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Well, as happens in life, stuff came up and I didn't get a chance to get out and sight-in the Logun MK II before today's prairie dog hunt. Since plan "A" didn't happen, I decided to go to plan "B", and do the final sight-in when I arrived at the hunt area.

I was on the road at 5:00 AM, and pulled through the gate on the ranch I have permission to hunt on, at 6:15 AM exactly. Another fifteen minutes and I was on the edge of the dog town I was going to hunt.

The first thing I did, was to put my target frame out at 55 yards and set up my Caldwell shooter's bag on the hood. The Mk II was already filled with air, so the only thing I had to do was to drop some pellets in the magazine and start shooting.

The first JSB 13.6 grain .20 caliber pellet printed low right, at 4 o'clock. I made a scope adjustment and fired the second pellet, it impacted low left at about 7 o'clock. I came back right a few clicks, added some elevation clicks and fired the third pellet. There was no wind. The third shot center punched the number 10 in the middle of the bull. I fired three more shots that landed in a nice tight cluster around the third shot. The group looked to be around .5 to .6 of an inch. For shooting off the hood at 55 yards, I was satisfied....it was time to hunt.

I got out the rest of my gear..... binoculars, range finder, Wilkins pellet pouch, camera, and Stoney point telescoping bipod. I loaded 10 rounds into the rifle's magazine, and counted out another 30 pellets into the Wilkins pellet pouch, that I wear around my neck. I always take a few more pellets than necessary, because I invariably drop one or two along the way, when loading the magazine on the fly.

The .20 cal JSB pellet is fairly light, so my plan for the day was to hunt the .20 in the early morning while the air was relatively still, and switch to a .22 when the wind picked up.

I charged the MK II with air, checked my gear to make sure I had everything, and headed out into the sage flats in pursuit of the wily prairie dog.

Hunting these guys in Arizona is very different from the hunts I've done in eastern Wyoming. There, the dogs are in the grassy prairies, sitting up on very visible mounds. Here, they have mounds, but the mounds and the prairie dogs, are mostly obscured by the surrounding vegetation.

I spend a lot of time in my binoculars, glassing for heads and shoulders sticking out of the grass, cactus, sage, and other types of local vegetation.

I was a couple of hundred yards out into the sage flat when I spotted the first dog. It was popping up and down, obviously feeding on something. The laser range finder said 68 yards. I put the crosshair on the top of its head, steadied my hold on the bipod, took up the trigger slack, and touched off the shot. I saw dust kick up behind, and just to the left of the dog. I also noticed that the dust drifted away to the left on a light breeze.

I adjusted my hold. The horizontal crosshair remained on the dogs head, but the vertical crosshair was moved to the right side of the dogs body. When the second shot broke I heard that satisfying "THWACK", and saw the dog drop out of sight.

When I got over to his location, I found one very dead prairie dog. It had slid down into the burrow, and almost out of sight. Because they are almost always sitting on the edge of a funnel shaped burrow, they do that a lot. Sometimes, when checking out your shot, the only indication that you are at the right location, will be blood stains in the dirt.

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I had been hunting for about an hour and a half when the inevitable wind started blowing pretty steadily. I decided to hunt my way back to my vehicle and make the switch to a .22 caliber rifle. Along the way, I dropped five more dogs from 53 to 60 yards.

I was almost back to my rig, when a large prairie dog appeared on the edge of a mound 59 yards away. He was down on all fours quartering slightly to the right away from me. The wind was directly at my back. Since I was sighted in at 55 yards, I put the crosshairs on the rear edge of the right side ribcage and squeezed off the shot.

At pellet impact, the dog just folded and rolled off the mound. The pellet entered at the back edge of the ribcage and exited just forward of the left side shoulder. Instant lights out.

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When I got back to my vehicle I put the MK II away and got out my FX 2000 in .22. She's shooting the 18 grain JSB Jumbo Heavy pellets, and she shoots them extremely well. I hunted for almost four hours with her, but that's another story.

I like the .20 caliber for hunting tree squirrels in the Fall, but for prairie dogs on the open plains and sage flats, the .22 bucks the wind better, and is my preferred caliber.

A quick aside. The Cholla cactus are in bloom, and are all over the place. While hunting, you need to pay close attention to where you are going, because you do not want an up close and personal encounter with these things. They are very nasty.

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jusr rick in Michigan

Trying, through words a pictures, to share a really fun and challenging type of hunting. Glad you enjoyed the story.

as you say, throws us curve balls. No sweat because I read it after mowing the WEEDS... Great write up, Cliff, as always! Many will argue the caliber / wind issue, but I think it simply boils down to the shooter, experience and personal preference based on the previous.

Always a pleasure to read one of you great short stories.... coffee or weeds!

LL

and confidence in the gun and caliber comes into play.

Ever pick up a rifle you have not shot in a while and ask yourself the many, many questions? What pellet, what zero, what hold over, what-what ... and sure enough MISS the target again and again.

Watch out for that guy who has just one gun!

LL