Well, this Easter weekend I did the Family thing. Got all those responsible things done. Stayed nose to the grindstone and did all of that paperwork to make the Dept of Revenue and the Internal Rape Service Happy, last week.

The weather is supposed to be rain for the rest of the week, thru Friday. So what is a guy to do? Throw some ammo in the old 4 Runner, with a couple of 223s and take off over the mountain to central Oregon.

Worked until 11:30 and got over to where I shoot at 2: 30.
Quit shooting at 7 pm. I don't know if anyone else can be as anal retentive as me ( well Maybe Mortie), but I keep track of how much ammo I shoot, and how many are hits and how many are misses. I just toss the misses into one bucket and the hits into another, and then count them up later.

I also shoot about 50 rounds and then switch to another 223 for 50 more rounds and let the other one cool down some.

Well in 4.5 hours I managed to shoot off a hair over 400 rounds of 223 ammo and it accounted for 293 less sage rats in the world, and one magpie.

With a solid rest on the hood of a truck, it still never ceases to amaze me how it all comes together when you pull the trigger. The mechanics of handloading your ammo for consistency, adjusting your Remington's trigger so it is "user friendly" as opposed to 'lawyer friendly", zero your scope to be dead on at 50 yds, and learn to estimate distances and make adjustments on your target turrents.

To work a field until you finally can tell the distances, by seeing some of your early shots miss, and by how much when the dust flies as they hit the ground near your target.

Time all of these variables togther and have a little sage rat, that is smaller than a 12 ounce can of pop. PULL the trigger on one of these at 200 yds and consistently watch them explode into pieces.

YOU know you are doing good when you watch the air fill up with seagulls waiting for you to leave so they can come in and beat the coyotes to the sage rat remains all over the field.

Even had a lone antelope wander in to see what all the noise was about. Too bad it was not hunting season for those, as it was a very nice one.

Finally left as the sun was getting close to setting, watching it go down behind the hillsides and mountain tops that are still snow covered. Slowed down several times to see if there were any bucks noticable in several herds of mule deer I saw ( with 15 to 20 plus deer in each) before I hit the black top road.

After reading all the posts about my original HOME state of Virginia and all the traffic problems, and the high cost of living, and the RAT RACE, it was sure enjoyable to live in a state like Oregon where I can play hookie and go out and shoot the rats, instead of being part of the Rat Race.

Three customers called me on my mobile phone on the drive over to Klamath Falls, I just told them I would be able to see them tomorrow and told them to have a good afternoon.

I highly recommend this for those that can do it. It is highly therapeutic!

Final score:
2 Remington 223s: 293, Sage Rats: 121 will live to see another day.

Cheers and Good shooting
Seafire

Didn't play hookie as I had the day off.Went to 6 prairie dog towns yesterday.Red mist and good aerials!Took 4 .223's the longest unconfirmed shot was 604 yds.Sand bags on the hood of the truck.I really like the 50 grain TNT's.I t was a wonderful day in the neighborhood.Been scrubbing barrels since early this morning.

Poster #1 "A magpie? Why'dja shoot a magpie?"

Poster #2 to seafire "See, I toldja nobody'd notice the 293 dead rats!"

Sorry, had to.

My half-day safari starts about 8 tomorrow morning with an old buddy, my 6-yr-old and many boo-lits. It's all good.

Good story!

Redial

Ever just been taunted by a bird? That is why the magpie bought it.

cheers and good shooting
seafire

Magpies are Federally protected!

Must have been some other kind of bird then that was not federally protected, Like a MORTIEBird.

Don't Magpies rob the nests of both Song Birds and Game Birds of all kinds! The answer is - YES they do! I have seen them doing it! And I have also seen Magpies explode into clouds of white and bluish black feathers! I don't know why I just see them now and then - kind of explode. Federal mandates or not the Song Birds and Upland Game Birds of all kinds are better off with the ocassional exploding Magpie!
I have been in this county (Beaverhead) here in SW Montana for 6 years now and it is the most beautiful Hungarian Partridge, Dove, Pheasant, Grouse country I have ever seen! But very few of those species are ever seen here! Lots of Magpies though! I had a Dove nesting in the tree not 8 feet from my front door 2 years ago! Her cooing and coming and going were a great joy to me! Then one day I was coming out my door and a Magpie flew from the Doves nest with an egg in its beak! The other eggs, upon investigation, in the nest had also been eaten! There ensued a spree of unexplained exploding Magpies around my house like I have never seen before! I rarely see a Magpie land on my property anymore! Magpie word must be out, that this unexplained explosive behavior is common around here!
Magpies have a place in nature and I would not endorse wiping them off the face of the earth. I am a firm believer that they are way to numerous though in many parts of the west. The average Magpie does way more harm than good now in mother natures present scheme of things.
What ever is causing these feathery explosions in the federally protected west is welcome in my book! Kind of reminds me of those other "misunderstood" Federally Protected darlings - Wolves. There are now just to many of them and they are now doing great harm to certain Elk and Moose herds here in the west. An article here recently in the paper says there are now between 600 and 700 Wolves in the Yellowstone Ecosystem! This is the exact same area where the Feds wanted the recently re-introduced Wolves to be capped at a maximum of 325! So much for the wisdom of our friends the Feds!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Last year I spent the first 1 1/2 months of spring mowing around an island in the back corner of my yard where a Kildeer was nesting. As soon as they hatched magpies ate the lot of em, I hate the damn things in my yard. That aside they're still protected so they get a pass, if everyone got to make their own decision as to what they liked and shot the rest I'm thinkin we'd be the only species left by now. Hell I got a buddy that hates Meadow Larks. I don't mean to come off as the social avenger but right wrong or indifferent they are protected so I don't shoot em. The day they aren't I might just whack the ones in my yard myself, until then they get a pass. Besides they do a lot of good as well. If a fox dies of rabies or a prairie dog dies of plague there they lay infecting any other critter that gets near except birds and bugs. Crows, magpies, eagles, or vultures eat em all the nastieness goes into a bird turd and goes away. That's why they are protected. Eating a baby robin is a bummer, helping control plague in my favorite dog town kinda off sets it in my eyes.

Besides I'm willing to bet skunks, foxes, coons, feral cats, coyotes and raptors predate far more game birds than magpies ever do, song birds are another story but that's natures way and it all balances out.

Montdoug: You touched on one correct thing for sure in your last paragraph! Skunks, Fox, Coons, feral cats and Coyotes do eat all manner of Song Birds, Upland Game Birds and destroy their nests. The part you left out is that they are all considered harmful and listed as Varmints here in Montana! Anyone can shoot them anytime, anywhere, and obviously it is hoped, that good will come from controlling their numbers.
Nothing you did post though, comes anywhere near making one solid point as to why Federal protection should be, or be respected in regards to these scavenging, nest robbing flying rats!
With thinking like yours we can all look forward (in about 10 years) to going to Yellowstone and watching the Wolves eating the very last of the Buffalo, Moose, Big Horn Sheep, Deer and Elk there! No social avenging will be able to correct this Federal "miscalculation". I think your term social avenging might better describe the Berkley and Madison Avenue types that heaped this Wolf horror on us Big Game Hunters and the Game herds we have fought for 70+ years to cultivate! So with more of your type thinking no one need buy a Montana resident or non-resident Big Game License - because the unchecked, burgeoning, Federally protected Wolves will have eaten all of the Elk, Moose, Big Horn Sheep, Deer and Antelope here in the future! Future close enough that I am doomed to see it! And if you doubt that Wolves won't try and eat Antelope - let me relay this. Two years ago in late November my Hunting partner and I were Hunting here in SW Montana for Elk. What did we see but a Wolf chasing a small herd of Antelope in broken hill country through 12" of snow. It is natures way for predators to predate but when the Predators get out of hand and begin to adversely affect the Big Game populations or the Song Birds and all manner of Upland Game - I do not see anything wrong with giving the Big Game or the Song Birds, Quail, Partridge, Grouse and Pheasants a little break now and then. Nothing wrong at all.
And another correction of your post Montdoug, here I must now interject! I have spoken with Game Biologists in both Montana and Wyoming over the last two decades regarding how the plague spread so fast there in the relatively remote Dog Towns of the high plains country. Their answer was Birds of Prey and Predators pick up fleas and transport them from one Prairie Dog town to another while they are preying on the Prairie Dogs and/or eating their remains after others have preyed on them. I have been Hunting Prairie Dog Towns since the 1960's and there is no such thing as a "half Plagued out" Prairie Dog Town! The towns I have seen hit with plague have all been completely destroyed. And it takes many years for a wondering few Prairie Dogs to resettle in a plagued out town and recolonize it! Again I have seen this in both Montana and Wyoming. I was Hunting on a large (un-named) Indian Reservation in Montana many years ago and had to stop in and BRIBE one of the tribal Chiefs to Hunt Prairie Dogs on the Reservation. The Chief showed me a Federal Government provided large aerial photo of the area the Prairie Dogs inhabited on the reservation. The area the Prairie Dogs inhabited showed up as a creamy white dust colored areas on the huge wall size photo. I took notes of where roads went near the white areas. One lone white spot was several miles from the others but had a road within walking distance. I went and found the remote town and Hunted there. And what a glorious outing that was! No one had shot that town for years, if ever, I am sure. Anyway I shot there that year and the next and then the next year it was empty of all living things! The plague had gotten to that town and several others on that reservation. But how the plague got to that remote town is beyond me. And that was one of the reasons I began making inquiry of the Game Biologists for their insights. On this particular resrvation (and the one immediately next to it!) there are no Big Game Animals what so ever. Due to the year round Hunting by the reservation occupants. The Big Game Animals simply leave those year round areas they are Hunted in and take refuge in nearby safety zones (state land). So it was not Antelope, Elk or Deer helping the plague leap from town to remote town in this case. I am convinced Birds help transport that deadly curse so quickly and effectively. As opposed to the Birds providing any type of restraint of the plague.
You mentioned that your acquaintance hates Meadow Larks - you did not say if he in fact "harvests" any of them! I think that is such an extreme position that it is an unsupportable philosophy and/or action! I have never heard of anyone holding a grudge on Meadow Larks. Aren't Meadow Larks the state bird of Montana?
Long live the Magpie (just not as many of them as there are now)!
Thanks for sharing your views.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

What's the difference between him shooting Meadow Larks and you shooting Magpies? Both are protected? (he knows by the way if I saw him shoot a meadow lark or you a magpie just cause he's there, I'd reach for the cel phone) When you, (as memory serves) were in law inforcement did you think individuals had the right to interpret the law according to whether or not they thought it a good law and break it if they decided it wasn't? Who makes those decisions, you? In your infinite wisdom do you decide which species should live or die?

Everybody moves to Montana and immediately becomes a wildlife expert. It stinks my friend and that's the reason your Montana glorious day post of a few months back drew so much heat from those of us that have lived here long enough to have an opinion. We've seen what those moving in to kill off their share of the "The Last Best Place" bring with em and it's tragic.

I resent your assertion that "Thinking like mine " is going to be the ruination of anything here, in fact I feel just the contrary. It's those that feel they are superior to the laws and that they have a right to pick and choose among those laws at will who will bring our freedom down. Who put you in charge any way?
I opposed the reintroduction of the wolves most forcefully but within the bounds of the law, I thought the idea stunk and I still do. But that doesn't give me the right to shoot em just cause I don't agree with the regulations.
Montanas had her share of "freemen" and "anarchists" and frankly VarmintGuy they give the place a bad name and sorta stink up the joint!

Now beings as how you don't really know how I think and lest you get to thinking I'm upset about magpies or wolves (which I'm not) I want to make myself perfectly clear. The wolf reintroduction stunk and souldn't have happened. Natural selection weaned em out of populace ranching areas and we shoulda left well enough alone, not to mention the terrible waste of tax money. Magpies are annoying and Montana should allow controlled shooting of em where they are a problem. But having had a bunch of em as pets as a kid they are real interesting birds and deserve protection from the "Dorks" out there that would extinct em cause they think they have it all figured out!
My beef is with people that live elsewhere all their life then retire to Montana or Wyoming or any other hunting state and proceed to shoulder in like they own the place and shoot everything in sight whether it's legal or not cause they have all the answers! I was born in Colorado in a small town right in the middle of the best hunting and fishing in the country at the time, look at er now.
I've hunted all my life and I can't tell you the total tonnage of varmints I've sent on to a better place, but I don't shoot em cause I hate em, and I don't try and wipe em out. Everything in nature gotta eat and their all here for a reason. If somebody thinks he's gotta better idea we need to hold an election and see if he can get himself elected God, personally I'm ok with the one we got now!

DUEL IS SET!!! montdoug and varmintguy, 6;00AM May, 1 in front of the "Hole in the Wall" supper club, Miles City, MT!! GHD

Don't want no Duel, but I sure wouldn't mind dinner at the Hole in the Wall, I used to hang in Miles City on my days off. I lived south and east of Ekalaka. Miles was "The Big City" then. Love it over there.

Montdoug: The difference in your friend shooting a Meadow Lark (a song bird and the Montana State Bird) is this - the Meadow Lark is a harmless Song Bird! And the Magpie is an over abundant nest robbing, baby bird killing flying rat Varmint!

No, I do not think individuals have the right to pick and choose which laws they should be punished for breaking at all. Anymore ANYONE that is willing to do the time is virtually allowed to do the crime. There is no real punishment for serious crimes anymore let alone when someone chooses to do an act of civil disobedience in defiance of some ridiculous and ill thought out Federal policy or law regarding Magpies!

Yes, on literally thousands of ocassions I have observed folks commit acts of civil disobedience (break laws) and about 98% of the time they went unprosecuted and/or unpunished if prosecuted at all! I wonder if the folks on a Wolf shooting jury in N.E. Wyoming would find a defendant guilty? I just came from there (N.E. Wyoming) and I know the answer to that question! If you want I will tell you the answer but I imagine you can figure it out for yourself! Many of the people down there are quaking in their boots regarding the harm already done by Wolves and the harm they will do in the future!

Yes, thinking like yours will have a harmful effect - if you value Song Birds and Upland Birds! And value the Big Game herds that have been so dreadfully hard for us Hunters to re-populate! And then we are supposed to stand by and let your buddies from the Sierra Club, Berkely, California and the Wildlife Fund destroy the Big Game herds with their ideas and policies for un-checked Wolf populations and our inability to control other Predators. Yes I value the Song Birds and the various Upland Birds much more than the Magpie - of course! And yes I do get to decide which creatures I choose to thin out! Don't you?

I may have moved here to Montana 6 years ago but I have Hunted in Montana since the 1960's. And I have been killing all manner of Varmints here since then - some in incredible numbers and you know what? There are more of them today than when I started Hunting here 40+ years ago.

You show me the legal title to one Montana creature and I will quit Hunting it - if you want? But I doubt that you or anyone else owns any of Montana's creatures so I will just keep on Hunting - if you don't mind?

You keep referring to me as though I think I am God well how about we turn the tables and see if you can take it as well as dish it out!

Montdoug: In your superior position as God who do you think should be able to shoot what? Be specific please! This is gonna be a long list so take your time. I am sure that many of your subservients would not want to offend your majesty! so this list willbe useful to all those that subserve YOU! Seeings this is a Varmint site please start with which Varmints others may Hunt without offending you! And please list the manner of harvest and the hours of chase you deem worthy of mandating on everyone else! Would it further offend you that I have been requested numerous times in eastern Montana to shoot the mild mannered Turtles live there? Turtles you know the ones that ruin the stock tanks and the fish populations that ranchers have worked so hard to build? On second thought I could care less what you think Mountdoug about that or any other species I choose to Hunt! You simply do not have one valid reason or fact as to why ANYONE should not puff up a Magpie and keep their numbers down! Other than your deemed perception of righteousness why do you attack the other posters choice of quarry? Maybe the regulations are different in Oregon? I know they are different in Washington regarding flying Varmints! Yeah maybe the baby Robins would also disagree with your thinking (which you make known by your writings by the way!).

I have also seen your friends the Magpies pick at wounds on the backs and flanks of domestic animals! Yeah they are real fine scavengers worthy of being our National Bird maybe? What do you think MontGod replace the Bald eagle with your pal the Magpie! I am illustrating ridiculousness on your part with absurdity here Doug - I hope you don't mind?

I never said I was an expert on anything Mountdoug but apparently you are? Bring your enhanced perception of yourself down just a few notches - please!

Yes let everyone know please, the Mountdoug perceived list of OK Varmints to shoot ASAP - it will be interesting to read. I notice you did not respond at all to any of my factual observations and also did not respond to the my direct questions! Perhaps you have no argument what so ever just bluster and self righteousness! Those do not make convincing arguments any way you look at them!

And I do want you to address my assertion that I have been Hunting Varmints of all types here for 40 plus years and none of them have diminished noticeably! Come on Gawd straighten me out on that one - if you can!

Yeah who put YOU in charge anyway?

Your ridiculous attempt to equate me with your buddies in the militia or anarchist is laughable and ridiculous. That incredibly stupid attempt at character assasination is beneath a Gawdlike creature such as yourself! Wouldn't you say?

And again, yes, Mountdoug I do know what you are thinking and the way you think by what you post! Duh! Or maybe you forgot that you wrote something down that you were thinking!

Your upset has nothing to do with it! This exchange has to do with YOUR Holier than thou attitude toward another posters thinning out a Predatory creature! Shame on you for that!

Would it offend you that I have harvested literally hundreds of Crows? There are Federal regulations that regulate the shooting of them? Are you offended? Are you gonna drop a dime on me? They are nest raiders and crop damagers and baby animal killing Varmints! How does the former Coloradoan now turned Emperor of all the west, feel about myself and many million other Varminters thinning them out? Were we all playing God? Or maybe that Varmint is OK with you? Let those that care know please Mountdoug. Once again you show me the legal title to Montana and I might listen (for an instant) to your self righteous and arrogant requests to humble myself before you! Til then I think I will just keep making decisions for myself. They seem to have been excellent decisions for the last 50 years at least!

By the way if you are running, yourself, for the position of "God of the Varminters" then let me know where I need to register to vote at!

Thanks again for putting your "thinking" down on electronic paper. It was... amusing!

Hold into the wind

VarmintGuy

PS: Keep on Varminting folks and if you get a chance to do the Song Birds and Upland Game of the west what you think is a favor go ahead. Just disregard Mountdoug's wrath and do what YOU think is best.

PSS: I have been dining at the Hole in the Wall in Miles City since 1968! I was just there last fall and the steaks are as juicy as ever!

Laws are laws and if your too stupid to get it your to stupid to get it. Just like your inane harrasment of those who like Savage firearms, what you have is and always will be better, your possessions your ideas, your right VarmintGuy your just better than the rest of us and what ever you do is "A "OK! My last attempt to reason with an idiot is this "I DON'T LIKE MAGPIES"!!!! Don't you get it you arrogant ass???? It's not magpies, it's guy's like you!!!!! GO HOME!!!! Ever since I've read your posts it's all about killing everything you see Crows, magpies, screw the law if you surmise it's bad it all gets killed. I love varmint hunting but I respect every critter out there. Those laws in case your wondering are to protect the rest of us from guys like you! When I was a kid there were almost no raptors left cause the VarmintGuy types decided hawks were bad, answer, KILL EM ALL!!!! How can you love hunting without loving nature?

Montdoug (or MontGod whichever you are at this time!): You are really showing your ass now! Completely dancing around the issue here as well as my direct questions. Are you the God of Varmint decisions or not? Why did you not answer even one of my direct questions or refute even one of my contentions. The answer apparently is because you can't!

And the rest of your blatherings are equally inane! I have never once said or implied my equipment is better than anyone elses! And I challenge you to find one posting to the contrary! You are so lacking in argument that you are now resorting to lies, name calling and distortions! That is the typical refuge of grade school brats! Not something a grown man should do! Try and regain your composure long enough to make a valid argument please!

I have never shot a bird of prey in my life maybe you or your Meadow Lark hating buddy have - but not I. That attempt at casting imature aspersions got you and your side of this discusion nowhere fast! Like I say the typical dance of someone not able to defend their position! Try bullying someone else Mont-whoever you are because you have no chance of bullying me!

And what manner of immature mind do you have that you fear you need protection from me? State you basis please for this gigantic leap of weird thinking on your part!

Oh, I forgot you are the Emporer and you can dish it out but you can't take it! And obviously you can not answer direct and easy to understand questions. Yeah I forgot about your self invoked status as "know it all" and "know better than others"!

You know what... I think you are jealous as well as immature! Along with your muddled thinking and grandiose opinion of yourself that makes for a thoroughly useless persona.

Yes you are correct on one minor point in your last childlike posting - I feel that in the matter of the Magpies that my ideas are much better than yours. If you are not man enough to read and interpret ideas other than your own then maybe you ought to choose a different pastime other than visiting web-sites?

Again I challenge you to show even one thread where I "harassed" any Savage owner! I know you can't so save your electronic breath there. And I also issue to you the same challenge regarding me ever stating my equipment is better than anyone elses.

You have shown your immaturity but now you had better come up with lots of very strong examples of your allegations or your reputation will be seen just as it should be - that you are full of yourself and full of shit. And you will not argue when you are challenged but will resort to the immature tactic of name calling!

And I will respectfully observe of your "thinking", that thinking like yours is harmful to our Song Birds, Upland Birds and Big Game herds!

Go ahead and call me some more names and dance around and refuse to answer the questions I have asked of you in this posting and in previous postings. Its what I have begun to expect from you!

I received an off-line E-mail just now from an observer of your rants and he wants me to press you on the Turtle and Crow shooting! Do you have the wherewithall to answer those questions. Like I said I am loosing respect for your opinions but others are wanting to know where you stand in this regard for some reason! I have made my stand on these two issues known are you up to doing the same?

And when you were a kid the raptors were suffering more from poisoning than from being shot! As a matter of fact a rancher not far from the Hole in the Wall Restaraunt in Miles City got his self in trouble recently by that very thing. Putting poison on carcasses so all responding scavengers would be killed. 9 Golden Eagles were found dead around his property and I shudder to think how many more also died! I suppose you will in your twisted perception blame this on me also.

I am now getting a kick out of your futile attempts at disparaging me. Please don't quit on me. Just let me know where to register to vote in the next Varmint Emperor election before you spiral out of control again! You are running again aren't you? Well you are acting like you are running so I will assume you are. LOL!

And by the way I am at home here in Montana! I hope I did not forget to apply for permission to live here from some selfish, immature, know it all, arrogant, evasive, godlike person like... well like you!

Hold into the wind

VarmintGuy

PS: The morning of June 1st is out for the meet at the Hole in the Wall as the County Sheriff here recently recommended me to assist at the Concealed Firearms Carry class on both June 1st and June 2nd. I agreed to do so. Just about any other time would be fine. I plan on being in that area at least 3 or 4 seperate times this summer and fall while I go Varmint Hunting, Antelope Hunting, Deer Hunting and also Turkey Hunting (that is if those endeavors are OK with you Montdoug?).