Gopher report from east of the mountains

[Double D]

25-30 mph winds out of the east with heavier gust Saturday so  we went out and looked for  gophers. Fired 48 shots of17 HM2. Wind was really bothering those little bullets, had 4 misses. One was a silly shot to take--a Rock chuck at about 200 yards, head only and my friend couldn't see it.  Shot hit low and splattered rock chips in his face.  As he was was shaking the dust out of his eyes my friend finished him off with his 22-250 Ackley. 

That shot gave me confidence to take on a second chuck about 150 yard with little 17, whack head shot...It was a bit strange holding on the  New York side of the gophers instead of the mountain side in that east wind

When we went out my friend was feeling sorry for me shooting the 17HM2 in the wind...he was pretty quiet an hour later as he unloaded a 10-22 magazine at one gopher...finished the afternoon eating his barbecued elk steaks...great afternoon with a good friend.

[Cottonwood]

Sounds good, I  haven't been out gophin yet.... 

[2ndtimer]

Any update on the gophers?  I am headed to Chester on Saturday.  My farmer told me the "young uns" are appearing.  Perfect timing.  More dumber targets, shoot them before they get big enough to do more damage to the crops!  I just hope the weather cooperates and the winds are less than 20 mph.

[Graybeard]

What critter do you guys call a gopher out there? Down here a gopher refers to a grossly over size rat aka Norway rat. Those buggers get bigger than our gray squirrels do. I've not seen one in years but they use to live in the ground and banks of the ditch that ran thru our property when I was a boy out near our burn barrel.

They wound up getting in the house and boy did they make a noise running around up in the attic.

[Double D]

What critter do you guys call a gopher out there? Down here a gopher refers to a grossly over size rat aka Norway rat. Those buggers get bigger than our gray squirrels do. I've not seen one in years but they use to live in the ground and banks of the ditch that ran thru our property when I was a boy out near our burn barrel.

They wound up getting in the house and boy did they make a noise running around up in the attic.

Richardson ground squirrel here is a great website on them.  http://people.uleth.ca/~michener/main.htm

my grand daughter knows what to do about them.

[Double D]

Dogs and I were bored yesterday afternoon and given the nice warm beautiful day a nap just did not seem right  ...so about 2 we made the 45 minute drive out to the gopher patch....we had a great time.  340 rounds of 22 HM2 at about 75% hit rate...I lost track. 

The dogs slept all the way home.  And are still crapped out this morning...they are getting old for dogs- 15, 13, 12 years.

[Double D]

Back out an 8 this morning and got home about a hour and a half ago.  When I left I had 850 rounds 17 HM2, when I got home I only had a  handful more the 200 left...gophers died.

[Wyo. Coyote Hunter]

  My girl friend, my golden retriever, and I shot gophers yesterday..used the 39 A and cci hpts.  got 300...

[Double D]

I think Gopher damage is going to pretty high this year.  Weather has kept the hunters out of the field this year. By time it got dry enough to get in the field the grass has growen up and makes it hard to see the gophers.

[mtbadger]

I hear you DD..

Headed to Deadmans in the morning to see what the water situation is.  My wifes b-day is on the 4th and her brother is trying to come up from California.  Mother-in-law bought an AR last week and wants to stop at some dog towns on the way bask if we have time....

[Double D]

Beautiful day this looks very gopherish...two lawns to mow and a rifle to sight in for a the  Victorian Rifleman shoot in Alberta next weekend...what to do what to do...Get busy that's what!!

[2ndtimer]

We had a great time around Chester.  The weather wasn't great.  Windy, not as warm as I had hoped for.  We still got a few, but then the thunderstorms rolled in, so we decided to cut our visit short and head back.  I sure wish it was closer than a 10 hour drive there.  I would love to head back over and have another go at them.  Weather should be getting much better now, and I don't think that many have been taken yet with all the rain they have had so far this spring.  Lots of areas were inaccessible two weeks ago, but may be now or very soon.  Hope they get a couple of weeks of hot sunny weather, the wheat could really use it.  It was fun to compare the results with the .22 lr, .22 magnum and the .223 with the 40 gr V-Max bullet at 3600+ fps.  My favorite was the .223.  I hope to have a .17 HMR for the next visit.  I think it would be the perfect ground squirrel round out to 150 yards or so.   I will have one by next summer!

[Blackhawker]

Where are you guys at?  Is this Montana? 
I've shot at RGS before in Wyoming when out prairie dog hunting.  The prairie dogs seem to be getting scarce these days but if the RGS are still in high populations, maybe I need to start looking that way rather than persecuting the lowering populations of p-dogs . 

[Double D]

Yep, Montana....