Is it too early to dream about Gopher season?

Got my first kill with my new lil rifle.

1022%20first%20kill_zpsnnp6fusl.jpg


shot only about 15 today.
 
I like 223 a lot but I think I agree bout the noise issue. I've been fighting with the idea of buying a 17 hornet Perfect gopher splatter machine less noisy

While I won't talk you out of the 17hornet, Every varmint addict needs one. If you've got a .223 and are shooting around residences you should check out "The Gopher load" by James Calhoun. Quiet, deadly and cheap.

Keep the pics coming, hope you guys start seeing good numbers soon. Might be the first year in 15 or so I might not be in the gopher fields. Gonna need pics to live vicariously through y'all.
 
Slow day today. First pasture zero sightings, moved to another regular, fourth time this year, only got twenty. Too hot, they were smarter than me, chillin' in the basement. The ones I tagged were mostly with segmented Win 555. Results are DRT, hardly a twitch.
 
Slow day today. First pasture zero sightings, moved to another regular, fourth time this year, only got twenty. Too hot, they were smarter than me, chillin' in the basement. The ones I tagged were mostly with segmented Win 555. Results are DRT, hardly a twitch.

^sounds awesome! Any pics? Curious to see how those segmented bullets do. As for the "too hot" comment~I wish. About 6C and hour 35 of non-stop rain. Supposed to snow Sunday morning. Should be groundhog hunting tomorrow, might be building an ark instead!
 
Shot about 50 today here in a blessed/cursed horse pasture. Not sure how many my cousin shot. But the cattle pastures on the same property are ridiculous. Three years ago myself and 3 others shot 700 in one day in between the three connected pastures. No joke. I'm going to count exactly this time to establish a record and see how many we get. But I'm bringing three bricks just in case.
 
Got about a dozen after dinner tonight.

This shot should give a good idea of why I'm partial to the CCI high velocity SHP's...

cz_gopher_cci_shp.jpg
 
How far are you reaching out with .222?

I'm curious, because I want to add a .223 bolt varminter to the locker, and with handloads you can achieve roughly the same performance between .222 and .223
 
Hit the Mother Load today. Shot over 300. Will only say Southern Alberta. Marlin 795 semi mostly then later bought out the CZ 452 Varmint. Amazing accuracy. 2 magpies, 1 at over 200m. Lucky shot but still. We could have easily shot more but as the day went on we got picky and only shot over 25m and full sized ones. Little ones are out in full force and dumb. Anything in the cross hairs of the CZ at under 150m was stew.
 
How far are you reaching out with .222?

I'm curious, because I want to add a .223 bolt varminter to the locker, and with handloads you can achieve roughly the same performance between .222 and .223

Have not shot past 200yards in the field yet. But i was able to achieve minute of gopher to 300 yards pretty consistent at my local range(longest distance you can shoot there)
 
Have not shot past 200yards in the field yet. But i was able to achieve minute of gopher to 300 yards pretty consistent at my local range(longest distance you can shoot there)

Sounds about right - from personal experience "effective field range" is about 1/2 to 2/3 of what you can pull off at a range at known distances under ideal conditions.
 
A 300 yard shot on a gopher with a .223 is a very good shot. I pat myself on the back for hitting groundhogs at that distance...and they're over 10x the size. lol
 
Heading out again Wednesday for the last Gopher Hunt of the season. Grass is getting too long. The cattle in this one particular spot have been keeping it short so they are visible. Only taking the CZ Varmint this time. Going for the longer range ones. Hopefully the little ones are bigger and smarter than they were 2 weeks ago. Stay posted.
 
Photos~looking forward to them. :) I'm visiting AB next month with the Mrs., and while it won't' be a gopher trip...the plan is to take an afternoon and pay them a visit. I will post results. :)
 
Heading out again Wednesday for the last Gopher Hunt of the season. Grass is getting too long. The cattle in this one particular spot have been keeping it short so they are visible. Only taking the CZ Varmint this time. Going for the longer range ones. Hopefully the little ones are bigger and smarter than they were 2 weeks ago. Stay posted.

Last of the season? Heck, I'll be shooting in the pastures well into July, and even a little in August.
 
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