One of the best ways to sharpen your shooting skills, and tighten the team work with your spotter, is to shoot at a little varmint about the size of a shoe box. Typical shooting distances go out to 1200 yards, and even further!

Prairie dog hunting is looked upon by some as cruel and inhumane. However, if you have ever walked a pasture or field infested with prairie dogs, you will understand why they are such a huge problem. It is not the 6 inch hole prairie dogs dig to live in--it is the 6 foot crater, about 2 foot deep with mounded dirt on the sides, surrounding the 6 inch hole, that is so dangerous. Farm and ranch equipment gets ruined trying to deal with these huge pits; the machinery gets so jolted that the machine operator can sustain serious head injuries! In addition, livestock, elk and deer like to feed in cultivated feeds and pastures; many sustain fatal injuries as they run across an open pasture chuck full of leg-snapping holes! Colorado ranchers and farmers are in a tough position, as legally they can NOT poison, trap, fumigate or drown the prairie dog towns. The only legal method of prairie dog birth control, since the coyotes would rather hunt garbage bags and house pets, is hunting them.

We spoke with Tom Colander of Colorado Trophies (click here for their site) about prairie dog hunting in his area in the spring/summer months. He was interested in putting together prairie dog hunt packages, looking at it as a possible new revenue center for his outfitting business. He spoke with some of the landowners where he hunts large game about hunting their prairie dogs. Several were very interested in having their infestations cut down in numbers, even if just for a short while. Tom organized a prairie dog hunt for late April, 2001.

We stuffed the airplane with all of our equipment: shooting tables, front rests, bags, stools, rangefinders, binoculars, spotting scopes, stands, cleaning kits and LOTS of ammunition. It amazed me that the airplane would hold all of our gear! A smooth flight across Texas, a short refuel stop in Pueble, and the spectacular jump over the San Juans--we touched down in Montrose, Colorado.

Our favorite weapons for prairie dogging are our benchrest rifles. These rifles are switch-barreled, with a very heavy second barrel chambered in 6-.284. This is basically a .284 Winchester case necked down to 6 mm, then fire-formed to shape the shoulder. These rifles are designed to be fired from a bench on front and rear bags form-fitted to the stock.

On that first trip in April 2001, we had our 36X benchrest scopes mounted on our rifles. This proved HIGHLY unsatisfactory: if the animal was only 300 or so yards, it was extremely difficult to acquire the target in such a narrow field of vision provided by the high magnification. On subsequent trips, we equipped the rifles with a Leupold 6.5 x 20, 50 mm, side-focus/target-turret scope. This has proven highly satisfactory, except we'd like to have a little more magnification on the 1000+ yard shots. (However, due to mirage , the higher magnification probably wouldn’t work anyway due to the time of year we go prairie dogging.). We zero the elevation turret at "0" for 100 yards, and have a drop table out to 1300 yards, measured in clicks. The chart also includes clicks of windage for 10 kts crosswind at each of these distances.

Click here for more on: Reloading the 6 -.284 and other wildcat rounds.

We had a ball on that first trip, even though we discovered there were a few pieces of equipment that would make life much easier:

1. A Leica Geovid rangefinder: a fantastic rangefinder that will often accurately range out to 1300 yards, and seldom fails us out to 1000. The Geovids are about the size of a Mack truck, and not a piece you would want to carry while hunting elk or such, but they are GREAT for applications such as prairie dogging. Our field rangefinders at that time (Nikon Buckmaster 800) had a real problem in locking in on such a small target at more than 500 yards. We have since upgraded our field range finders to the Leica LRF 1200. This is a FANTASTIC little device which comes very close to equaling the capabilities of the much bigger Geovids.

2. Binoculars with top quality optics: At the end of the first day of prairie dogging, we both had headaches and eyestrain from constantly glassing for targets for 12 hours. Our Pentax binoculars were simply not up to the task. Tom, in contrast, had no headache and no eyestrain--his Swarovski 10X42 EL binoculars served him well. We finally understood why professionals will have only top optics. We ordered our Swarovski's from Cabela's as soon as we got home!

3. A “plinking” rifle for taking the short-range shots of 150 or less (which is no contest for the 6-.284’s). We chose to have our favorite gunsmith, Speedy of SG &Y rifles, build us twin rifles of their “Aurora” .22 mag semi-automatics based on the Winchester 597. (click here for SG & Y site) These little rifles are amazingly accurate to about 160 yards. After that, well--it would not be your weapon of choice!

4. A “mid-range” rifle for taking those mid-range shots from about 150 yards to 400 yards. We wanted this to be a “hunting style” rifle, so we could sharpen our skills shooting from bipods rather than using the benchrest setup needed for the 6-.284’s. We chose to have Speedy build us twins to our Remington Jarretts, but this time chambered in .270 WSM. This turned out to be a great choice for our purpose. We have yet to use these rifles on anything other than prairie dogs and coyotes, but I am quite sure they would perform admirably on Elk, Deer, etc.

In 2002, the newly added equipment worked great. No eye strain or headaches, no problems ranging targets, and the Auroras and WSM's made a great change of pace from the formal benchrest routine. After our second trip, the only thing we could think of to make these trips more enjoyable would be an air-conditioned place to rest while we cleaned rifles, and maybe a shaded area to shoot from!

The “Aurora’s” were used primarily off-hand, out to 160 yards or so, and is a GREAT way to sharpen those off-hand skills. Practice, Practice, Practice! We ran through 900 rounds of ammunition in less than 2 hours! The WSM’s were used on bipods to sharpen the shooting skills used most often in hunting. The 6-.284’s were used for the extreme distance shooting, and are always rewarding with their level of precision!

The difficult thing about Prairie Dogging is how to communicate to the others, once you have spotted the “Dog Up.”. Descriptions such as “go to the orange tank at the fence, go 4 posts to the right, then come straight down, you will see 3 mounds of dirt next to a white rock…he’s right there!” Then you have to get the range, set the elevation, windage and fire…all before the little guy runs back down the hole! This ain't no turkey shoot!

Prairie dogging is excellent training for a spotter. You must be able to watch the bullet come in (which you can do with a good spotting scope such as the Kowa), and report to the shooter how short/ long he is from the target, and any problems with windage. As a spotter, it can be very difficult to make sure your range finder is picking up the prairie dog and NOT the rock that is 50 yards behind him--50 additional yards of distance at 1000 yards can be around 24 inches of additional bullet drop!

Words of Caution: When shooting at such extreme ranges, you MUST be cognizant of where the bullet may ultimately travel. Clear the area behind the target before firing!

The third time we went to Tom’s for Prairie Dogging, we drove instead of flying. We pulled our new (and now first) hunting/shooting trailer which was air conditioned, and had plenty of worktable space (we run the air-conditioner from a small diesel generator in the back of the truck). This allowed us to stay in an air-conditioned environment while cleaning rifles, etc, and was FABULOUS!

Rocket Dog

One of the funnier stories was when Janice was shooting her .270 WSM off of bipods. Tom and I were spotting for her. This prairie dog was out about 410 yards, past a horizontal pipe from a huge rotating irrigation system. We zero these WSM’s at 300 yards, which was the distance to this irrigation pipe. At 410 yards the WSM load is going to drop about 8 inches, so Janice had to “hold-over” the target by that amount. If the horizontal cross hair is on the irrigation pipe, which was at 300 yards, the bullet would hit the pipe on the way to the prairie dog. Janice was aware of this, and assured us the pipe was well above the cross hair. Therefore the bullet would pass underneath the pipe. We told her we were ready, and she touched off the shot. The prairie dog was a “flipper”, meaning he was hit so hard it tossed him into the air for about 3 feet, turning flips. At the same time, Tom and I saw a projectile head straight into the air about 50 feet up! I thought, “Oh my, I am going to be buying a sprinkler head or irrigation pipe!” We went to inspect: it was not a metal projectile that went airborne--the bullet had passed well beneath the pipe as Janice had said. The projectile, which we found, was the upper half of the prairie dog! A new term for us: “Rocket Dog!”

Prairie Dogging is a great way to get outdoors in the spring and summer months, practice your shooting and spotting skills, and do a rancher a favor!

Coyote Hunting

Calling in coyotes with an electronic caller, or a talented human caller, is very interesting pastime. The wylie little boogers seem to appear from nowhere. If they bust you, they can run like the wind!

Coyotes are not my favorite creatures. We live in the country, and have had several beloved kitties mysteriously vanish over the years. I know the odds are that some damn coyote had our kitties for dinner. So, when I get the opportunity, I like to take out some revenge!

My favorite coyote story, which is basically one of failure, happened over Christmas, 2001. A very good friend of mine, Michael Bien invited us out to his family’s ranch in Pecos, Texas. He told me to bring a rifle, and we would get into those coyotes in a big way! I asked him what kind of range to expect (for rifle selection); he replied, “Oh, we call them to within 50 yards all the time!”.

We had just acquired the “Aurora” .22 mags with 4 X 9 Leupolds. These rifles worked great out to 160 or so yards, and this sounded like the perfect opportunity to get a little blood on them.

Off we go! The first morning out, we set up the caller and waited. We were spread out over a 200 yard firing line. I first spotted a coyote at a little over 400 yards. As he continued to come in, I got my rifle ready. When the coyote was only 350 yards or so, BAM, BAM, BAM!…it sounded like World War III had broken out! Michael and his brother-in-law were flinging lead at this coyote like they were laying down cover fire! So much for letting them come in to 50 yards!

All of a sudden, I felt very under-gunned for this adventure!

Now to make me feel even worse: I asked these guys about “calling them in to 50 yards,” and also if they knew where their bullets went at 350 or so yards. I guess I kind of challenged them. Oops, I certainly was not equipped to compete at a distance contest with the “Aurora”!

Michael’s uncle had told us of an old cow that had died in a different pasture. The carcass would attract coyotes like flies to honey. We snuck up a hill side that would overlook the pasture. Once at the top, we were disappointed to see no coyotes feasting on the carcass. However, I was reminded of the challenge, and was asked to shoot at that big ol’ carcass out there at about 350 yards.

I had NO IDEA how much drop that little .22 mag would have at that distance. I had only shot it to 200 yards while sighting it in, and that was 4 inches low from my 100 yard zero. In the meantime, Michael is telling his brother-in-law that I compete in several shooting sports, and shoot prairie dogs out past 1000 yards; this 350 yard shot at a huge carcass would be a piece of cake! I guessed the drop at about 3 feet, lined up and fired….

Yikes! Do you remember the scene from Lonesome Dove where Robert Duvall (Gus) was out on the plains with his dead horse and tried to shoot at the bad guys through open sights with that ol’ Henry? He fired at them and the bullet fell WAY SHORT, then the bad guys were laughing and carrying on that Gus couldn’t hit them from there…Well, that is what I felt like: my bullet kicked up dust at least 70 yards short of that dead cow. Michael, his brother-in-law, and Janice just busted out laughing! A little bit of crow and humble pie sometimes is a good thing. I did vow to myself to never be under-gunned for any hunting situation again!

Know your rifle - .know its effective range, know its trajectory, and know where that bullet is going! And most of all, Practice, Practice, Practice!