2017 Trip #1 Limon and Burlington, CO

2017 Trip #1

2/8 – 2/10 with Ash and Myself.  Returned from a three day trip scouting and shooting prairie dogs in Easter Colorado.  My first of the year, wasn’t real great.  The first day we, my friend Ash and I, only shot about 15 dogs, if that.  The ranch we shot on was shot hard last summer and into the fall.  This time of the year the females are down giving birth and getting ready to give birth.  The grass is gone, it’s been cold and windy.  We didn’t expect a whole lot, we didn’t get it.  The prairie dogs now depend on the amount of grass they stored below ground to survive.

Not happy with the results of the first day we moved farther East to Burlington, CO.  The second day the wind got worst, 25 mph gusting to 35 mpg.  While it was warm, kind ‘a, it wasn’t the best weather.   I started off using my 6 x 45 with a 6 – 24 x 50 Mil-dot scope on it.  At times I had to hold 3 – 3 1/2 dots into the wind.  I wrote an article about the 6 x 45  in accuratpowder.com on- line magazine.  

The first place was lacking in prairie dog being out, they were there, just not out.  They don’t like the wind much either.  After three hours only shooting 20 or so, we moved on to do some scouting for places to shoot in the spring.

We came upon a Road Grader operator out in the middle of nowhere and I stopped and ask if he knew of rancher that might have prairie dogs that they need shot.  Rancher spent lots of money trying to control prairie dogs, from $4,000 to $18,000 a year, they usually welcome shooters, if you can find those ranchers.

We found one late in the day and managed to shoot 40 too 45 dogs in a little over an hour before they went down.  He definitely wants us back later in the year.  Also at that ranch was another young man that said “We’ve got lots of dogs”.  We made arrangements to meet him early the next day.

The next day I decided to shot my 6mm PPC with a 14 year old 6 – 24 x 50 Mil-dot scope on it.  As it would be the next days weather was worse than the day before.  As far as wind goes, but we did good.  We have places to go when the weather does finally get better and the pups are born and the grass gets green and grows some.  We shot around 210 for the two of us, drove almost 650 miles, and spent two night in Motels. I shot 89 of the dogs, not real great, but not bad.