Ermines, beauty, exploding dogs, and being a shooting god.

[BrainOnSigs]

The 1st few days of South Dakota prairie dog shooting that Ken Lunde and myself have gotten in have been plagued with high winds, scorching heat, and then chilly, overcast weather.

Fast forward to today. Perfect weather, low winds, and great scenery.

We headed into a potentially good dog town. We found it packed with targets.

We saw our 1st Ermine ever (in his summer coat):




The beauty...we drove in...and had 360 degree shooting lanes.


Nearby bluff:


Fooling around with B&W....cow gate to enter to the next dog town:


The shooting god part.....all I needed was a head. We never did find it.


I hit 20 something straight and finished with 61 kills with 67 rounds. These are the final totals for 3 days of shooting. Mine is the red clicker. I think Ken went easy on me.

[resinguy]

Good stuff, thanks. Tell Ken that we miss him here.

What rifle/loads were you two shooting? I know that the hunters here will be interested.

[Gravelface]

This is awesome beyond words can describe. I have always wanted to do this!

[infocus2006]

Nice pics! Your making my Rem.700 VSSF 22-250 sweat looking at these!

[BrainOnSigs]

Good stuff, thanks. Tell Ken that we miss him here.

What rifle/loads were you two shooting? I know that the hunters here will be interested.

We both were shooting a Cooper Arms M21 Phoenix chambered in .204 Ruger...which we both reload for.

[M67]

We both were shooting a Cooper Arms M21 Phoenix chambered in .204 Ruger...which we both reload for.

Nice Coopers

With the high winds, how far were you shooting? Were you getting a lot of drift with the .204?

[meluck]

Cool pics.

[BrainOnSigs]

Nice Coopers

With the high winds, how far were you shooting? Were you getting a lot of drift with the .204?

60% of the shots are 200-250 yards, with 20% over 250 and 20% under 200. This dog town had obviously zero shooting pressure on it. I had a handful of 75-100 yard shots that the dogs were so dumb that I was able to shoot one, pause to reload, then blast another on the same mound. Ken and I both had several doubles today.

If the winds get over 15-20 MPH you are going to get some bullet drift no matter the caliber. Ken and myself have clearly seen the evidence that a 32 gr .204 bullet traveling in excess of 4,000 fps slices thru the wind better than a 60 gr .223 bullet traveling at 3,500 fps in ranges under 300 yards.

[RussMo]

On those .204s have you encountered any amount of throat erosion? I have wondered about those hot little jokers cause we have marmots up here

[shunsui]

Remind me not to be reincarnated as a prairie dog.

[Garth Reckner]

Looks like a great time. That Cooper looks sweet. A Cooper is on my "have to get someday" list.

Garth

[BrainOnSigs]

On those .204s have you encountered any amount of throat erosion? I have wondered about those hot little jokers cause we have marmots up here

Quite the opposite. All the Twenties burn way less powder than a 22-250 (a full third in most loads), and the smaller Twenties use less powder than a .223 Rem. This attribute actually has two advantages. First, it makes shooting 20-Caliber cartridges more economical (not that I reload to save money), but mostly it means less barrel heat. A typical varmint hunter may shoot several hundred rounds in one day, so barrel heat is an important issue. Less heat....longer barrel life.

[SpyderPhreak]

WooHoo!!! I had some fun last Friday doing the exact same thing in Eastern CO. Same situation; near no wind, HOT, and plenty of targets to be had which receive near zero pressure. 1 mile by 1/2 mile section, FULL of dogs!!! I saw my first burrowing owls out there through the scope which was kinda cool.

We had some shots when walking over the top of the next hill where the dogs were just barely poking their heads up at ~50 yards. Two of them had so little showing that just the very top of their heads were removed (~1/2"). The aftermath of that was a bit nasty looking (brains everywhere).

We had LOTS, and lots of shots between 100 and 300 yards. I took 4 dogs at 438 yards in 5 shots (the first shot was too high - less bullet drop than I expected that far). I was using my Bushmaster AR target model in 5.56 nato with a Redfield Revolution 3-9x40 scope. I shot a bit over 200 rounds in total hunting for 6 hours, with about an 85% hit ratio. Would have been even better if I hadn't been shooting at some while they were on the move, but that's just too fun!