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I've been out to shoot prarrie dogs 4 times now and its great fun. The places I have been, a set up like Jack uses would be impractical. I shoot prarrie dogs just like a hunt any other critters. I walk a bit, shoot, walk some more, shoot, and so forth. I tend to do most of my shooting sitting with a bipod. Granted I don't shoot all that far by some peoples standards but so what. I personally don't see the difference in shooting a P.D. from field positions at 350 yards or one at 500 yards using a bench. Both are hard, just for different reasons.
Matt
That's right. Not all dog towns are built the same way. I have hunted towns that were well suited for a shooting bench, but I have hunted far more that are more suited to moving around. Back just a couple of years ago, a dealer from Montana invited me out prairie dog hunting. I didn't know what to expect but came prepared with a couple thousand rounds of ammo and a couple of AR's.
The first two days it rained and we got no hunting at all. The third day was cool and overcast but no rain. I drove from the motel to the dog town, almost 60 miles, and started hunting about 9:00 AM. The town was the biggest I had ever seen! It was 15 square miles of prairie dogs! The town was roughly 3 miles wide and 5 miles long. It was a huge town but not real densely populated. I started out, got to a spot where I could see some targets, laid down and started shooting. Because of the overcast conditions, the dogs weren't putting up with being shot at. I would get 5 or 6 in rapid succession and then would have to move. I did this all morning and ended up lining up with my dealer friend about 11:30. We were sooooo far away from the pick-up, we couldn't see it with the naked eye, but through the scope we could see it just fine. We hunted our way back to the pick-up, ate lunch, loaded our magazines and filled our pouches with more ammo. We split-up and hunted the same town a little further North. About 5:00 PM we again were just about out of ammo and were miles from the truck. We hunted our way back and left the town by about 7:00 PM. I had counted the prairie dogs that I had gotten that day. Now this count included PD's that were dead, out on the ground. Not the ones that looked like they were cut in half, but still made it under-ground. My count for the day was 404, and my friend got a similar number.
Where the average town that I hunt is no where near that large, many have a lay-out, such as this one, that doesn't lend itself to shooting from a bench. I have a couple of "favorite" towns that have rolling hills. We hunt from hill-top to hill-top for 3/4 mile and then back again. Just perfect for the AR.