Home from South Dakota...My P-Dog hunt with pics

[hunt127588]

Well, it had been an exciting week hunting with Willie Dvorak (Guide for Jim River Guide Service - http://www.jimriverguideservice.com/ ) based out of Ft. Pierre, SD. We stayed in the Fort Pierre Motel:

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We had no idea that the whole town was getting ready for flooding as the Corp. of Engineers were fixing to release more water down the Missouri River. Matter of fact, we saw the same sandbagging occurring in towns in SD, Iowa, Nebraska and Illinois...Here is just one example of what was transpiring this week in preparation of the flooding:

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We started out Monday morning (5/30). It had been raining all night and into the morning and I was a little concerned as I thought we were going to be washed out. Willie took us to a ranch outside of Ft. Pierre, SD where the rain had moved out and was clearing. We ended up shooting from the rancher's driveway due to slick fields. Here's some pics of us setting up and the field we are shooting over.

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This being my first prairie dog hunt, I had no idea what to expect in terms of distance or expectations of shooting in the wind. The afternoon of the first day, it had dried up and we were able to get in the field for a different dog town on the same ranch....Here we are setting up for some longer shots from a hilltop:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v229/hunt127588/South%20Dakota%202011/SouthDakota2011027.jpg

Tuesday (5/31) threw us a curve ball. Winds were 28-33 mph and we were really having to turn the turrets on the scope to stay on target. I'm not used to shooting in this kind of wind so it took some getting used to....We were all shooting .223. On this day, we shot from 9AM to 6PM and were pretty much done. Here's a pic of the field we shot over this day:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v229/hunt127588/South%20Dakota%202011/SouthDakota20110102.jpg

Wednesday (6/1), our last day shooting with Willie, we were shooting with another group that had come in for their first day of shooting. Willie put 9 of us in a crescent shape shooting over a large dog town. The other party has brought their own trailer full of gear, benches, etc. whereas we had used the gear (benches and shooting bags) provided by Willie. Winds on this day had calmed down but the dogs were moving way on out away from us. By the end of the day, most shots were 450 yards and beyond. Here is where we shot on the last day:

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Here was the longest shot taken in our party which was a dog taken at 686 yards with a .223:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v229/hunt127588/South%20Dakota%202011/SouthDakota2011082.jpg

All in all, it was a great trip and I already want to go back. In three days, I shot right at 1,000 rounds as did the other members in the group....A lot of this was attributed to using AR-15s and hit ratios being somewhere in the 5% range. I thought that there would be a lot of 100-400 yard shooting but the dogs didn't come up for much of that. Willie was a pleasure to work with and made sure that it was our hunt that ran smoothly.

On the way home, we stopped in at Sierra Bullets in Sedalia, MO for a plant tour and to purchase some blemished bullets from the store there. They greeted us and Rich Macholz gave us a tour of their facility. What a nice way to end a perfect trip seeing how Sierra bullets were made. After seeing that, I think it solidified the fact that we will do this trip again in the future.

[Smokey262]

Nice story and pics. Thanks for sharing that here

[Yleefox]

Great story and glad u had a good time. I've always wanted to give PD shooting a try, maybe one of these days.

Y

[bootsmcguire]

Glad you fun out there. I have always wanted to go, ahhhhh someday. I think half the fun must be in the dreaming.

A funny side note. When I used to work in Precast Concrete, I used to travel to job sites for repair and patch work. I spent almost a whole year in Sedalia, MO working on the new County/City Jail they were building down there. The whole time I was there, I had no freaking clue that Sierra Bullets was even in that town. Talk about kicking myself in the pants when I finally left that job and made that discovery a few weeks later. I guess I just never paid attention to Sierra's location before.

[rcinit]

I had a blast on my trip to South Dakaota too. Although my P-dog trip was more like a couple farm kids driving up to the edge of the p-dog down and shooting at everything from 100-300 yards then moving up 100 yards and starting all over again. We simply shot over the hood of the pick-ups. I did shoot a few at 500 yard plus just to see if I could make the long shots. Pretty tuff off the hood of a pick-up. I'd say it'd take anywhere from 8-12 rounds to knock one down. There were three dogtowns that we'd move back and forth from. No motel for us, we slept out in the cow pasture. lol

[hunt127588]

Being it was my first trip, I would like to have done some things differently. We sat in one spot and started shooting from 100 yards out....The 'dogs got smart and moved "way out there". Once our hit ratios were dismal due to distance, I would like to have moved up some.....Maybe my logic is flawed but 500-600 yard shots in wind is tough and it's nice to mix up some shorter distance now and then.

[rcinit]

If you get to close the dogs go down and will not come back up till you've gone. Made that mistake plenty of times. You'll hear them talking but can't see them. So the next option is shoot at them long range. Always shoot into the wind too. The dogs just don't seem to like it when you're up-wind of them.

To tell you the truth I had a lot more fun at my friends place shooting gophers with my 17HMR. I rode one of his horse's around and poped gophers without dismounting. As long as I twisted to about 80-90 degreed to the side the horse doesn't mind. Plus you can get them to stand still by whistling at them.

[ThorBird]

Very nice trip. I have never been and look forward to it.

[epmn]

This will be the fourth year that we have gone out with Willie. He does a great job of setting things up. We (my father, myself and my son) always go out at the end of July. Like what you saw, we have found that the after the first half an hour everything within 250 yards is down in their hole. To help cope with the wind, and the distance, the only bullet that goes anymore is a 75Amax in a .223AI, 22BR and 22-250AI.

epmn

[Ingwe]

Great Post!

I am booked for my 1st PD shoot in Kansas for next year, so your post is interesting for me.

You're kill ratio was 5% out of 1,000 rounds....would you say this was because of the wind?? I am taking a 204, 223, 17HMR, and a 7mm Rem Mag. I just don't know what to expect, so I don't know how much ammo to bring for each. What would you have done differently, or what will you do for next time to be more efficient??

Anyone else with experience, I would love to hear your comments/advice.

Sounds like the 17HMR would be useless, and maybe I should bring allot of ammo for the 7MM.

Frank

[1Shot]

I spent almost a whole year in Sedalia, MO working on the new County/City Jail they were building down there. The whole time I was there, I had no freaking clue that Sierra Bullets was even in that town.


...It's right off business 65 hwy. When you come in from I-70...First stop light you come to make a left.. ;)

[rcinit]

I am booked for my 1st PD shoot in Kansas for next year, so your post is interesting for me.

You're kill ratio was 5% out of 1,000 rounds....would you say this was because of the wind?? I am taking a 204, 223, 17HMR, and a 7mm Rem Mag. I just don't know what to expect, so I don't know how much ammo to bring for each. Anyone else with experience, I would love to hear your comments/advice.

Sounds like the 17HMR would be useless, and maybe I should bring allot of ammo for the 7MM.

Frank
I'd say bring 300-500 rds for tyhe .204 and the same for the .223. The 7mm mag is over kill and you will not be able to shoot too many rounds before the barrel gets hot. The 17HMR is kinda a tuff one to call. The wind might be up might now. I wouldn't try shooting anything past 125. Not because it won't do the job but because you see much happing with the p-dogs when you do hit them. I'd kinda keep it for the close shots. My main two guns would be the .204 and .223. Just adjust for the wind.