Prarie Dog Inferno!!!

[BadMedicine]

We were out camping this weekend and ran out of propane. No fridge. No stove. No heater. But not all was lost, we did come up with some really great ideas. We decided that it would be really great to just take out the propane tank, and blast it with our 22-250. But that would be a waste of a perfectly good propane bottle, IF it didn't have any propane in it. So maybe before we loose one off we should go get it filled? then the ideas started coming. Finally we decided on the ultimate plan. It's called Operation: Prarie Dog Inferno. It goes a little something like this...

1. Buy a used propane tank at a garage sale, or second hand store. They're pretty cheap.
2. Go to the gas station and get it filled, this should be less than $20.
3. Go to the local feed store and buy a 10lb bag of corn, (do prarrie dogs eat corn?) or something that PD's will eat.
4. Go to the local prarie dog town, and park ATLEAST...I repeat ATLEAST 300yrds away.
5. Take feed and propane tank to the middle of the town and spread the feed around the tank.
6. Return to vehicle and wait until the dogs are out in numbers stuffing their little bellies
7. While having a friend video tape this (on zoom, but far enough away to get the whole explosion) loose off a round. Preferably a copperjacketed round that will produce a good spark, I dunno if the heat would do it, maybe though.

A couple prerequisits would be to make sure this is legal in your state And to invite a few buddies, the more pictures you have the better.
I would probably do this myself, but here in AK we have an extreme shortage of PD's, So somebody please post some pics, and make me proud.

[JohnDog]

Hey BadMedicine,

You may have ran out of propane, but it sounds like you didn't run out of liquid consumables on your camping trip.

JohnDog

[El Rojo]

You know what else would be cool. Do the same thing, but instead of a propane tank, call in a tactical air strike and drop a load of nape right on top of them! Or maybe keep the propane tank, then drop some napalm on them!

What possibilities! Think of the ultimate. MIRV's! Two or three nuclear devices all impacting at the same time! Good by Prarie Dogs!

[MFH]

Why waste a perfectly good propane cylinder..A cheaper alternative might be cans of starting fluid..

[patrickt66]

BadMedicine, between this and the roasted pidgeons I have decided that you are absolutely crackers!

[This message has been edited by patrickt66 (edited September 28, 2000).]

[OkieGentleman]

You have GOT to stop smoking those funny roll you own cigarettes!

[Flaim]

Isn't animal cruelty a crime?

[Halfpint]

`Pasture Poodle' flambe'! ROTFL!

At least it's `better?' than what one guy, I don't know *if* I should own up to being buddies with him or not sometimes, I know has been known to do. (At least you just *might* be able to make a `body count'.) He takes and gets three or four 20# propane tanks, puts about 10' hoses with anti-backfire valves on them, gets some `cheap' votive candles and holders, and then goes out and finds a field with a `decent?' number of `pasture poodle' holes. After doing a bit of `scouting' and supposedly figuring out how the holes are arranged he then sets up the tanks with the hoses going down the chosen holes, turns on the gas, and then goes around to a whole bunch of other holes and sets up the lighted candles. (He's actually gone as far as making `wind shields' for the candles!) Then he sits back and waits. Usually not too long after setting out the candles he's `rewarded?' by a pretty good THWUMP! and for the most part only a few sprays of dirt and a decidedly marked settling of the ground in the vicinity of his selected holes. Usually after that one can easily tell that the `pasture poodle' population in *that* field has suffered a *marked* decline. {CHORTLE!}


He's been begging me to let him come out here to the farm and do it for years now. But, so far, I've resisted the temptation preferring to every now and then to set up a table and my rest and shoot at moving targets between shooting at paper. (Besides... We have several different species of raptors around here that we want to keep around and by presenting them with a few `offerings' we've been able to actually increase their numbers. {CHORTLE!})




------------------
Doleo ergo sum,
-HALFPINT-

[patrickt66]

I thought this was a joke but the more I think about it and after the last post I really think this is twisted and goes against all of the things I preach to my son about hunting and the responsibility of us as hunters.
BadMedicine, please tell me that you are kidding.

[CD1]

I second that. Really hope this is a joke. I like to think that all hunters have at least some sort of respect for life, and some pride in their skill and taking game with quick clean humane shots. Anybody that thinks this is good idea is a POS in my opinion. This is what gives hunters and gun owners a bad, bad name.

[BadMedicine]

IT was a funny Idea. Buit it passed as quickly as it came for several "marked" reasons. First and foremost being, we dont have PD's here But there've got to be multiple laws against this, baiting, cruelty, explosives, potential range fires...
the list goes on and on.
But as far as "I like to think that all hunters have at least some sort of respect for life, and some pride in their skill and taking game with quick clean humane shots." Can anything kill a PD quiker than 20 gallons of propane going off? This amount of explosives would drop a cave bear, and as far as the PD is concerned, I dont think one way of leaving this world is anybetter than the other, as long as suffering isn't involved. If I was a PD, I'd choose inceneration, because they're cannible, and I wouldn't wan't my own family eating me

[Bud1]

I *heard* that this was tried by some stupid college boys several years ago. We, er, I mean THEY couldn't get the tank to explode; it simply took off like a propane propelled rocket.

[El Rojo]

When I first replied, I was trying to poke a little fun at Bad Medicine, because I too thought that the idea was pretty foolish. I figured the tank probably would not ignite either, so you would probably need some tracer rounds. Second, what is the point? Blowing a bunch of PD's all over the place? Will it even kill that many of them? Might it just blow them 30 feet in the air and all over the country side, just to have them limp back to their holes, hairless and with internal injuries?

What is the point of shooting PD's? I shoot California's version (the infamous ground squirrel) because I enjoy setting up 200 to 400 yards away from these little itty bitty targets and trying to off them with my 700 VS in .308 with my Leupold LRT scope. That is fun. Shooting a tank and trying to explode them all? Sounds like something I would try to do when I was a little younger (and I am not that old! 23). Now I just test my shooting skills from long distance. That I like.

[BadMedicine]

umm, I'd say it'd probably kill everydog within atleast 20 feet. Have you ever poured just a "little" gas on a fire and had the fumes go up in like a 10 foot area? It's pretty combustable, but maybe tracer rounds would be needed. Yeah, Picking them off is fun, but blowing them up would be alot funner than farmers poisoning them, and sometimes they want to get rid of them fast. The explosion would leave few survivers, beleeeee dat!

[El Rojo]

Nothing much faster than shooting them. If they are like ground squirrels, you can get about 200-400 yards away and shoot away and they don't get too concerned that their friends keep turning into destroyed gobbs of flesh. I can easily go out and kill 20 squirrels or more in an hour or less. I remember shooting like 70 in three hours one day. Usually more. My dad has taken around 80 in an hour or two. Plus, you probably won't start a fire this way either.

[Art Eatman]

This is one of those FWIW bits: I've only seen one PD town. I can understand why a rancher or farmer would object to an expanding population on his property. At the same time, killing more than enough to hold a population or town's area to some manageable size strikes me as just not quite right.

I'll grant that I've thought of all manner of "fun" things to do to pestiferous critters, often involving very loud noises and notable ground vibrations...I've just never gone beyond the talkin' stage; it doesn't seem righteous, generally.

Now, notable exceptions would be feral hogs, feral cats, and feral dogs. There is little value to the first, if you're a farmer or rancher. There is absolutely no value to the latter two...

And if there's another jackrabbit population explosion in northern Nevada or southwestern Idaho, give me a call, okay?

, Art

[RWK]

As long as this strange thread has been initiated, I thought I would caution my fellow TFL members: Propane is a violent explosive, so be very careful. Putting all moral and legal questions concerning this "hunting practice" aside -- and it is hard not them with this thread -- I remember seeing a demonstration of a fuel-air explosive (FAE) at Fort Bragg during my senior service school year. The results, albeit over a limited area, were astonishing. The FAE produces an overpressure wave that is several times more powerful than a nuclear device within a limited geographic area -- and everything is simply blow away. Therefore, drunk or sober, I would be very hesitant to play around with homemade FAEs. The prairie dogs are likely to become your companions in the afterlife.

[Al Thompson]

And on that note, let's get back to controlling animal populations in a less dramatic fashion.

Giz