gopher hunt what month?

doubleman

doubleman

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Just looking for some info on what month is best to shoot some sod poodles and what areas have good populations? I'm from ontario and trying to plan a trip west to visit some family and hopefully a few days shooting gophers. Is getting land owner permission a challenge or still easy for varmints. Any help would be appreciated.
Regards
 
Where you coming to, Alberta, Sask?
Probably wana come around May/June to be assured gophers and not too much snow. You can get landowner permission, but you don't wanna try unless youre at least 30 minutes from anybig cities.
Might wanna try to hook up with someone whohas land first.and really, the little buggers are everywhere.
 
They usually start popping up around Southern Alberta by around March-ish... I suspect it'd be on par in Saskatchewan too.

I know pretty much Saskatchewan south of Saskatoon this last summer was just crawling with the little buggers to the point there were even farmers offering free room & board in exchange for competent shooters to kill gophers. That'd be a nice "working vacation" eh! "motel" covered & home cooking in most places. Pretty sweet!

I know that there are some pretty thick populations of em down south of Calgary too... Except for around where my BIL practises... He goes a little gopher happy in the summer, lol!

L
 
I think the best time is late April / early May. The gophers are out in full force but the grass isn't usually too long at that time.
 
whammy
I have family in the calgary area and a sister in law moving to camrose in the spring which provides me with some options but I would like to see more of saskatchewan also so I was thinking of a few road trips to different areas. I was in Calgary area about 5yrs ago and shot some with my cousins friend and had a riot but I would like to dedicate a few days this time and with my own equipment rather than a borrowed rifle like last time. One question I forgot to ask is how much ammo should I expect to shoot per day? Thanks for the replies everyone as my contacts out west do not hunt and eveyone here tells me to go to the dakota's and I would rather spend my money in Canada. On the Last trip I had no trouble getting land owner permission so I was hoping nothing had changed, I was welcomed like family by most I talked to and found people in general very helpfull unlike here. Truthfully every trip I make west brings me one step closer to staying for good.
Thanks again Mike
 
How much ammo should you expect to shoot.... As much as you can carry! haha, If Gopher numbers are anythign like last year, expect a lot of shooting.
Last year the gophers had a bit of an outbreak in saskatchewan, and people were running out of ammo before they were running out of gophers. i dont think you should expect things to have changed too much, but as I said, stay away from the cities, as thats where a lot of the city folk by their "relaxation properties" and a lot of these people can be anti-gun/shooting.
 
people were running out of ammo before they were running out of gophers.
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That's why you buy ammo by the brick. :)
In my opinion, gopher numbers were down this year, probably due to a wet spring.
 
I went out a few times this past summer..Each time, I took no less than one brick of .22LR, A couple of hundred .204 shells for those longer shots, and a couple of hundred rounds of 12ga. for the real stupid ones close up. This for a one day outing by the way.
This summer theres a road trip in the works for our group to suthin' sas-kach-ee-wan
 
2fat2fly said:
That's why you buy ammo by the brick. :)
In my opinion, gopher numbers were down this year, probably due to a wet spring.
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Brick my ass! I buy my ammo by the case. I too would recommend Saskatchachuck. I'm thinking of loading up for a week next year, find a nice motel and make a comfortable vacation out of it. From what I've been hearing, hunters are still welcome there. Though, you generally won't have a hard time getting permission to shoot gophers here either. One thing though, alot of landowners don't want you to use high powered stuff. Centerfire .22's are questionable in alot of spots. But they have no problems with the good old .22 LR. Buy yourself a case, and you should be alright. Alot of guys shoot several thousand rounds in a day. I never have. But I do go through a brick of 500 on a really good day. Most, not all of the guys who do go through so many rounds are using autoloaders. Bring a bolt, make your shots count, and your set. :p We start shooting in mid April. But that depends on the weather. You'll find a nice warm afternoon the best kind of day. Check the weather channel. If it looks to be miserable and cold, don't go. But a freak snowstorm is always fun. After one of those spring dumps, and the gophers have already been out for a few weeks, you almost feel sorry for them...All most. :D Those poor little buggers don't stand much of a chance when you see them hopping around on a white background. And keep it simple. Bring one or two rifles with enough ammo to feed them. You'll want to bring the necessary cleaning gear. Leave a lunch in the car, and carry water on you. A fanny pack is great for hauling around your water and ammo. A good hat and a pair of sunglasses, especially if there's snow on the ground. And one more thing. Bring a good coat that breaks the wind. I have a nice oil skin canvas coat. The wind can really get to you, and chill you fast. Even if the day starts out nice and calm, it won't last, I'm sure. Stay comfortable, and you'll enjoy yourself alot more. Just make sure your coat isn't anything like that nylon crap. denum and similar material are great. You'll find alot of barbed wire fences. You can crawl between wires on some, or over wires on others. You don't want to catch on that stuff, or you'll tear them up for sure. Good luck and let us know. :wave:
 
I shoot a lot of gophers every year, and I have to agree, the best gun is a rimfire. A lot of areas it's just not practical to shoot centerfires, I've used everything up to .243 on gophers and honestly the .22LR is the best and most fun. My brother and I have quite good sport doing long, 200 yard plus, shots with .22's. The new .17 rimfires are very good as well, but honestly, after 200 yards the .22LR's better.
 
this might be a dumb question, I for one have never done the gopher hunt outside of the family farm, So my question is if a farmer invites you to clean up his gopher problem to save his farm & live stock. Are you expected to clean up the dead ones after the shoot?
 
Keebler750 said:
Hey, anyone doing any 1800yd big bore gopher shoots?
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On gophers? A gopher to a westerner is a ground squirrel. A big one is half a pound, and presents maybe a 6"x2" target. I've heard of guys taking them at 1000 yards, but even then it's more a matter of luck than skill & equipment quality.
 
prosper said:
On gophers? A gopher to a westerner is a ground squirrel. A big one is half a pound, and presents maybe a 6"x2" target. I've heard of guys taking them at 1000 yards, but even then it's more a matter of luck than skill & equipment quality.
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I was thinking the same thing, I get a good chuckle when I hear guys saying they're going out gopher popping "and we hope to push it to 1000 yards this time" or something to that effect. :p Even a "mere" 400-500 yards on a gopher is an amazing shot, those I've made with my .243.
 
Ardent said:
I shoot a lot of gophers every year, and I have to agree, the best gun is a rimfire. A lot of areas it's just not practical to shoot centerfires, I've used everything up to .243 on gophers and honestly the .22LR is the best and most fun. My brother and I have quite good sport doing long, 200 yard plus, shots with .22's. The new .17 rimfires are very good as well, but honestly, after 200 yards the .22LR's better.
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Yup. I use QuickShok's because they fragment easier than conventional 22LR. Makes a very distinctive WOMP for such a little cartridge.
 
Brocolt said:
this might be a dumb question, I for one have never done the gopher hunt outside of the family farm, So my question is if a farmer invites you to clean up his gopher problem to save his farm & live stock. Are you expected to clean up the dead ones after the shoot?
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Nope. The surviving gophers and ####hawks clean them up. Yes, they are canibals.
 
2fat2fly said:
Yup. I use QuickShok's because they fragment easier than conventional 22LR. Makes a very distinctive WOMP for such a little cartridge.
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I'd try them but can't find anywhere that stocks them locally, I like the fragmenting as well for riccochet reduction. I use CCI Velocitors almost exclusively as a result, extremely accurate, and you get that "whompppp" dull thud sound similar to what you're describing.

You really don't need much more than potent .22LR.
 
I was planning to use a 22wmr and a 223 or 22-250 but after all the recomendations I may take a 22lr instead to make use of the cheaper ammo factor. I have been hoarding 223 brass for a year to ensure that I have lots of ammo to take and lots of loading to do this winter. In ontario we only have groundhogs and the 22lr involves head shots only to keep them on top of the ground and past about 125yards it won't make clean kills so I don't use it much but dogs are about 1/10th the size so it would make for some fun shooting especially at 200 yards. When I have read about 1000 yard shots I always thought it was luck because you guys have some serious winds out west and they are gusty which to me would say if you shoot enough sooner or later you might get lucky and hit one at a 1000yards and besides that they are friggin small targets.
Regards and thanks for the info.
 
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