From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Prairie dogs flourish despite the huge (and growing) popularity of varmint
hunting, and they're in no danger of extinction. The only alternative to
shooting is poisoning: I understand that US farmers are legally obliged to
control pests, just like British farmers have to keep rabbits controlled, and
very often if all those Western ranchers didn't allow varmint hunters onto
their land to snipe them by the thousand, poison would go down by the
truckload, getting into the entire ecosystem. Lately there has been an
increasing amount of fuss stirred up by PETA and similar groups of
animal-sentimentalist fanatics, about prairie dogs. They have exactly the
same problem across the Atlantic as we have with animal-rights loonies -
people whose vision is wilfully blinkered, whose morality is perverted, and
whose politics are Stalinist.
My Canadian chums are keen groundhog-busters, and in a recent email Henrik
said he and his wife Marilyn had taken a trip to the Ontario farming country
where they do most of their varminting; on one new farm where they were
seeking shooting permission, he writes, "She dinged a couple of 'hogs at
400yds+ in front of the sceptical landowner, and he just walked away shaking
his head. "Go ahead" he said, "I can't gas them as effectively as you shoot
them"!
She shoots a heavy-barrel 6mm Remington, BTW; he uses a customised Sako in
.243 Ackley; I used my Rem 22-250 when I visited. Haven't had a go at prairie
dogs yet, but one day...
--
Actually I think it was Gary Clark who told me about someone using .50 BMG
on prairie dogs, apparently they sort of zoom straight up into the air if
you hit about a foot in front of them.
An ACOG sighted H&K 23E would be my personal choice<G>.
On the aimpoint stand at IWA they had a prairie dog game, which was
really good. You used an aimpoint sighted laser gun to shoot at the
video screen.
Steve.
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