When a varmint hunter thinks about prairie dogs, probably the last thing he would think of is airguns. His thoughts are usually about powder burner calibers like the .220 swift, .22-250, 6mm Rem., and other appropriate varmint calibers.

I've hunted them for decades with those calibers, and many more, but I've thought for a while now about going after them with an airgun. Well, I'm not getting any younger, so I decided that this was going to be the year. I just got back from 5 days in Wyoming airgun hunting the black tail prairie dog. What an absolute blast. Talk about putting your wind doping skills to use. This type of hunt will give them a real workout.

It's not a question of will it be windy, but just how windy will it be. I spent a few hours on the prairie sighting in my FX 2000, and RWS Rapier, both in .22, at 75 yards. This also gave me an opportunity to shoot in the typical conditions that I would encounter over the next five days. The BIRCHWOOD CASEY Shoot-N-C targets were perfect for this work. My tired old eyes cannot see the pellet holes in a paper target at 75 yards, but Shoot-N-C targets made it a breeze.

The FX 2000 was my main hunting gun. It is stupid accurate, and fits me like a glove. The RWS was to be my backup gun incase Murphy should show his ugly head and I had any problems with the FX 2000. The FX 2000 has a Bushnell 7X21X40MM 3200 mildot scope mounted on it. Sighted in at 75 yards, gave me a one mildot hold over at 100 yards, and a one dot hold under at 50 yards. It was a killer combination.

There were times when I had 20 to 30 dogs in range at one time. They were literally everywhere on this cattle ranch. I would walk through the towns and take shots of opportunity. I had my AIRHOG Pigmee tank on my belt, along with four 8 round magazines, and a pouch full of JSB 16 grain pellets. My binoculars are 8 power and I also use a laser range finder. All Shots were made from a Stoney Point telescoping bipod.

Shots ranged from 30 yards out to a little over 100 yards. There were times that I was holding a mildot over and two mildots into the wind to make the shot. What a hoot to see the dog roll off the mound after reading the wind, holding off accordingly, and making a good shot. I killed hundreds of dogs over the five days. The rancher was happy, and couldn't believe I was doing it with an airgun.

Here are a couple video clips I made during the hunt.

http://imageevent.com/varmintair/videos?p=...amp;s=0&z=2

http://imageevent.com/varmintair/videos?p=...amp;s=0&z=2

Nice!.......as usual.

That is amazing! The first prarie dog bites the dust, and the other just looks at him like "I guess hes tired"! WOW! Thats too cool. Good job!

Thanks Jerry. Here's what happened to the second one.

http://imageevent.com/varmintair/videos?p=...amp;s=0&z=2

As Borat would say: VERY NICE!

PING - FLOP

Great shooting. Very nice videos.

Man o MAN these video's of yours are getting me all fired up for next week! I am hoping to contribute some P-Dog shooting footage of my own....from the big-bore .454 side!

Can't wait to see how they handle this!