ArkLaCo Prairie Dog Hunt in OK

Recently I went on my second prairie dog hunt for the summer at the panhandle of Oklahoma. I traveled from Louisiana to ride with my cousin from Arkansas and his son-in-law. My cousin’s son and other son-in-law drove in from Colorado for the hunt. Whereas my cousin’s been on a number of prairie dog hunts, both SIL’s were prairie dog hunting virgins while his son had been on a few hunts. My cousin brought two AR-15’s in 223 Remington and a CZ Model 455 in 17 HMR. I brought my favorite prairie dog hunting handguns, Remington XP-100’s in 22 BR and 6 BR, as well as a T/C Encore in 22-250 Ackley Improved. I also brought some guns for the other guys to borrow: three bolt action Stevens’ chambered in 20 Practical (a 223 Remington using a 20 caliber bullet), 221 Fireball and 223 Remington, as well as a Tikka T1x in 22 LR w/ a Silencerco Spectre II suppressor.

We left early in the morning, giving us time for an afternoon hunt when we got to OK. The afternoon hunt went really well. We shot a large property I had shot for the first time on a hunt last month. I mainly shot my XP-100 in 22 BR. The new guys learned the game very quickly and started making nice shots.

On the second day we woke up to a thunderstorm. Fortunately, the storm had cleared by 10 AM so we didn’t lose much hunting time. The day was unusually cool, reaching a high of only 78 degrees. It was very windy but the shooting was still good. We shot all day at a different town from the prior day. We got back to town just in time to phone in an order at Pizza Hut.

Day three found us back at the same town we hunted the first afternoon. Whenever the shooting slowed we’d move a couple hundred yards to open up some new territory. I started the shooting w/ a gun I’d never hunted w/ before, a Thompson Center Encore in 22-250 Ackley Improved. The wind was fairly quiet so I had pretty good luck shooting. By the afternoon, it was warm and sunny enough that we deployed on of my LSU pop up canopies. I shot the 6 BR later that afternoon.

All in all, it was a very good hunt. Everyone had a good time. All the equipment performed as expected. A lot of rounds were shot, including #418 in the 20 Practical and #370 in the Fireball. I ended up shooting #255 rounds w/ my handguns and a few others w/ the 22LR, Fireball and Practical. The Tikka 22 LR and suppressor combo is really fun. My cousin made a lot of shots w/ the 17 HMR as long as the wind was quiet. The wind is really hard on 17’s. We killed two more prairie rattlers. We’ve now killed a rattler (four) every time we’ve hunted the first pasture. I killed one having six rattles w/ my Kimber Micro 9.

Tikka T1x and suppressor

Prairie rattler after being introduced to a 9mm


XP 100 in 22 BR


LSU canopy on the prairie

A pretty OK sunset.