Mike-OR & Sheister: Astronauts and Potguts - now theres another couple of names I have not heard!

But yes I have had many friends tell me about their exploits "painting the snow red" when getting an early Ground Squirrel Hunt in while there is still snow on the ground.

This may be a new "bad weather forecast record" for all time here in SW Montana! As late as last night (April 2nd early AM) after midnight I was watching the weather forecast for the local Dillon area on the weather channel. They were forecasting 61 degrees for the high today and mostly sunny! I never saw my shadow once today (even though I was inside most of the day reloading I did go outside several times) and the high at 2:00 PM this afternoon was 39 degrees! Most of the day it was 36 degrees or way under! So they only missed the predicted high by 22 - 25 degrees! I mean not only was the high not in the 60's as forecast it did not get into the 50's or EVEN the 40's! Oh well its Montana!

I on occassion like to call the Ground Squirrels around here Grass Rats! No one else refers to them in this way but I think it is descriptive!

Soon Furbies, soon!

Hold into the wind

VarmintGuy

Yes I am now pretty sure I qualify as a Montana WIMP! I have all my Ground Squirrel Rifles sighted in, lots of ammo, several places to Hunt, the lust for the Hunt and I NEED to get out and shoot some Gophers but I am apparently just too sissy like to go out in this howling wind and two inches of new snow to Hunt them! I have my thermostat set on 71 degrees and I have my wool lined slippers on. I am sitting downstairs in my loading room with Rush Limbaughs program blaring out from my computer! I just came upstairs to refresh my Cran-Cherry morning libation and what do I see but a large Hawk swoop down in the ravine just 25 feet from the edge of my yard!

This Hawk has the audacity to snag a large Ground Squirrel and begin eating it as I am scrambling for my binoculars!

I watched the Hawk feed on the Squirrel for about two minutes until he spies me in my sun room looking at him. The Hawk then flew off with a long string of the Squirrels intestine hanging down about 10" from the hapless creature!

At first I was thrilled to see the Hawk swoop down so close to my house and take the Squirrel but then I began assessing the situation! Here this Hawk is out knocking off Ground Squirrels in this inclement weather and I am not tough enough to get out in it and shoot some of them for myself!

Kind of humbling.

By the way I heard a new name for the Ground Squirrels yesterday I thought I would pass along. I have heard them referred to as Sage Rats, Furbies, Picket Pins, Gophers and Miniature Prairie Dogs but yesterday I heard a new one from a Hunter friend of mine - he called them Kersplatts! I laughed at this one! As I knew what he was talking about immediately. I am guessing he was referring to the sound made when the Ground Squirrels are hit by a hollowpoint bullet!

Do any of you folks have "pet names" for the Ground Squirrels I have not listed?

Well I better get back downstairs and resume handloading more Varmint ammo.

I bet that Hawk can't reload bullets!

Hold into the wind

VarmintGuy

We sometimes call them astronauts, as we can launch them (or pieces of them) into a pretty good orbit!

It's 74 degrees here with bright sunshine and I'll be going out tomorrow to play catch with the ground squirrels. I'll think about you up in the snow and flip one for you.





Saber Tooth Prairie Rats

Don't get too down on yourself dude. Remember,he has to eat them,you're only gonna play with them a mite! derf

I noticed one other name for them. Some folks in Utah call them potguts. Here we call them sage rats, picket pins or gophers.

Yesterday I came in the house for lunch(self employed cabinet maker and shop just 100ft. from house). Looked out the kitchen window and spied a magpie in a tree. Got my M61 Win./4X Lyman eased it out the window and squeezed off a round (22CB). Magpie let go of life and branch except for one foot, it just swung there upside down! I was standing there looking at it swing when a big hawk came diving in and nailed it. Of coarse I didn't shoot the hawk.
Now about tomarrow, I'am staying home and working-not going with my two friends to the Spokane gunshow. They will however stop at the White Elephant, by their goodies and get for me several boxes of .224 40gr. Sierra hornet bullets. Nobody sells Sierra's here in Lewiston, everything is Speer(naturally ), Hornadys, or Noslers. Pedro

Pete: Nice shooting there on the Magpie! Any Magpie brought to bag is a mini-Trophy! They are wiley and smart Varmints.

And you did it with one of my all time favorite firearms - the splendid little Winchester Model 61! Good for you!

I was just a tyke when I went with my family back to the grandparents homesteaded ranch in eastern Oregon one summer! Grandpa was having trouble with Rock Chucks and Ravens wrecking the family garden. So he showed myself and my older brother (aged 6 and 10) how the Winchester 61 he had worked. Then he sent us out to protect the garden. We walked a short distance to a pine ridge that had large boulders interspersed in among the trees. The Rock Chucks we were told lived here. It was not long til my brother had shot several Chucks and had shot a Raven out of the air as it passed over us about 20 feet high! Then it was my turn and I put the whack on my first Varmint a Rock Chuck with the same Rifle. We used up that box of 50 shells and as we walked back to the ranch house I really felt proud about protecting the garden and shooting that Rifle. As best I can figure that was 49 years and 10 months ago! Nearly half a century!

But I am ashamed to admit I find myself without a Model 61 Winchester at this time! I have probably owned 10 - 12 of them over the years and whenever I see or handle one I remember that first Varmint Hunt and watching my brother over his shoulder as we lay among the rocks waiting for Varmints to appear! Then watching as he plinked that Raven out of the air with that 22! I just assumed that was an ordinary thing to do! I have only matched that feat a time or two in the 50 years since. And since then I have become aware of the safety concerns of firing into the air with bullets and have only done so in the remotest areas and that done only rarely!

Long live the Model 61!

My neighbor here in Montana has a really nice Model 61 that he got as a kid and he uses it once every 5 years to shoot Ground Squirrels! Other than that it sits in his closet!

He has me looking for a new butt stock for it as a small chip is gone from the toe and butt plate! If you see a new butt stock please advise me!

Hold into the wind

VarmintGuy

V.G.

for a stock for that Model 61 check out Boyd's gunstocks

www.boydboys.com

cheers
seafire

I don't have any other names for gophers other than those listed, but did pick up another linguistic term associated with gophers...

Back in high school in Billings I was shooting gophers for the first time with a friend of mine. We were shooting in some fairly thick sage brush and, when hit, the gophers sometimes made it down their holes. I asked him, "how can you tell when you've hit them?" He explained, "That's easy. Just listen for the Sound of Truth." "What's that?" "The distinctive sound of your bullet's energy being absorbed by the gopher's guts."

Everyone who's heard the Sound of Truth knows exactly what it sounds like. So...21 years later the term has been passed on to many a young gopher shooting trainee.

I had work in Whitehall yesterday and found a new gopher paradise on the way home! Shot 50 rounds of .223 and had a ball.

Trshootem: Wow what a great story! 2,000 rounds - good for you guys! Negative on the Bishop place to tell the truth I had kind of forgot about that tip - thanks for reminding me! I have been going crazy here trying to get our new cable/phone/computer all in one service working OK! This is the third day in a row I have been stuck in the house waiting for the repairmen to come and re-come and "fix it"! They swear they have it determined what is the problem now and they needed to drive 140 miles (round trip) to get the part and it will be done today! We will see.
Anyway cool and clear here this morning with calm winds. All my Varminters are sighted in for this upcoming Colony Varmint season and I am chomping at the bit!
I consider myself very lucky Tony, to be nearly 57 years of age and have only two real troubling ailments! One is bad knee from my L.E.O. days and the other is an inherited artritic condition in the thumb and first two fingers of both hands! This makes for difficult 10/22 clip loading to say the least! And about all I can muster is 400 rounds at a sitting anymore! My thumbs and fingers just turn numb and I have to "visualize" each 22 round into the clip. No feel! Oh well - its hell getting old! Buts its still better than the alternative! As an aid to my situation I always load my 12 or so Ruger 10/22 clips the nitght before a Gopher Safari and that gives me a head start on my difficulties there.
Yes a few years back I switched from the Federal red carton 400 packs of 22 LR ammo to the Federal 550 (now 525 blue and white cartons) of Hollowpoint ammo that Wal-Mart sells. They are cheaper than the 400 pack ammo (Federal American Eagles?) and shoot just as well in my main 10/22's. Yeah I always keep an eye on Wal-Mart for sales on 22 ammo during my travels.
Yes look me up anytime you can get down. 50% chance I will be home - at least during Varmint season (year-round?). 1-406-683-6888 call before 11:00 PM anytime!
I can't wait to hear that Badger story! I love Hunting Badgers!
I only got to see your Aunt Diane once this past winter as I did not ski much! I used to see her in town often but I have not seen her for months. I will mention you when I do see her.
Ground Grizzlies thats a good one!
I hope your knee heals quickly and as best it can!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

It's been threatening snow here for most of a week and the hills a couple hundred feet up have been seeing a dumping!

This morning I loaded my neighbor in the Varmint Hoopdie (my mint-green rolling embarassment) and started out in search of Pasture Carp. He's a newly retired mailman from Noo-Joisey and has had enough of the Montana winter by now. We trundled around some other neighbor's pastures and he watched me paste the first couple rats then had at it with my CZ in 17 HMR. After about nine bucks worth of ammo, he starts grinning like an idiot and remarks, "Hey, this is fun!" No foolin, huh?

I dropped him off beside his snarling wife but he never stopped grinning. I don't think he heard a word she said.

Cheers!

Redial

Redial: Your story of the man from New Jersey and his wife reminds me of the German fellow (German citizen) I befriended when I first moved here to SW Montana 6 years ago. My German friend Andi was in the U.S. on a rarely issued and hard to get Work Visa to learn a trade and then return to Germany and start that trade up there. His Visa was for 18 months of study and work at a local HIGH end Fly Shop here in Dillon. He is a world class fly tyer and fly fisherman! Well he kept hearing everyone talking about "shooting Varmints" and he could not figure out what all the interest and excitement was about! So he invited himself along "to watch" a Gopher Hunt with me and some friends! He had served two years in the German Army as a tank gunner and was somewhat knowledgeable about machine guns but had never Hunted!

Well once on the Hunt he watched the hordes of scurrying grass rats and how we whacked them and whacked them but more kept coming. Finally I talked him into getting behind the trigger of my custom Ruger 10/22 with Lilja barrel and 4X12 scope! Once sandbagged in and instructed in the hold into the wind concept needed that day he got to shooting! He went into Varmint mania nearly instantly! He was grinning like a Cheshire Cat and began barking orders - "find me zee Varmints", "load zee clips" "und look zers vun"!

I could not get my Rifle back from him until he had to make a bathroom break! I took pictures of him with a bevy of harvested Varmints with my Nikon camera and he had the pictures blown up and sent home to his friends and family! I am sure the German friends and family thought that Andi had gone postal (or the German equivalent) when they saw Andi, the Rifle and the mortified Varmint pictures! He really enjoyed this "all American sport"! He asks about the Varminting whenever he calls me from Germany.

Its always good to introduce new folks to Varminting. Some take to it others don't go for it so readily!

Hold into the wind

VarmintGuy

Since your'e stuck in the house anyhow maybe you could help me with a couple of questions, Guy. I hear Tongue River Res is a pretty good crappie hole. Do you know anything about it? Been thinking of dragging the boat up there, but I suppose there isn't much water in it these days. If I did that would it make any sense to take a picket pin shooter along? Do you have to have a license to shoot varmints in Mont?

Several of my 22s don't like to feed the chiep Win HPs. Probably the big meplat for that extra big hole.

Bilmac: You do not need any type of license to Hunt Varmints in Montana. The Varmint list is a long one and the F&G people have a 4 page brochure on all the types of Varmints you may harvest in Montana. These include but not limited to Rock Chuck, Ground Squirrel (Picket Pins), Weasel, Raccoon, Prairie Dog, Fox, Skunk, Badger, Coyote, Jack Rabbit, Cottontail Rabbit, Porcupine and many others. Do not shoot Bobcats though! You need to be a resident and have a Trappers License to be able to Hunt or trap Bobcats. This is fortunate for you though as about 6 years ago two fellows "poached" a Bobcat near the Tongue River Reservoir and immediately took it across the state line into Wyoming to a taxidermist. The taxidermist was dead two days later from the plague that he caught off of that Tongue River Bobcat! I found a dead Bobcat not far from the Tongue River in the midst of a remote Praire Dog Town I used to Hunt often. The Bobcat had not bullet holes in him and no obvious sign of trauma. He was plump (no long term starvation like skinnieness!) and intact and dead! I took a picture of him as he was a very large Bobcat but I would not even remove its skull for fear of the plague!

By all means take a Varminter into that area and yes I have rested and camped on that Resrvoir but never fished it. I have seen the fishermen returning to shore with LOTS of Crappie! I have also heard its great fishing there but do not consider myself to be a warm water fisher at all! Sorry no tips there. But the remoteness of that vast area is very conducive to night calling of Coyotes! The night air in that area is usually very calm and good calling conditions prevail there. I have never shot the Picket Pins in that area but I have shot them by the hordes just south of there over the Wyoming line. Some of the Prairie Dog towns in that vast area have plagued out several years ago but they are coming back. And there are some small and remote towns that escaped the plague in that area. Day calling (mornings) is also very productive for Coyotes in that area!

Now I will say this about the depth of water and the recent droughts we have been having. SW Montana is in its 7 year of drought and third straight year of extreme drought as classified by the government. But SE Montana is a very long ways from SE Montana and they are not as profoundly affected by lack of rain and snow as we have been. I am at a loss to recommend who to contact in that area to check on the depth of water and fishing conditions. Probably the F&G people in Miles City I will add that number in a minute to this post.

Hold into the wind

VarmintGuy

Thanks Guy, lots of useful info. I have an idea of how to find out if the launch ramps are useable. Maybe I'll get up there this summer.