Wyoming Prairie dogs with Leah

pointingdogsrule

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northeast Iowa
A daughter of one of my clients mentioned that she wanted to shoot Prairie dogs. The same young lady that I took black powder deer hunting last fall. Well, I had the perfect ranch in Wyoming for Leah. Her family is always busy with the milk cows, so I thought that this would be great for Leah.

This ranch has 1,000's of Prairie dogs and it is rarely hunted. In other words the Prairie dogs aren't the brightest and often sit there shot after shot. We loaded up the F-150 and headed to Wyoming for a three day hunt.

Leah doesn't get away that much so South Dakota and Wyoming were a new experience. We stopped along the way at the Badlands and Devil's Tower.

Once at the ranch we hunted Wed. afternoon, Thursday morning and evening, and Friday morning before heading back to Iowa.

Leah had NO experience with the .17 HMR or the Savage .223 (only a little practice at home). A bolt action rifle was new to Leah. She missed the first two shots, however, she caught on really fast and soon had her first kill. It was neat to she her go from... not finding the Prairie dogs in the Burris 6.5 x 20 to finding running Prairie dogs and shooting them as soon as they stopped. By the second afternoon she had this shooting down. She grew particularly fond of the .17 HMR with the 10 shell clip. At one time she shot 7 dogs off of one mound in under 60 seconds. Leah's longest shot with the .17 HMR was 147 yards. The last morning we pulled out the .223 with the Burris 6.5 x 20 and reached out to touch some Prairie dogs. Most of the dogs were at 160 yards. Leah's longest shot was 265 yards with the .223. It's amazing to see the difference in the Prairie dog's movement after impact with the .223 (polymer tip bullet) vs. the .17 HMR (polymer tip bullet).

Final count: Leah.... 309 Prairie dogs, Doc.... 11 Prairie dogs (it was more fun watching her shoot, then for me to shoot) :)

It was a great trip and a wonderful time was had.

good luck to all
the dog

Leah at the "big Prairie dog" in Wall, South Dakota
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The Badlands
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Devils Tower
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Dead Prairie dog by Leah
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Leah shooting the Savage .223
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Leah shooting the .17 HMR
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About 12 miles south of Wall, the prairie dog shooting gets very good.

Good weekend.
 
Very well done! Once my youngest (6yo) gets a bit older/bigger I plan on taking them on a similar trip.
 
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