Where can I find the prairie dogs?

[Jonesy]

Actually, there are more prairie dogs in Western South Dakota than any other State, what I'm told. Being a former natural resource manager, one of my jobs was counting PD acreages and PD control. Over the past ten years the PD situation has changed dramatically. The past several years there has been a big push for the removal, so the ag producer doesn't have to deal with the government on any level pertaining the prairie dog. What is left, which is still in the hundreds of thousands of acres in Western SD, are get the rights bought to shoot them. Most personal fees are $100 a day per person. The several guides I know are charging $175 a day, with a 3 day, two guy minimum, lodging and food is extra and a PD shooting day is 4 hours, extra time is extra $$$.

Don't let this discourage you. There are still places to go that are free. Most of the dog towns that are easily found to the public are typically not great dog towns for the fact of over shooting. My suggestion would be to hit the little town diners about six AM, be friendly and polite. When I'm talking little, I'm talking towns from 100 to 800 people, that are in the middle of nowhere. Towns in Western SD like Buffalo, Bison, Faith, Union Center, Philip, Eagle Butte, Martin, Murdo, Interior, etc...

I would love to give you a big list of all the places I have, but I'm sorry to say that if I were to do that, it would make me very unpopular with the friends, neighbors and family. Good luck, you'll have a ball.