[Silverfox]

Now I could concentrate on spotting and shooting prairie dogs. I shot 13 more shots before stopping to have supper at 5:00 p.m. So far I had shot 15 shots and nailed 14 prairie dogs. I had 18 Danzac coated 30 gr. Nagel T-000 cartridges left to use up. I ate my supper and was ready for a nap but shot a noisy PD at 5:27 p.m. and then settled down and took a 20 minute “Power Nap” I woke up a little before 6:00 p.m. and spotted a bunch of PDs off to the east of my location and was able to nail 3 more PDs there. I gathered my stuff into the cart and at 6:21 I was heading to the SW where I have had lots of good shooting in many years past. Today, I didn’t get one shot at any PDs in that location—BUMMER!!! The clouds were gathering and the wind was blowing a bit harder so I started back towards the pickup and had some decent shooting as I walked back. I got close to a PD colony and left my cart by some trees and sneaked up on the colony.

I still had three shells left to shoot at 7:27 p.m. and found a barking prairie dog straight south of me 145 yards. There was a bull thistle about 100 yards south of me and was right in line with that PD. The opening in the trees was so narrow I couldn’t move to get a clear shot so I tried the shot anyway and must have hit the bull thistle because I didn’t hit the PD. At 7:30 a willing victim was barking at me from about 45 yards away with only his head sticking up out of his den. I took aim, squeezed the trigger gently and could hear the bullet hit—SPLAT!!! I walked back to my cart to get my camera and pulled the cart over to where the head shot had been made. I could see the PD down in the hole so I found a stick and tried to pull him out. I got him part way up and then donned a nitrile glove and pulled him out the rest of the way. The contents of his head were missing, but his face was still intact as you can see below.

I snapped some more photos and began walking back to the pickup. There was a very large green ash tree in the little creek bottom than had an extremely large trunk with five individual trunks sprouting up out of the ground. I set my rifle up against one of the trunks and took some photos. There were also some beautiful blossoms on the bull thistles.

I also saw some beautiful white blossoms glowing in the setting sun on a scoria knob as I was driving home. The stark difference between the bright white of the petals against the ruddy reddish colored scoria made for a magnificent sight. The photo below doesn’t capture the sharp difference between the white petals and the red scoria. You had to be there to really appreciate the beauty of the sight.

I didn’t get to shoot the last of the 33 Danzac coated shells, but I’ll be out after PDs again and I’ll shoot that last shell yet! I started driving for home at 8:45 p.m. and was parked in my garage by 9:55 p.m. I know some of you seem to like the “Hero Photos” I often post with my stories so this one is for you. It is taken at the site of the 45 yard headshot on the last PD of the day.