One of my favorite ways to spend a day, shooting sod rats. Me and my hunting parter have only talley up about 250 this year after 2 outings in less than ideal conditions. Looking forward to some calm sunny days.
One of my favorite ways to spend a day, shooting sod rats. Me and my hunting parter have only talley up about 250 this year after 2 outings in less than ideal conditions. Looking forward to some calm sunny days.
Hokay then, witch one was/is yer favorite this time?
He has a half-tracked mind and unrelenting habit of self aggrandizing.
Can anyone guess?
It is amazing how quickly you can stack up solid numbers!
Two favourites for this trip:
Leupold VX-Freedom RDS on the Ruger SR-22 - great for walking the fence lines and shooting as the gophers appear
Leupold VX-3i LRP on the Ruger Rimfire Precision - awesome setup for the money
THe Mark 5 on the CZ was pretty sweet as well.
KGL
My daughter & son-in-law moved onto a small acreage midway between Calgary & Red Deer. My son-in-law (not a shooter) called to ask how to “chase” then from their property. Of course my answer was “let me chase them”. So starting last week, I’ve been chasing them three times now. 192 have been “chased off” so far, plus 2 skunks & a badger.
This land has not been hunted for 20 years at least. There are thousands of them. I stocked up on .17HMR for my ugly, cheap Savage. I’ve got it scoped with a Vortex worth three times what the gun is; for all it’s ugly, cheap plastic stocked appearance, this gun shoots sub MOA groups at 100 consistently.
They have a couple of small hummocks on the edge of the field, maybe 8 ft. High. I set up one of those beach sun shades, stick a lawnchair inside, my tripod, cooler with water and food. And ammo...LOTS of ammo.
Our gopher population was pretty low for several years; you might actually need to walk a few hundred feet to get serious numbers, and we’ve Never had to do any walking to get 50/60 in an afternoon.
This year is like the good old days; gophers everywhere and they aren’t hunter-shy. They’re often very cautious when they see someone with a gun, but these ones have obviously never been predated by anything but hawks, so they’ll stand there looking at you while you drop several right beside them. Awesome fun!
Victory Formation
A society grows great when men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit."Somebody get a gun and shoot it! Doesn't anybody have a gun?" Jaws 1975
Ranchers I've talked to in AB hate badgers even more than gophers. If I remember the conversations right, high gopher populations attract the badgers who hunt them. Might seem like an advantage, but most gopher holes are NOT big enough to be problematic to livestock. Badger holes~I've seen plenty of those that a telephone pole would fit in with room to spare. So, in the wild...they play a role in this capacity. On working ranches, badgers are not held in high regard. To put it mildly.
I've only ever seen a few of them out there myself...but have seen the damage they do plenty of times, and on lots of properties.