Ghosts Of The Past: A Montana Prairie Dog Hunt
Member Terry Dees
The author shot prairie dogs from this depression on a mound in the middle of a pasture in Montana. Someone may have fought Indians from here.
I know of a prairie dog town that hasn’t been bothered in a long time. You just can’t drive to it.” Allow me to introduce the rancher who has become my friend. I met this Montana rancher in a
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business deal about three years before these events; we shared an interest in guns and shooting. At that time, he had invited me to come shoot the prai- rie dogs that were invading his hay meadows. When I had time to hunt, I always offered to let him use one of my extra varmint rifl es and hunt with me. Occasionally, he would hunt with me, but on this day he had made other plans. Also, he nearly always carried a coyote rifl e in his truck to protect his calf crop. I had found a handload that worked well in his gun, so each time I was in the area I would give him a Zip-Loc bag of handloaded ammo. One time when we were riding around in his truck, he pointed out a
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he rancher said, “If you don’t mind walking some,
trail that followed a ridge across part of his ranch. According to him, the state historical society had determined Custer and the 7th Cavalry used this trail a few days before Custer’s last battle. By now you may have guessed that his ranch lies between the Rose- bud drainage and the Little Bighorn drainage. Now, back to my story. I drove
out of his ranch yard that day with the directions and into a fun-fi lled day of shooting. I followed a two-track fi eld road through half a dozen fence gaps (gates), until I arrived at a petroleum well site. According to his instruc- tions, I was to park here and follow a cattle trail that led away from this location. It was time to load up my equipment and take a hike. My rifle is a Remington 700
VS that is on its second barrel. It is chambered in 223 Ackley Improved. A Harris bipod and a wide padded sling were attached to the factory stock. A Nikon scope with mil dots
and sunshade had been mounted in hand lapped rings. The ammo was made of Remington fi re-formed brass, 50-grain Sierra BlitzKing bullets, a load of N135 powder, plus Winchester small rifl e primers. I loaded into an old backpack what I thought might be enough ammo for a day of shooting. Bottles of water, snacks, a rangefi nder, and a small fi rst aid kit were placed in the various pockets of the pack, and I did not forget the bottle of sun block. Also, I always carry a packet of gun cleaning supplies, including a jointed military rod with jags, brushes, and patches. To this packet, I had added a small screwdriver set and a small needle nose Vise-Grip. It is amazing how often these things come in handy. The weight of my pack was adding up. My 12x50 Pentax binocular went around my neck. Picking up my walk- ing stick, hat, and my gun, I struck out to follow the cow trail. The first obstacle was a deep
wooded ravine with very steep sides. Thankfully, the cattle had taken the easiest route but I still rousted a mule deer out of its bed. Several hundred yards later the trail led up the steep sides of a ridge. The day was heat- ing up but there was still no wind to speak of. Finally, I topped out on the ridge. What a sight! I was looking down on a bowl-like meadow some 500 to 600 yards wide in all directions. The tops of the surrounding ridges were capped with trees, but the fi eld between the ridges was loaded with prairie dogs. Best of all, they were dumb dogs. I began to shoot my way into the fi eld. Shooting prairie dogs was my
business that day and business was good. I needed an extra rifl e so one could cool while I kept shooting. While my barrel was cooling I was glassing the area. Located out near the center of the fi eld was a knoll. This mound was four or fi ve feet higher that the rest of the fi eld. It was ten or
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