Thanks for the info and commentary Ladobe and Wyo. Coyote Hunter. The ground squirrel hunting sounds fun but it seem like one has to find or know a land owner to do it. I'm over 1000 miles away from western Wyoming so it's pretty unlikely I'd have any luck finding a land owner out that way.
As for the outlook on P Dog hunting, I guess the scene is the same everywhere else.....which is what I was essentially trying to determine with this thread. As you mentioned WCH, my buddy and I started this at least 20 years ago using only .22's and maybe our 30 carbine Blackhawks. As time went by, we always wanted to get something else that was more effective on the dogs, both by range and by kill power. I hate to see the darn little things squirm around after a hit from a .22 round at 100 or more yards. So we got into the Thompson Contenders. We both have .223's but neither of us really use them. We found that it's no challenge to just sit for a short while and literally kill everything if one so desires. So I stick with my T/C pistol a lot and we both shoot odd or non-traditional calibers for prairie dogs...such as 45 Colt, 44 mag, 45-70 and last year I even used my iron sighted 38-55 single shot. We both like to shoot a lot and don't mind missing the targets so long as the shots were long distance, well-hearted attempts, many times just at or beyond any sensible or effective range of the caliber. We're definitely not there to "kill all of the damn things" and basically wipe em out as some shooters seem to be set on doing. Basically, they're targets of opportunity and I find it a hell of a lot of fun to try to shoot em while they're on the run rather than just pop em when sitting there like a stone. The way I figure; why not just shoot a bottle of water or a lone standing stone way across the field rather than diminish the population dogs with "easy shots" like that.
I know, that sounds weird, but that's the way I see it.
I agree that the .223 is more than likely the culprit for much of the demise of the P.Dog. This year, in our "last hold out" area of dogs, we found some 17 HMR brass on the ground and a bunch of piles of steel cases from the inexpensive Wolf brand of .223 ammo. Being Wolf ammo and the brass laying in piles of 20 to 30 rounds, this told me that the shooter was probably somone who owned a Ruger mini-14 or AR-15 style of rifle and basically "sprayed" ammo at the dogs until eventually they got lucky enough to hit a few before they had to head back to Wal Mart to buy a few more boxes of ammo. It's only a matter of time before they buy and spray enough ammo to finish off the town. Sadly, I'm almost certain that what was nearly a virgin town of dogs will be gone by next year.
It's too bad that some of us who have been doing this for so long can't join together and begin a conservation effort for some of these critters, much like Ducks Unlimited did many years ago for wetlands conservation and species conservation. The only problem is to justify it. Obviously the efforts would be mainly to preserve our source of "targets of opportunity" and I'm sure the animal rights people would just LOVE that!
My friend and I always joke that if we had some money, we'd buy up a bunch of land and breed P dogs and let em establish towns all over the property and enjoy the rest of our days shooting at them. (What a bunch of sick b@st@rds, huh?)
By the way WCH, we've definitely noticed a serious drop in the jackrabbit population as well. In fact, we took note of that about 10 years ago. In the part of Wyoming we visit, they're nearly gone altogether. Within a period of four days of wandering the open country and hills out there, we came across one...maybe two.
