Help! Need advice on where to hunt PDs

Goofycat

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Location
Santa Rosa, CA
I am an experienced ground squirrel shooter in Northern California, but look forward to finally traveling to the Midwest for prairie dogs. I know zilch about PDs, other than that they are larger than ground squirrels.

My problem is that I am stuck. I know no ranchers in the Midwest who allow PD hunting, and have no way of find out. I don't particularly want to pay a guide because I am used to hunting on properties of ranchers I know and whose properties I have had permission to hunt in the past.

I am used to contacting ranchers directly and asking for permission to hunt, but it is a far cry to drive all the way to a state such as South Dakota, for instance, and find that hunting is largely closed unless a guide is hired and some outlandish fee is charged. My wife and I ideally would like to merely park our self-contained motor home on private or public ranch land and do either walk-around shooting with .22 rimfires, or longer-distance shooting with centerfires.

Is there a best time of year for PD hunting, and which states should I be looking at? Are any public lands (such as BLM) available? What is the best way to contact land owners, other than checking with the Chamber of Commerce in each town on the map? I know my questions seem naive to you experienced old-timer PD-shooters, but I' stuck, and would appreciate any advice you have.

Thanks,

Barry
 
That document, though old, is very revealing. It shows Pennington county with the most publicl land that has PDs on it.

Unfortunately, the Conata Basin (just west of Interior) which is loaded, also has a ferret introduction program and no shooting.

this bit them in the butt recently when the overpopulation caused a plague outbreak. I don't know what the final outcome was, this was a few years back.

HM
 
I have been going dog hunting in SD for the past 15 years. Last year there were towns (lots of) with mounds as far as you can see and not a live dog anywhere. The plague has really taken a toll out there. Went to one of my favorite shoot all day places and NADA _____G thing. The year before shot there two days straight all day, not any more.
cry.gif
go fish.....lightbulb
 
Thanks, Mike. Well....back to ground squirrels and coyotes. I've never hunted PDs, and it looks like I will have to wait a bit longer. Thanks for the update.
 
Contact the Game and Fish Department in Ft. Yates, ND. The people there set us up and were quite eager to help. I'm not sure about shooting this time of year but last July we had more than enough shooting. The license you buy from them is good on both sides of the border on the Rez.
 
Zortman, Montana.

Lots of open and (free) BLM land to shoot on. Helps to have a 4-wheeler ATV, but see plenty of folks driving in and shooting with tables.

If you really want to be in the thick of it, you could grab a guided hunt on the reservation nearby...folks are burning barrels by the dozen over there...
 
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