There are advantages to shooting prairie dogs from a vehicle, and apparently it’s common practice in Wyoming — although technically illegal.
Casper-area resident Rob Ward said that he and a friend were shocked this past summer when, as they were shooting prairie dogs from the bed of a pickup, a game warden came by and told them they were breaking the law.
“This whole situation we found ourselves in, my buddy and I, is kind of ridiculous,” he said.
Avid hunter and gun dealer Scott Weber of Cody told Cowboy State Daily that like many Wyomingites, he also enjoys prairie dog shooting.
And he also had no idea that it was illegal to shoot at the burrowing rodents from a vehicle, because that’s what many people do.
In fact, he’s even heard of dedicated prairie dog shooters attaching shooting benches to flatbed trucks.
“In Wyoming there is a lot of shooting from vehicles on private land. There just is, because that’s the best way to cover the ground,” said Weber, the owner of Gunrunner Firearms & Auctions.
Ward said that prairie dogs are widely regarded as a nuisance species that can be destructive to agriculture around Wyoming. And usually, all bets are off when it comes to getting rid of them on private farm and ranch land.
The ban on shooting them from a vehicle is because of an obscure quirk in how Wyoming classifies some wildlife species, he said.
“I don’t know why I can take a stick of dynamite and put it in a prairie dog hole and blow it up, and that’s legal, but shooting it off my truck isn’t,” he said.
When You Can Shoot From A Vehicle
Ward said he and his friend got a verbal warning from the game warden and weren’t ticketed.
But the incident still irritated him, so he reached out to Rep. Bill Allemand-R, Midwest.
Allemand is sponsoring House Bill 2011, which would clarify that it’s legal to kill prairie dogs and other wildlife, such as mice, from or inside a vehicle.
Allemand previously stated that as the law stands, people technically could be sent to jail for trapping mice inside their pickups.
When, where and whether it’s legal to shoot from a vehicle in Wyoming is complicated.
It’s illegal to shoot from a public roadway or highway, period.
It’s also illegal to shoot big game or trophy game animals such as deer, elk or black bears from a vehicle. The only exception to that rule is for disabled hunters with special permits.
If a vehicle is parked off a public roadway or on private property, it is legal to shoot predatory animals from a vehicle.
Predatory animals include coyotes, jackrabbits, porcupines, raccoons, red foxes, skunks, stray cats and in much of Wyoming, wolves.
However, it remains illegal to shoot “other wildlife” from a vehicle or to kill them with or inside a vehicle.
Prairie dogs aren’t a protected species in Wyoming. They can legally be killed just about anywhere an in any manner. That includes shooting as many as you want until you run out of ammo.
However, prairie dogs fall into that broad category of “other wildlife” (but not predatory animals), so it’s not legal to fire any shots at them from a vehicle. Or even using any part of the vehicle, such as resting a rifle on a pickup’s hood or tailgate.
‘Who Is Even Going To Get Stopped For This?’
Ward said he and his friend were on private land when they were stopped by the game warden this summer.
A rancher friend of theirs was more than happy to invite them onto his land to blast some prairie dogs.
“He’s got a little stretch there that’s just inundated with prairie dogs. There are hundreds of them. He just wants them gone,” Ward said.
The trouble was, the grass was long enough to make it tough to get clear shots through their rifle scopes at ground level.
So, they decided to climb into the pickup bed and rested their rifles off the vehicle’s cap to get clear “ethical” shots, he said.
“Everyone I know has shot off a vehicle or from a vehicle at prairie dogs,” he said.
That’s why “it didn’t compute” when the game warden game by and told them they’d have to stop, because shooting from the truck was illegal, Ward said.
Ward said some have questioned why he’s so adamant about having such an obscure rule changed.
His response is that he loves hunting and fishing in Wyoming. Some clarification on the legality of a common activity — shooting prairie dogs from vehicles — could save somebody from getting into serious trouble over something so few hunters know about.
“Does this affect everybody in the state of Wyoming? No. But it affected me,” he said. “And I think I have just as much of a right as anybody to go to my representative to get something changed.
“Some people have asked, ‘Who is even going to get stopped for this?’ Well, I was.”
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
