Southern Alberta Gopher Patch?

caljay30

caljay30

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On the flip side, AB
I know spring provides the best shooting, but it's never too late for some gopher shooting. Does anyone know of a farmer/rancher in Southern Alberta that has too many gophers and not enough time to shoot them? I know Calgary has more than a few interested shooters and thought I'd see if anyone knew of a good place? or do we all have to drive to sask? :rolleyes:

... I know some of you have your own private chunk of gopher paradise, but could you use some help? :p
 
Just drive south or east and get away from the major roads. You will see countless fields just begging for you to set up in. Find the nearest farm and ask politely. You WILL find someone, guaranteed!
 
Like Anglinfool said, go for a drive south east or south west of Calgary and you will find fields with gophers in them. It is usually not hard to get permission for private land, but you will likely have more success if you travel a little farther away from Calgary. The areas to the west of the Nanton / Claresholm corridor have a lot of gophers.

If you are looking for crown land, there are gophers in the Forest Reserve areas in the Porcupine Hills SW of Claresholm. This area is used by campers, off roaders, etc., so sometimes a little bit of common sense / courtesy is required. If you are familiar with hunting big game in Alberta, WMUs 400 and 402 also have a lot of crown land with gophers.
 
I live in the area that these guys talk about...south west of High River. Right now...to be honest with you is not a good time. It's freaking hot and there are not that many gophers out. Just like us, they prefer the coolness of their hole. In my area, my buddy/neighbour and I have hit them real hard over the last three years. We were once infested, and I mean bad. Shooting 3000 each per season has brought them somewhat under control. So my advise to you, considering the price of gas versus what you'll get out of it, don't bother. If things were so bad that we didn't control it, I'd call you for sure.
 
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gitrdun is correct. I went all the way to the Alberta border to my grandfathers farm at Del Bonita, then up to Magrath and over to Raymond, Taber and then to Brooks and Camrose. All relatives farms and for a three day hunt I got 27 gophers and that was it. You can count that many gophers on 50th street between Whitemud freeway and 101 Ave. in Edmonton. Southern Alberta is basically under control. There might be the odd pocket of good ground here and there but that is it. I have been trying to get some names in Saskatchewan, contacted various farm/government agencies and so far no luck, just the run around. They are screaming and hollering for gopher hunters, you step up to the plate and buttkiss, nothing , nada. I almost feel like calling the farmer in the news article and asking him, if I am still getting the run around from the government by the weekend then I will call him and get some info. If I do find anything out I will post it (with the farmers permission of course).
 
Just got back from a weekend in Strathmore. Over two days on various farms, my buddy and I got 30 gophers. Not too many out right now given the hot weather and also, unless the farmer has recently cut the grass, the gophers are hidden.
 
Victor16 that is exactly my point, you should have had 300 or more to shoot at. I know down south alot were killed by the wet spring so before you go running off somewhere I would at least talk to the landowners in the area to make sure there are gophers to shoot. I am talking about Alberta and by news reports it is supposed to be over run in southern Sask. more like what Alberta usually is. The price of gas is the main concern, don't want to spend 300-500 bucks traveling all over the place for two dozen gophers.
 
Three years ago when the infestation was on, my buddy and I would fumble around for loaded clips, we could not reload fast enough. The shooting was furious. And you're right, a lot of them died off in the flood waters, but not all. To this day, I'm still filling holes they made in my lawn and my pastures. They're still here, but we have thinned them out to more sensible levels. If we were to quit shooting entirely for one year, we would be infested again. Back then, my neighbour was thinking of hiring this fellow that comes out of Lethbridge with a propane device which either burns them out or blows' em up, I can't remember. I talked him out of it and into shooting instead. I heard something as of late about the gopher shooting controversy being revived again. Those people who promote such idiotic ideas as not shooting gophers are mental midgets who probably live in a condo and have never seen how they can turn a good pasture into moonscape.
 
Those people who promote such idiotic ideas as not shooting gophers are mental midgets who probably live in a condo and have never seen how they can turn a good pasture into moonscape.


Couldn't have said it better myself. I was taking a break for lunch and decided to stop into a 7-11 to get a coke and eat my sandwiches. Just from my truck I counted 22 gophers running around on a field right where new construction was going on, right behind the 7-11. I was about 10 minutes into the lunch break when this lady pulls up in a car and gets out with a loaf of bread in her hand. I couldn't believe it when she started to break the pieces of bread and throw them on the mounds. She waited about 5 minutes and then got out a camera and started to take pictures of them. I wish I had my pictures of a few gopher hunts, she would have had a heart attack for sure.

There was a guy selling the gophinator (something like that) that would pump ammonia gas I think it was down the holes. It was heavier than air and would stay down there so in theory you would walk around to each hole and quirt a shot into it and go to the next one. I guess it worked well but I am not sure what happened to it or the company because I haven't heard anything about it for a couple of years. Probably the animal rights freaks got to them.
 
Now now... lets not throw away all the hope for us gopher hunters. While I'd like a patch near Calgary, my parents land up by rocky still has tons of them. I just talked to them today and they said they are everywhere still (but so are the houses that surround the land and reduce the fun). While the last couple of weeks have been hot, it could turn cool again anytime and make for a few more weeks of good shooting. If it's on pasture then the cows will have hopefully mowed down the grass enough to see them. Oh and it's haying season so the grass should be cut down by now...

Plus I just might get myself an 870 this weekend, then just have to shoot in the direction of those whistles :p
 
Alot of the fields around here are full of gophers but becuase of the rain/sun, the cattle are not able to keep up with the growth fast enough in the larger pastures to allow shooting.
 
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