Can you believe it? Driving 1,200 miles to shoot prairie dogs? My brother did it last year, and I thought he was insane.

I drove the same distance to hunt with him this year, and I was right: We’re both insane. It was a fun trip – for us, at least. I’m sure it was a downer for the prairie dogs.

Lots of folks will drive 1,200 miles to hunt bear or moose, but not too many do that for prairie dogs. That’s a mistake, I think. Prairie dogs offer several advantages over moose and bear.

There are so many, for one thing. You can shoot all day, and you don’t have to eat any of them. I know there are folks who don’t like the idea of shooting prairie dogs (or anything else for that matter), but it’s like a rancher’s wife told us: “Those people don’t have to live with them.”

There are other methods of control, of course. Some years ago, a woman sent me a newspaper clipping about a man in Denver who had converted a septic tank truck into a prairie dog sucker.

This fellow would drive into a prairie dog town, shove the hose down a burrow and suck the little devils right into the tank.

Then, he sold them to some type of pet broker in Japan.
Can you imagine prairie dogs as pets? And can you envision the international uproar when Japan finds out where those “giant gerbils” are coming from?

Then, there was the municipality in Colorado that needed some way to get rid of their prairie dogs. They trapped as many as they could and took them to a county that didn’t have any, and turned them loose. Sharing the wealth, so to speak.

Needless to say, the prairie dogs’ new owners weren’t too happy with that idea and put a stop to it rather quickly. I suspect these folks were looking for some stray cats they could release into the wildest part of town.

Anyone who thinks prairie dogs are not pests hasn’t been around them long. I was with them only three days and was impressed with the damage they can do. That many rodents eat a lot of vegetation, in addition to the damage done by their burrows.

My brother and I shot at one prairie dog city for most of a day, and killed quite a number. We went back the next day and found there were just as many as the day before – it seemed that way, at least. There were mounds everywhere. A prairie dog here, another one over there and five more over here.

Two hunters need at least three or four rifles for one of these hunts. That allows them to lay one or two in the shade to let the barrels cool while they shoot another one.

That has to be the main attraction for this sport, since the biggest thrill for anyone who likes to shoot is the thought that he needs more rifles.

Readers with questions or comments for Roger Pond may write to him in care of this publication.