{"id":88422,"date":"2025-08-17T00:50:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T00:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/88422\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T00:50:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T00:50:10","slug":"yes-prairie-dog-hunting-guides-exist-and-they-have-a-robust-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/88422\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes, Prairie Dog Hunting Guides Exist, And They Have A Robust Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hunting guides might be associated with adventurous quests for glorious big game animals such as elk, bears or moose \u2014 and not for those diminutive rodents, prairie dogs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, there\u2019s a robust niche market for people willing to pay a guide to take them to where the prairie dog towns are the thickest so they can blast away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why Is Prairie Dog Shooting Popular?<\/p>\n

Guided big game hunts are about seeking one trophy-sized animal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prairie dog hunting is about getting in as much shooting as possible. It\u2019s not so much hunting in the traditional sense, as it is live target practice and varmint control.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prairie dog shooters leave the carcasses where they fall, as they generally aren\u2019t regarded as a game meat source.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are some rare exceptions. South Dakota resident Gerald Jasmer told Cowboy State Daily that he\u2019s tried prairie dog meat, and thinks that it\u2019s\u00a0pretty good eating<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many ranchers regard prairie dogs as pests because they eat crops, and livestock animals can break their legs in prairie dog holes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prairie dogs are also known to carry diseases, including the bubonic plague.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Proponents of prairie dog shooting say they\u2019re doing ranchers a favor and cutting down on the spread of disease.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Others argue that prairie dogs fill an important ecological niche and shouldn\u2019t be slaughtered. In some places in the West, prairie dog towns are protected and shooting isn\u2019t allowed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leaving prairie dog carcasses out has raised concerns about eagles and other wildlife getting lead poisoning from bullet fragments in the carcasses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There have been efforts to get hunters to switch to\u00a0lead-free ammunition<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gay Balfour of Cortez, Colorado, told Cowboy State Daily that he found an alternative way to remove prairie dogs from places they\u2019re not wanted \u2014\u00a0sucking them out of the ground<\/a>\u00a0with a gigantic truck-mounted vacuum.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"PrairiePrairie dog hunters in South Dakota hold up signs, indicating the distance, in yards, of the shots they made. (Courtesy Willie Dvorak, Jim River Guide Service)Client Base<\/p>\n

Shawn Fricke, the owner\/operator of Weston-based Skyline Outfitters, said many of his prairie dog hunt clients are \u201colder men from the Midwest.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

They might have gone prairie dog shooting on their own when they were younger but grew frustrated with trying to find choice spots on private property on their own, Fricke told Cowboy State Daily. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just want to come out and burn (gun) powder,\u201d he said. \u201cMost of them are gun nuts. They\u2019ll have 20 rifles in the back of their truck and thousands of rounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Multiple rifles might sound excessive. But high-volume shooting can heat up a rifle\u2019s barrel enough to damage it. So, it\u2019s smart to switch between guns, giving rifles time to cool off.\u00a0<\/p>\n

South Dakota, Prairie Dog Capital<\/p>\n

Willie Dvorak founded Jim River Guide Service in South Dakota. He takes clients on brown bear and moose hunts in Alaska. But he also does brisk business guiding prairie dog shoots in his home state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

South Dakota is a target-rich environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey claim that South Dakota has more prairie dogs than all of the other states combined. I don\u2019t know that for sure, I\u2019ve never counted them all,\u201d he told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n

Dvorak said he gets prairie dog hunt clients from all over the U.S. as well as from other countries. Most of his foreign clients come from Canada, Mexico, Australia and England, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s interesting that people would travel that far just to go prairie dog hunting,\u201d Dvorak said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

People enjoy the \u201chigh volume\u201d of shooting involved, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many of his clients are people who were initially drawn to South Dakota for the pheasant hunting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But then decided that prairie dog hunting is more fun than hiking for miles to get perhaps only a few shots at birds, he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ForFor some, prairie dog hunting isn\u2019t as simple as driving around until they find the rodents. Serious hunters hire guides to take them to target-rich prairie dog towns. (Courtesy Shawn Fricke, Skyline Outfitters)\"ForFor some, prairie dog hunting isn\u2019t as simple as driving around until they find the rodents. Serious hunters hire guides to take them to target-rich prairie dog towns. (Courtesy Shawn Fricke, Skyline Outfitters)\"ForFor some, prairie dog hunting isn\u2019t as simple as driving around until they find the rodents. Serious hunters hire guides to take them to target-rich prairie dog towns. (Courtesy Shawn Fricke, Skyline Outfitters)\"ForFor some, prairie dog hunting isn\u2019t as simple as driving around until they find the rodents. Serious hunters hire guides to take them to target-rich prairie dog towns. (Courtesy Shawn Fricke, Skyline Outfitters)\"ForFor some, prairie dog hunting isn\u2019t as simple as driving around until they find the rodents. Serious hunters hire guides to take them to target-rich prairie dog towns. (Courtesy Shawn Fricke, Skyline Outfitters)\"ForFor some, prairie dog hunting isn\u2019t as simple as driving around until they find the rodents. Serious hunters hire guides to take them to target-rich prairie dog towns. (Courtesy Shawn Fricke, Skyline Outfitters)Arrow leftArrow rightAdvantages Of A Guide<\/p>\n

Fricke and Dvorak said the biggest advantage to hiring a prairie dog hunting guide is being taken to just the right location.<\/p>\n

Finding prime places to shoot can be frustrating, because many of the best prairie dog towns are on private land, they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know where the dogs are, where the shooting is, and we have a lease set up with the rancher,\u201d Fricke said.<\/p>\n

In Wyoming, the prime prairie dog shooting season is Mid-May through mid-June, Fricke said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After that, it gets too hot for prairie dogs to be out much during the day. Plus, they\u2019re wary from having already been shot at. And the grass has grown tall enough to make it difficult to pick out rodent targets at great distances, he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even so, some clients will still book prairie dog hunts in August or September, Fricke said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dvorak said he guides prairie dog hunts from April to October. Prime time in South Dakota is July, \u201cbecause it\u2019s dry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early in the season, it\u2019s often rainy. However, he said the prairie dog towns he has access to are numerous and spread out over a wide area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there is a thunderstorm in one area, I can sidestep that thunderstorm and take my clients to a prairie dog town in another area,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fricke charges $375 per day per shooter for basic prairie dog hunts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The basic hunts are \u201csemi-guided,\u201d meaning that he\u2019ll take clients out into the field and give them GPS coordinates to the best shooting spots, he said. Those are usually elevated hilltops overlooking vast prairie dog towns.<\/p>\n

Dvorak charges $700 per day per shooter for a package deal including fully guided hunts, meals and lodging.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Prairie(Getty Images)Plague Hits<\/p>\n

Prairie dogs are notorious carriers of the bubonic plague, which is why medical experts advise hunters against handling the carcasses of the animals they shoot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Left untreated the plague is fatal in humans. It also kills prairie dogs; sometimes severe outbreaks wipe out entire towns.<\/p>\n

Fricke said one of his prairie dog hot spots was hit by the plague a couple of years ago, and the number of animals there plummeted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the prairie dog population has started to bounce back, so he\u2019s hopeful the supply will again meet the demand for business.<\/p>\n

Citing again the advantage of having many spots spread out across a wide area, Dvorak said when the plague hits one, there are numerous others to which he can take clients.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fricke said he started offering prairie dog hunts about 20 years ago, and there\u2019s no end in sight.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe client demand to hunt them is still there. I\u2019m still getting two to three emails a day inquiring about prairie dog hunts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hunting guides might be associated with adventurous quests for glorious big game animals such as elk, bears or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-88422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}