Right before hunting season really gets rolling I like to make a trip out to the prairie dog towns to do some last minute field shooting practice.
Prairie dogs are plentiful in the west and actually cause quite a bit of damage with many ranchers having to poison them to reduce their numbers.
I normally use a rimfire or my hunting handguns to go dogging. It’s really good practice and requires a good bit of precision since the average prairie dog is about the size of a grey squirrel.
For this outing I took my Volquatsen 22LR and a few boxes of CCI mini mags. I also wanted to try out the Cole Tac tripod mounted bag under field conditions.
I have found that as long as I stay about 80 yards away with some concealment from sage brush while wearing earth tones I can shoot on a dog town until I run out of 22 ammo. With a center fire I need to be about 150 yards away.
My pistol is set up with an Ultradot Match dot which has their target turret. The dial repeats and helps me stretch the distance out.
I set up the tripod and shot from the kneeling, sitting, and standing. I found the bag to work very well with my field shooting method which you can find here:
I love the added benefit of being able to rest my binos and range finder right on the bag. This really simplifies things in the field.
I had about a 10mph wind today which was challenging but the challenge is why I’m out here. I was able to connect with quite a few prairie dogs from 50 to 210 yards.
Prairie dogging on public land is a really inexpensive hunting trip to do and doubles as great practice. No special gear is needed. Just lots of ammo! Get out there! We do have a prairie dog event hosted with Handgun Hunter’s Competition every June!
