Gophers

photog_shooter said:
I've seen a ton of threads both here and in the rimfire forum about gopher hunting. I was just curious what you guys do with your gophers after you catch them. Do you use the furs, eat them, something else? Tons up here too but I've never really gone after them as I wasn't too sure what to do with them afterwards.
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I just leave them. The others gophers will eat them.
 
Gnome75 said:
Can honestly say I have never seen a cannibalistic gopher before. Would not put it past the little f*%kers though
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I shot one when I was visiting relatives in Calgary last year that started chewing on his own inerds that were hanging out. Hope I can get out there again to blast a few hundred more sometime.
 
Maybe it's the Inuit mentality in me that I've been raised with, but isn't there a more productive use of the animals after killing them? Like only kill what you eat or need and don't be wasteful? I get it that other animals can and do come along to scavenge the remains, but it still seems like a waste to just go out and kill them for fun.
 
photog_shooter said:
Maybe it's the Inuit mentality in me that I've been raised with, but isn't there a more productive use of the animals after killing them? Like only kill what you eat or need and don't be wasteful? I get it that other animals can and do come along to scavenge the remains, but it still seems like a waste to just go out and kill them for fun.
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I had the same conversation with my buddy, as my mantra is "If you intend to shoot it, intend to eat it". I don't think it is just Inuit mentality. It comes from seeing how huge populations of many animals are seen as reason enough to shoot/hunt/fish them into extinction (Bison, whales, cod). I know some people say it reduces gopher holes which break horse and cow ankles, but seeing as cows as we know them are a domesticated species, and the gophers were here long before we were... we're kinda playing god on this one.
Sorta like moving into a neighborhood and complaining about the noise coming from the gun range that's been there for 60 years.
I personally hate to see waste of any kind.
BTW- Curried gopher is pretty good. Tough to clean, but no waste. Made gloves from the hides.
This is sure to open a can of worms on this forum, but so be it.
 
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photog_shooter said:
Maybe it's the Inuit mentality in me that I've been raised with, but isn't there a more productive use of the animals after killing them? Like only kill what you eat or need and don't be wasteful? I get it that other animals can and do come along to scavenge the remains, but it still seems like a waste to just go out and kill them for fun.
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They are well known to be pests in the prairies. They dig your fields which can ruin your crops. Horses and cows can also step in the holes and break a leg.

I am sure there are other legit reasons to shoot them.
 
The next thing you know someone will come along and suggest that we should not swat mosquitoes or kill flies if we are not going to "use" them.
 
Bad Bob said:
The next thing you know someone will come along and suggest that we should not swat mosquitoes or kill flies if we are not going to "use" them.
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Hahaha! Exactly.

We kill them because they're vermin. No better than rats or mice. I can't even begin to count the number I've shot or poisoned over the years, but it would be in the 100's of thousands. Around 2004-2009 we had counts done in our area by the department of agriculture and they figured 80,000 gophers per quarter section. My in-laws couldn't even grow a crop for three years. In 2007 they planted the whole farm to mustard because animals generally don't like the taste of it and avoid eating it, but not the gophers, they wiped out entire fields just as it germinated. That same year my father in law bought me 90,000 rounds of 22 ammo and my wife and I shot it all by the end of July, and we didn't miss many.

Thankfully we got strichenine legalized again in 2009 and with a couple of hard winters the gophers are back under control. I bet every farmer in Saskatchewan now has a 5 year supply of strichenine for when the Feds eventually ban it again.
 
Exactly. I`ve been travelling to SW Sask (Hazenmore, Mankota) area for the past several years(since 2008) to shoot gophers, usually stay for two weeks. I have seen crops destroyed and thousands of dollars damage that gophers have caused.When I was a kid we used to go to the local dump and shoot rats till we ran out of ammo. I guess I am a bad person because I have never "used" a rat for anything either.
 
The crop thing sounds legit. My reply comment came from the first few replies to my initial question. Those just sounded like people were going out and killing something "just because". Doing it to save a crop, and a livelihood, is a legit reason. I guess I was curious if people ever used them for anything after they were caught. So many threads on here and pics of these gopher hunts, but not too many (if any) posts about after the kills.
 
Bad Bob said:
Exactly. I`ve been travelling to SW Sask (Hazenmore, Mankota) area for the past several years(since 2008) to shoot gophers, usually stay for two weeks. I have seen crops destroyed and thousands of dollars damage that gophers have caused.When I was a kid we used to go to the local dump and shoot rats till we ran out of ammo. I guess I am a bad person because I have never "used" a rat for anything either.
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That's my in laws area! Hard to find a gopher there now, compared to 10 years ago.

My FIL used to have guys from all over Canada show up at his door asking permission to shoot gophers on his land. Not only would he say yes, he'd give them a brick of 22 as well.
 
photog_shooter said:
The crop thing sounds legit. My reply comment came from the first few replies to my initial question. Those just sounded like people were going out and killing something "just because". Doing it to save a crop, and a livelihood, is a legit reason. I guess I was curious if people ever used them for anything after they were caught. So many threads on here and pics of these gopher hunts, but not too many (if any) posts about after the kills.
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Hawk and fox food.
 
Bad Bob said:
The next thing you know someone will come along and suggest that we should not swat mosquitoes or kill flies if we are not going to "use" them.
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They already done that.
there have been studies about the road kill carnage of insects after counting bugs smashed into car/truck grills of Highways and then figure out how many Song birds could have survived off of those smashed bugs....
Anyways, I digress.
Rob
 
To start with, most of us shoot gophers rather than catch them. And by shooting them, we usually prevent the landowner from resorting to poisoning them which is a worse fate, and that isn't selective about what it kills. So given the choice between shooting and poison, I see shooting them as a far better option as far as the ecosystem is concerned.
 
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