joeniv's hunting page

This is my first deer, a 2X2 mulie. I'm holding my brother's Savage 99 in .300 Savage. He is standing next to his deer, a young whitetail. Mitch the wonder dog is at my feet. That dog could eat sunflower seeds and spit out the shells. Amazing.

Normally, we hunt with the South Hand bunch on opening weekend of pheasant season. This is what Wally's yard looks like when you drive up.

The all time greatest pheasant truck ever - Uncle Clem's truck. It has recycled school bus seats in the back. Behind the wheel is one of the few, the proud, the South Hand Blockers.

Mandatory group photo after a great afternoon of hunting. Most if not all of the folks in this pictures are kin in one way or another. My buddy Brian from Texas came back to hunt with us that year. He is in the truck box with the light brown down coat.

During our first year of serious prairie dog hunting, Eric and I went out to the Ft. Pierre National Grasslands and spent the day bouncing around in my new Ford Explorer.

This picture shows our first and only double that Eric collected. Shot at about 130 yards if I remember correctly.

The rifle is my Remington VSSF in .22-250 with a 6-18 Leupold VarixII. This combo has taken a lot of prairie dogs over the past 4 or 5 years. A good balance of gun, cartridge and scope.

How many varmint hunters do you see in this picture? From left to right: Clint, John, Alex and Mike. Wait- what? - you don't you see Alex? He's in the photo being held between John and Mike. He was not able to attend our safari in person and sent along a photo that joined us at every outing.

During our varmint safari, on two different days, we shot off a hill overlooking a dog town down in a valley. This is a view from the top of the hill. There is a small tree, lighter in color than all of the others, almost in the middle of the picture. This is "Joe's Tree". I got lucky and connected on 2 or 3 prairie dogs in a row in a mound in front of that tree. Range was roughly 300 yards, the wind always blew. I grin every time I see a picture with my tree in it.

I've never spent this much time shooting at one single town. We were high above the town and the wind was almost always blowing left to right. I think this kept the pds from getting spooked. They just kept coming out!

Shooting benches come a wide variety of shapes and sizes. This picture does a good compare and contrast. The big wooden bench took two men and a boy to load and unload, but boy o boy was is solid. Sitting on top of the bench is a bit lighter version. Not quite as solid, but very portable. Bill is sitting behind a third shooting rack that serves double duty as a laundry rack.

Buck - my college room-mate runs a cattle ranch south of Valentine Nebraska. My son and I joined him for a bit of grouse and prairie chicken hunting a few years ago. It was a great time, lots of miles walked, but easier terrain to hunt than a typical pheasant hunt. Left to right: Buck, Dennis, Beaker, Moonboy.

By default, any trip to Buck's ranch turns into a college reunion. These four ugly mugs were part of the incoming Frosh class at South Dakota Tech, fall of 1978. Left to right, Beaker, Dennis, Buck and myself. If I'm not mistaken, all four of us lived on the same dorm floor - 3rd March. The other three were Red Boogs, but I don't hold that against them. Beaker is up in NoDak somewhere, Dennis is in Montana.

If all goes well, I'll have a rifle chambered in this cartridge by the end of the year. This is a .257 Roberts, Ack Imp with a .284 neck. The plan is to extend my effective shooting range out to 400 - 500 yards and beyond. I'll keep you posted.

This is my normal prairie dog hunting set up and bench. I shoot off a home made bench with a Midway front rest and bunny ear rear sand bag. My favorite rifle is a Remington 700 VSSF in .22-250 with a Leupold VariXII 6-18 40mm AO scope. I usually have a Bushnell spotting scope along as well.

I live in the Missouri and Big Sioux river basin, in South Dakota, between Nebraska and Iowa. This is prime farm land. I 'borrowed' a stubble field for the picture. The Loess hills of Iowa are in the background.

For years and years, prairie dogs have been treated as pests - varmints that should be exterminated. Due to the popularity of prairie dog shooting, states with populations are having to take a look at how to protect them now. A few years ago, the state poisoned them. Now they are protecting them. Hmmm.