O.T. Ping Nathan... Rat hunting in Montana

ive been a hunter for most of my life but just couldnt "feel good" about watching them. whats the big deal with prarie dogs, are they detrimental to wilderness areas or something?

Yeah, my first reaction was, "EEEWWWWWW!!!". These guys weren't really hunting, they were "blasting"!

I've been hunting for many years also and felt the same way (sick). I do know some hunters who would get a kick out of it.

One particular person we nicknamed "Lester Splatter".

As for the sport, I do know, a lot of farmers would pay to have the "Ground Hogs" (as they're called >

Approximately 10/15/03 08:07, FrankW uttered for posterity:

Prairie dogs, woodchucks, etc. Called varmint hunting. Available in Montana, Nebraska, both Dakotas, Utah, Wyoming, etc.

The dogs are a hazard to livestock. For light wind days, the .22-250, .223, .25-06 are popular, for heavier wind days the .264, .7mm magnums are better particularly if you are varminting at 300-400 yards or more. Good practice for antelope hunting.

Chucks are a bit more of a challenge.

Approximately 10/15/03 09:17, Nathan Collier uttered for posterity:

A cow or horse moving quickly can drop a foot into a dog vent hole and break a limb easily. They will tend to avoid the more clustered colony areas, but the extended holes out in the middle of nowhere are pretty much impossible to see.

I made some good money as a kid hunting "ground hogs" (we call them wood chucks) for the local farmers. Still shoot one now and then if someone's crops are being eaten and they ask my help (I don't charge anymore). Never used the kind of loads they use though. A simple .22 long rifle with a scope behind the ear was the most humane way. and it didn't alert others the way an exploding carcass does so you can be more effective in reducing the population in a days work.

I think these folks get off on the carnage more than doing any farmer a favor. One link on the FAQ tells it all,

The "Red Mist" is their objective here.It's hardly a sport. No skill needed once you have a properly sighted in gun sand bagged in the prone position with targets that stand up and pose for you. I suggest they shoot watermelons. It's more impressive carnage for their high speed cameras and heavy loads and just as challenging. But then again, it wouldn't spawn hate mail so where's the fun in that?

My .02

Perry

FrankW wrote:

You've never ridden a horse or run cattle on an open range or you wouldn't ask what the big deal is. That part aside, they carry fleas which transmit Bubonic plague. Farmers and ranchers pay good money to exterminators, exterminators in built up areas make good money from the Health Dept. for their work.

Picture this one: a truck with a big vacuum cleaner drives up, drops the hose into a hole and starts sucking out rodents. That's the current "humane" way to clean out the little pests.

granted. i just found it disturbing that they laughed and cheered about the gross mutilation. my daughter saw one segment of it and cried.

how do you arrive at that bill? ive owned many horses over the years.....we just dont have prairie dogs on the east coast.

Depends on the ammo you are using, Bill.

All your military ammo is FMJ (full metal jacket), designed to humanely drill a clean hole through the target. Whereas most hunting ammo is designed to expand somewhat upon impact that produces a tearing effect. This is because you don't want the animal to run to the next county before it bleeds to death. You want to drop it on the spot, hopefully, so you won't have to track a blood trail for miles. You can reload or buy FMJ ammo for your 30-caliber 30-06 that will pass right through the target as well. I buy 30-06 FMJ for my M1-Garand.

Terry.

Plenty of big ol' ground hogs back east that are fun to shoot. I used to shoot plenty of them growing up in West Virginia. They create a massive hole in the ground and present the same problem as the prairie dogs and gophers out west here.

Terry.

Groundhogs are a different animal then a prairie dog. A groundhog is physically larger then a prairie dog. Here is a link to check out a pic of a ground hog to compare the two.

A farmer might not be paying to kill prairie dogs, but as for what a rancher, that's a whole different story. Prairie dogs burrow holes in the ground where ranchers graze their cattle on the open range. Holes are very dangerous to the cattle, a big clumsy, stupid cow (not making that part up... they are big and clumsy, and stupid) will step into a prairie dog burrow and break its leg. This costs the rancher quite latterly thousands of dollars for each occurrence.

Greg

detrimental to

There was an article in "Field and Stream" on this subject sometime about

1993 or 1994. The author must have used different hardware, because he mentioned vaporizing the *head* and not the *entire animal.*

They ran a retraction a couple of months later, because BLM people complained so bad. The prairie dog is in fact native wildlife, and it seems that so many "Field and Stream" readers had started shooting them that the BLM people thought this might be a threat to their numbers. Of course, BLM doesn't have jurisdiction over private land. I don't know about land leased to ranchers however.

Earle

we have _none_ here in north carolina. .....i guess the gators ate em. :-)