Don't shoot the Prairie Dogs.

[Darrel in Minn]

They are good for the environment. A guy at work(anti gun-anti hunting) was telling me about a program he was watching on TV that was telling about how the prairie dog helps keep the right grasses left for the antelope to eat. It seems like every PD dog town I ever saw didn't have much grass left for anything to eat. I doubt if this guy ever saw a PD town, but if it was on TV it must be true. Give me a break. Even the few ranchers that don't care for hunting still don't like prairie dogs. Where do they TV people get there information? Darrel

[udiablo]

The anti-gun bias runs rampant through the media.

And the tree-huggers and bunny-lovers would like to see all of us disarmed, and without any motor fuel or electricity.

If you eat meat, you are also a target of their ire.

In established PD towns the vegetation is depleted around each burrow.

Ranchers don't like them, especially for that reason.

People that raise cattle understand that developing pasture is their primary business, and an absolute necessity to support any livestock.

As for antelope, they seem to cope OK with or without livestock or PDs
around.

[Oleman]

Well your Co-worker has never seen a real Prairie Dog town. We have been shooting one regularly for five years now. It's 600 yards wide and over a mile long. Livestock step into those little holes and when the snow melts and the rains come the grass has been so depleted by them you wind up with real erosion problems.

Say does this guy wear a tin foil hat? :D

[Darrel in Minn]

is to loosen up the ground. I guess we will have to give the antihunting crowd that one. The holes they dig does loosen up the ground. I have walked through a PD town when the morning frost is going out and all you do is pick up mud on your boots. I haven't shot many PD's but seen the damage they can do. Coyotes are my thing. Can be good places to call from. Darrel

[CJ in Wy]

The little buggers do most of their digging right after a rain and spend a LOT of time packing the dirt they bring up.Kinda funny watching them bang their little heads into the ground. The holes go down3- 4' before leveling off so I also doubt they're digging loosens up the top layer of dirt that grows anything? As for not eating what an antelope eats ? ? ? They must not cause it seams they do well together. The problem is they tend to clip off a lot more than they eat as they seam to prefer bare ground or at least very short foliage. In a dry year you can spot towns a long way away just by the lack of foliage!!
I shot a town twice a week all last summer(along with many others). The #rs where down a little by fall and what was left was very spookie. I made my first outing yesterday and by the time the pups come back out we're gonna be back to square one :D
What bothers a fool is us shooting them when the real enemy is poison and plague!! Too bad we dont have videos of them dying by the MILLIONS a very slow and painfull death due to poison and plague=then the fools could make themselves feel better by sprinkleing flea powder over the little rats and banning poison :cool:

[Coyote Duster]

Shooting is nothing compared to the number of them that get poisoned. By far many more are poisoned than shot.

Praire dogs put up hay, they cut the grass, leave it lay till late afternoon so it drys well and then put it in the burrow for storage so it can be eaten at a later time. Often this is mistaken for cutting it and then leaving it by someone that doesn't know they store it.

[Coyote Duster]

TV people generally have accurate information to start with,most of the time it is right with a few important things intensionally left out or distorted to change the meaning in order for it to say what they want to say.

[Paul Workman]

You said a mouthful there...

I have often suggested (to some of these idiots) death by poison or plague is far more "inhumane" than a V-max arriving at 3000+ fps. But, for some idiots (that can't understand that) a video or picture documentation of the suffering is required for then to see the truth. But, that is something I could not stand to watch - any more that letting an animal hit by a car suffer at the side of the road.

That reminds me...

A squirrel with a broken back was squealing and dragging the lower half of its body in a circle in the middle of the street. It was a Saturday and a neighbor lady was hovering over it, wringing her hands and watching the suffering go on.

When I came up on the scene, I immediately dispatched the poor critter - crushing it's skull with a quick stomp thus putting it out of its misery. But, I wasn't prepared for the outrage from the gal that went up! "How could you!!" "You should have done this or that...!!" I shot back, "How could you just stand there doing nothing and let that poor squirrel suffer??"

She got in her car and sped off. Later at different neighborhood social gatherings when I would see her, it was a couple years before she would finally acknowledge me. About 4 years later she admitted among mutual friends and neighbors that she realized I did the right thing. But, it shocked her to see it happen before her eyes. I suspect we as varmint hunters are surrounded by every increasing crowds with the same mindset..."Sheeple, comes to mind!

How ya been CJ??

P.

[Rhys]

Not quite time to shoot them yet this year. Shot a few on Saturday, but they weren't quite ripe, didn't quite give the right pop when they were hit. :rolleyes: Give them about another month.

[Dr. Dan]

Will be in Laramine the May 31 - June 3 after PDs. Will the pups be up and about at that time? Thanks Dan

[Rhys]

That's prime time. They are out and usually haven't gotten too gun shy yet.

[deadasslast2004]

Just my view point but that's how I look at it.

[tuck2]

If I stop shooting p dogs what am I to do with all the ammo and the 17 HM2, 17 HMR, 17 Fireball, 17 Rem, 22 LR, 22 WMR, 22 Hornet ,221 Fireball ,223 Rem, 22-250 Rem, 220 Swift, and 243 Win prairie dog shooting rifles that were collected over the past 55 years. I may stop when I cant pick a rifle up.

[Brian in Oregon]

It's simple. Your coworker is a close-minded idiot.

[hjrevord]

DARRELL: perhaps you should remind your brain-dead co-worker there are hundreds of thousands of acres of PD that HAVE NO ANTELOPE.
been shooting the damn things for 60 years now, in nebraska and South Dakota, and have YET to see an antelope.............in a PD field..

[udiablo]

Last Friday morning, I went to breakfast (in Albuquerque NM), and there in the morning paper was a full page (on recycled paper, of course) AD put in by the "prairie dog pals" telling everyone about how good the little rats are for the environment, and about how actively the prairie dog pals are trying to increase the PD habitat in New Mexico.

Apparently some of the fruits and nuts have escaped from California, and are trying to californicate New Mexico now.

[Darrel in Minn]

See what I mean! At least they got the recyled paper part right. When we hunted by Yuma, Co. one year, a rancher was telling us about one day a helicopter took off from one of his bigger PD towns. Then it dawned on him what they were doing. They were bringing in PD's from another area. He has heard of it done someother place. He didn't sound to happy about it. I hate to say it guys, but I think their numbers (anti's) are increasing and our numbers are decreasing. Darrel

[Charlie in Co]

At the Colorado DOW meeting in Grand Junction last week the petition by the pd lovers to ban all pd hunting was dismissed 9 -0 by the DOW Comissioners. So we live to shoot another day!

[deadasslast2004]

Honey loan me $100 for gas and I have the powder and primers.... Colorado here I come!

I'll be home in a few days!!!!!

[Alpine Storm]

They are good for the environment. I do my part by dispatching them into little tiny pieces which act as fertilizer returning nutrients back into the soil.

[oopswasthatyourdog?]

They are good for the environment. I do my part by dispatching them into little tiny pieces which act as fertilizer returning nutrients back into the soil.

Like composting on a larger scale!

Things are a little different up here.
This is from a Canadian forum discussing PD's out on the praries,

"I met a couple from Manitoba who had come out for a weeks shooting, met a farmer at a cafe, he took them to his farm, provided a spot to camp, fed them and gave them free ammo as well as putting a 4X4 P/U and an ATV at their disposal. There are also areas where shooters are hired at $15.00 a hour plus ammo, plus gas just to shoot gophers. They even have ads on the local media for shooters. Talked to one local who advised by late June of last year there were areas in Sask where you couldn't find .22 LR ammo."

Kinda says it all.....