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June
7 - 10, 2010
Copyright 2010, Christopher Long - use
of pictures and content by explicit permission only
INTRODUCTION
Another great
hunt this year in Carlile Wyoming with Ralph and Lenora
Dampman of Trophy Ridge
Outfitters! I was joined by my longtime friend and business
partner Glenn. The weather was good, and we had four excellent
days of shooting. The shooting ranged from a couple hundred
yards out to about 1050 yards, and all ranges in between.
We shot a
BAT
6 Dasher, a
260 AI,
and a
BAT 6.5-284 for long range, as well as a Rock River
Arms AR-15 for some shorter range action.
As usual, the
TRO accommodations and meals were excellent, and Ralph had
scoped out some excellent dog towns for our shooting pleasure.
The Prairie Dog hunts at TRO are semi-guided; they take
you out to the location, and make sure that you have all
that you need. Food and water are supplied in the field,
and portable benches are available for your use if you need
them. All the shooting is on private land, and Ralph has
lots of great locations for you shooting enjoyment.
DAY 1
This town was
mostly located in a recently plowed field, with some parts
of the town located at 1050 yards from our shooting location.
Here is Glenn
getting ready to shoot at the 1050 yard dogs using the
260 AI.
We were shooting moly coated 130 grain Berger VLDs, Ramshot
Hunter powder, GM215M primers, and Remington brass.
DAY 2
Good weather
again, and an excellent dog town on a flat river flood plain.
Tall grass, but tons of dogs, at ranges out to about 850
yards. We started with the
6
Dasher, using 105 grain AMax bullets over 33.6 grains
of RL-15 and a CCI 450 primer. The AMax bullets are a good
choice for this application as they are a lot more frangible
than the 105 grain Berger VLDs, and definitely plant the
dogs well when hit squarely.
Here was our
setup with the
6
Dasher. We used the Wild optical rangefinder to calibrate
landmarks in the field to make more rapid elevation adjustments.
The Leica Geovid ranging binoculars worked great on most
items, but flat mounds in tall grass at over 600 yards was
too much to ask from them. The bench is a BR Pivot, by the
former Varmintmasters LLC. They are still sold under the
Caldwell brand.
During shooting,
we watched a huge badger working the field in search of
a late afternoon snack. The grass in this picture is over
12 inches tall, making this a large specimen. We watched
him dig (impressive!) for at least 10 minutes before he
disappeared.
DAY 3
We had shot this
town a couple years ago, and as before, it offered a lot
of dogs at ranges out to about 650 yards. This time, we
had another type of "doggie" to contend with, ones that
kept walking in front of us as we were shooting. Here is
a shot of Glenn patiently waiting for them to disperse.
We had to continually stop shooting, and play cowboy to
shoo them out of this part of the pasture.
DAY 4
We were back
shooting the great town outside of Oshoto, WY, with target
opportunities out past 1600 yards. I had made a 1330 yard
shot here a few years ago, and we both made 1005 yard shots
in the early morning, before the wind picked up, using the
BAT 6.5-284. These pictures were taken when we were
using the AR-15 to have a lot of fun working over the dog
town right below us into the gully, from about 200 to 650
yards.
The AR-15 is
a Rock River Arms EOP model, with a 24" barrel, and a
shop made muzzle brake. We were making repeatable one
shot hits out to 400 yards, and 650 yard shots were usually
made after one or two ranging shots.
SUMMARY
The trip was
perfect. Good weather, great shooting, great hosts, and
beautiful country. I'll be back again next year! Here is
the now traditional sunrise photo taken at the TRO, with
a deer and a turkey low in the foreground.
If you want a
great experience, give Ralph and Lenora a call:
Copyright 2010, Christopher
Long - use of pictures and content by explicit permission
only
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