are they protected (any where) Wyoming and utah have miles and miles of the big rats

Strongly suggest that you contact the Departments of Game and Fish for any state you plan on visiting to hunt the prairie rats. They'll generally have "protected species" called out on their web sites, but, with the bunny huggers hard at work all over the US trying to stop the hunting of anything, it's always best to check.

Not protected in Wyoming. You don't have to have a small game license either.

Oklahoma

not really planning to hunt them. Just made a big circle and noticed all the dogs NM. CO. UT. ID. some towns as far as you can see. I had no idea they were still so plentiful .

A lot of my misspent youth was spent on hunting them around Lubbock. I had access to 1000's of acres. Last I checked they had all been poisoned out.

Prairie dogs are the number one carrier of bubonic plague in America. It spreads through bites from infected fleas on the prairie dogs, I should say. Always, 3 or 4 case's in Southwest Colorado where I spend my summer. Handle with care, I don't want to loose any of you guys.

From CNN: "On average, there are seven cases per year, although in 2006 there were 17. An August report from the CDC put health care providers on notice to consider the plague in patients with symptoms and a travel history to an area where the plague has been reported.
Plague occurs in rural and semirural areas of the Western United States, most commonly New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado."

Just on national grasslands. No where else.

Ferret introduction

Growing up in Southwest OK i spent many a day shooting them about 2 miles from my house.

Yes. Have to find private property, which can be challenging.

You can hit a prairie dog two miles out?

and that was with iron sights

This is why we should not let Okeys on the forum. They tend to exaggerate. Everyone knows that the effective range of a 22 is only one mile.

The way I interpreted that was he only had to go 2 miles from his house to shoot them.

I knew Texicans knew nothing
about shooting big rats

Went right over your head.

All ways a knit picker or some kind of police any where you go.

I'd like to shoot some. Where can you hunt them in texas?

in the panhandle their are some places. If i remember correctly OK,TX line in TX panhandle.