Ok guys....I'm back! 
Well, I'm 1/2 tempted to go into a long diatribe about how different gopher shooting is compared to eastern groundhogs...but I'll sum it up this way; They're 100x easier to shoot in spite of their size, and, they are WAY more plentiful. As for the HMR~I shot most with the HMR, some with .223, and a bunch of "wing" shots on running gophers with the 12ga. I didn't use the .22 that was on deck, but some some plugged with it too. Factoring-in the wind that was always present...I'd say the 17HMR IS the ideal gopher caliber out to 100-120 yards. Beyond that, wind started to mess things up, but I managed to correct for it most times and get some hits launching in curve balls! I like taking photos, but skimming through all of them from the trip, the HMR leaves very few photogenic gophers. Here are are a couple of shots, including a "double". I was lining-up a gopher with the HMR when another walked right in front of it an inch away.
This all leaves me COMPLETELY in the dark about what effect the 17M2 has on them (the purpose of this thread before the trip) so if you have any photos/stories, details on effective range...ANYTHING~please don't hesitate to share here, or via PM.
Cheers,
GopherGUY
The "double"
Well, I'm 1/2 tempted to go into a long diatribe about how different gopher shooting is compared to eastern groundhogs...but I'll sum it up this way; They're 100x easier to shoot in spite of their size, and, they are WAY more plentiful. As for the HMR~I shot most with the HMR, some with .223, and a bunch of "wing" shots on running gophers with the 12ga. I didn't use the .22 that was on deck, but some some plugged with it too. Factoring-in the wind that was always present...I'd say the 17HMR IS the ideal gopher caliber out to 100-120 yards. Beyond that, wind started to mess things up, but I managed to correct for it most times and get some hits launching in curve balls! I like taking photos, but skimming through all of them from the trip, the HMR leaves very few photogenic gophers. Here are are a couple of shots, including a "double". I was lining-up a gopher with the HMR when another walked right in front of it an inch away. This all leaves me COMPLETELY in the dark about what effect the 17M2 has on them (the purpose of this thread before the trip) so if you have any photos/stories, details on effective range...ANYTHING~please don't hesitate to share here, or via PM.
Cheers,
GopherGUY
The "double"
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