Is it too early to dream about Gopher season?

.22LRGUY said:
Is it too early? Heck no! I've been dreaming about 2017 gopher season since I left Alberta last spring! In fact, I have my morning coffee in my hand and my priorities were this;

1. Switch the laundry to the dryer
2. Check the rimfire EE
3. Check the rimfire forum
4. Look for low airfare on WestJet.com
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do that daily
 
GIGGIDY said:
I saw one in the ditch along the No. 3 today when I was driving from Lethbridge to Medicine Hat. Guess its been warm enough that they're starting to come up.
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Yah, have spotted the odd one here and there along the highways where the snow has melted off. Gets me tweaking like a GasTown crackhead on Welfare Wednesday.

Got Juice? said:
if you ever want to come to the East Kootenay area, give me a PM. 2 Days, good bbq, and gopher hunting :)
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SUPER TENERE said:
Gophers in the East Kootenays, really. Must be immigrants. Only seen marmots there.
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We do some camping in the Cache Creek area on our way out to the island every year to visit my retired Alberta ex-pat folks. Always see lots of gophers out there.
 
Love the cooey grelmar...... I wish we had gophers here.... or even had groundhogs anymore...

Would love to take the Ruger 77/22rsi out to a gopher patch to stretch its legs.....
 
Well poor weather and work timing dampened my planned coyote hunting this year, but my precision .223 I built will still see action this year as I'll be adding it to my already .17hmr and .22 rim fire line up for gopher season.
 
Aw, them poor cute little gophers. Couldn't you just relocate them? (I think I know what the answer will be. :p)

Edit: Can't wait! I found an organic farmer that was quite happy to have me park my trailer at one of his farm yards and blaze away.
 
Superbrad said:
Love the cooey grelmar...... I wish we had gophers here.... or even had groundhogs anymore...

Would love to take the Ruger 77/22rsi out to a gopher patch to stretch its legs.....
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That old Cooey is a great gun. It gets used less and less, though, because I worry about it more and more.

You can still get them for $100 at gun shows out here, but you kind of have to look for them. Even 5 or 6 years ago, every other table would have a couple or three of them. Now...

kjohn said:
Aw, them poor cute little gophers. Couldn't you just relocate them? (I think I know what the answer will be. :p)

Edit: Can't wait! I found an organic farmer that was quite happy to have me park my trailer at one of his farm yards and blaze away.
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A couple, maybe 3 years ago, I was in the back pasture just after lunch one day, working back to 400 yard shooting with my Mosin. Usually, midday in the summer, it's a bit hot and the gophers are all down in their holes staying cool until later in the afternoon/early evening.

One decided to come out and see what the noise was all about. I punted a shot at him. Didn't think I was going to connect, Mosin isn't exactly a high precision varminter at 75 yards. But the bullet must have been guided by the hand of Stalin, because I relocated that gopher into orbit.

That thing probably caught 30-40 of vertical air.

I had to go look, took me a minute to find it. Not a scratch on it, just blood out of the nose and ears. I figure I hit the ground directly in front of it and the concussion did the rest.
 
The gophers accurately predict the weather. They were up early in late may, and were GONE BY July 25. Usually they stay active until Aug 12-15. So i knew they were digging in for a long cold and snowy winter (they were right)

So they might be early risers this year. Who knows.

A couple fields are giggle fields. 0-150m near the lake. Good for a taste. The 800 plus meter fields are great for guys with the cf guns. Of course .22's at 300m are fun but the atmospherics play hell at that range, but there are plenty out at closer ranges.
 
One day my farmer neighbor dropped by to invite me out to his pasture shooting gophers. A couple friends were still here from the previous night of astronomy, and were horrified at my glee about joining him. They were outdoorsy, nature types and I had to explain in a way that satisfied the bunny hugger in them....'The gophers dig holes in the pasture and the cows step in the holes and break legs. If I don't shoot the gophers, the farmer will put out poison and it will kill the gophers, but when foxes, coyotes, hawks and eagles eat the dead gophers, they will get poisoned too.'........So now I can do whatever it takes to save the raptors!!! After a while my neighbor stopped shooting his .22LR 597 to watch me blow them up with the .17WSM or a .17 HMR Anschutz.

I've got a fleet of rimfires, and prefer my .17 HMR's and .17 WSM. I've got a Savage A17 that will hold 1MOA at 100yards for 5x5 shot groups, can't wait to get it out this year. Also my Bmag is an absolute drill, I was shooting mud clumps poking through the melting snow today out to 310M.
 
PGW Steve said:
One day my farmer neighbor dropped by to invite me out to his pasture shooting gophers. A couple friends were still here from the previous night of astronomy, and were horrified at my glee about joining him. They were outdoorsy, nature types and I had to explain in a way that satisfied the bunny hugger in them....'The gophers dig holes in the pasture and the cows step in the holes and break legs. If I don't shoot the gophers, the farmer will put out poison and it will kill the gophers, but when foxes, coyotes, hawks and eagles eat the dead gophers, they will get poisoned too.'........So now I can do whatever it takes to save the raptors!!! After a while my neighbor stopped shooting his .22LR 597 to watch me blow them up with the .17WSM or a .17 HMR Anschutz.

I've got a fleet of rimfires, and prefer my .17 HMR's and .17 WSM. I've got a Savage A17 that will hold 1MOA at 100yards for 5x5 shot groups, can't wait to get it out this year. Also my Bmag is an absolute drill, I was shooting mud clumps poking through the melting snow today out to 310M.
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Yep. When you explain to the earthmuffins that poison is not the way since it kills the critters that eat the poisoned gophers, they accept the face that bullets are the best option. Even traps can kill badgers, wolverines, and other small critters. CO poisoning is almost as bad and C3H8 concusser killing is louder than a gunshot.
 
Bullet pill prescriptions prescribed by us folks are the best safest option for putting them down. I can't stand the idea of poison laying around or stupid traps. I'd rather blow them up with a single pill and know it's finished nothing else is getting hurt after.
 
Vintage Mossberg Gopher guns

Model 140K - 24.5"barrel; 1955-1958; Bushnell ScopeCheif 8X42 AO, Japan Late 50's-Early 60's:
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Model 142K - 18" barrel; 1953-1957; Bushnell ScopeCheif IV 2.5-8, mid 60's:
Mosberg%20142K-LR_zpszxdm2nam.jpg
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Model 146B - 26" barrel; 1949-1954; Tube holds 20 LR; Hawke 8.5-25X44 SF:
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Model 151K - 24" barrel; 1950-1951; Tube holds 15 LR; Hawke Red Dot:
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I have never been gopher hunting. Something on my bucket list. Target rich, feedback from every shot. Takes me back to infantry squad days. ####, said too much...
 
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