We left early on a Friday Morning and drove from Cincinnati to Mitchell SD and spent the night. Got up next morning did the cabelas thing then finished our trip. Got to Broadus around 2-3 if I remember correctly. Stopped in town to grab a bite to eat and meet up with the rancher whose ranch we stayed on. The guy I used to work for is good buddies with him and that's how we got to go out. After lunch we went to ranch and set up camp where we were staying. Below is a picture of where we stayed. Not best picture.
Well after 2 days in a car I was itching to burn some powder. So we went to a town on the ranch we were staying on and shot for the rest of the night. Had shots from 40 yds out to 364 yds. Was a kid in a candy store. You couldn't take the smile off my face.
The next day we went west an hour and met up with buddy of the rancher and shot on some of his places. Dogs were mainly shot up there, but we still got quite a few.
We shot several more ranches here and there and had lots of fun. I spent 2 of the days fooling around with the rancher and his buddy. Tried to help pay him back with work the best I could. I helped his buddy weld up a blade one day and fix fence the next day. See here is the funny thing about that. See he told us we had to go up north to fix fence at one of his pastures so we could move cows off the short grass...hey no problem I can do that. So after an hour drive down what seemed like a wagon trail we get to this "Pasture". Now I will use this word loosely, this one "pasture" was 5,000 acres. We put 25 miles on the truck driving to these 3 spots in the fence to fix. I have never in my life seen land like that, and if my head wasn't getting beaten off the roof then my jaw was on floor in aw. At several points you could see the salt butes clear as day, which was cool.
Alright, so for the snake deal....well this kind of started on the first day we were there. The rancher had told us that he had found a big snake den right down from our camp the week before. Now I am scared of snakes with a passion...I mean like a 5 year old girl. Always have been and cant do a thing about it. Anyway, the rancher is now aware of this and through out the week has quite a bit of fun with it id say. Well, I think the first morning I was there I climbed up on that mountain in the first picture and checked it out. Here are some pictures from up there.
Ladies and Gents, this is my first and only "Selfie" Figured it was appropriate. How did I DO!!
So while I was up there, I called my buddy who was down below. I said look up here and he finally saw where I was and started yelling at me saying that is where the main snake den is and where they catch snakes each year....needless to say I was off that mountain right now. From then on I was really on edge. So, about mid way through the week we had a late night at the local watering hole, and I decided, "Heck with it, lets go down to that dang den tomorrow and take a peak at those snakes" The rancher looked at me and said alright then, if that's what you want. So, around 9 the next morning we went on down to then den. Well the larger snake he was talking about was right out side the hole, I wasn't quite there yet when they saw it. SO by the time I got there they realized that 1 snake was actually 4 and they were all going back in the hole. So heck, if you want to see snakes and they are under a rock (ill call it a rock, closer to big arse rock if you ask me), and you hook a chain up to it and move it. We did just that. There ended up being a total of 7 rattlers in there, all right around 2 1/2" ft if I had to guess. While I am scared of snakes, it was very cool to get to see these little suckers. A certain level of curiosity and respect flows over you when your that close to a venomous snake like that.
I believe everyone has to have at least one picture from the watering hole, here is a sign that I thought was just too darn funny.
The last day we were there we went down to a ranch on the powder river and had a blast. We shot for several hours and found several dogs. I rode around on the tool box of the ranchers truck the majority of the time shooting of my bipod and bag on his roof. We spent more time cutting up then shooting I think.
Here are some pictures from that day.
I took several rifles but only used my new fast twist 223 with can, and my 22-250 running 50 gr noslers. My longest "confirmed" shot was 364 yds. However I am more than certain I hit one it at 600 but could not confirm it as I don't think there was any way I could find that little fellar out there, and it didn't pop like the closer ones. I only shot 440 rounds, and have no idea how many dogs I eliminated, but it I am sure there were several.
Being a eastern hill billy out west I had more fun then a guy should legally be able to have. I surely hope I am fortunate enough to go back. I am sure I missed some other details and pictures. If I think of other stuff ill post it up.
Thanks for my long winded explanation.
