So for the last few weeks, I had put my recently-acquired TOZ-17 through it's paces hunting Colombian ground squirrels around our farm. I was successful in nailing five of them in a week long period, but The only problem now is that they are getting scarce.
And so, I am curious about hunting tactics. So far I just walk around and try to "spot and shoot" them before they run off and hide.
There is probably a very limited amount of columbian ground squirrels on your farm and you have already shot them down to near zero. That is my thoughts on it, anyway.
When it was legal in BC to shoot them on crown land, a few of us used to go above timberline to hunt them. There were four or five different alpine areas we used to go to. At first the grassy alpine was loaded with them. We all used centre fire rifles, I used a 270 and we never shot at them less than a hundred yards, preferring 200. After about three years of making maybe only one, or at the most, two trips a year to each area, the ground squirrels were in sharp decline, in all the areas we hunted.
I felt bad about this, and personally quit shooting them. Thankfully, within a year or two, they were, and are, on the protected list.
Of course, we just assumed it was our shooting that reduced their numbers. But here is the chilling part. In the alpine area where they once were the most plentiful, they are still very little above the zero level, thirty years after they were no longer hunted! In fact, just a year ago I was up there and failed to see a single fresh burrow.
As far as I am aware of, there has never been any recent research in BC on these animals.
And all the various granola eating save the animal groups are so hung up on trying to stop hunting, that they completely ignore animals that hunters don't hunt.
