Gopher talk

Beautiful afternoon for popping a few. The Win 555 bulk responds well to the Waltz die mods. Not much jumping around after impact. Long range shot today, car to gopher, got to remember the rangefinder.
 
Finally got out last weekend at a new permission, and only five minutes from town! Two main roads bordering it and the Hat is visible in the distance, so I can't really take out the big guns, but the Marlin is all I really need.

Wind was a bastard though. They kept their heads down so I only knocked over about two dozen. Cell phone was at home so no pics.

Still, felt good to see them flop.
 
Popped another 7 today. Dam, these .22 Marlins are accurate. 795 and 60. Still no swarms of gophers yet, just a few here and there. Not sure when we can expect a new crop.
 
Went out today but as usual the wind was relentless and the gophers kept their heads down. Shot around 20 or so with the Marlin 717m2 and a CZ512 22 mag(my favorites).
I also picked off a few around the farm yard with my new O/U 12 gauge. Kind of slow but still good to get out and enjoy the great weather.
Last year I used my Baikal O/U 22mag/20 gauge combo with great effect; perfect for close and far away shots! Lol
 
Friend owns an acreage, they love to dig in his grass all over the yard usually go out there and clean them up for him, this year I picked up a high power air rifle and tried it out the other day, kinda liking it, no problem with head shots at 30-35 yards that I was shooting then at.
 
That's the nice thing about Marlin 795s. They like everything. Having great luck with Remington Golden Bullets. CT is now out of them unfortunately. But have a good stock of other ####. Bit of everything.
 
SUPER TENERE said:
That's the nice thing about Marlin 795s. They like everything. Having great luck with Remington Golden Bullets. CT is now out of them unfortunately. But have a good stock of other ####. Bit of everything.
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Yeah, mine eat everything..but they only print small groups with a couple of subsonic loads I've used. Was hoping Winchester bulk-pack would shoot well...but the target looks like it was hit by a shotgun when I've tried it. Subsonic CCI or Federal~very different story.
 
.22LRGUY said:
Yeah, mine eat everything..but they only print small groups with a couple of subsonic loads I've used. Was hoping Winchester bulk-pack would shoot well...but the target looks like it was hit by a shotgun when I've tried it. Subsonic CCI or Federal~very different story.
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I've had good luck with bulk pack Remington Golden bullets. Around 1/2" at 25 yards, 3/4" at 50, with my 795. With my Papoose, well within minute of gopher at 50 yards, although I haven really done "group therapy" with that one, a bit hard to get a good bench rest with the Papoose, given its shortened forend.
 
Took my pretty lady (CZ-452 Lux) out today. Been having lousy luck getting decent weather and available time to coincide with each other. It was 15 degrees out, and windy - 30Kph gusting to 40, hardly ideal weather for getting gophers, but sometimes you gotta take the chance you have, instead of the chance you want.

Glad I did. Stumbled across a sizeable gopher town, sat in place, and drilled 91 of them in under 2 hours - from one shooting spot.

They were so thick, I popped a dozen with my .410 when they were too close (under 10 yards) for easy shooting with the scoped CZ.

This is off one small mound in the gopher town:

452_gopher.jpg


And this fatty was charging, I swear:

410_gopher.jpg


I made a note of the spot. If I got that many in under a couple hours on a cool windy day, there are hundreds more in that town, and probably well over a thousand within 100 yards.

I kept thinking to myself every time there was a lull - "Well, that's GOTTA be it. I'll just reload my mags and move on to the next spot." And before I could reload a couple of 10 rounders, I was shooting again.

Eventually, I had to cut it short to head in for dinner. It sure wasn't for lack of targets.
 
dead meat said:
Grelmar you had a good day, congrats. Not many in my pastures, in several days of fixing fences i saw 3 gophers total.
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Thanks.

I took the .410 with me on a whim. I just got it a few weeks ago - never shot anything other than 12gauge for a shotgun. I've had it to the range a couple times, this was the first time I took it out into the field.

I'm really starting to like the .410 - Negligible recoil, light and handy, can carry way more rounds practically than I can 12 gauge. And based on results today, I'd definitely trust it for pretty much all small game and even grouse out to 15-20 yards. For "meat hunting" small game (squirrels and rabbits and such, as well as upland game), it looks like it does a lot less damage than a 12 gauge does with the same shot size, and still gets the job done.

One of those "life in blinders" things. In my mid 40s, and I never even considered shotguns as anything other than 12 gauge, because a 12gauge will "do everything".
 
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