I've got 3 with one arrow,and several doubles. I hardly ever shoot them with guns anymore,as they make such great practice for the bow. Besides, I can shoot the same field all summer and they don't get spooky. I started out shooting them with the compound,which worked great,but now that I'm trying to get better with the recurve I use that. I'm not too dangerous to them past about 20 yds, but it's real satisfying when I get one. In a good field I can still get a dozen or more a day.
Baby gophers
- Thread starter gopherxs
- Start date
Whatever. The point being FMJ's are going to ricochet more than frangible bullets. It ain't just about killing rodents but making sure the neighbors are safe.
migrant hunter
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Southern Alberta
I like my .22 k hornet shooting 35 gr vmax. With just 10.5 gr powder it pops gophers open at 150 yds with ease. Inside 100 yds they really blow up.
It takes a lot less powder than a .223, but it takes a lot of hours of handloading to cover one hour in Sask!
It takes a lot less powder than a .223, but it takes a lot of hours of handloading to cover one hour in Sask!
If you guys want gophers head down around Gravelburg, Hodgeville, Kincaid and areas south of that. Its really thick with them. They have moved into the crop land and are really doing a number on farmers crops. I spoke with one farmer in his field and he had spent $10000 on poison last year and didnt even make a dent, he was thrilled I was shooting them on his land. It was so thick that I would kill the mother and within seconds 2 babies would be feeding on her body, Id shoot them and 2 more would come and eat the dead ones...it was slaughter fest
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Just got my 110gr VMax's. Working up a load for the .308. That is going to be my varmint rifle. If it works as well as I hope on gophers, it'll be hell on coyotes! Going to order some VMax's for my Rem 799 now that Hornady makes them in a .310". Now THAT'S gonna be entertainment!! Gophers at 200+yds with a 125gr VMax!
Gee have a lot of you shoot in real infested field or just fields with a few gophers in them.
What I hear is a lot of sport shooting ideas but not so much experience.
4-600 gophers in a short day within 60 acres is the norm and the numbers go up from their when you are trying to give the landowner a break.
Ranges from 5 feet to 150 yards are the norm.
I guess I am just not rich enough to be able to afford .10+ cent rounds when my American Eagle 22 HP are 5.5 cents.
Plus BBL burn out is a real possibility.
What I hear is a lot of sport shooting ideas but not so much experience.
4-600 gophers in a short day within 60 acres is the norm and the numbers go up from their when you are trying to give the landowner a break.
Ranges from 5 feet to 150 yards are the norm.
I guess I am just not rich enough to be able to afford .10+ cent rounds when my American Eagle 22 HP are 5.5 cents.
Plus BBL burn out is a real possibility.
Hey Scott!! Good advice! I shoot on a ranch just 10 miles west of Moose Jaw and have had great success. Last year we had five weekends straight of 500+ gophers and probably 50% were going cannibal!! I actually took 7 off of one carcass within about 5 minutes.
We use a mix of 22LR, KHornet, 223, 21 fireball, 22-250 and of course 17HMR. Shots are 10 ft to 350 yds and we shot from the same location all five weekends. Went there last weekend and shot 54 in an hour with my 17HMR and there are still thousands of them there!! Looking forward to this weekend!! Best Shot? Two of us back to back(my buddy is a southpaw) spotted the same rolling bunch of adults at the same time at 180 yds and fired simultaneously. This without knowing we were on the same targets. Body parts indicated seven different gophers and we used our 223s to do this!!
Gopher shooting?? Close to being the most fun you can have with your clothes on!!!
.308 Win is not a very good choice for gophers. It burns way too much powder and is either gonna heat up the barrel within about 10 shots or burn out the barrel if you continue to shoot. Those big 110gr bullets aren't the best for terminal effects as they are way too big to come apart in something as small as a gopher. They are much better coyote medicine.
The best calibers for gophers are medium - small sized cases that sling .224 to 6mm bullets out at a medium high velocity. This combination allows much more shooting without burning out the barrel combined with good terminal effects.
In the last 10 years I have shot gophers with almost everything under the sun. My current choices are a 6BR, .223 Rem and soon a 221 Fireball. I have come to these from long experience and experimentation and they seem to offer the best compromise between terminal effects and longevity.
Well, I finally got to try out the 17 HMR on Saturday, and I find it very adequate out to 150 yrds (longest kill shot was 161 laser ranged)....deadly accurate, no worries about rounds going someplace far away and doing something nasty...and I didn't have a single customer file a complaint.
Also, no recoil for the shooter, or noise to bother the cattle, no heat issues with the barrel.
Bigger may be funner at long range, but isn't necessarily better inside 150 yrds...
