Airgun Hunting North America THE GRASSLANDS PART 3

Jim Chapman concludes his series on the various types of hunting available to our American friends

- Jim Chapman

In this last instalment on hunting the different North American ecosystems, we’ll discuss the grasslands located in the middle of the country. Referred to as the Great Plains, the grasslands extend from well into Canada, south to the border of Mexico, and from the Rocky Mountains in the west to a line from Western Minnesota to central Texas in the east. This is a huge area and the grassland are generally flat or rolling hills, and covered in a carpet of either long, short, or mixed grass. Much of this landscape has been drastically altered due to agriculture, with native grasses giving way to grazing lands and domesticated grass crops of wheat, corn, and other grains.

Even though cultivation has taken a toll, especially in the reduction of native tall grass terrain, there are still thousands of square miles that are very lightly populated with wide-open spaces and whilst there is an abundance of wildlife living in these areas, for the airgun hunter, the most frequently targeted species are prairie dogs, ground squirrels, rabbits, and other small pest species. There are also many large game species such as bison, mule and whitetail deer, pronghorn antelope, predator species, and gamebirds, but airguns are generally used for taking the smaller nongame quarry.