Are there any opportunities for city folk to do any of this, besides the obvious and illegal 'coon culling I'd like to do in my own back yard?

And what's the deal with prairie dog shooting? Obviously this is a South Dakota or other state thing, but what's an appropriate cartridge?

I'm trying to think of some remote reason to justify buying a .223 while living in Minneapolis (without "living in Minneapolis" as the justification....). Shooting at paper indoors isn't enough.

I am a lifelong hunter but to me killing prairie dogs is just plain cruel. My motto is if I can't eat it, I won't shoot it. The only exception is if it's trying to eat me

Our family is fortunate enough to own hunting land in northern MN so I can hunt and shoot to my hearts content.

Lots of people in Nebraska, SD, Montana, Wyoming shoot prairie dogs. The majority I know of use a .223. Never been dog shooting, but I wouldn't mind going. Kind of like shooting rats in the desert.

Shouldn't be too hard to find some nice places just outside the metro to drop a few coyote...

From what I can tell, you don't need a licence, can hunt 24 hours a day, and can use whatever caliber you like...

If I'm not mistaken, prairie dogs are a threat to crops and livestock, and their number needs to be controlled if a farmer is to be successful. So shooting `em is even more necessary than, say, trapping mice in your house.

That it might be good sport to hit the little buggers is, I believe, icing on the cake.

They are considered and classified as predator/varmint (rodent family), just like Coyotes, feral cats and dogs, skunks, and raccoons............

Started going to SD, southwest of Murdo about 45 miles, to shoot dogs in 1991 and have made it back just about every year until the area we shoot hired a professional to poison them. The first year that they poisoned, 3 years ago, a lot of the neighbors didn't, so we shot on their land with fair success. Now the neighbors, or I guess I should say everybody in that area hired the professional to poison and the land owner that we stay at called us last year and told us to not even bother to come out, no dogs to shoot.

I don't think you can beat a .223 for prairie dogs, cheap to shoot, little recoil so you can see your hits and misses. Some say the 22-250 is best, less drop than a 223, which is true. But do the ballistics, the difference is a few inches at 400 or 500 yards and most people can't tell the difference from 300 vs. 400 yards so will overshoot or undershoot anyway, so go with the 223 for prairie dogs. My son shoots a heavy barrel Remington 700 with a 6.5 X 20 Leupold, using a Harris bipod and shoots from a prone position. I shoot a .221 Fireball in a Contender handgun with a 12" Bullberry barrel from a very small bench that I made from an old camera tripod. My son is the primary shooter and I spot, if he cannot see the dog because he is at a low level of vision, I take the dog out with my Contender, system works pretty good for us.

To me, shooting prairie dogs is one of the best ways to get a young shooter exposed to things like wind drift, bullet drop, range estimation, breath and trigger control. It isn't like deer hunting or pheasant hunting where they get maybe one or to chances and if they make a mistake and miss they go home empty handed. If you make a mistake with a shot on a prairie dog, there is a chance you will get a second shot if you missed cleanly, or at least wait a few minutes and another target will appear. So the young shooter misses while you are spotting, you can explain to them why and work them through the next shot, the next and so on until they KNOW what they are doing any why they missed and now are hitting.

Great time for the kids and then when you are out shooting and score a prairie rattler, skin and clean it, fix it on the grill, the kids will not stop talking about it, it is one of the highlights of the trip.

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...Hmmm this seems just plain wrong.... Standing in a field Whistling and yelling "Here puppy, puppy, puppy.... BANG!"


For the one looking to justify the purchase of a 223 other then "bacause I live in Mpls" How about, to insure you can get out of Mpls, or it is SO hard to find high cap mags for my 30-30, etc. but you may want to look at a 308.

Mostly-

...Hmmm this seems just plain wrong.... Standing in a field Whistling and yelling "Here puppy, puppy, puppy.... BANG!"


Darn mostly, that's all that I can do, cause I don't know their names...

My younger son and I went to SD in June to shoot 'dogs'. It was a first for both of us. We had a really great time! He's 26, so we were able to sit and have a few beers in the evening, smoke cigars on the tailgate, and just generally have a nice father/son outing.

One thing you may find shocking is the cost. I spent as much on a three-day prairie-rat trip as on a 10-day elk hunt in Colorado! Matt and I burned up about 800 rounds of .223 in a day and a half of shooting. The third day was the drive back, as was 7 hours of day 1.

I bought the ammo, Matt provided the vehicle and the gas. I, being the dad, picked up most of the food tab and bought the beer & cigars. License for a year in SD is $40; Indian reservations have a separate $75 license. We shot on private, non-reservation land.

A .223 works well for 'dogs'. You don't get the spectacular visual effects you see with a .22-250 or bigger cartridge, though. We didn't care about that. I shot a stock Bushmaster AR with their heavy barrel; Matt used his Tikka heavy target rifle. I'll buy a decent trigger before taking the AR again! As first-timers, we didn't too too badly, probably killing around 250 of the buggers. The ranchers *really* hate the bastages. Some ranchers, though, charge a small daily fee to shoot. Pay, and play. Bring friends; it's a fun buddy outing.

JB

My dad goes out to SD for prairie dogs and uses a .243.

I have been out west 9 times to shoot P. Dogs and have had a ball. The ranchers are very happy to see you kill as many as possable. They not only destroy the pastures but they carry Bubonic plauge (SP?) I had a gal at a motel tell us one time that the worst thing that ever happened was when they started calling them Prairie Dogs, she said they should be called prairie rats, no one in a city she said would ever put up with 1000's of rodents eating and digging up their lawns and parks.

I use a .223,.243 and .308 depending on the range and wind. For all around shooting and keeping the cost down a .223 is hard to beat. Lots of ammo anywhere you go and it gets the job done. Here in Minnesota, I shoot crows and shunks, if I am going for coyotes then the .243 is the cal of choice. I also use the .243 on woodchucks.

I agree with one of the other posters' that it is a great way to teach a young shooter or yourself, all about long range shooting, it does not have to be about a "kill count" but about the skill to judge range, wind and the trigger control to get the round where it needs to be.

Sigh .........If only it was that easy

Lot of coyote from Red Wing on south. See them while deer hunting and turkey hunting........no real shots though.

One of these winter during the full moon........I may sit atop one of them there hills and just maybe.........

I have found very often that I am able to cultivate contacts for PD hunting just by asking around and listening to who ever I meet who mentions that they are from SD or NoDak or Montana.

It seems they are all willing to go to lengths to make calls, contacts etc to get you hooked up with uncle bill or dad or their cousin bob who has 23000 acres of grass to hunt PD's on.

If you are unable to make these kinds of connections, go to VARMINTHUNTER.com For the price of a subscription. They have hundreds of contacts there with people who are more than willing to let you hunt their land.