Warning: Graphic prairie dog carnage in last pic.
On Tuesday my brother in law, my nephew, my brother in Law's uncle and two cousins all trekked way up to Martin, South Dakota for a prairie dog hunt. The wind was blowing about 40 mph so any shots over 100 yards were a real crapshoot with those light varmint bullets and the way the wind swirled around in the hills and valleys. We were taking shots out to 300 yards, and sometimes the bullet would strike right at your point of aim, while other times it would be blown off 3-4 feet. The wind was blowing so hard that there was an almost constant fine mist of sand in the air, so by the time we got done my AR was the filthiest I've ever seen it. You could hear the sand grinding away when you worked the bolt. Plenty of CLP kept it running just fine though.
This was the first time hunting prairie dogs for my brother in law, my nephew, and myself, so we weren't exactly sure what to expect. We had a blast, and my nephew did a great job with his new .22 mag. It didn't have the range to reach out much past 100 yards in this wind, but if they were any closer he was deadly. This kid also killed his first deer (a huge 4x4 muley) last fall, so I'm pretty sure we have him addicted to hunting & shooting.
I thought I would post a few pictures. I was having so much fun I didn't get around to taking many, but here they are:
Packing up the night before. I didn't want to bother with loading mags while I was out there. Our guide looked at me as I pulled yet another mag out of my shooting bag and asked how many of those things I had. Good thing AR mags are cheap.
The far hill side was right at 300 yards according to our range finder. I found shooting a semiauto was a big help, since I could get 3-4 aimed shots down range in the time it took a bolt action to shoot one. That was nice in this wind when it often took several tries to hit the longer range shots.
Don't let anyone ever tell you that prairie dogs are cute little harmless creatures who don't really do that much damage. We saw several places where they had destroyed huge patches of ground. They will wipe out all plant life for acres around.
Just a couple of the guys doing their best to thin out the population.
I'm not sure that V-Max or other fancy varmint bullets are necessary. A plain old Hornady 55 grain soft point really does a number on them.
