What do you consider a good day for shooting prairie dogs?

Originally Posted By: jb42 my best day 6/20 was 961 with 5 triples and 27 doubles with 527 cz 20vt it was a very liberal dog town!

Those are incredible numbers. Even if you take the doubles and triples out of it wouldn't that be something like shooting one PD per minute for nearly 15 hours straight? Or one PD every 30 seconds for 8 hours straight no breaks.
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Now that is some seriously HOT shooting and I can't believe the barrel wasn't completely roached out by mid day. That Sir is one awesome rifle you've got yourself!
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Shooting the CZ 17 HMR on private property and never getting out of my truck last year and averaged 200 a day and nothing over 150 yds. Just driving the truck a bit and shooting repeat, repeat, repeat. Good solid hits with lots of aerial acrobats.
 
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961 in a day.......B23’s math is acceptable to my findings.
Let’s not forget loading magazines.
Oh, I suppose there were only two misses in that day as well.
I have questioned folks numbers before, it was met with lots of explanations.
I smell a fishing story, I bet the biggest dog of the day was 35” tall and weighed 29 pounds.
 
Originally Posted By: jsh
I smell a fishing story

Gotta give em credit though, if you're going to tell a "fish story" you may as well make it a real doozy!
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But it's probably best to at least do the math before you hit "post".
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i used a counter hanging on my front rest to count hits. i use a 360 deg. swivel bench rest in the back of a daihatsu mini truck with atv tires and move often. on ranches that want them gone. i did fire 1100 rounds. went back the next day killed 561. i hang gun pointed down and put distilled water down the barrel and then run 4 or 5 dry patches. you won't believe the carbon that comes out. 1/2 that many is a average day. been doing this in the same area for 10 yrs. the ranchers find me other places to shoot pd so i and my 4 brothers will come back and shoot the towns we can't wipe out. we spend 10 to 20 days each year. more fun than poison.we only use low recoil guns so to see every hit.
 
Originally Posted By: jb42i used a counter hanging on my front rest to count hits. i use a 360 deg. swivel bench rest in the back of a daihatsu mini truck with atv tires and move often. on ranches that want them gone. i did fire 1100 rounds. went back the next day killed 561. i hang gun pointed down and put distilled water down the barrel and then run 4 or 5 dry patches. you won't believe the carbon that comes out. 1/2 that many is a average day. been doing this in the same area for 10 yrs. the ranchers find me other places to shoot pd so i and my 4 brothers will come back and shoot the towns we can't wipe out. we spend 10 to 20 days each year. more fun than poison.we only use low recoil guns so to see every hit.

I don't care if you were pouring liquid helium down the barrel, the math just doesn't add up. Now, you're adding in that you "move often" which no matter how you slice the fish story just doesn't allow enough time in a day for one person to shoot that many PD's because nobody or their rifle is going to shoot a PD continuous none stop every 30-45 seconds for 8-12 hours straight with no breaks in order to achieve those kinds of numbers.

It's best to do some math before you make silly claims. Reminds me of another Ohio person that claims his Bmag shoots dime size groups at 100yds all the time everytime and with any and all ammo.
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Any day out shooting P-dogs is a great day. Numbers don't matter. I recently shot southwest Wyoming and only shot 51 rounds for the entire day. Worth every second. I hunt Montana almost 3 weeks a year and shoot on some days new fields close to 300 rounds a day. Multiple guns switching out when they get warm. Clean at lunch and start over again in the afternoon. Worth every second. I love being out and seeing the beauty that surrounds us. I have taken friends out and I have only fired one or two rounds for the entire day to let them enjoy the experience. I have read others say to take 1000 rounds per day and I'm in agreement with the numbers just don't match up. We'll see what the shortages are going to do to the avid P-dog hunters. Getting ready to take off for Montana in a week or so and taking 2 20 Pracs, 1 .204 and a 17 HMR for close stuff. Probably about 4500 rounds for the first trip. I hope I don't shoot them all. Happy dogging to all you avid shooters. Pray for this country to heal so we can get back to normal.
 
Depends on the property, some local ranches 10-20 shots.Some closer to 100. But they still need shot. Plus it helps feed the turkey vulture population!
 
Originally Posted By: reb8600Originally Posted By: jshAny day in a dog town is a good day. That thing called work sure gets in the way of my hobbies.

Exactly. I don't worry about how many I kill. It is always nice to kill a lot but a good day is any day you can get out to do it.

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I'll second that
 
Having living in prairie dog areas my whole life and have shot in many different towns, I'll be honest. Most people who come in from a place that doesn't have them have numbers that I'm skeptical about.

You hear a lot of guys saying they've heard or have seen or have killed 1000 prairie dogs in a day.

Well our favorite Pal Mr. Artithmatic just rear's it's ugly had sometimes and here's how it pencils out. . .

Not much before 8am and not much after 8pm is when the shooting starts and stops. My experience may be different than others, but we'll just go with that.

12 hours= 720 minutes

I don't know about you, but I've never had 12 hours of killing a dog every minute. EVEN IF you shoot 50% that means you actually kill one every 30 seconds.

No pee breaks, no lunch breaks, no picking up and moving. That is the math and I can tell you that it would be extremely difficult to average killing a prairie dog every 30 seconds for 12 hours non-stop.

But IF that was the case to get to 1000 you'd have to kill a prairie dog every 43.2 seconds. That's with 100% accuracy... at best at that volume a human could possibly do is MAYBE 75%. MAYBE. But I highly doubt that. The volume is too high and if you don't have time to move to a different town or even a different place on that property you'd be shooting farther and farther out as the day goes on.

My buddies from the east part of the state would call out "hit!" when I know dang well from that dust flying up in front of the mound that that was in no way a confirmed hit.

I'm not trying to be that grumpy guy, but in trying to answer the original post, math isn't some guy's strong suit. Can 2 guys kill 1000 in a day? Probably, but to be honest. Not likely.

So back to the math. If you killed 500 prairie dogs in one day with 75% accuracy for 12 hours in a day, you'd be killing a priairie dog every 63 seconds.

Every 63 seconds on AVERAGE. So yes, right when you get to a town it's pretty easy to shoot 5-6 that' first minute, but in an hour, the shooting will slow down significantly.

Basic math is our friend. I don't want some people to think that they are failures or they have to keep looking for the prairie dog gold mine to get what most people perceive they get. Just go out and have fun. I do find more success in killing 50 dogs with a high percentage than I do 100 dogs with sub-par accuracy.

You may want to double check my math, but it pencils out for me.
 
I have mentioned the same math as you. I won’t call many an out and out liar, but I am old enough I have heard a fair amount of BS and darn near all the fish storie.
Some get butt hurt over this subject. I have shot in enough timed events, based around accuracy and speed to have somewhat of an idea of what is honestly possible.

Lol, bang and the dog is gone does not mean a hit.


I did a fairly honest count last month on three of us. Our hit ratio was at or around 50%. We ran through about 175 rounds a day including rimfire along with moving and reloading. We all wish we had the problem of 1000 round day every other time out.
 
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Originally Posted By: Sgt_MikeOriginally Posted By: reb8600Originally Posted By: jshAny day in a dog town is a good day. That thing called work sure gets in the way of my hobbies.

Exactly. I don't worry about how many I kill. It is always nice to kill a lot but a good day is any day you can get out to do it.

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I'll second that

And I will third that.
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A week from today I plan on being in Wyoming doing my level best to atomize some hapless prairie poodles. Got Sat-Sun to hunt one area of BLM land before moving on to a private ranch (two of them actually, both owned by the same person) to help him out with his hole digging friends. And this guy is "oh by the way I have a few coyotes too that you can shoot". Twist my arm why don't you?
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;-) we got to the point of looking for ones laying flat on a mound. The acrobatics from the hydraulic effect when a 17 or 20 caliber pill is applied just under the chin is pretty impressive.

I have some Calhoon double hollow points I am going to try in the near future.
 
It’s been a lot of years (20ish) since I’ve shot pds. If my memory is correct we would shoot 150-300 rds with a most times 50% hits. 300yds and less yielded great accuracy but 300-600 the averages started to go down fast. Best shoot was with an 17 hmr. Wind in my face. Shot around 400-500 rounds with about 250 kills out to 300dys. The small rifle doesn’t heat up and the sound is less so the pds stay much closer then shooting the big rifles. My # might not be great but it was awesome and I’ve learned to shoot a lot better since then. Hopefully someday I can get back out to shoot some.
 
Upon my return trip home from Montana bear hunting I stopped in Wyoming for some PD action with my Tikka 17 Remington.. A few years ago I found some property while antelope hunting that had what seemed like miles of PD towns.
I stopped there last year with my bear rifle and shot several PD in the 300-500 yard range.
This time I was armed with the 17. I had a great morning shooting while my wife called out the shots and yardage. I killed several over 400 yards with the 25 grain Hornady bullets.
I did break out my deer rifle and killed one at 634 yards. My wife said I had to put the deer rifle up and get the 17 back out.
We shot for a few hours before the wind got too sporty for the 17 so we shut down.
I just love shooting PD’s.
 
Originally Posted By: jb42 my best day 6/20 was 961 with 5 triples and 27 doubles with 527 cz 20vt it was a very liberal dog town!

If you are from ID sounds more like a ground squirrel day (sage rats, potgut's, squeeks, etc)
 
Well I guess I'm the odd man here. Never been PD shooting, never shot at one and never really had the desire to go. But if I could tag along and shoot at the coyotes coming in for a free meal....count me in.
 
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