Gopher Hunting - Advice Requested

superd222

superd222

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Hey Guys,

Planning a trip to Red Deer, Alberta to visit a buddy and will most definitely bring some guns to 'control' his (and neighbours) gopher population.

I've been hunting ground-hogs (rock chucks) in Ontario for years and am a newbie to gophers. I have a pile of questions and would appreciate some advice from those 'in the know'. (Thanks in advance for the info !):dancingbanana:

What is the best month/week for gopher shooting in Alberta?
(consider weather and crop height - I'm thinking May-June but when?)

What guns? .222, .22 Win Mag., 22lr....? Room to bring 2.

How much ammo should I bring/plan to buy there?

Any other advice? I understand no hunting license is required for gophers - true?.

Already have land-owner permission - should it be in writing?

How about Coyotes......? Worth the $75 of licenses.....?

Thanks for your assistance - any other details would be great!!!

SD :)
 
May and June, definitely. Do most of your shooting with the .22LR until they wise up. Old-school gopher shooting is done with iron sights, laying low to the ground and 'kissing' them up out of their hole from about 25 yards.

Plan on bringing more ammo than you'd use at the range in a day. Then triple it.
 
You don't hunt gophers....you shoot gophers.:D

22lr & 22 mag both work good....usually can shoot at close and farther range. Also...centerfire varmint guns in any .224........or light bullets in 243 or .25s....anything bigger not as spectacular.

May/June is a good time. No license required. Don't need any written permission long as you're comfortable you got permission.

Depending on the patch and weather, bring lots of ammo.....but 22 lr or mag should be easy to buy local....

Have fun........
 
I'd bring the 222 and your 22 lr. In a good field you could go through a brick of 22 in a day, so you probably will want a lot of ammo. Shoot the 22 for the majority of your day, and shoot the 222 for some entertaining aerobatic manoeuvres from Mr. / Mrs. gopher. April / May are usually the best months because the grass tends to get too long by June.
 
By the end of June the grass can get quite high and make it very hard to see gophers. But they will annoy the hell out of you whistling from under cover of grass.

Take a cooler of drinkables into the field with you. You don't want to waste shooting time going back to the house for a drink of water.:rolleyes:

Of the guns you listed, I would take the 22lr and the .222. Once your passed the range of the .22lr, the splat factor of the 222 takes over.

Once you fire the first couple hundred rounds, the only time you will likely see a coyote is maybe the next morning when you first return to the feild. You might catch one eating breakfast.;)

I have nothing further to add to the fine advice already posted here.:cool:
 
I hope that you recover the carcasses. Over here a few farmers used t lamp rabbits from 4wds and leave them all over the felds, poor adverts for managing the countryside and encourages the foxes to come to his farm for a feast. Not even looking at the potential for disease. if I have deer or rabbit guts that I want to use for fox bait I'll place them where I need them otherwise they get binned or buried.
 
Doesnt seem right killing all that and no food use for it what about dog food? Back in the days when I was rabbit shooting every morning I fed myself and my dogs on fine rabbit!
 
Scott_N said:
Gophers... the little bastards are cannibals and eat their own dead.
Click to expand...

Wow do they really?? I always wondered where the hell they went! Sometimes after no more than an hour they're gone.

I always assumed it was foxes/hawks
 
Fonix said:
Wow do they really?? I always wondered where the hell they went! Sometimes after no more than an hour they're gone.

I always assumed it was foxes/hawks
Click to expand...

It's both. I'd say scavengers/preds get most of them. Yotes, crows, hawks....
 
There have been times when I shoot a gopher at a good distance that they'll keep coming back to feed on dead have had piles of 20-30 that I shot at the smorg!!
 
They eat each other rather quickly... that is why when you see one dead one on the road you tend to see a bunch in the same place, they get splated trying to eat the one that got it before them.
 
First off stop calling them gophers. They are not gophers any more than guns are evil... or clips are magazines.
In Red Deer you will find Richardson Ground Squirrels. Squirrels, not Gophers.

And most of the carcasses are gone because of these guys, Ferruginous Hawks:

ferugy.jpg


This is just a tiny portion of a larger picture... if I had just resized it they'd be flecks but I can't post the original here due to size. As soon as you drive off they show up. Rarely as many as this particular day... usually just three or four locals, but on this particular day there were over 50.

Remeber: :canadaFlag: RGS's, not Gophers. Please, for the children.
 
I'd like to see you take out all the invading Black Squirrels that are non native but have taken over since the geniouses at the Calgary Zoo :mad: decided to bring them over from Ontario. Leave the locals to us :p

As far as your question... if you could bring only two, .22lr (cost effective) and a .222 if your .22lr aint' doin the job. +1 on the long grass issue. As I warned in a previous near identical thread... skeeters were nasty last year. Might wanna bring some netting unless you love bathing in that 'completely harmless and safe' DEET.
 
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