For all the decades our ranch has been in the family, I don't recall ever hearing my elders state we had PDs. I saw my first one last weekend, while spraying weeds with our ATV in the south pasture. Rat bastards.

Its nest is in a somewhat higher point of the pasture, not far from a handful of nearby acreages. My only safe direction to shoot is to the NE, from a lower elevation. I quickly realized I needed an elevated position to make the shot and I figured the best option was from the back of the pickup. I packed the 223 bolt action, a few bags, and a tripod.

I resumed weed spraying fairly early in the morning. No sight of a PD with the first tank. I saw one P-rat during the 2nd tank, but both our cattle and the neighbor's were hanging out close by. 3rd tank and the cattle began moving away. Clouds and a heavy wind came in, and P-rat was nowhere to be seen. After filling herbicide tank #4, I decided to return to the pasture with the pickup, rifle, and gear. The sun came out, the winds picked up even more, but there was a rat bastard around the hole. Winds of 20-25mph from my 5 o'clock -- no big deal for bullet drift with such a close shot.

I parked the truck a little closer to the PD than I originally intended, however I had a great view of the hole and the PD didn't seem to be concerned with my presence. Even when I got out of the truck, it still appeared here and there outside its hole. Game on. Here was the setup. Bean bag up front, tripod leg for rear support. Pretty much standard procedures for a gazillion PRS & steel match stages.



My LRF showed 48 yards -- a chip shot for a precision bolt action. The scope is zeroed at 100 yards -- I just left it there, knowing the round would impact a touch lower than the crosshairs. Hornady Match 75 HPBT. Mr. Rat stood up. I squeezed on off, aiming high on his chest -- aka upper thoracic cavity. I broke the shot as planned, with perfect trigger press and recoil management. The crosshairs never moved. I saw the bullet hit its chest, saw the red mist spray out the back, saw the PD topple over backwards, saw a puff of dirt coming from behind the PD. DRT -- no rolling, no twitching.

I cycled another round and waited for another PD to show up. Nothing. So I grabbed a shovel and wandered the land to dig smaller yucca. Still nothing, after maybe 15 minutes. OK, pack up and go take a look at the varmint.



The "interesting" view was from behind the hole. Yeah, DRT. Heart, lungs, and some of its spine was blown out its back. Who says match ammo doesn't work on rodents?

I'll return with the rifle next weekend. There might be another PD, or maybe this is a solo hole.

The rifle is a full-on precision rig, built by my buddy at Black Canyon Customs.
- Medium-length Defiance action. I ordered the action with a standard 308-length case length, but with a 223 face. AICS mags with a 223 insert.
- Proof Research carbon-wrapped barrel, 24", 1/8 twist.
- Grayboe stock with Badger bottom metal.
- Timney trigger.
- NF ATACR FFP 7-35x. I had it set around 9x for the shot.
- Thunderbeast 223 can.

This rifle is at least equal to my GAP rifles, but probably a little better. Black Canyon Customs does it right.

In the mid 90’s, I worked on a project in Nucla CO. The was the time when the western slope was dealing with the plague in the PD population. The locals created a PD shoot to eradicate the dogs to try to control the plague.

That year, we had the grand marshal of the event on our crew. The grand prize for disposing of the most PD’s was a hand carved medallian that he personally carved.

Was a great event until the media got ahold of the story and all the bleeding hearts came out to protest.

Enjoy the shooting. Them bastards gots to go…

quote:

Originally posted by ugeesta:
the bleeding hearts came out to protest.

I remember it well.

Sploded right there.

It ded

quote:

Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:
Sploded right there.

And there. And over there. And there's a little piece too. And missed that little piece. Wow, those things sure do pop.

Not sure you had enough gun and gear for that shot.

Where there's one, there's more or more coming.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Not sure you had enough gun and gear for that shot.

Yep. Should have borrowed a buddy's 300 PRC.

I've shot many PDs with an old .22lr Winchester Model 250 lever action -- the first gun given to me by my Dad. Many moons ago, my B-I-L managed a mountain-area horse ranch of sorts. PDs messed up the meadow closest to the barn and the land owner wanted them gone. I owned few rifles at that point, and nothing that allowed me to stand off at the distances required. I couldn't really get closer than 100 yards to the PD holes unless I was in the pickup. So I drove around the meadow, rolled down a window when I was maybe 30-50 yards of one standing up, and eventually cleaned up the meadow. That's when I learned that PDs are cannibals.

I considered a 22lr rifle for this varmint. The possibility of a 75-100 yard shot in the predicted 30+ mph winds of that day wasn't a high-probability shot with a 22. I also considered an AR15, which would have been fine. But I like my bolt action rifles.

A few years ago I attended a Sniper's Hide precision rifle course in NE Colorado. One of the training days finished early, and we were near a massive PD field. A true target-rich environment, with big PDs. Some of the adults were the size of groundhogs or marmots. None of the students had an LRF to verify distances to the PD field, but most of the PDs appeared to be in the 250-400 yard ballpark. I had a 6.5 Creedmoor and a lot of ammo. I missed a bunch of critters due to elevation issues -- high & low impacts. However, the hits with a 140 grain Amax bullet were spectacular. An impact on bone sometimes flipped the critters in the air like a ragdoll. Other times just cut them in half. A few had some real hangtime. A sideways impact on a fat belly was akin to popping a balloon.

My son is coming home on leave from the military in early Aug. He has expressed interest in doing a prairie dog trip, our times have mostly been in SD.

One of his very best friends was recently in a car accident, recovering, that may change the plans some.

Just to be ready I’ve been loading some extra 50 varmint bullets for various 223s. I have enough for my custom 22-250.

Mid June has alway been my favorite time to go, but if he’s able & willing, I’ll make it happen.

I would have thought that prairie dogs would be very plentiful in the flatland parts of Colorado.

I've generally always used a .22LR for ground squirrels. My buddy and I were out one day in spring, the grass was tall and there was enough wind that it was waving around a lot. The squirrels were pretty spooky and we couldn't get into .22 range so we brought out the bigger guns. I popped one with a .223 52gr HP at about 80 or 90 yards. It disappeared and I thought I'd missed it. Later when we walked out there we found pieces of squirrel all over the mound.

I left the PD's body where it lay during the week -- it was gone by this past weekend. Could have been taken by a bird or coyote. There was no evidence of additional digging, so I covered the hole on Friday morning. No new digging by Sunday afternoon. I suspect the varmint came from the pasture to the east, which is the one past the fence in my first picture. Those owners don't maintain their land very well.