For rim fire I use a Rem 541sc and a SZ 452 mostly. 22 lr is used mostly with some small cf. I do injoy the VQ 10/22 but it does nor run as well with hv shells. We usually shoot a lot but this year was poor. In pastures we shoot thousands, this year only a couple hundred. Your choice of gun? Thanks
Favourite gopher gun
- Thread starter a j cave
- Start date
headhunter2
CGN Regular
- Location
- Vancouver Island
In my gopher shooting days it was a Mossberg 144LSB with 2-7 scope. this rig was similar to my hunting rifle, weight and scope wise to my 7mm mag.. Got lots of practice with it.
Here's mine, the perfect (for me) balance of accuracy and weight, for prone and off hand shooting, a Brno 2E with a Leupold 6X AO, EAW rings, Harris Bipod, sling and 11 x 10rd magazines (in a waist pouch that can hold 500 rounds loose in a separate compartment from the magazines. It's been glass bedded and the trigger cleaned up.
I have 30,000 rounds through it since my first trip in 1986.
I have 30,000 rounds through it since my first trip in 1986.
Custom Kidd/Volquartsen gets my vote. Purchased this year and has turned into my go to for shooting off of my portable bench
Very accurate and love shooting those triples in seconds.
It has claimed over a couple thousand this year similar to the one pictured
Very accurate and love shooting those triples in seconds.
It has claimed over a couple thousand this year similar to the one pictured
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"Favorite" gopher gun-so far, the only gun I call a "gopher gun" is my CZ452 Varmint;
It wears a Sightron S1, 4-12AO HHR and as you can see, I favour body/centre-mass shots. lol I'll be back in AB in the spring of 2022, a long overdue trip to mow a pile of gophers down...I hope. I am looking for an MDT chassis for this gun though, as a high-percentage of shots are taken from a variety of improvised rests, and I think the addition of an AR/pistol-type grip would be an advantage. I'm also intrigued by the tripod featured in an earlier post, as I could see that being a huge advantage over getting up/laying down dozens of times a day. (shooting prone)
I hope to give this duty to my T1x on future shoots, just have allot of CCI Blazer in AB and the CZ shoots it pretty well.
It wears a Sightron S1, 4-12AO HHR and as you can see, I favour body/centre-mass shots. lol I'll be back in AB in the spring of 2022, a long overdue trip to mow a pile of gophers down...I hope.
I am looking for an MDT chassis for this gun though, as a high-percentage of shots are taken from a variety of improvised rests, and I think the addition of an AR/pistol-type grip would be an advantage. I'm also intrigued by the tripod featured in an earlier post, as I could see that being a huge advantage over getting up/laying down dozens of times a day. (shooting prone)I hope to give this duty to my T1x on future shoots, just have allot of CCI Blazer in AB and the CZ shoots it pretty well.
"Favorite" gopher gun-so far, the only gun I call a "gopher gun" is my CZ452 Varmint;
It wears a Sightron S1, 4-12AO HHR and as you can see, I favour body/centre-mass shots. lol I'll be back in AB in the spring of 2022, a long overdue trip to mow a pile of gophers down...I hope.
I hope to give this duty to my T1x on future shoots, just have allot of CCI Blazer in AB and the CZ shoots it pretty well.
You get brownie points for the carnage factor for sure :-0
Your CZ can't give up too much to your T1X I wouldn't think?
Either way, both are great gopher killing sticks
You get brownie points for the carnage factor for sure :-0
Your CZ can't give up too much to your T1X I wouldn't think?
Either way, both are great gopher killing sticks
Well, if I'm being honest, I'm not sure I've shot this rifle since my last gopher trip (2018?) and the Tikka shoots an amazingly wide variety of ammo types well. Moreso than any 22 I've ever owned. I have never done a side-by-side comparison, nor have I really shot good ammo through the CZ since well before that date. I can't honestly remember how well it shoots with better ammo, at the time, I was eager to see whether or not there was a cheap HV ammo the gun would shoot well. I was stunned to see it shot CCI Blazer well (under 3/4" @ 50 yards very consistently) but being solids, was concerned about performance. I managed to contact Neal Waltz, and got one of his dies in due course. I processed thousands of CCI Blazer rounds, 1 at a time, but the effect on gophers is as pictured. Solids? Sure, the net result is the same...but a big gaping hollow point is instant, 99% of them never even flinched. Many ended-up far worse than the one in that photo. (=where there was once "1" gopher, there are now___) lol I owe it to that CZ to give it a proper ammo test day, and will, but I have over a case of 5000 sitting in southern AB, and my Tikka isn't keen on the stuff.
This is the Tikka pre-scope-upgrade. WAs wearing an old Leupold VARI-X, 4-12 AO, now wearing a Burris 4.5-14 with the E1 reticle. Photos below are from a fall outing last year, at my buddy's farm. They grow pumpkins there, but any that are messed up by bugs/turkeys get set-aside, repurposed as animal food or in my case, targets. Great targets for HV ammo/hollow points. Anyhow, the more you blow up pumpkins...the more flies show up...so it turned into fly shoot. We were @ 50 yards, shooting from a bench, heavy bag rests. The Tikka had no issues hitting flies at that distance, hit ratio 8/10 or better. That experience really solidifies ones affection for a certain gun, and I've admitted I bore easily when punching paper. I've posted the photo below on this forum at least once, but I'm including it here too. I was eyeballing this fly through the scope as it kept working it's way towards the top. My buddy was spotting, had a big spotting scope, etc. I touched off the shot, and first thought the black spot was a bullet hole. I did see the stem fly off. My buddy says to me; "I still see the fly, but I think it's dead...wait, I think you took it's head off". lol
Fluke? 100%, but I can say "this Tikka can take the head off a fly @ 50 yards" and kind of mean it.
Well, it did that day anyway. I maintain that if you knew nothing about guns and someone put a Tikka and a CZ in front of you and asked you to pick, most would pick the CZ. I still think Tikkas, especially with the plastic stocks, look pretty cheap. How it functions/shoots-anything but.If I can find an MDT for the CZ, I've already decided I'll upgrade the trigger to a Rifle Basix. It currently has a Yo-Dave kit in it, which is a huge improvement. The more I shoot guns with nice triggers, the harder I find it to shoot guns with heavy ones. I need some practice time with the CZ anyway. Hope to give the gophers a bad time in the spring of 2022. They've appreciated me not being there for a few years, I'm sure. lol
Favourite gopher rifle is a Brno ZKW 465 in 22 Hornet topped with a Leupold Vari-X II 2-7. It works on everything inside of 250 yards or so. Occasionally has stretched well beyond that, but that's more for "fun".
The cases are neck-sized ever so slightly - just enough to hold a 40 or 45 grain V-Max - although it works surprisingly well with any soft nosed bullet in that weight range.
Gopher gun #2 is a heavy barreled Tikka in .223 (Tik Tac). That one is just a solid performer.
The cases are neck-sized ever so slightly - just enough to hold a 40 or 45 grain V-Max - although it works surprisingly well with any soft nosed bullet in that weight range.
Gopher gun #2 is a heavy barreled Tikka in .223 (Tik Tac). That one is just a solid performer.
