Lemmee see if I can stir up another shooting subject.

Anyone here ever go to Montana on a prairie dog or a gopher shoot? I went on two one week ones back in the mid-80's and found afterwards that I could hit just about any deer that I saw.

Most of the prairie dogs were shot under 440 yards, but some stretched out to 550 yards. The rifles weren't all that specialized, just an off the shelf Remington 700 varmint specials in .223 and .22-250. Most of the real long shots were done with the .223.

A prairie dog covers up less area than the chest area on a deer and if a shooter gets good enough where he can hit the majority of his varmints at 400 yards.... then deer are easy.

So, anyone going over to thin these critters out?

In the 80's I had a couple of ranchers that wanted varmint hunters on their property and one over by Augusta even offered to buy the ammo.

BBVD, for information the landowners usually control the varmints through the use of poisoned grain. What they don't like about it is other animals eat the grain. Ranchers prefer varmint hunters that behave, shut gates, don't litter and know the difference between a hereford and a twitchy little gopher.

I would love to go thin out the population a little but they do not have many around here and Montana is a bit far to travel for them. Her in Washington we have something similar called Rock Chuck that I have heard are fun but I have never done it. The guys that are reel good at it can hit a dog at 1000 yards.

The only thing is once you mist a mutt with a .223 or 22-250 is there anything left. Do people actually eat these or is it like Washington's Crow season. In Washington they open up a Crow season simply to let people shoot as many of them as possible in order to help thin out the population so they do not take over. At least that is what WDFW told me.

I grew up in Wyoming and we did this many many times for fun. Gophers are just a shoot and let stay animal. Nobody eats them. Actually other animals clean them up very well along with their own kind.

Rock chuck are different but also fun to throw a round at now and them.

Floatuber

Have you ever hunted Rock Chuck in Washington? I would assume to do it you would have to go to Eastern Washington and have been meaning to do this for years. So many fish, so little time for the rifles.

Rockchucks in eastern WA aren't as numerous as they were years ago. Most populations of them get cropped heavier than they should be in order to keep the populations up. Besides... on rockchucks, the standard of a good day is a "100 shot day". That didn't mean you shot 100 rockchucks... but that they were thick enough where you fired 100 shots.

I look at 1000 yard rockchuck shooting as nothing similar to varmint hunting. Those aren't hunting or varmint rifles. Most of them also need a benchrest to accompany them.

Also, in the old days crows weren't protected as they were classed as vermin. An agreement with Mexico in the 70's to protect ravens also covered crows under that umbrella as they're in the same bird family. The US then looked at how to "unprotect" crows and decided the best way was to open a season on them. Some states have a 180 day season open for crows.

Used to be a person could use an unplugged shotgun on crows. It's probably still true even here in WA state. Only advantage I found with an unplugged shotgun on crows was it allowed the shooter even more chances to plow shot columns in trees trying to swing on swarming crows.

Prairie dog hunting over in MT isn't that expensive. All a person needs is a bunch of shells, a tent, some camping gear and a cooler for food. It's easy to find a spot to camp close to the dog towns.

Bill

I have never done dogs or chuck so anything I say on this matter is only from what I have read.

You said
"I look at 1000 yard rockchuck shooting as nothing similar to varmint hunting. Those aren't hunting or varmint rifles. Most of them also need a benchrest to accompany them."

Yes on these distances they do use bench rests and no they are not hunting rifles or your standard out of the box varmint rifle.

http://www.memes.com/~sealion/vestry.html#Misting

It all sounds fun to me though

I've gone rock chuck hunting, but never praire dogs. A lotta fun!!

I think it's pretty important not to touch the dead prairie dogs. They carry black plague and rocky mountain spotted fever.

Thanks for the heads up on the fever CWU!
I knew about the plague, but it's not a problem if your not shootin survivalist (dogs). A lot of them have consorted with warff rats in the cities and could be infected. Course by now it's probably spread so your most likely right on again,(as usual).

I've had the best luck huntin em in the rain, the light glints off the wet umbrellas (camo) and it's a lot easier to pick up.

What's your opinion on night vision gear for dogs? (ethics, feasability,etc.)

I've had some luck chummin with jalepenos in the dark then usin infra-red, and usually it's just the gang bangers out after dark (vandalising and mugging squirrels) so there is an added since of satisfaction to it.

herm :p

Herm....Come on now... Next you'll be saying you're using laser pointers to hypnotize the little critters!! And baiting them in to your blind for easy shots.

And it isn't the prairie dogs fault they turn bad. They come mainly from broken homes and didn't have any nice clothes to go to elementry school and their fur was always patchy at best. As a result, the rock chucks (who live in the hills and think they're SO superior) relentlessly teased the poor dogs. You see, they didn't have a chance... they were made in to criminals by the system, I'm tellin ya.

OHH the humanity!!

CWUgirl

That was funny, good one.

There fur was patchy...

No this was all in Wyoming.

There's some down in the Yakima river canyon south of Ellensburg... but they're not all that thick there. Might be if one would walk across the Umtanum bridge... but then, watch out for "buzzers".

I used to shoot them down by Naches but it's "no trespassing" now.

Bill

Bill

To funny your post is the story of my life. Allot of my friends are older then I am and they always say were the hunting used to be good but it is all closed now. Oh well nothing some good old investigation cannot solve.

All one needs to do is either find a place on private property, a place where one has to walk to get to, or a place some distance from good sized towns and the hunting improves.

I've hunted Montana for deer and antelope since 1985. Had some real good hunts. This last years hunt ranks as one of my two worst hunts. Main reason was we chose to hunt close to the town of Great Falls this year. We were only 1 hour out of town. We thought the idea of "camping" in a motel and eating out was a real good idea. Guess we didn't think through all that and realize our hunting areas would be close to town.

In previous years we'd tent camped and been about 80 miles from a good sized town.. and about 25 miles from the nearest town (that one had dirt streets).

Best antelope hunting I've ever had was on foot 3 miles from the vehicle. Hardly anyone in Montana walks for antelope.

So, if one finds restricted area either restricted by distance, access or ownership, one should find good populations of whatever they want to hunt.

I've heard there are some big populations of rockchucks over in eastern WA... but they are on private land.

Remember, the population of WA has doubled since the mid 70's. That's why you hear these storys about "the hunting was so good 30 years ago........"

Are ground squrils the same as rock chucks

Ground squirls aren't the same as rock chucks. There are lots of there rodents classed as rock squirrels. Some are protected. Some aren't. Need to know which ones are shootable. There's one called a "gray digger" that reminds me a lot of the common gray squirrel... but this one lives in burrows, not in trees.

Bill.. I believe rockchucks, woodchucks, etc, are members of the marmot family.

just re-read my post. I meant "ground squirrels... not rock squirrels". Duh... guess that's why it's best to proofread one's postings.