Spooky Prairie Dog question?

H

hawkeye58

Member
I have only been out PD shooting twice. I have a question for some of you more experienced shooters.

What is the leading factor in making the PD's wild?

Is it mostly weather such as clouds or wind? If it is the weather can you go to a town one day where they disappear at the first shot and then have great shooting the next?

Or is it being shot at? If it's mainly the shooting is it just from the current year or do past years affect them a lot?

Do gun blast and movement such as walking around and pickup movement contribute to their wildness?

Also wondered about the sever dry weather and lack of vegetation and cover.

Thanks much,
Hawkeye
 
It is the amount of shooting pressure that dictates how spooky they are. I have been in towns were just shutting the door of the vehicle makes them scatter in the holes, and others where you can continue to shoot until you kill almost everyone in the town.
 
Since I retired ,I go out for four to five hours fourty to fifty times a year.Shooting pressure , muzzle blast, heat and movement can put them down into their holes. I start out in the spring when the dumb pups are first out with a 17 HM2 and 17 HMR rounds in the past 22 LR and 22WMR rounds. As the dumb pups are shot off I switch to a 221 Rem Fireball and 204 Ruger rounds in the past a Hornet and 223 Rem. By late fall to spring I may use the 22-250 Rem,220 Swift,and 243 Win rounds when the shots are limited. I now am still useing the 17 rimfires but as spooky as they are now I,m takeing shots out to 150 Yds. When I was out yesterday I could have used the Fireball with the rimfires. I shoot on four ranches and keep about a one week spread between shooting on one of them. During the summer I do not shoot mid day-to hot ,rain and high wind will also put them into their holes. When shooting the 243 Win I,v seen prairie dogs 400 Yds away go to their holes -muzzle blast. By fall, some 200-300 Yds away will run to their holes when I drive to the town. I started shooting prairie dogs some 55 years ago when I had to walk about 300 Yds to the home pasture to start shooting them with a 22 LR round.
 
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By fall, some 200-300 Yds away will run to their holes when I drive to the town.



Will these dogs calm down by next spring or will they remember and pass it along to the young ones next spring?

Hawkeye
 
I don't know if they have the intelligence to "pass it on", but I suppose the Darwinian theory of "Survival of the Fittest" might come into play.

Most of the factors that seem to affect the ones where I go, are balanced around 1) amount of sun, 2) wind, that carries sound, and 3) frequent shooting coupled with movement.

If you can set up down wind, exercise a little patience, they tend to have short term memories on a sunny day.

I've had some towns that appeared abandoned when I first arrived and if I could keep my movement to a relative minimum, it wasn't too long before heads and bodies started to pop up all around me. Sometimes, those downwind of me almost never came up and I think it was more my sounds of set-up and shooting that kept them down.
 
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2) wind, that carries sound. If you can set up down wind, exercise a little patience, they tend to have short term memories on a sunny day.



That make sense to me. I had some decent shooting with a .204 Ruger on a spooky dog town one morning. Shooting into a 30 mph wind the muzzel blast didn't seem to bother them much.

Thanks,

Hawkeye
 
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Watch the clouds. Pds are natural prey for hawks etc and get their "warning" from the bird's shadows. When a cloud comes over they tend to go into their holes, maybe because they can't see the shadows anymore or maybe they mistake the cloud's shadow for a threat. They also seem to take a break in the heat of midday.

I tend to use PDs for long range practice (300yd plus) so I doubt noise has much affect on them, but I've had them pop up 10ft away while I was shooting their long range brothers.
 
Everything I've seen posted so far regarding spooking them mirrors my experiences exactly. The big things that kill a pdog hunting day:

1) Lack of sun (the hawk/predator theory is the same reason I was told)

2) Strong winds (if they can't hear the sentinel sound the alarm bark, they ain't coming up)

3) Shooting pressure (it seems they instinctively start to know it's not good to be up when a lot of their buddies get smoked. That, and only the skittish ones survive to see the next sunrise.)

***BTW - the decoy idea is brilliant and I am going to give it a try. Rumor has it that pdogs will even come out to investigate bricks placed on their tall end. Supposedly, there's a video out there of a guy who setups one up in a pdog town. He waits for them to congregate to this strange new looking monilith called a "red brick", and then blasts it with a .50BMG, killing all of the brick worshipers with brick frags. Until I see it, this is still an urban legend as far as I'm concered, but when I get home, I WILL at least do my part to hunt down this clip. Sounds too nutty to ignore.
 
leading factors....my opinion

1. They were born wild...thus they are wild.

2. Weather is not a factor at all. They come out when the sun shines...they don't when it doesn't.

3. All animals have an inherent fear of dying and although the concept of "dying" may not mean much to them...they certainly realize their buddies that are scattered all over the place .....are no longer functioning. The blood and internal parts exposed are a good clue that "nothing good happened here".

gun shot = bad
unusual vibrations in the ground = vehicle
vehicle = bad guys with guns
guns = dead buddies
dive for cover = safe

Most of the dogs I shoot at have not been shot at much and I believe they have a memory that does not extend more than a few minutes. Dogs that are shot more would have a conditioned response....dive for cover. Stay down til the coast is clear.

Most of the plains of this state are currently in a severe drought....ask any farmer. There are more prairie dogs in the places I go this year than in previous years. They eat alot of vegetation that you cannot see....the roots of plants.

One observation I have had was that the closer the dogs are....even within the same field.....to the easiest places to shoot from....the more spooked they are.
 
Here's an interesting observation to add to this thread. Last weekend's PD shoot had an curious twist. The last town I shot at had a lot of canibalistic PD's. About 1/3 of my shots were at PD's eating on the remains of previously shot dogs. I would just watch the spot where the last one was shot, and in a few minutes a buddy would run over and start chewing on him. One mound had 4 PD's stacked on each other. 3 of them were caught feeding on the one shot before they were themselves shot. I suspect this is dietary in that I don't always see this happen. But this particular town was absolutely ravenous, compared to what I've seen in the past.
 
Good thing you didn't slip and fall on the ground. It could have gotten ugly. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
NASA - Sounds like that ground chuck I use in the chili could be put to better use.

I knew those little boogers were dangerous. Its back to carrying a 44 mag for self defense, I can see that.
 
I've seen a lot of cannabalism on my recent hunts and wonder if they are going after the contents of their buddys' guts (read: the grass) or actually eating on their flesh.

Either way, I punish the cannibal on sight. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Claimbuster-That was ground chuck that gave your chili the distinctive flavor? Hmmm...no wonder I haven't been able to duplicate it. I thought you said it was ground-hog.
 
SixGun, I think it's flesh they're eating. I got a few that were sitting upright and holding a long strip of their buddy up to their mouth. I didn't watch them in the scope long enough to tell if it was intestine or backstraps, lol. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Cannibalism has been well documented in studies of pds. What is more interesting to me, though, is it seems to be a more common behavior in some pd towns and not in others.

Unlike some of the previous towns, the ones I am shooting now, I have not observed any cannibalistic behavior.

Because of this I figured it was a "learned behavior".

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif

Jim
 
Jim, the only studies or references on PD cannibalism I have found, have been about the infanticidal form. And that (that) type is more prevalent among the black-tails. There seems to be nothing in print regarding cannibalism of adult corpses as soon as one becomes available.

I still "think" it's based on some dietetic deficiency.
 
Often fallen pds (ones that been shot) drop back down into their holes. Because I shoot the same places often I never see where carcasses are dragged back out. Tom .....does this mean they are dining in tonight ? lol....we call that delivery.....kinda like a pizza or chinese.
 
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