Gophers

Longstud said:
About 71/2’-8’ was the record launch if memory serves!! Haha it was epic and the precision disectioning by MrBill with his 17HMR was very memorable. The accommodations await our return at the Fischer ranch. My favourite is still my Vudoo with Zeiss LRP in the Mdt XRS. Would like to see what a hollow point slug at 975 fps out of a PCP Airgun performs on the little dirt squirrels. I think there may be some 17M2s show themselves this year.View attachment 1072803
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I watched Chris’ Vudoo do lobotomies at 175-225 yards, laser verified. Shooting very expensive premium .22LR ammo as if it was the gopher Olympics !! …22LR Guy is still grinning 7 months latter…Yes, we are flying back to saskatchewan and that limits the amount of rifles you can bring. When i drove 32 hours I could bring out 6-7 rifles and cases of ammo(gas mileage suffered) but now I leave 2 rimfires out there and avoid airline hassles and extra costs not to mention having my toys damaged in transit.

And the silver lining in going out to Sask is seeing our old friends out there. Sharing stories, having some drinks and eating some of the best bbqd black angus steaks in the world. Think about it every day !!!!
 
skwerl said:
Nice lookin gun Chris , we don have Badgers round here , never thought of them as pests .
don they eat gofers
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The farmers asked our group to dispatch any that we could. They excavate giant holes that make things dangerous and expensive with the costly machinery required. Theyre earth moving machines that make massive deep holes everywhere. I noticed many that like it under the grain bins. they can easily move enough dirt to damage the foundations for these massive Silos/Bins. Walking around in the dark would be very hazardous as well as driving over one in a vehicle.
 
skwerl said:
Nice lookin gun Chris , we don have Badgers round here , never thought of them as pests .
don they eat gofers
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They do in fact eat gophers, and have such a voracious appetite for them they've been known to dig through frozen ground to kill hibernating ones. I've had land owners in AB tell me that as much as they hate gophers, badgers are the bigger menace because of the size of the holes. They said badgers show-up when the gopher populations get too high... Gophers can do enough damage with rock piles, holes, chewing-down young, newly-seeded fields, undermining fence posts, etc. but cows have more or less figured out how to avoid them. Where bigger gopher holes are concerned, it's often horses that are the concern because of the fact that they play. (run, run forward while not looking forward, etc.)

Badger-sized holes are a problem.

The last fellow I knew who shot a badger with a 22 hit it as it charged him. He was using a 10/22, the badger already had a gopher in its mouth....and still got up and kept charging my buddy anyway. He kept shooting until the badger stopped, I have that photo somewhere. Dead badger with a dead gopher in its mouth...but 10 imperfect shots of HV ammo.

LongStud=one shot with a subsonic round. Beauty.
 
skwerl said:
Nice lookin gun Chris , we don have Badgers round here , never thought of them as pests .
don they eat gofers
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Yes they do but it’s not worth letting them kill gophers for the amount of damage they do in that process. Holes big enough for a tractor tire to go down in to. My self and every other framer and rancher I know hate badgers more then gophers.
 
Shot many thousands of gophers with a .22 LR starting when I was about 6.
But later in life my favorite was a little heavy barrel .17 Remington Improved on a small Sako action, Shilen barrel, and a 10x Lyman scope.
A real solid 250 yard killer... so flat shooting and capable of 1/4 inch groups.
The best was 3 gopher side by side appeared to be eating on another gopher... on the side of a mound... about 100 yards. I held on the middle one... he went about 10 feet straight up and the gophers on each side rolled over dead. Shooting late in the day into the sunlight a shot gopher would appear in a 10 foot circle of red mist with pieces in all directions.

Badgers are bad news for most farmers, Dad almost tipped a tractor over when a tire dropped into a Badger hole. Horses easily break legs too.
 
Grew up about 5 miles east of the east side of what is the East block of Grasslands National park right along the border. School was 60 miles away and our bus was a Ford panel van. Badgers are definitely a problem. Had a badger try and rip apart the front tire of the bus as we went by one time along a dirt road cut. It had dug a hole in the cut and did not like the bus going by. Our driver stopped and backed up over it but it kept going at the tire so he just drove on.
Went back to a friends ranch to shoot gophers one weekend a couple years ago. Got 450 myself and my friend was a bit less. I brought 3 500 round bricks on the plane with me. A pain to get them on the plane in Toronto but a breeze coming back. Culture clash for sure.
My friends neighbours wife had shot 1400 by the time I got out there. Many thousands were still running around. As a kid I had a CIL bolt rifle that shot anything for ammo and a Bushnell scope. This time I had a CZ455. Lots of backflipping gophers. Sat at an old farmstead in the badlands in a lawnchair with a set of shooting sticks and whistled to have them stand up and flipped them over. Lovely weekend...... Going to do it again this summer but drive out west and camp in the badlands. My friends have a remote cabin they said I could use and will likely bring a telescope and mount with me. Definitely miss Saskatchewan where the #### is on the outside of the boots instead of the inside with most of the people in government.
 

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My gopher guns are factory stock CZ 455's, 457's in 22lr and 17HMR. Also do some with a shotgun, semi auto. I think I have 8 455's, and 4 457's. I've been in some serious gopher shoots, especially back around 2006 in the Mankota area. Lately, there have been some good shoots as well.
 
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JJ-65 said:
The badgers didn’t hibernate this winter, shot 2 more today and the gophers are starting to emerge with all this warm weather
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Where are you? Alberta? I have been busy this week in the city helping a guy with a project, but that’s been on my mind if any have been out around my place with the warm weather. Been getting home late in the evening to dark and cold to be checking.
 
kjohn said:
My gopher guns are factory stock CZ 455's, 457's in 22lr and 17HMR. Also do some with a shotgun, semi auto. I think I have 8 455's, and 4 457's. I've been in some serious gopher shoots, especially back around 2006 in the Mankota area. Lately, there have been some good shoots as well.
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I ‘lived’ at the Grasslands Inn in Mankota May/June 2020 while shooting gophers on various local ranches. Loved it. Had a place to come back to every other night for a shower, real food and a bed (instead of sleeping on the front seat of my truck). Great people, great hospitality, great memories.

Over the years I brought out Coopers, Kimbers, Volquartsens, Sako, Tikkas in every flavour from 22lr, 17HM2, 17HMR, 25/06Rem and 338Lapua. There were days when you would go through a brick of 22’s before 10am and then another 500 rounds before dusk. Rotated the rimfire rifles so the barrels wouldn’t overheat…while drinking leftover cold coffee and chewing on a day old sub sandwich. It was fantastic!!!!
 

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I have had days when I have burned through a brick of 17 HMR plus a brick of 22 LR, just plain fun and the land owners love it and if you take out a few badgers along the way it's just a bonus :D trigger time is good anytime
 
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