Where are the Gophers ???

bugsy5

bugsy5

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
12   0   0
Location
B.C. Interior
Have not seen a gopher in two seasons now. No road-kill, nothing in the pastures. Where are they/what happened ???
Some golfing friends said they have seen a few on the local golf course, but that is it. Not sure if they were pulling my chain or not...

Around the Edmonton area.
 
Was out by Bruderhiem last weekend, none out that way. 2-3 years ago we had a mighty good time many a weekend. We did run into moose, bear & deer...just the wrong time for them & they know it!
 
bugsy5 said:
Have not seen a gopher in two seasons now. No road-kill, nothing in the pastures. Where are they/what happened ???
Some golfing friends said they have seen a few on the local golf course, but that is it. Not sure if they were pulling my chain or not...

Around the Edmonton area.
Click to expand...

Been too wet for the little buggars, the last few years, I've seen very few around here. This dry spell seems to have changed that. Got one on the highway the other day, :) and one of the neighbors even has them in his canola fields. Grasshoppers are making a comeback as well. Not good, if you're a farmer.

Grizz
 
The central area where I'm from has been almost devoid of the rodents for 4 or 5 yrs now. last year I saw one critter, this year I've saw 2. Haven't seen a dead one on the hi-way in 3 years. I think there has been a disease of some sort go though them in certain areas of the province while other areas seem unaffected.

When I was younger, in the area I'm talking about, it was common for a buddy and I to go though a couple of bricks of shells any day we wanted too.
 
The weather affected gopher populations in SW SK over the past few years. My buddy and I found a good spot not far from home, and the the old lady who owns the farm is overjoyed at us doing our civic duty by sending the cute little creatures to a better place. Gopher patches are.... well.... patchy of late.

I love it when the do-gooders whine about us murdering hillbillys kill the poor little tykes, but are the first and loudest to complain when the gophers start chewing up their precious golf courses and kiddies' soccer fields.

In 2006 and a bit later, I shot gophers in the Mankota-Kincaid area until I was blue in the face. There were literally millions of them, causing a lot of crop and pasture damage. After a couple of years of shooting, one poor farmer told me that it was actually getting some positive results. The first year I shot in his area, the man was in tears when he showed me to a couple of fields. Between the gophers and lack of rain, some of the fields were so bare that I had to ask what crop was there. Some woman phoned in to a talk show and wondered why the gophers needed to be killed. She thought they should be relocated. I "relocated" a few thousand.:p
 
Was out again Friday. This time I took the 20 vartarg, and sat back around 200 yards and sniped some. The 32gr Blitzking at 3650fps does a great job.

20150724_161924.jpg
 
I was out today to a new pasture I received permission for. Little guys are tough as nails to see when the grass and weeds are as much as 3 ft. tall in spots but I managed to shoot about 1/3 brick .22 ammo in an hour and a half to two hours and sent well over 100 to gopher heaven. I put a BX-22 trigger in my 10/22 and this was the first outing. What a difference in accuracy due to the nicer trigger especially on 75-100 yard shots. Sure had a good time shooting the little pests today.
Not quite the damage of stubblejumpers weapon of choice but still dead nonetheless......I just leave a bigger meal for the scavengers.....;)
 
i agree with the spank. Gophers are everywhere! in east central AB this year. a few days ago i went out for an afternoon and by myself managed to deflate 348 of them! near the end i started to get creative and decided to try to get some action shots with the 222 and my Nikon SLR camera.




Mods feel free to delete if you deem this distastefull.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom