Your go to gopher cartridge?

17 mach2 to about 125 yards, then the 20 vartarg out to about 300 yards, then the 20 tactical when it gets down to who can hit one at the longest distance.
 
I like 7.62x54 with a cast bullet, but again it's a lot of handloading for high volume gophers!
RY6hWB.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]
 
Well when we had any appreciable amount of ground hogs here in Ontario I used a 22mag. It topples them over just fine. From reading this thread it seems the 22mag has fallen out of favor to the 17 hmr. I bought a Win 9422M when they first came out, before that I had a 22mag pump.
 
When i was in AB it was my ruger #1 in 458LOTT with a cast 500gr pill Sometimes the ruger 77/44 came out and once in a blue moon the 22lr

:)
 
Brian46 said:
50bmg
Click to expand...

You get on a good pasture and you'll burn a brick or two of 22lr in a day. Try that at $8 or better per round. If your banker doesn't call in your loan first all that noise from that big gun firing 500 - 1000 rounds in a day should have the DND concerned and they will be sending an air strike your way!! Either way, financial or hiding from an air strike your day of gophering has been terminated......;):p
 
My buddy's and I have been known to take our 45-70's out to show those dirty little b*stards who's boss. But last year it was pretty much .22lr and .223 exclusively..... this year I'm breaking out my new B-mag .17 WSM heavy barrel to do the job...
 
Last edited:
I always enjoy a patched .50cal round ball over 60gr of FFFg, bowls them over in a dramatic fashion if you aim good and low :)

....but my .22 gets the job done faster and cheaper.
 
Many years ago when you could do these sorts of things with out the OPP swat team showing up I used to use the 30-06 now and then with hand loaded 110gr hollow points. If the ground hog was half way out of the hole and you aimed just at ground level it would raise the ground hog out of the hole about 3ft and he would split into 3 pieces at the same time. Had this happen on several occasions when the circumstance were just right.
 
.22LR is the classic, of which I have a 452 Varmint with a Bushnell 4-12x40 mounted on it.

.17 Hornet is the new addition to the stable, a CZ 527 Varmint with a Nikon 3.5-14x50.

I am absolutely itching to get out and touch a few with the .17! Hopefully they reproduce like mad this year, and the weather cooperates!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom