shooting gophers

Where I shoot, the rancher's son goes out with his 22 a lot. So when I go, I take CF rifles and set up 100 to 300 yds away. 204, 222, 223, 22 250 and 6mm Rem all work well. Will take the 17 HMR out but at the price of ammo and how the wind affects it, has not seen a lot of use this year. I shoot a lot of reduced loads of 40gr VMax and 4895 out of the 223s, mostly the 100ish yd shots. Have a couple lbs of blue dot to use up, so will work on loads with it latter this fall when the bugs go away.
 
I've used the .22LR, the .22 mag, the 17 HMR, the 243 Win, the 240 Gordy and the 7 RM. The 240 Gordy was a 70 grain Ballistic Tip at 3950 fps. Suffice to say it provided explosive results.
 
DOUGLAS D said:
In a thick gopher patch 22 LR hollow points.
Started the morning with 2 of us shooting and a full 500 brick.
Broke for lunch at noon and drove into town for another brick.
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Agree! The craziest infested quarter I dealt with when younger took three of us a few days at a 2-3 bricks a piece a day to deal with. Bandaids and electrical tape on tender fingers from all the reloading. We figured it was about 4000 of the little pricks by the time we couldn’t find anymore to shoot. Then headed to another quarter which was almost as good and sorted it out similar in following weekends. Got two albinos off one mound during that fest. Hollow points helped keep the zingers down.

.17 hmr is most satisfying but pricey, and also good to have a weihrauch hw30s .177 pellet gun for the delicate spots, on paper that 17hm2 sounds like the ideal match up but never tried one, wasn’t sure it would survive, the hmr doubles down on coyotes and beavers for typical round the property control and it’s survived well
 
When I was living on the farm in the 70's a .17 Remington Ackley Improved was my favorite for gophers... previously to that a .22 LR with hollow points was my favorite from 1949 through the 60's. Remember the Whiz-Bangs...
 
I Dont Care About You said:
I have shot way more gophers with 22 rimfire than anything else. It is the most cost efficient round.

I have a 17 Fireball that is super fun on gophers as well. Then anything from 222 to 243 or so is also good fun on gophers. It all comes down to cost, range, terminal effects and shooting volume.

I'd say the 17 Fireball and 6BR are my favourites, but the old 22 rimfire is still prob the king of varmint shooting.
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You talk about cost then mention 3 calibers that are expensive rifles if you can afford a 17 fireball cost should not enter into the picture
 
Remington .22lr 36grain golden bullets hollow points 1200fps. Depending on your rifle, looking at 2-3moa, so 150meters is probably the limit of 1 shot accuracy. If using in pistol or shorter barrels, ear pro is necessary. Longer barrels like 20 might be ok on hearing. Hits are effective on gophers. I have not gotten light strikes in rifles, but pistol with weaker hammer sometimes get it after the chamber starts to gum up.

I've noticed HV ammo really should have noise suppressors. Suppressors in general seem essential.

I just picked up some mexican aguila. I hope it performs similarly.

2 cents.
 
cath8r said:
What's a 240 Gordy? Sounds pretty ###y.
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Push the the .243 Win reamer is to create a chamber with the same length as the 6mm Remington. Neck down 7x57 brass creating a secondary shoulder and fireform. Voila, the 240 Gordy. I dreamt this up back when I wanted a hot 6mm but couldn't afford either a custom reamer nor custom dies.
 
For me, .22 LR is king of the gopher patch, always was and always will be. I have shot them with my 6mm PPC and .223. Prefer the Winchester bulk HP ammo, not match grade but minute of gopher, still relatively inexpensive, especially when you are going through 500+ rounds in an afternoon.
 
Sk used to make a hv hp. Prophet river carried it. It's now discontinued. The stuff was unbelievable. Shot better than any other hi volocity ammo I've ever tried and I've tried them all. It was unreal in a gopher patch with a properly built 1022. You could go 100s of shots out to 80-100 yards with no misses. It typically grouped 10 rounds into .5 to 5/8. The closest thing made today is the eley hv hp. More money and doesn't quite shoot as good. Back then we paid 90 bucks a brick for the sk stuff while any old cheap bull hp was 50 to 60 bucks so it wasn't bad at all.

Try a 17 hornet with 20 gr v max on gophers. It's something else.
 
Sometimes the babies and females don’t come out until mid June. I have been noticing less gophers in my area as well though. Spots that used to be easy 150 kill afternoons are now 40 gopher days. Makes me really bare down when I do see one so I don’t miss.
 
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