Where and how to hunt Prairie Dogs

When people ask, "what is the point, of shooting prairie dogs?"  The best response I have, is "Its like shooting beer cans from 10 to 300 yards, that you don't have to pick up".

What you will need.
A decent bench rest gun.
.204, .223 and 22-250s are very popular rounds for varmint hunting.  On occasion a .22 rimfire can be used, but doesn't give the FF (Fun Factor) that the larger cartages have.
Find a good round, build one up.... get that bolt shooting well.  You have to remember early season prairie dogs are about the width of two fingers out there at 150 yards!

I suggest piecing together a nice bolt, put some decent optics on it.  You don't have to go crazy, on one of my guns I have a VX-III 6.5-20x.  But what I find is that I stay at 14 to 16x. A decent bi-pod is also very usefull, this is one place I do like to spend some decent money as I have had issues with cheaper bi-pods. I like what Harris has to offer and have had no issues with their products.

If the dogs haven't been shot much, simply driving up into the dog town with a truck will yield lots of close shots on younger dogs. But the seasoned dogs quickly disapear. Another good approach is to shoot off of a portable bench. Portable benches can be nice for long days and provide a way to move around and get yourself some elevation to see good chunks of the town. But what I have found myself doing the last 10 or so years is simply taking a shooting mat and getting around the towns. It allows me to move about the towns freely wth simply a backpack, gun and mat. It provides better freedom at the expense of exposing yourself to the possibility of snakes and laying in cactus. I find I can get closer shots for making video if I emplore a more traditional 'stock' about the town.

South Dakota
Here is a high resolution .pdf of a 2003 prairie dog distribuition map.  This is a great tool to plan a trip around.
P. Dog distributin map


Practice up here!
Shut up and DANCE!