contract for a guide. When you find out how easy it is to find places to hunt, you will not need guides again. Stay in a good economy motel,eat breakfast and supper and take a snack to the field for lunch. Your expenses will be less than $50-60 per day,not counting transportation or bullets.
I was leary of driving from East Texas to Colorado for my first hunt and my partners could not tell me where we would be shooting except near the town of Springfield. I thought this was kinda risky and worried about it all the way up. The guys I shoot with had never been there either but said "don't worry, there are always places to hunt." They were right, I have never been disapointed in my 4 years and 6 hunts yet. We just show up and let if fall where it happens, plenty of places to shoot and we don't shoot at every place offered to us, not enough time. Yes, maybe I will have a bad shoot sometime, but you can get that with a guide.
good luck and have fun, it will hook you.
We have never paid a guide or any extra fees except for licenses. All we do is show up in an area with known dog populations and go to the local sporting goods store to purchase state license, feed store, or to the local cafe where land owners eat. Simply mentioning what we are there for has always brought phone calls to our motel or the store gives us directions to many areas. Landowners beg us to come out to their place and shoot. We have found a few supposedly good areas that were heavly shot but if shooting is too difficult, move on to next invite. We checked into a motel in Sturgus, SD this past June about 3:00 in morning and the girl at desk ask us what we were doing in town and we told her. Oh, my father in law has some on his farm. Next morning, she told us he really wanted us to come out. I was amazed, his place had a town about 3 miles by 1 mile with kazillions of dogs. We shot 5000 rounds in 4 days.
All in all, I have never seen anything like the hospitality offered dog shooters everytime I have gone.
Maybe your first year, you should team up with someone who has been before and learn the ropes or contract for a guide. When you find out how easy it is to find places to hunt, you will not need guides again. Stay in a good economy motel,eat breakfast and supper and take a snack to the field for lunch. Your expenses will be less than $50-60 per day,not counting transportation or bullets.
I was leary of driving from East Texas to Colorado for my first hunt and my partners could not tell me where we would be shooting except near the town of Springfield. I thought this was kinda risky and worried about it all the way up. The guys I shoot with had never been there either but said "don't worry, there are always places to hunt." They were right, I have never been disapointed in my 4 years and 6 hunts yet. We just show up and let if fall where it happens, plenty of places to shoot and we don't shoot at every place offered to us, not enough time. Yes, maybe I will have a bad shoot sometime, but you can get that with a guide.
good luck and have fun, it will hook you.
THA--Man, 5,000 rounds in 4 days. That's a lot of dead prairie dogs or did you miss once in awhile? I dream about prairie dog towns as big as the one you described, but many of those larger towns in this country got poisoned out or hit by the plague. We have some section sized towns I have hunted, but none 3 miles by 1 mile with a kazillion prairie dogs.
How many fellows were in your shooting party when you went through those 5,000 rounds? You must start pretty early in the morning and go late in the day to throw that much lead down range. I'll bet your rifle barrels were probably so hot they almost melted.
I sounds like you have very good luck finding places to hunt and your method might work for lots of other folks too. Thanks for sharing the information.
How many fellows were in your shooting party when you went through those 5,000 rounds? You must start pretty early in the morning and go late in the day to throw that much lead down range. I'll bet your rifle barrels were probably so hot they almost melted.
I sounds like you have very good luck finding places to hunt and your method might work for lots of other folks too. Thanks for sharing the information.
Silverfox, the Sturgus trip was an unusual trip but I did not exagerate. We were told of another town which we did not see or confirm that was 5 miles long. some guy had been charging to let people shoot it until it was found out he had no rights there. What was really amazing was the town we shot was virgin. It was simply amazing. Yeah, we did miss a few, but who doesn't . I guess all in all we shot 80%. Most of the misses were ego shots at 450 to 500 yds. There were three of us and we really loved the "10 little indians" shot. Where 6 to 8 dogs were lined up in a row on one mound and we shot at the same time. Talk about aerobatics. Had several shots where dogs were lined up like that but the line was straight line and lined up in axis along my sight line. One shot and 5 dogs went flying. One buddy who was watching this shot from 30 yards from me saw the whole action and started laughing. He wished he had had a video and said dog parts were going everywhere. He had just lined up on one of them and all he saw before he was going to shoot was explosion . I guess shoots like that one are once in a lifetime, but we always seem to get a good hunt every year and always on our own.
THA--I guess you could say you were truly "blessed" to get into a virgin dog town! I have been in a couple of dog towns that were nearly that good, and I keep my mouth shut about where they are, but someone else usually finds out about them and spills the beans. There goes the good shooting. In the early years of my prairie dog hunting, I could set up with my bipoded rifle on a praire dog mound and shoot many boxes of shells without having to move to another part of the dog town. Those days are gone around here, except when the young of the year first come out.
I hear you on getting those dogs lined up so you can bag a double, triple, quad, or even a quintuple. Those young of the year that don't get hit, scramble around a wee bit, come back to their fallen comrades, sniff on them a bit and give you another good chance to shoot at them again. Ahhh, I long for the end of May and first part of June so I can get out there again.
I hear you on getting those dogs lined up so you can bag a double, triple, quad, or even a quintuple. Those young of the year that don't get hit, scramble around a wee bit, come back to their fallen comrades, sniff on them a bit and give you another good chance to shoot at them again. Ahhh, I long for the end of May and first part of June so I can get out there again.
MichiganMark
New member
I'm heading out to NW Colorado for a bowhunt this fall and was wondering if it would be worth it to throw the 22-250 in for some afternoons of shooting. Anybody know if there are P.D.'s around Rangely?
I would suggest getting in all the free hunting you can. The word is getting out on how to make money in these areas and $150 a day and up is getting common. Before long, P-Dog shootin will be a rich mans sport too. Not to mention Predators. Ah, for the good old days.
Minnesota Dick
New member
SteveM said:
"I would suggest getting in all the free hunting you can. The word is getting out on how to make money in these areas and $150 a day and up is getting common. Before long, P-Dog shootin will be a rich mans sport too. Not to mention Predators. Ah, for the good old days."
Ya and Minnestoa Dick says:
And this $150 a day sucks. Some people just have too much money on hand to spend. I know that I can not afford $150 a day to shoot and will not pay it.
It cost me aporx $165 in gas alone just for the round trip to the shooting grounds. Then there is motel, food, and ammo cost on top of that.
Oh well, maybe I will just get my shooting enjoyment punching holes in paper and cleaning guns in the future.
Just my thoughts on $150 a day.
"I would suggest getting in all the free hunting you can. The word is getting out on how to make money in these areas and $150 a day and up is getting common. Before long, P-Dog shootin will be a rich mans sport too. Not to mention Predators. Ah, for the good old days."
Ya and Minnestoa Dick says:
And this $150 a day sucks. Some people just have too much money on hand to spend. I know that I can not afford $150 a day to shoot and will not pay it.
It cost me aporx $165 in gas alone just for the round trip to the shooting grounds. Then there is motel, food, and ammo cost on top of that.
Oh well, maybe I will just get my shooting enjoyment punching holes in paper and cleaning guns in the future.
Just my thoughts on $150 a day.
trailhound
New member
If thats what a guide charges I'm out of luck. It will cost me a fortune. I took my wife and son prarie dog hunting and I won't get out on another trip without them. We had a blast but had some private land lined up to hunt on that didn't charge us. Sure glad we went when we did.
I agree with the too much money to throw around thing, Dick. We had a great place in MT to hunt and some guys from California came in and paid the owners $1000.00 to hunt there. We were never allowed to hunt there again! Even if you know the folks anymore, big money talks fast and there is more than enough money out there to shut you down fast!
It is my understanding on Tribual land you are required to have an Indian guide to hunt and a permit. They charget for both! Don't know about where you are talking about but that is what was required on some we tried to hunted in the past.
It is my understanding on Tribual land you are required to have an Indian guide to hunt and a permit. They charget for both! Don't know about where you are talking about but that is what was required on some we tried to hunted in the past.