It has been almost two months since my son and I went out on a prairie dog hunt back on August 18, 2019. My two cracked ribs haven’t healed up and still give me lots of pain, but I NEEDED to get out and shoot some prairie dogs. I had all my hunting gear packed into my pickup and decided that it would be a good idea for me to I take my wife out for breakfast before I went hunting. So, consequently, I got a late start. I stopped at the landowner’s place and asked if I could shoot prairie dogs and he said go have fun! So I headed away from his living quarters and parked my pickup near where I would shoot prairie dogs. I finally got all my gear across the fence and headed east in the PD town at 1:15 p.m. It was already 80º out and there was a steady SW wind wafting between 3 and 5 mph. I was using my 20 VarTarg build on a Savage Target action with a 24" X-Caliber barrel with a 1 in 11 twist. My scope is a Leupold VX-III 6-20x40mm with fine duplex crosshairs. The first ammo I would use today was loaded with 32 gr. V-Max bullets coated with hBN pushed along by 18.5 gr. of H4198 and lit up by Remington 7½ primers. The muzzle velocity of this load is 3,678 fps and I was using my Caldwell DeadShot FieldPod for my first shots. I hit on 5 out of 7 shots at distances ranging from 134 yards on out to 163 yards. The old FieldPod wasn’t steady enough on a couple of shots in the 160 yard range so the rest of my shots this day would be from the prone position.
Here’s a photo of my rifle showing the exit side of a prairie dog hit with one of my 25 gr. V-Max reloads.
I saw some blossoms on my way to a stock dam and took a photo of group of blossoms for those of you who enjoy the blossom photos. We have had lots of rain in September and the prairie grass and weeds are doing quite well. Williston has had about 6.8" of rain in September!!! About double what we normally get. Unfortunately, lots of farmers were busy harvesting and have been shut down for quite some time now.
I crept up to the top of a stock dam and took 17 more shots and hit on 16 of them. I stopped for lunch at 2:57 p.m. and took a short nap after lunch. I was going to head out to the southwest after my nap but discovered a bunch more prairie dogs to the west of my position so I wound up shooting 20 more shots from there and ran out of the 32 gr. V-Max reloads. I had some of my 32 gr. Sierra BK reloads along and went 3 for 3 before I started walking back to the pickup.
Here’s a photo of the rifle and the view of a dead prairie dog from the entrance wound side.
When I got back to the pickup I loaded my Schwinn cart into the pickup and walked out west and shot five more shots with the 32 gr. Sierras and hit on all 5 shots. Body count for the day was 47 dead prairie dogs with 52 shots.
I left the prairie dog town at 6:50 p.m. and was parked in my garage by 7:30. Here’s the “Hero Photo” for your viewing pleasure. The prairie is very green compared to how dry it usually is by September.
Here’s a photo of my rifle showing the exit side of a prairie dog hit with one of my 25 gr. V-Max reloads.
I saw some blossoms on my way to a stock dam and took a photo of group of blossoms for those of you who enjoy the blossom photos. We have had lots of rain in September and the prairie grass and weeds are doing quite well. Williston has had about 6.8" of rain in September!!! About double what we normally get. Unfortunately, lots of farmers were busy harvesting and have been shut down for quite some time now.
I crept up to the top of a stock dam and took 17 more shots and hit on 16 of them. I stopped for lunch at 2:57 p.m. and took a short nap after lunch. I was going to head out to the southwest after my nap but discovered a bunch more prairie dogs to the west of my position so I wound up shooting 20 more shots from there and ran out of the 32 gr. V-Max reloads. I had some of my 32 gr. Sierra BK reloads along and went 3 for 3 before I started walking back to the pickup.
Here’s a photo of the rifle and the view of a dead prairie dog from the entrance wound side.
When I got back to the pickup I loaded my Schwinn cart into the pickup and walked out west and shot five more shots with the 32 gr. Sierras and hit on all 5 shots. Body count for the day was 47 dead prairie dogs with 52 shots.
I left the prairie dog town at 6:50 p.m. and was parked in my garage by 7:30. Here’s the “Hero Photo” for your viewing pleasure. The prairie is very green compared to how dry it usually is by September.
