Too Many Gophers

Donny Fenn1 said:
K98-yes they are allowed to hunt their own land
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I was always told that if you own land and post it for NO HUNTING, THEN NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO HUNT IT NOT EVEN THE LAND OWNER. SO what your saying is they can have there own private hunting refuge , post it so no one else can hunt, and then shoot the deer you wounded that you were tracking as it crossed onto their lane.. BS TO THAT I SAY...

Anyhow I HAVE NOT HEARD #### FROM ANY LAND OWNERS YET... WHERE ARE YOU.... Your a part of this wheather you like it or not...
 
Rick65Cat said:
I lived in Ottawa and shot those big buggers as well with a .22 long rifle.
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i used to use a 10/22 when i was younger but switched to .223 because the groundhogs were too big for it to kill them all instantly unless they were headshot - even with Stingers :eek:
since you generally shoot them half poking out of their holes, if they dont die instantly they crawl back in and get away :(

id love to try a .308 with handloaded super-light varmint bullets but apparently theres a caliber restriction in much of the area we go to shoot so i guess ill have to pick up a .243 or .22-250 if i want more oomph.
 
Suputin said:
What have you been smoking?

Do you want to eat gopher? Do you want to skin hundreds of little furry rats? What makes you think anyone else would? How exactly do you suggest the recovery of hundreds upon hundreds of small brass casings spread out over a few hundred acres of grassland?

Why not STFU about something you clearly know nothing about?
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Gee Golly wiz... Show this much disrespect for other peoples land as you do members here, and you can be sure of not getting invited back, and possibly messing it up for others. :rolleyes:

Once again I'll point out more clearly that I'm totally supporting this endeavour, and think it is a great idea.

My suggestion to find use for the meat, and the fur is not unfounded, and our neighbours to the south have plenty of recipes for the critters.

And yes slob hunters get noticed over little things like brass casings all over the place.
I guess only us folks out here in BC are taught to leave no trace when out hunting. :rolleyes:
 
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Calum said:
My suggestion to find use for the meat, and the fur is not unfounded, and our neighbours to the south have plenty of recipes for the critters.
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awh, come on man...
if you were shooting rats at a dump, would you 'find a use for the meat'? :D
this is pretty much just the next step in hunting - they are pests.

although i do agree - you should clean up - always.
i always pick up spent casings (not .22LR though), and kick the groundhogs back down their holes so they are out of sight, and there isnt some horrorshow of blown apart groundhogs all across the farmers field for their wives and kids to find.

my personal pet-peeve is people who leave shotgun shell hulls all over people's land. if someone left a few .223 cases on my land i wouldnt mind so much, but big bright red frikken 12ga hulls? come on. what, you 'couldnt see them'? :slap:
i actually had someone tell me that once: 'i couldnt find them'. if you cant find 12ga hulls you just ejected, you might want to put the gun down until you get your bloody eyes checked. every time i hike through county forests i see the trails littered with hulls, and its so disrespectful.
 
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although i do agree - you should clean up - always.
i always pick up spent casings (not .22LR though), and kick the groundhogs back down their holes so they are out of sight, and there isnt some horrorshow of blown apart groundhogs all across the farmers field for their wives and kids to find.
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I agree with you to a point MBP, Its kinda hard though not impossible to police your shooting area. I have always saved my .204 brass because I knew I would be getting into reloading. And even if I wasn't I'd still save that brass because I know I could sell it to freinds who use that calibre. Also, its a bolt gun. Real easy to put the brass back in the box that way.
But my .22 is an semi and when I'm walking a field and shooting free hand, that brass gets tossed a long way. Yes, its leaving a small mess every shot or two from one spot but lets be honest, in the excitement of the shoot and with multiple targets, (at least where I shoot there is) are you going to stop and search for 5 minutes for a couple of .22 casings every time? I know you haven't a problem with .22 that comment is for others.
As for kicking the carcass down the hole? Well...I always figure the hawks and coyotes would be thanking me for leaving them out. Kinda baits the 'yotes into the area too IMHO.
 
our neighbours to the south have plenty of recipes for the meat- don't think so, unless it's under squirrel or something- i used 4 different search engines including the north american native cookbook( which SHOULD have it if it's edible- they're got roots, berries and just about everything else) and came up with 1 ONE- that tells me it's INEDIBLE or there's risk associated with it- even squirrel has only a few- now it could be the fact that they're omnivours, basically scavanger rodents - like eating eagle, crow, or any of the scavengers- if you've got recipes, please prove me wrong
 
:)what about shooting on crown land, plenty of that still around

BTW great pic

pdog2.jpg
 
I was always told that if you own land and post it for NO HUNTING, THEN NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO HUNT IT NOT EVEN THE LAND OWNER. SO what your saying is they can have there own private hunting refuge , post it so no one else can hunt, and then shoot the deer you wounded that you were tracking as it crossed onto their lane.. BS TO THAT I SAY...
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So you don't think that someone who OWNS the land should be able to control that land? That they shouldn't be allowed to say who goes on the land and who doesn't? You own your home, should I be able to come in any time and do what I want? Land is PRIVATE PROPERTY, the owners can allow or restrict access as they wish.

We hunt on land that is marked "No Hunting" because we have permission from the landowner. They can recind that permision any time they want.

Gee Golly wiz... Show this much disrespect for other peoples land as you do members here, and you can be sure of not getting invited back, and possibly messing it up for others.
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OK ....... Except we have been shooting on a huge track of land just outside Calgary for close to ten years now and the landowners love us. They want to know why we don't come out more. Because we kill lots of gophers and we close gates after us .... one of the farmer's biggest pet peaves.

But the next time we go out shooting you are welcome to come along to police us. I would defy anyone to try to find a single emtpy case in a 200 acre grass field even after 500+ rounds have been expended. In about ten years of varminting no farmer has ever commented on brass cases left behind because they never see them.

The concept of finding a use for the hide and meat is lefty, urban, animal lover BS. These are vermin by the tens of thousands. Shooting them helps the farmer and is better for the environment than poisoning. It also helps feed the local raptor population as well as coyotes, weasels and the gophers themselves (yes they are carnivorous). We have shot upto a thousand gophers in a single field, gone back the next day and not a single carcass was visible. Nothing goes to waste.

This is the scope of what I am talking about. Do you think a few handfulls of rimfire brass could be found spread across this field?
Varminting1.JPG


How about this field? BTW That is about a 130yd shot with a rimfire. :)
Varminting3.jpg


This is a single gopher hole. None of the kills were moved from where they fell. In a good day 2-3 guys can kill 1000+ gophers.
Varminting2.JPG


Farmers don't care about a few brass cases left in the grass but they do care A LOT if you shoot their horses.
Horses.jpg
 
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K98ACTION said:
I was always told that if you own land and post it for NO HUNTING, THEN NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO HUNT IT NOT EVEN THE LAND OWNER. SO what your saying is they can have there own private hunting refuge , post it so no one else can hunt, and then shoot the deer you wounded that you were tracking as it crossed onto their lane.. BS TO THAT I SAY...

Anyhow I HAVE NOT HEARD s**t FROM ANY LAND OWNERS YET... WHERE ARE YOU.... Your a part of this wheather you like it or not...
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i'm a landowner, and you may become the first person i put on ignore
 
Great pics Suputin, those HAVE to be in Alberta :D Now thats .204 country....reach out and touch a gopher...from a lonnnng ways off.
 
Great pics Suputin, those HAVE to be in Alberta Now thats .204 country....reach out and touch a gopher...from a lonnnng ways off.
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We hunt within 40 minutes of Calgary. I'm not familiar with the .204 but out here you want bullets with a bit more BC to deal with the wind and the distance.

I had a .243 for long range work but it tended to heat the barrel a bit too fast. I now use a 6BR wildcat. The 223 is also a good choice for higher volume shooting.
 
Suputin said:
We hunt within 40 minutes of Calgary. I'm not familiar with the .204 but out here you want bullets with a bit more BC to deal with the wind and the distance.

I had a .243 for long range work but it tended to heat the barrel a bit too fast. I now use a 6BR wildcat. The 223 is also a good choice for higher volume shooting.
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Sure is beautiful country, what direction from calgary? South?
 
at one of the places i shoot there used to be a horse that would eat the dead gophers, never could figure that out, except maybe the semi-digested grass that was exposed when the little buggers blew up was appealling...?
 
manbearpig said:
awh, come on man...
if you were shooting rats at a dump, would you 'find a use for the meat'? :D
this is pretty much just the next step in hunting - they are pests.
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These are not dump rats, these are free range non-medicated rodents, no different then rabbits...Slow cooker, or stew pot, just add BBQ sause. :D

Suputin said:
The concept of finding a use for the hide and meat is lefty, urban, animal lover BS.
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O'rly? :rolleyes:

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&s...=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=Groundhog+recipes&spell=1
 
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they aren't GROUNDHOGS- they're RICHARDSON GROUND SQURRELS- ALSO KNOWN AS GOPHERS- different beast entirely- and we don't eat jacks either- anyway, i'm done with this thread
 
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