Gophers!

kjohn

kjohn

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Super GunNutz
Rating - 100%
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Location
SE Sask.
I am currently camped in a farmyard southwest of Moose Jaw. Spent the day with two good shooter friends "relocating" gophers. I used my 455 American .22, my Canadian .17, and gave my Bushman Special .22 its first workout. At the end of the afternoon we dusted a few with 12 ga. Tomorrow I'll give my American .22 wmr some sunlight.

Lots of little ones out. Day started off cloudy and cold, but turned quite nice after lunch. My two friends were a little sceptical about there being any gophers out on such a day, but we shot steady all day. Forecast says it will be a lot warmer this week, so things will pick up even better. The young farmer said he'll have to poison what's left, as they are out of hand. Last year, his crop insurance had to cover some losses as high as 50 and 60% from gopher damage. I will do my best to save him some poison. :p
 
Same at the place I shoot, those little buggers killed 1/4 section with ease, farmer had no choice but to poison.

After that I dont shoot those fields, dont want to feed toxic gophers to the hawks , Turkey vultures, coyotes.
 
Third day on the same field. Shot my Bushman all day, except for a box of .22wmr. No end to the gophers.
 
Good one! My trigger finger is just fine. Into my third day of shooting, noticed that som Hornady.17 20gr are cracking at the shoulder. Trying to use up my “odd” .17 ammo. I have found that Hornady 17gr V-Max shoots the best in my two 455’s, hands down.
 
I just spent a day in red deer at my buddies farm and took out over 80 of them. Still so many out there! They are destroying the grazing field for his horses and cows and its getting dangerous for the cattle.
 
Big bore dinosaur said:
Same at the place I shoot, those little buggers killed 1/4 section with ease, farmer had no choice but to poison.

After that I dont shoot those fields, dont want to feed toxic gophers to the hawks , Turkey vultures, coyotes.
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I doubt your not shooting them is preventing the other animals from getting any. I have seen plenty of dieing gophers wander around above ground easy pickings for the scavengers.
Kill them any way possible. Went out for the afternoon yesterday and killed 377 according to the counter. You know it's bad when the boss whispers for you to sneak away and spend 2 hours killing them on company time.
 
Had my first outing of the year this past weekend, and used my new Tikka T1X. Hit 143 of them with very few misses, still tons more out there to be had, little ones are out too, often 3 or 4 of them standing around the same hole. Farmer keeps thanking us for coming out, we keep thanking him for letting us come out...lol. Heading back out again this week.
 
captonion said:
Delicious!!!!!
Mmmmmmmmm groundhog..
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I'll package some up and send them to you. No groundhogs around here. Around 2006 was the worst in SW Saskatchewan. I shot plenty back then. One field I shot in back then actually stunk from dead gophers, all shot. Where I am now, they are mostly all in one area. Probably shot 400-500 so far, in the one field, plus two other buddies were shooting Sunday. Some in other fields. Try them tomorrow.
 
You mentioned that 2006 was the worst (Best) year for gophers. My brother and I went shooting that year, near the town of Aneroid. I was shooting a Anshutz .22 LR bolt action, 700 rounds one afternoon and 600 rounds the next morning. My palm was sore from working the bolt! By no means was every shot a hit, but our shooting sure improved after a few hundred rounds. The rancher kept offering us free ammunition, which we declined, since we were just grateful to help out.
 
The do gooders and the government wouldn't allow using effective poison back then. When I first went to the Mankota area, a farmer took me to a pea field. His words, "Now, this is a pea field, but you won't know it until you go further into the field." Gophers had eaten everything, leaving black dirt. The poor man was heartbroken. He told me one more year and he was packing it in.

A buddy and I went back in 2007. One day, we spent two hours in a vacant farm yard with shotguns, blasting gophers. After that, we walked down an old road for a half mile, shooting gophers in the grass on both sides. We shot our way back, too.
 
Fourth day. Shot in a different field this morning. Took the afternoon off and went back to the first field about 5:00. Still lots there, shot until 7:00.
 
Fifth day. Shot in the same field, plus another one, then back to the original field around 5:00. Shot there until shortly after 7:00. I would find a spot where a few were running around, park, sit on my little chair in the shade and shoot 10-20, then move on.

Haven't kept count but likely well over 1000 now. Working on my third brick of .22, plus about four boxes of .22 mag and .17hmr.

I'll shoot for a while tomorrow, then head off home. My Bushman Special served me well. So did my American .22. Barrels didn't fall off. I have new American Red and St. Patrick 455's at home waiting to get to work. They may have to wait for next season, other than target shooting.
 
Heading out near Saskatchewan this Saturday. My Uncle, who farms in the area, has a good patch scouted out for us. He told me to bring lots of shells. Taking a CZ452 22 and a 17hmr. Not sure whether to bring the CZ453 varmint in 17hmr or the Savage A17.
 
Sixth day, and I'm done! Started on the fourth brick of .22. Pretty much cleaned them off the one field. Probably shot 1000+ in that field of maybe 80 acres. There's probably 500 badger holes there, too! Saw one badger yesterday evening poking around, but he didn't like the gunfire and retired to the grass.

I am really happy with my Bushman Special. It has a 3-9x40 meant for a muzzle loader. Ultimateslam I think it's called. Funny reticle setup, but I've grown to like it. I kept it set on 4x.

This has been a memorable six days. I have been in some major gopher shoots in my day, but this one tops them all. I keep forgetting to bring my knee pads. My left knee is sore from resting my elbow on it. My little folding stool worked great. Is is low enough to be able to rest my elbow on my knee and spread my feet a bit to give a reasonable shooting posture. And yes, I have tried a shooting stick and found it to be a pain in the butt.
 
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