Prairie dogs in high Wind

[lerch]

OKAY, I guess you wouldn't call it high wind, about 15-18mph

Me and BJ went out last night to try and get some video of long range pdogs and to break in my new 25-06. It was blowin pretty so we decided not to try at 1k and settled for 750yds. After quite a few misses due to wind and ranging issues I finally connected with one in the head at a little over 750. I followed this up with my next shot landing on the chest of a pdog just a few yards away from where the first was still twitching. The mirage was a thick as soup so our video was slightly obscured but you could still clearly see the impact and resulting carnage on video at nearly a half mile away. What was really impressive was the AMAZING bullet traces BJ caught on film, it really looked like something from the Matrix. Bj went on to hit two more dogs with one making the most disgusting impact thud I have ever heard, pretty impressive.

All in all we learned a lot about videoing this stuff and realized how hard a swirling wind makes this distance shooting.

We did decide that the Leica 1200 rangefinder just doesn't cut it at this distance of shooting on these small of targets. As the sun went down we could finally get accurate ranges out to 950 on mounds but earlier shooting was nearly impossible.

Just thought I would share the fun with y'all.

Thanks
Steve

 

[7Rumloader]

Where's the video?? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif How bout pics?? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[308 nate]

Lerch,
last weekend I headed to the dog town also. We got a late start and the winds were NASTY! 20mph constant with up to 30mph gusts, but I needed to fire form a bunch of .22 250 AI's and didn't want to waste them all on paper. 99% of our shots were from 500-650 yds. and I was very happy with how the gun performed even though I was no where near 50% kill. I also drug my 7mm along and boy that is the gun to use in a wind! here are a few pixs one of the town an the other is my son pretending he's going to take out a praire dog,the way He's growing it won't be long....He's 4.





The gun my son is on is the 7mm and the 22-250 AI is in the A5 at the far right. The 22-250 is a factory Savage .223 barrel with a 1 in 9 twist.And then rechambered I'm shooting the 75gr. Amax at 3290 out of a 25" barrel

 

[lerch]

NIce pics 308, looks like a future marksman /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

7RUM, i didn't take any pics, but I do have some great video but I have no Idea how to post it. If you can tell me I would love to hear it.

Thanks
Steve

 

[bailey1474]

Great pics!!! Man that is some beautiful country.

Nice to see the little one out there w/ya. I'm going to have a little girl in Oct/Nov. Hopefully, she'll like to do these sorts of things.

A wise man once told me that the best thing you can spend on your kids is time!!! I think he may be on to something. I think I turned out OK /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif.

 

[goodgrouper]

Sounds fun guys!

I went out yesterday to mark some 2k spots for the shooting bench with my gps in chuck country and ended up blasting p-dogs in the evening. The dang biting flies were so bad at 10,500 feet that they kept me in the truck and the chucks in their dens! So I blasted 45 miles east and ended up at 4000 feet in a new infested dog town. I love Utah for the variety of things to shoot and places to go! In about 45 minutes you can drive into what looks like a whole new world.

The wind was blowing about 15 mph and gusting so I dragged out the 6br improved fast twist and began to lay down the law. I had 25 confirmed kills with 6 or 7 possibles in 1 hour and 20 minutes! Shots were not real long but for the wind, it wasn't cake either. The dogs were from 350 to 650 and they are the white tail p-dogs which are much smaller than those black tail kind I wish we had.

The little 6br with the 95 grain Berger VLD is fast becoming my most favorite round of all time. It reaches out to 1500 yards, burns 31.5 grains of powder, no recoil, little barrel heat, and is so stinking accurate that once you get the clicks dialed in, you can pick off every dog that pokes his head out of the same hole with one shot time and time again! I had at one point six p-dogs standing on one hole (white tails in utah don't really make mounds) and I took all six of them in under 3 minutes with 7 shots at 498 yards!

All in all, it was a great way to spend an hour and a half. Now what to do about the stinking biting flies?

 

[lerch]

Sounds good GG,

I don't know which would be worst, your flies or our 100 degree heat (110 heat index) and humidity.

Man I can't wait till fall

 

[arthurj]

I'll tell you what I had to do Goodgrouper! Today I was shooting in a pasture (in alabama) and the flies where eating me up so bad I taped paper towels around my legs! It was the only remedy I could come up with. Even then they would bite me through my socks. That makes it tough to concentrate!

 

[7Rumloader]

Nice looking rigs Nate!! Future Long Range Hunter for sure he's already got a good grip on the stock and practicing his check weld technique. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[7Rumloader]

lerch I have no clue how to do the video deal but I'm sure Len, Dave or Ian might. You probably need a host like with pics but I don't know.

 

[wildcat]

Lerch, a freind and I are thinking about going on our first pdog hunt next May. We are thinking about going to the Rockin 7 Ranch in Wyoming. However, my wifes' aunt lives in Perkins, Oklahoma. However, she doesn't know where to shoot pdogs. I know that you and Bill are from Oklahoma and was wondering if you knew of any places to shoot pdogs in that part of Oklahoma. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Thanks, Wildcat

 

[Meister481]

wind is always a factor when hunting the worlds dumbest animal. I was in Winner S.D. a few weeks ago with 10 other guys and we brought all types of guns for different shots, all the way up to 50 bmg. The two biggest wind busters were the 6.5 br and 338 lapua magnum. The guy with the best kill ratio was shooting a 223 of all things. he made a great range card using his geovid rangefinder and had a great 77 grain sierra loading. Longest kill was at 1300 yards with the 338. The best way to factor out the wind was to set up upwind or downwind from the dogtown, so that you never get a full value wind. This was my fist time hunting here and it was more fun than I could imagine.

 

[TheCanuck]

ok my question might sound dumb, but whats the brown tube on a tripod?

 

[bailey1474]

Wildcat,
Go to this website, http://www.nomercyhunting.com/, and contact Ryan. He has the land we shoot pds on leased. I'm not sure what he charges. It's not a big pd town. That is part of the reason we backed out to 1000yds+. Want to make sure and have plenty to shoot in the future!!!!!