Kansas Prairie Dog Shoot: Airgunners Paradise

Quick Trip Report

I had been put in contact with Kansas cattle rancherTrag Hatcher, who supplements his 10,000 acre cattle ranching business with summertime prairie dog shoots. He seemed like a good guy when we spoke on the phone, and said he had large population of PDs with plenty of opportunities for shots in the 50 -150 yard range. He set aside a setion of land for our airgun use away from any powder burners, and literally gave us the keys to the (prairie dog) town!

Jim Chapman                Posted 06/07/10

I got on the road at 6:30 for the 15 hour drive from my home in Indiana out to the Hatcher Cattle Ranch in Southwestern Kansas for an airgun prairie dog shoot with hunting buddy Eric Henderson.

Syracuse KS is 12 miles from the ranch, with a motel and restaurants that welcome hunters.

Eric and I arriving at the ranch on day one. We had a mountain of gear including; 5 carbon fiber tanks, a gas powered compressor to keep those tanks filled, chronys, spotting scopes, thousands upon thousands of pellets of every type, binoculars and spotting scopes, camera gear, and 14 guns between us. The guns included the AA s410 FAC, Airforce Condor, Brocock Enigma and Grand Prix, the Crosman Marauder .25 and Discovery, the Evanix Rainstorm, Windy City, and AR6 pistol, the Corsair .308, the Big Bore 909, and the Hatsan Pnuema and others I am forgetting.

After a quick check to make surte that the guns were still sighted in after the drive out, we started shooting prairie dogs. Most of our shooting was done off bipods, prone, or offhand at ranges from 40 - 140 yards. Initially I got to do most of the shooting, as Eric was behind the camera for a couple of projects each of us was working on; I was doing a video for Crosman on the Marauder .25 and Eric was doing an episode for his hunting segment on the American Airgunner.

There was an advantage (for me anyways) to this arrangement, Eric was able to give me direct feedback on where my shots were hitting, as he was zoomed in on the target as I was was throwing lead down range. There were tons of prairie dogs everywhere we looked, and there was a constant current of barking all around but these guys didn't let us get real close as a rule (I'd say 75% of shots were 50 - 125 yards). To make things harder, at times the wind was howling.... it could take a few shots to get dialed in

There were thousands of prairie dogs on this property. With 4-5 shooters per day almost every day between May and October, the PD populations remain high. Even with airguns in windy conditions, we could shoot a hundred dogs a day. I can't stress enough how useful a good pair of binoculars are for this type of hunting. These little critters will lay low when they sense danger, and good glass ( I was using the Hawke) let's you see a lot more animals.

While we were out primarily for shooting fun, and the rancher was generating a revenue stream by having PD shooters on his property and getting some much needed pest control. Many of the ranchers are being pressured by the county to lay poison to eradicate the rodents. Not only does this dry up the income currently generated for the ranchers and the local businesses (motel, restaraunts, shops, etc), but it doesn't work, has a price tag that will drive the landowners broke, and puts an indiscriminate killer into the enironment.

I've always said prairie dog shooting rather than hunting, but when using airguns there is a real hunting component as well. We stalked them on foot, got into position, and waited for them to pop up. When they appeared up close, you would only see the tops of their heads and an eye looking over the ridge of the mound.

After the first prairie dog I shot, Eric and I walked out to collect the downed dog. As we moved up to the mound, Eric  looked down and found himself looking at a rattlesnake within striking distance. A little later, we were sitting on the ground shooting over another town, and looked to the side about fifteen feet away and spotted a very big rattler slithering down a prairie dog hole. The next day I walked out to retrieve a dog I'd shot for a photo op and found this guy looking up at me. That was about when we decided not to retrieve any dogs that didn't fall far from a mound.

Most of the guns being used were .22 caliber. We used several different pellets, and found that heavier pellets such as JSB Jumbo Exacts and H&N Baracuda performed well For the .25 caliber Marauder I used the Benjamin 27 grain pellet. The impact of these things hitting a PD was about as loud as the discharge of the gun. We were shooting at longer ranges in windy conditions, and these heavier projectiles could be shot accurately with appropriate use of mildots for windage and elevation.......... and as mentioned having a spotter calling shots was very useful on these windy days

One of the guns that was amazingly accurate was the Windy City. At one point Eric and I were sitting in the middle of a field, and every time I turned around a PD was popping up and every time I pulled the trigger one dropped.

Got some time in with the big bores as well, I was using the new Corsair .308 form Randy Mitchells Adventures in Airguns shop. This gun was spitting out an 88 grain bullet at approximately 1000 fps, carried very well in the windy conditions, and smacked the P dogs with authority!

Bottom Line: This a reasonably priced trip that provides a great deal of shooting opportunity. One of the best trips I've done in a long time, can't wait to go back!

At the end of the hunt, the land owner and one of his sons came out to shoot the air guns we brought along. They were quite impressed by the performance of these guns and had a lot of fun. I think we might have collected a couple of new recruits to our sport. This ranch was ideal for the airgun hunter, and they really went out of their way to make this a great trip for us. If you'd like more information on how to set up an airgun prairie dog hunt of your own, drop me an email.

Eric captured this photo as I took a head shot on a prairie dog watching us from his burrow at 60 yards. The first picture is the PD watching and the second is the .22 caliber pellet impacting. We got so much practice shooting on this trip, that Eric was getting pretty good timing the sound of the guns muffled discharge and catching the pellet as it hit home.