Well, second outing for the season. Got to love Oregon.
Stopped in a small town to ask the ONE gas station where do I found out who owns a 600 acre field at the top of a hill out of town just off the high way. Told him I was interested in shooting ground squirrels.

He tells me the guys name and then goes in and calls him on the phone and tells him he is sending me up to talk to him.

Cool!

So I drive up and talk to the guy.. He is a typical real nice rancher, like USE to be all over the WEST. I asked about any restrictions for cartridges etc. He said no, anything is fine. I have to get rid of them.

I asked how many acres he had there. " Well, my boss who owns the property is the largest avacado grower in the USA in Calif' We just got this property when he bought out the other guy he was in partnership on it. We have 1700 acres here, all alfalfa. Runs up the road for the next 2 miles, and back to that ridge over there."

However, if you want some real good shooting opportunity then go down to THIS road and my property is down at the end on the right. We have 3100 acres of alfalfa and grain down there, and we are full of squirrels!

If only deer hunting on private land went like this HUH?


So I made it over there on Sunday afternoon. Since it is early in the season the squirrels are skittish and are up only way out there. So the CZ 452 only got a few shots in. I used one of the 223s ( Rem 700, with a Nikon Scope I inherited ).

Using my Load of 12.5 grains of blue dot and a 55 grain bullet.

The little guys are only about 8 inches tall but I did manage to shoot about a 50% average out to two hundred yards. I don't know if this happens to others, but I will do some spectacular shots WAY OUT THERE only to miss a few "chip shots" at 50 yrds right after it.

I was actually anal retentive enough to keep a score card since I was shooting off the hood of my 4 Runner. 79 squirrels confirmed ( watched them explode or watched them flop and kick until they stopped) out of 137 shots.

They were all full grown so I guess the lack of numbers is because this years crop of little ones are not ready to hit the field yet.

Also shot one crow at 250 yrds to wrap up the day, that was feeding on a carcass.

Cheers and good shooting.
Seafire

seafire,

Sounds like you need some help with the battle.


(BTW, crow season is over. hint, hint)

Seafire: You are making it hard on us guys that are waiting for some sunshine and/or warm days here in the Rockies! Good for you though and that is a great percentage you were shooting there! I will give you another 5 or 8 kills that just died out of sight on ya! So about 62% success on the new field shoot!
I am getting excited here and getting everything ready! I bought a Tupperware container that is battleship gray and has a divider on one side. It is about 12"X8"X3 1/2". I can put two boxes of the Federal 550 count bulk pack hollowpoints in the large side and 6 Ruger 10/22 clips fit just perfectly in the smaller divided side! This will keep everything from rolling off my portable bench or the roof of my VarmintMobiles canopy (I often shoot standing on the tailgate with my sandbags on the roof of my canopy - this makes a wonderful elevated shooting platform!).
This Tupperware container also won't scratch the paint of my VarmintMobile or the canopy and will keep the ammo from rolling away into oblivion as well as keeping it dust free!
And you got a Crow to boot huh! You dickens! The wind is blowing here at 23 MPH today and gusts to 29 MPH! This is the most moving air I have ever seen in my life these last three months! I am starting to worry that Montana is gonna dry up and blow away here soon!
I literally had to quit using my centerfires on Ground Squirrels some years ago! I was living at the time out near Seattle and every spring I would head for the Rockies to Hunt Ground Squirrels and then on into Prairie Dog country! I would Hunt the Ground Squirrels first as they were a lot closer to Seattle and I came to them first. It never failed there were always situations where the centerfires would buck the wind better or I wanted to shoot some long range ones or what ever the reason I would get them out also. Then when I got to Prairie Dog country I would be low on centerfire ammo! That was a bummer being short on centerfire ammo once getting to the PD's! For that reason and the reloading costs and barrel wear and todays costs for re-barreling centerfires I reserve the centerfire Varminters for Prairie Dogs and on up in size Varmint wise.
I would like to talk you into getting and using a heavy barreled 17 HMR for Ground Squirrels! Last year was my first year using the 17 HMR on Ground Squirrels and I won't be without one from now on! I also let 4 different Hunters try out my 17 HMR on Ground Squirrels that didn't already have their own. And three of the four are now owners of 17 HMR's!
It would be THE ABSOLUTE PERFECT Ground Squirrel cartridge if it were not for the relatively high cost of the ammo!
I run two boxes of the ammo through my Ruger 77/17V (17 HMR caliber) when Hunting Ground Squirrels and then put it away for the day and go back to my Ruger 10/22's! Last year I had several days where I put 100 rounds through the 17 HMR (shooting at the far ones) and also 400 rounds through my 10/22's! After that I am virtually sated! I just can't shoot anymore! And my thumbs and fingers hurt so bad from loading 10/22 and 77/17 clips I need to stop.
Yeah in a month or so they will be out in force here on the high plains!
Drive careful crossing those mountains!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I shot some of your ground squirrels last June we were a little late the alfalfa was to high for great shooting when we were there but still manage to wack some. I can see that it would be a great way to shot abunch of ammo up.

V.G;

Yeah, it was a good time to start out with. Only about 10 % of the squirrels were out, but that is 10 % more than none of them out.

I usually use my CZ 22 on the squirrels but this year they are too far out still, being skittish yet. That will change as their numbers increase. A bald eagle was also busy flying over the field several times.

I use a lot of those plastic containers that I get at Walmart for 98 cents. I also use a lot of empty butter containers from home.

I do own several 17 HMRs. A Ruger Heavy barrel in the gray laminate, 2 Marlins and a New England handi rifle. They are dandy rifles and don't heat up a barrel no matter how fast you shoot them. However, I find I don't use them or the 22 mags much anymore.

I am using my 12.5 grains of Blue Dot in the 223. Velocity is 2600 fps, so it is on par with the 17 for velocity but the 55 grain bullets are flatter shooting. Once you own the brass ( lake city bulk) the cost of shooting it are actually less than the lowest cost on 22 mag or 17 mag. Because I am using only 12.5 grains of powder in a long barrel, it doesn't heat up much if at all. I used 55 grain FMJs on this outing and the cost including primers is about 8 cents a round.

The barrel on the Remington gets hotter sitting out in the sun on a summer day than it did shooting say 50 rounds or more an hour with the blue dot loads.

I will shoot my 17s sometimes this summer since I own them.

I was also lucky as going over to Klamath County is a day trip. In fact today I resized and tumbled 225 rounds of brass, and then primed them this evening watching TV. Now I will just load them up again. I took about 350 rounds with me for this trip. I have about 2,000 223 cases I keep in circulation like this.

The crow was just feeding at the wrong place at the wrong time. ( I was worried he was going to attack the Bald Eagle, so I shot him, preserving our national symbol).

May take a day off during the week and go back over. It sure is a lot of fun. Hope you boys over in Montana get good weather relatively soon to get out there after those squirrels and prairie dogs soon.

Cheers and good shooting!
seafire

Talking about eagles flying over the feild last year when we were shooting them. My son just head shot one it was flopping around a eagle dropped down and picked it up right in front of us. That was neat.

Seafire,

I'm curious about your Blue Dot loads. Are you using a filler in the case with that low of a powder charge? How about 40gr bullets have you tried them? Any other powders tried for reduced loads? I noticed Winchester 571 is really close to Blue Dot on the burning rate charts and my dad just happens to have 5lbs or so . We use to use it for duck loads when you could still shoot lead. I might try some out even if no one has experience with it. The local whistle pigs are calling.

BTW Good shooting. I use to burn up brick upon bricks of .22lr's shooting the squirrels at my grandpa's place in CA when I was a kid.

Nathan

CTD.

I don;'t use filler at all. It fills the case just fine and seems not to be position sensitive. I have even used charges as low as 4 grains to equate to 22 LR in a 223/

check out the report, to 218 Bee or Not to 218 Bee on the following website: www.jamescalhoon.com

This is where I first got the idea and it worked superb.

tried a few other powders like Unique, SR 4759, SR 4756,
XMP 5744, and none gave me the results and ease I got from Blue Dot. I am anal retentive at my reload bench. I weigh each case, using Lee Powder Dippers, and a beam scale, with an RCBS powder trickler.

I pour Blue Dot into a use plastic cool whip container and just keep filling it. Although I have 7 or 8 load blocks, I use a lot of the plastic bottoms for cases in 9 mm and 45 ACP as load blocks. The 9 mm or the 40 SW are the same diameter as a 223 case, so I use them.. They are smaller and take up less room.

Although I also have a bunch of the green 50 round ammo plastic ammo boxes, for Ground Squirrel and Prairie/ Dogs, I just fill up the ammo in Large Freezer bags, per 100 rounds and then put about 5 to 7 into another big plastic box that Wal Mart was selling after Christmas 2 yrs ago for putting up Christmas Decorations and storing them in.

So I am a medium large volume shooter, LOL.

This allows me to pack a lot of stuff in a small amount of space. For my portable shooting bench, if I set that up, It is actually mounted on wheels so I can just roll it around. The wheels are about the size of that come on a medium hand truck, so they get around a field fairly well. The bench is collaspable. I have a rack on the front of my 4 Runner, that I just sit it on, and take two rubber straps and attach it to my brush guard and I am off to the races.

Gives me a lot of mobility in the field.

Cheers and Good shooting.
Seafire