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Protecting Crops and Smashing Prairie Dogs!

I got my .25 fx wildcat mk3 compact right before Christmas and have been enjoying the high end pcp life 😎. I’m a farmer and I’ve done some networking in the last year and made some new friends that farm as well. The weather has been horrible the last week. 50-60 mph winds and cold. Just miserable and I was starting to get a bad case of cabin fever. I was thinking about making a trip to eastern Colorado to hunt some prairie dogs to get out of the house. Ironically 2 hours after I had that thought one my friends that’s a 45 minute drive from me sends me a text saying the neighbor’s prairie dog town has started moving across the road onto his wheat field and he needs my new air gun. He said it jokingly at first but we soon had a plan to hit em the next day since the wind would be calmed down some by then. Got to his house at 10 am and it was a crisp morning with light winds and the dogs were out! This was a pest control job so we stayed in the pickup to shoot. I was shooting nsa 29.5 gr slugs at 870fps. I took the first shot at 40 yards and smacked one in the head. He didn’t move. My first prairie dog with an air rifle! My friend had one on the other side of the road so I handed the gun to him. Told him how to dial in parallax and where to hold depending on the range. He absolutely smoked one 25 yards out. He looked at me and said “this is so awesome” 😂😂😂. We spent the next hour getting as many as we could. Went to lunch and spent another 2 hours out there. Probably got over 50 dogs in the 3 hours we were there. Hit most of what we shot at. I got several at 100 yards and my friend even got one out that far. We wiped out the ones that was getting into his field. Didn’t see one poke their head up as we drove around that area. There’s still a lot more to shoot but they will have to wait. I’m now addicted to prairie dog hunting like everyone else haha! I just needed a bigger air cylinder for more shots per fill haha. 
 
That hunt lined up perfectly! I'm sure you enabled your friend something fierce! LOL! And, congratulations on your new WC and christening it.

Thank you it sure did! He’s gonna buy my old Benjamin discovery for his son lol
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😂..that was QUICK enabling!
 
I live in Montana where prairie dogs are scattered everywhere on the prairies. Lots of BLM land locally for PD shooting. The vast majority of my kills are beyond 50 yards, out to 100 yards and beyond with my BSA Lonestar .25 cal. The longest kill with .22LR was 265 laser ranged yards with my CZ 452 rimfire rifle. The difference between a CZ rimfire and an Anschutz is mainly the price tag, and I got that advice from a guy that owns both, so I bought a new CZ and never regretted it a bit. I prefer my CZ 452 to my brother-in-laws Ruger 77/22 (looks as well as trigger). A Dutch guy told me that the BSA Lonestar was commonly used in the Netherlands for 100 meter competition, and that the trigger was nicer than a Daystate Huntsman, besides being a bit more powerful as well. I have the Lonestar version with the 24" barrel. Most I have seen on the internet have the shorter barrel. Installing something like a DonnyFL Tanto moderator can also improve air rifle accuracy. Mostly I prefer the loudest sound being the hammer strike and the pellet strike on a PD.

Phil
 
Very nice story and a tiny miracle that your buddy happened to text you two hours after you got the urge.

I am sure that .25 makes a nice sound when it hits the PD, only one sound like that!

I have some GS 20 minutes away in a filbert orchard but they are a wee bit gun shy after years of me, the property owner, and their grandson shooting at them. Waiting for the tards to come up and take a look at Spring 2021.


 
Started traveling from North East Oklahoma to East Colorado NE of Denver to shoot Prairie Dogs for a couple of ranchers in 2018 we now spend about 9 days each late spring in North East Kansas and in Colorado. We estimated in 19 that One of my friends and I shot over 800 each. I shot 1,200 pellets. In 20 there was too much wind in Kansas and in Colorado our honey hole has allowed .22 powder burners to shot which made things more difficult. We treat it much like I would hunt Doves and wear camo and sit as close to any object to break up my silhouette. The great thing is that we are quite and do not spook the dogs to much till they start ding. I now considerate this trip a community service project. It is amazing how much damage they can do if left to their own. 

Keep up the good work and enjoy.



Mark