Now thats what I call a Varmint Hunt! It just keeps getting better and better! The Gopher Hunting I mean, not my shooting or spotting of the Varmints.

I really enjoy Varminting on Fridays (or any week day!) anymore! The competition from other Hunters is less and the Varmints usually have the days since the last weekend to get back into "relaxed Varmint" mode.

I took 3 Varmint Rifles with me on this day long Safari. Two were rimfires and one was a centerfire. The centerfire was my Kimber Ultra Varmint in 218 Bee. The rimfires were my tried and true Lilja barreled Ruger 10/22 with 10 magazines and the other was my year old Ruger 77/17V in 17 HMR with 4 magazines! Don had two heavy barreled Ruger 10/22's along and was using the Federal Amercian Eagle 400 pack Hollow-points in both.

Yesterday (Friday May 14th) dawned clear and cool (39 degrees) but NO WIND! The planned day long Safari was on! We took my friends truck this time and headed out. I loaded all my clips during the journey to "Gopher Land"!

My friend Don actually tried to miss many of the darting Ground Squirrels as we cruised the highway toward our destination! I find myself doing the same thing when I am driving. Our long drive was spent relaying (reliving?) and retelling Hunts from our past. I regailed my friend with tales from my 4 Hunts for Mt. Goat, Blacktailed Deer Hunts and my many Spring Bear outings. He fired right back with tales of his Hunts for Bison in Alaska, Moose and also Hunts he had made in Germany and Asia when he had been stationed there with the Military. Mule Deer, Whitetailed Deer and Antelope were observed along our way as well as many, many Birds of Prey. Most notable were the Bald and Golden Eagles along with Ospreys and Hawks galore. One Falcon was seen swooping at a Gopher Colony about 25 miles short of our destination! Many Magpies, Ravens and Crows were out also. This pepped me up for the Hunt to say the least!

We eventually came to the ranch Don had permission (had been requested) to Hunt on! It was only the second time I had Hunted this ranch and was really excited to get back on it this year!

I brought out the 10/22 first as the wind was still calm. I went through about 300 rounds (fired all ten clips and loaded them twice more and re-unloaded them). Then I got my 17 HMR Ruger out and really started spinning the little Varmints up into the air! I use the Remington ammo in this 17 HMR Rifle. I ran my usual two boxes (100 rounds) of ammo through it and set it aside for the day. Then late in the mid-day (about 2:00 PM) the wind started picking up. So I got out the Kimber Ultra-Varmint! Oh what a sweet thing it is! Nice trigger, pleasing heavy barrel, single shot, lovely wood, Leupold 4x12 AO scope and its so accurate! I was in Gopher Bliss!

But we both noticed this. The centerfire report kept the Varmints down somewhat longer and alerted them further out (this may sound obvious to many and I have noticed it before on the rare ocassions I use centerfires for Gophers) than when we were both shooting our rimfires. This "further out alert" and "stay down longer" behavior has a slowing effect on the Gophering is what I am driving at. Even my friend Dons unique "Gopher Call" was not apparently able to bring the Gophers up once the centerfire was in use. As often at least as it had when we were both shooting our rimfires! Once I quit shooting altogether (I was sated!) the new areas we came to, and Don shot some more in, returned to more normal "up and about" Gopher behavior.

I thought this centerfiring at Gophers would be an appropriate new topic for this time of year on the Varminting site here! I know many of you (Seafire etc) like to use the centerfires for Gophering.

I was just wondering if any of you have noticed the shooting slowing down noticeably when you begin using the centerfires!

The friend I Hunted with yesterday likes to Hunt from the truck side, using various parts of the truck for a shooting platform. I would rather use one of my portable benches but when I am invited along I go with the flow! So here was this big yellow (BRIGHT YELLOW!) truck with differing amounts of noise coming from it, yet I am sure and my partner concurred, that the centerfire noise slowed the Gophering down noticeably!

Any thoughts, observations or experiences you all have regarding the noisier centerfires and Gophering?

You say you have not heard of a Gopher Call! I hadn't either until about 5 years ago when I started Hunting with Don! He would use this Gopher Call to "bring them up"! Well if any of you have never been in a good Gopher Field - you usually don't really need to "bring them up"! There are so many of them there is usually always, some up! Anyway I have seen (on hundreds of ocassions) my friend Don blow (he actually sucks through this whistle!) this call and the "Big One" he missed, or was watching run into a hole, will actually come up out of the hole after a few moments of calling!

I know, I know, its hard to believe but I, the normally somewhat skeptical (show me!) type, actually have become convinced over the years that this call works!

I have been after one of these calls for 2 years now myself and have just not found one as yet. The problem being these calls were originally made by the folks from the not to far away Hutterite religious sect compound. Compound is the word THEY use to describe their living quarters (dormitories?) on their ranches! Anyway these Hutterite folks sell various handmade items (like knives, belts, bird houses, magnum fly swatters [I have one of these] and various other neat things) along with their crops, fruits and vegetables and natural raised Chickens. They sell REALLY great stuff! I just have not been able to find one of these oak and brass Gopher calls! I would gladly buy one if anyone knows where I can get one.

Other Varmints brought to bag on this latest Varminting venture were two types of flying Varmints (the ones that raid the nests of Game Birds, Upland Birds and Song Birds), Rabbits and one Badger was nearly harvested. This Badger scurried to his den so fast neither of us could get set up for a shot on him! He was about 160 yards out when we first saw him and about 200 yards out when he disappeared! That perhaps is a reminder of a reason to use or at least have along a centerfire when Hunting in Badger country! My centerfire at the time we saw him though, was zipped snugly in its case. I had the Ruger 10/22 most handy at the time!

I did kill a large Boar Badger last year with my 17 HMR at 175 yards - a one shot kill to the throat by the way!

Track meet took up the day today! Real windy again today here! I better get that 17 HMR and the Bee cleaned this afternoon!

Aaaahhhhh... Montana!

Hold into the wind

VarmintGuy

Sounds like you had a great time. Wish there was another person there (me).



The link below is from a magazine index known as Farm Show Magazine< !--color--> and contains a manufacturers name, address, and phone number; don't know if they are still in business. It does look like you can get a reprint of the gopher call article though (or a CD of all articles).

gopher call

RareBear: This is the first solid lead I have had in my search - thank you very much I sure appreciate it!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

VG, Picture my thumb and forefinger going in little circles......that's the smallest record player in the world playing, "My Heart Bleeds For You!!!!!" Back here in the east, if we got 20 shots a day at groundhogs or crows it would be memorable!! You guys shoot 100's of rounds through different guns!!!! My 204 is supposed to get here Tuesday!!!! Savage! Refused to buy a Ruger!!!! Could have had one of them a month ago!!! If I can figure out a way to get to Montana, you better take me "varminting" you all's way!!! Thanks for the good read!!! GHD

Varmintguy, try the following link.

http://lockhart-industries.com/prod5.html

THis looks to be a neat little call. I use my regular whistle (mouth) in a very high pitch and can get them up pretty consistently. I hope to get out soon, but the honey-do's and addition to the house have me tied up pretty well.

Shoot straight,

Matt

Varmintguy- I learned gopher calling from my granddad and do so with a lip whistle. However', you have an excellent
call in your .17HRM empty brass. Just make short chirping
blows until it sounds like a columbian or other species.
The call only needs to sound similar as there curoisity will bring them up.

Also concur with your observation of centerfire shooting putting the squirrels down. I have noted that the louder
bang brings Ravens, Hawks, Bald & Golden eagles to help
us in keeping things picked up. This is a frequent occurance and the raptors will feed while I continue to provide their lunch. I think they recognize my blue death
wagon and rush to assist. When I shoot rimfire only it seems to attract less attention.

Turned 51 today, facing knee surgery soon and the weather just went to coool for the next few days. Time to hit the Dillon, I'm short on .223. As soon as I can, will call for
a shoot time with you. I have sources down there as well.

Glad to hear you are enjoying yourself!

Tony

Never until this day have I ever heard of a ground squirrel call.
My son and I have a rather unique call we use for prairie dogs. As we are driving into the farm he leans out the passenger window and says "We're back". That seems to work quite well and always assures many shots for the next three days.

VGuy:

Great story as always! I have only noticed a decrease in prairie dogs when the centerfires are being used, and that is normally closer to your shooting position. Further out there, they are still up and running.

Ground squirrels are the same thing. Yeah I don't shoot a lot after a while at under a 100 yds. However, since they are so small, a hundred yards to them is like a couple of miles to us.

NO one would notice if some one was shooting at us a couple of miles away. Plus sitting up on my truck hood for a bench, having a stationary object that is not moving, doesn't seem to effect them getting jumpy. I don't have to stop long eating a sandwich or anything when they are right back out there.

The biggest thing I watch them start hanging down on is the presence of seagulls, hawks and crows to eat the carcasses of the dead ones. Of course sometimes an exploded carcass of a sage rat, drawes a lot of other sage rats over to eat on them. I think once they have eaten the guts of another one, they are hooked. It is amazing to see some of them come running 50 yds or better straight to the remains of one that just exploded.

I also find if you rotate your shooting directions, as the grass gets a little higher, with binoculars, look back the other angle and you will see a lot of heads sticking up to see what all the noise is, so I rotate my firing to go in the directions that I see heads sticking up.

I have just become addicted to watching them explode, like Rats deserve to, and hitting them at 150 to 250 yds, as opposed to rim fire range.

Cheers and good shooting
seafire

HEY VG you're a man after my own heart. There really is just nothing like being in a good gopher pasture with an accurate rimfire in your hands. When I was but a wee lad that was the very first job I had on the family farm, gopher patrol. Since I was too young to drive a tractor (or at least my dad and big brother thought so) one of my chores was keeping the gopher population in the pasture in check. Each Sunday morning after church dad and I would go to the township hall and dad would turn in all of the gopher tails I had collected that week. The money wasn't much but it kept me in .22 Ammo.

Things have changed since the days of the open sighted Wards WesternField Bolt Action .22. Now I rely on a SS Super 14 Match Grade .22 LR Contender Handgun with a 3x12x Burris LER Handgun Scope, and or a SS 5 1/2" Bull Barreled Ruger MKII with a Red Dot Optical Sight. However the passion I aquired as a kid for shooting gophers has not faultered one bit.

Most of the farms we go to to shoot Gophers only want us to shoot rimfires. The one farmer in particular had a bad experience with some DUDES (as he put it) with Centerfires. In his words "They scared more gophers than they shot". I have noticed this in many Prairie Dog Towns. When using Rimfires it seemed we could just keep right on shooting without spooking them.

Good story, hopefully in a week or so I will have one to share.

SD Handgunner