Last Thursday (June 5th) I had occassion to go on a most enjoyable day long Varmint Safari in NW Montana. The main quarry was the elusive Ground Squirrel that lives in the forests up there! These Ground Squirrels live in the small grassy areas in amongst the trees and in the rare cultivated fields of ranches in that area.
The weather and wind were perfect and my partner and I shot by far the most forest Ground Squirrels I have ever been in on. We counted up 160 empty 22 LR rounds, 50 17 HMR rounds and around 40 223 Remington rounds spent!
I like Hunting these forest Gophers as they are wary and dart about frequently making for difficult shooting and entertaining situations!
I think my high total for forest Gophers before this Hunt was something like 25! So this was an especially wonderful day of Hunting. The enjoyment was further enhanced by sightings of Moose, Mule Deer, Whitetail Deer, Weasel, Eagles, Ospreys, numerous Wood Ducks and other waterfowl and a Coyote or two!
Along with the great shooting some new equipment was tried out including a new swiveling shooting bench, wedge shaped and window style sand bags from Dog-Gone-Good Bags of Oregon and my Ruger 77/17V. All new equipment worked well. One oversight was made for the anxious to leave camp Hunters the morning of the Hunt! We forgot the recently purchased Mosquito repellant! The Mosquito's really were bothering the Varmint Guys until I pleaded with a rancher to give us an application to save our sanity. It was 20+ miles back to camp and the ranch wife was more than happy to give us a squirt of the lifesaving concoction!
Rifles along on the Hunt included my friends very accurate Shilen barreled Ruger 10/22 with Leupold scope, his deadly accurate Remington 700 ADL in 223 with Leupold 4X12 AO variable, my new Ruger 77/17V with Weaver KT15 and my Lilja barreled Ruger 10/22 with Leupold 4X12 AO scope. All performed very well as the recently departed Gophers will attest to! But the highlight of the Hunt I think was my friends Remington 700 ADL in 223! This Rifle with its factory fiberglass stock, factory sporter barrel and easily adjusted trigger made some simply sensational shots in the field! This Rifle shoots far better than an inexpensive sporter Rifle would ever be expected to shoot. I even made a couple of long distance kills with it! If my friend ever wants to sell it I hope I am first in line to buy it!
Shooting Gophers in the forests with snowcapped mountains in the background, crystal clear creeks and Beaver ponds is just about as good as it gets in the Varmint Hunting world!
I for sure am going to put this Hunt on my list of "to do" Safaris every year!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Yeah buddy!

I tried this a few years ago in the burned areas of the Bitterroot, just as the snow was clearing. Same scenario - BIG FUN. Then, I called 'em Timber Gophers (insert Monte Python dialogue here).

Redial

He said gophers friend, not woodchuck!

Thanks for an excellent account Varmint guy. I add this for humor, but we have a bit of a problem in the east. Many of our hunters refer to the venerable woodchuck as a gopher. You've probably heard it yourself on occasion. Our eastern chucks are quite a bit bigger and nowhere near as fast afoot. We canadians also suffer from specie mixup, referring to the wall-eye pike as a pickeral which its not. Now that I think of it, it's not a pike either. It's just a giant perch with a nasty set of chompers. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal