Today’s PD shoot found me at a dog town I hadn’t shot in for maybe 4 or 5 years. I would be heading to a part of the dog town that wasn’t inhabited by PDs 5 years ago, as far as I know. From the spot I would park my pickup, it would be about a half mile walk, but the morning was cool and the sun was shining bright so it was a good day for a walk. There were numerous active prairie dog mounds near where I parked my pickup. As a matter of fact, there were lots of PDs out doing lots of barking at me. I hurried and got my Savage 12VLP .204 Ruger out of its case threaded the Ranger II suppressor on the barrel and opened the tailgate of my pickup so I could use that as a rest for my first shot of the day. I was going to use my old .204 Ruger which has a 25" SS 1 in 11 twist 3-groove super match grade Pac-Nor barrel on it. I use WW brass, Remington 7½ primers and 27.2 gr. of H4895 to push the 40 gr. V-Max bullets coated with hBN out of the barrel with a muzzle velocity of 3,840 fps. The 40 gr. V-Max bullets do real nasty things to prairie dogs. I managed to hit the PD to the west of the pickup while resting the bipod on the tailgate. A couple minutes later there was another PD out south of the front end of my pickup so I placed my leather gloves on the hood, rested the bipod legs on the gloves and shot my second PD of the day even before I left the pickup. I thought to myself, “This might be a good day!!!”
The weatherman was predicting somewhat higher wind speeds than I like to shoot in, 10 to 15 mph, but what the heck—a day of shooting is better than a day staying at home watching the grass grow. There was some dew on the grass when I got there and the ground was fairly damp from what must have been a recent rain, but it wasn’t muddy. I parked my pickup near a stock dam that was surrounded by trees. There were somewhat tall buttes to the west of where I parked and that was the direction I had to walk. After I got my lunch and other stuff I needed in my backpack, I headed off towards where I thought the dog town suburb was located. I found plenty of blossoms to photograph and like on one of my last PD shoots, I found a crocus blooming. Once again I was amazed because they usually bloom in May!!! Here’s a collage of some of the blossoms I spotted out on the prairie today, with the crocus on the extreme right.
As I was walking away from the pickup, I managed to stop long enough to shoot 5 more prairie dogs before I got over the hill and out of sight of the pickup. A little while later I spotted a small herd of antelope. There was one buck and four does and they trotted over the hill to the west when they saw me coming. The buck had a fairly nice set of horns, not trophy size, but nice.
It took me about 20 minutes to get to the prairie dog suburb and I took my first shot at about 10:15 a.m. I hit on my first double of the day at 10:30. I shot the 5 shells I had in my rifle and the 9 shells I had in the shell holder on the stock and took a break. I had hit on 13 singles and one double for 15 dead PDs with 14 shots. I filled the shell holder and the magazine and started walking again. These prairie dogs knew what the sound of a rifle meant so it was slow shooting, but I didn’t mind. I was in new territory and enjoying the buttes, the colorful leaves on the trees and breathing the fresh morning North Dakota air.
By 11:40 I had shot 10 more shots, but missed one of those shots. On the shot I missed I guesstimated the distance of the PD to be just over 175 yards. After the shot I lasered it and it turned out to be 239 yards!!! Looking through the scope cranked up to 20x sometimes makes one think the target is closer than it actually is?!?!?! The wind, which was blowing a steady 10 mph with gusts to 15+ from the left, was at a 90º angle to the shot. Reminder to Silverfox—“You need to laser these distances BEFORE you shoot!!!” My vertical hold was just fine even for 239 yards, but the difference in wind deflection between a 175-yard shot and a 239-yard shot was the problem. I held on the left edge of his body and the bullet probably whistled about a half inch or so right of him!!! He must have heard, sensed, whatever, the bullet because he ducked down into his den.
Around noon I stopped to fill the cartridge holder and magazine while sitting on an incline below and just off the west edge of the dog town. Instead of setting my rifle so it was sitting with the barrel pointing up the slope of the little incline I was on, I set the rifle parallel to the ridge and wouldn’t you know it, I bumped the rifle and it tipped over and the scope hit hard on a prairie dog mound. I could visualize the scope being out of whack and having to find something to shoot at, like an old dead tree to get the scope adjusted IF the scope wasn’t broken. I decided to use a prairie dog to check the point of impact and the scope seemed to be dead on—PHEW!! I lucked out.
Like I mentioned earlier, the scenery was beautiful and it is a real privilege to be able to get out and walk this beautiful land. The PD shooting is just an added bonus!!!
I stopped for lunch at 12:45. I had taken 34 shots and had 2 missed shots, I bagged 2 doubles and hit on 30 singles for a total of 34 dead prairie dogs for 34 shots. I ate lunch while sitting on a south facing slope and decided to take a little siesta. The sun was shining brightly, but the wind was cold and still blowing 10 to 15 mph so I kept my jacket on, covered my face with my cap and tried my best to get a little nap. I woke up one time when the wind blew my cap off my face, but quickly got back to sleep. About an hour after I had lain down, I woke up and was ready for some more action. By 2:30 I needed to refill my shell holder and after that I decided to look on the other side of the butte to the west of me even though there were still lots of PDs to the north and east of my position. There weren’t any more PD mounds over the rise to the west so I sneaked up on the PDs over to the east of me. I was on the north end of this PD colony and took my last three shots in this area of the dog town. I had fired 50 shots. With those 50 shots I had 3 misses, 2 doubles and hit on 45 singles for a total of 49 dead prairie dogs for 50 shots.
It was 3:35 p.m. when I started my trek back to the pickup. I was on the south side of a range of short buttes and there were lots of prairie dog mounds to the north of where I was walking. I shot 19 shots at prairie dogs on my walk back to the pickup. I got 17 singles, one double and missed on one shot for 19 more PDs with 19 shots. Count for the day was 4 missed shots, 3 doubles and 62 singles for 68 dead PDs with 69 shots.
I got back to my pickup around 4:45 and got my empty shell boxes back into my ammo carrier, got out some snacks to eat, opened a can of caffeine free Diet Coke, put my window sun screens away, removed my suppressor, cased my rifle, and headed back to Williston around 5:20 p.m. On my way back I saw a fairly large herd of antelope on the west side of the highway. I stopped the pickup and used my Smartphone to snap a couple of photos. There are 14 does close to the road, and if you look real close at this photo you will see 2 bucks just right of the left-most steel fence post just on this side of the gully. Those 2 bucks boogied out of there almost instantly when my pickup slowed down, but the does stood around for awhile and finally ran off to the west.
It was a fun day, but after 7 hours out in the wind and sunshine I was tired, but not too tired to show you one more "Hero Photo" to commemorate another successful PD shoot.
The weatherman was predicting somewhat higher wind speeds than I like to shoot in, 10 to 15 mph, but what the heck—a day of shooting is better than a day staying at home watching the grass grow. There was some dew on the grass when I got there and the ground was fairly damp from what must have been a recent rain, but it wasn’t muddy. I parked my pickup near a stock dam that was surrounded by trees. There were somewhat tall buttes to the west of where I parked and that was the direction I had to walk. After I got my lunch and other stuff I needed in my backpack, I headed off towards where I thought the dog town suburb was located. I found plenty of blossoms to photograph and like on one of my last PD shoots, I found a crocus blooming. Once again I was amazed because they usually bloom in May!!! Here’s a collage of some of the blossoms I spotted out on the prairie today, with the crocus on the extreme right.
As I was walking away from the pickup, I managed to stop long enough to shoot 5 more prairie dogs before I got over the hill and out of sight of the pickup. A little while later I spotted a small herd of antelope. There was one buck and four does and they trotted over the hill to the west when they saw me coming. The buck had a fairly nice set of horns, not trophy size, but nice.
It took me about 20 minutes to get to the prairie dog suburb and I took my first shot at about 10:15 a.m. I hit on my first double of the day at 10:30. I shot the 5 shells I had in my rifle and the 9 shells I had in the shell holder on the stock and took a break. I had hit on 13 singles and one double for 15 dead PDs with 14 shots. I filled the shell holder and the magazine and started walking again. These prairie dogs knew what the sound of a rifle meant so it was slow shooting, but I didn’t mind. I was in new territory and enjoying the buttes, the colorful leaves on the trees and breathing the fresh morning North Dakota air.
By 11:40 I had shot 10 more shots, but missed one of those shots. On the shot I missed I guesstimated the distance of the PD to be just over 175 yards. After the shot I lasered it and it turned out to be 239 yards!!! Looking through the scope cranked up to 20x sometimes makes one think the target is closer than it actually is?!?!?! The wind, which was blowing a steady 10 mph with gusts to 15+ from the left, was at a 90º angle to the shot. Reminder to Silverfox—“You need to laser these distances BEFORE you shoot!!!” My vertical hold was just fine even for 239 yards, but the difference in wind deflection between a 175-yard shot and a 239-yard shot was the problem. I held on the left edge of his body and the bullet probably whistled about a half inch or so right of him!!! He must have heard, sensed, whatever, the bullet because he ducked down into his den.
Around noon I stopped to fill the cartridge holder and magazine while sitting on an incline below and just off the west edge of the dog town. Instead of setting my rifle so it was sitting with the barrel pointing up the slope of the little incline I was on, I set the rifle parallel to the ridge and wouldn’t you know it, I bumped the rifle and it tipped over and the scope hit hard on a prairie dog mound. I could visualize the scope being out of whack and having to find something to shoot at, like an old dead tree to get the scope adjusted IF the scope wasn’t broken. I decided to use a prairie dog to check the point of impact and the scope seemed to be dead on—PHEW!! I lucked out.
Like I mentioned earlier, the scenery was beautiful and it is a real privilege to be able to get out and walk this beautiful land. The PD shooting is just an added bonus!!!
I stopped for lunch at 12:45. I had taken 34 shots and had 2 missed shots, I bagged 2 doubles and hit on 30 singles for a total of 34 dead prairie dogs for 34 shots. I ate lunch while sitting on a south facing slope and decided to take a little siesta. The sun was shining brightly, but the wind was cold and still blowing 10 to 15 mph so I kept my jacket on, covered my face with my cap and tried my best to get a little nap. I woke up one time when the wind blew my cap off my face, but quickly got back to sleep. About an hour after I had lain down, I woke up and was ready for some more action. By 2:30 I needed to refill my shell holder and after that I decided to look on the other side of the butte to the west of me even though there were still lots of PDs to the north and east of my position. There weren’t any more PD mounds over the rise to the west so I sneaked up on the PDs over to the east of me. I was on the north end of this PD colony and took my last three shots in this area of the dog town. I had fired 50 shots. With those 50 shots I had 3 misses, 2 doubles and hit on 45 singles for a total of 49 dead prairie dogs for 50 shots.
It was 3:35 p.m. when I started my trek back to the pickup. I was on the south side of a range of short buttes and there were lots of prairie dog mounds to the north of where I was walking. I shot 19 shots at prairie dogs on my walk back to the pickup. I got 17 singles, one double and missed on one shot for 19 more PDs with 19 shots. Count for the day was 4 missed shots, 3 doubles and 62 singles for 68 dead PDs with 69 shots.
I got back to my pickup around 4:45 and got my empty shell boxes back into my ammo carrier, got out some snacks to eat, opened a can of caffeine free Diet Coke, put my window sun screens away, removed my suppressor, cased my rifle, and headed back to Williston around 5:20 p.m. On my way back I saw a fairly large herd of antelope on the west side of the highway. I stopped the pickup and used my Smartphone to snap a couple of photos. There are 14 does close to the road, and if you look real close at this photo you will see 2 bucks just right of the left-most steel fence post just on this side of the gully. Those 2 bucks boogied out of there almost instantly when my pickup slowed down, but the does stood around for awhile and finally ran off to the west.
It was a fun day, but after 7 hours out in the wind and sunshine I was tired, but not too tired to show you one more "Hero Photo" to commemorate another successful PD shoot.
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