Gopher Hunting

[burn_baby_burn]

Originally Posted by Azure

Bit early in the season isn't it? Gophers usually started popping up in the middle of June on our old land.

I've shot gophers in February in Southern Alberta.

[blueski]

Anyone know how to snare them?

[burn_baby_burn]

Make a snare. Put the lope over the gopher hole. Wait for the gopher to put it's head through the lope and pull it tight.

[simmonjam1]

These guys hunt prairie dogs with 50 caliber rounds and film it with high speed cameras. Videos are NSFW due to exploding prairie dogs!

http://velocity-films.com/

[2Stonedbirds]

Originally Posted by burn_baby_burn

I've shot gophers in February in Southern Alberta.

Bump

Just got a few of the little hole hogs last weekend. They were quite fat and sassy, the mild winter has been good to them and I expect their numbers will be large this year.

.17 hmr is a great varmint cartridge, couple buddies of mine love theirs. Had a 22.250 but found it to be overkill, bullet carries for far too long after impact. Moved to a .223 for my varminting needs and 53gr vmaxs over 22.5 gr of 4198 has been fantastic.

Can't wait to take my nephew out this spring for some feild cleanup!

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by 2Stonedbirds

Bump

Just got a few of the little hole hogs last weekend. They were quite fat and sassy, the mild winter has been good to them and I expect their numbers will be large this year.

.17 hmr is a great varmint cartridge, couple buddies of mine love theirs. Had a 22.250 but found it to be overkill, bullet carries for far too long after impact. Moved to a .223 for my varminting needs and 53gr vmaxs over 22.5 gr of 4198 has been fantastic.

Can't wait to take my nephew out this spring for some feild cleanup!

Where do you go to shoot some gophers? PM me if you prefer. I bought a few boxes of .22lr for a rifle I don't even own yet. I've had my eye on a couple of different models so once I have one, I'd like to warm it up

[Sliver]

I have a .177 caliber air rifle I just bought in December. I've been having a lot of fun honing my skills on targets at my shop. Do you think I could take down a gopher, or would I just hurt it?

This is my rifle FWIW: http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/cr...l#.Vsd6wvIrKUk

[2Stonedbirds]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

Where do you go to shoot some gophers? PM me if you prefer. I bought a few boxes of .22lr for a rifle I don't even own yet. I've had my eye on a couple of different models so once I have one, I'd like to warm it up

My family has land up around Vulcan/High River area, so a few times a year I will try and get up there. Around where I live (near Lethbridge) there are some farmers I know who are fine with myself and a guy or two cleaning up the gophers, so long as we are mindful of their property. What .22s are you looking at? If you need ammo let me know, I have some boxes left over from when I sold my rifle.

If you like, hit me up and if your ever down in this area I would be more than happy to go out with you, or hell we could even organize a CP gopher getter day. And if there's no gophers we could always hit up the range and hunt paper.

Sliver I think that's a great place to start, you should be fine for gophers just keep in mind that the farther back you get the slower the velocity you will have, and it won't be as effective. If ethical is what you are after then sign up for you PAL course. If your not sure if it's something you would be interested in doing I'd be more than happy to let you try out some firearms if you are down in this area.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by 2Stonedbirds

My family has land up around Vulcan/High River area, so a few times a year I will try and get up there. Around where I live (near Lethbridge) there are some farmers I know who are fine with myself and a guy or two cleaning up the gophers, so long as we are mindful of their property. What .22s are you looking at? If you need ammo let me know, I have some boxes left over from when I sold my rifle.

If you like, hit me up and if your ever down in this area I would be more than happy to go out with you, or hell we could even organize a CP gopher getter day. And if there's no gophers we could always hit up the range and hunt paper.

Sliver I think that's a great place to start, you should be fine for gophers just keep in mind that the farther back you get the slower the velocity you will have, and it won't be as effective. If ethical is what you are after then sign up for you PAL course. If your not sure if it's something you would be interested in doing I'd be more than happy to let you try out some firearms if you are down in this area.

Thanks man. I'll test out what I have on a gopher or two at my brother-in-law's acreage. See what sort of damage it does. Appreciate the offer.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Thanks man. I'll test out what I have on a gopher or two at my brother-in-law's acreage. See what sort of damage it does. Appreciate the offer.

Sliver, I am interested in how much the wind affects the rifle and the round.

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Sliver, I am interested in how much the wind affects the rifle and the round.

I don't know if you're joking around as I know nothing about guns, but I assume you're mocking me in some way.

[2Stonedbirds]

You're more than welcome Sliver, I enjoy exposing people to the shooting sports and my experience has been that people new to firearms enjoy the hands on experience.

Let us know how you make out with your new rig!

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Sliver

I don't know if you're joking around as I know nothing about guns, but I assume you're mocking me in some way.

No not at all.


Wind can effect weapons.


https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...t?pref=2&pli=1


I have never shot a weapon as small as that, so I have no idea how it is affected.

[2Stonedbirds]

Sliver, if you are close enough to hit and kill the gopher with your air rifle, you are close enough to not worry about wind drift as it won't effect you.

[Ben_in_Canada]

Originally Posted by 2Stonedbirds

If you like, hit me up and if your ever down in this area I would be more than happy to go out with you, or hell we could even organize a CP gopher getter day. And if there's no gophers we could always hit up the range and hunt paper.

I'd be up for a day out, gophers or paper.

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by 2Stonedbirds

If you like, hit me up and if your ever down in this area I would be more than happy to go out with you, or hell we could even organize a CP gopher getter day. And if there's no gophers we could always hit up the range and hunt paper.

Outstanding! Thanks for the offer! I may have to take you up on that!

I'm looking at either a Ruger 10/22 or a Marlin795. Leaning towards the Marlin but have been told it has a pretty heavy trigger pull out of the box. While looking for either of those two, I was shown a Marlin 60SS which was damn nice but a bit more expensive. Also had a heavy barrel to boot.

[2Stonedbirds]

Absolutely, the more the merrier.

I'm sure you will be happy with either of those. I have no experience with the Marlin but the Rugers are very popular for good reason. And the aftermarket for the Ruger is massive.

Check Dlask arms out and their DAR-22, they make some pretty slick rimfires out of 10/22s that are pretty reasonable for what you get.

Dlaskarms.com

[FLAMESRULE]

I've got two small calibre Marlins (917vsf SS .17hmr and a 880ss .22). Both are excellent guns. The Ruger always felt cheap and sloppy when I looked at them. If it was me, Marlin for sure. Not sure if you need the heavy barrel though but it does help if semi-auto. Just more weight to haul around.

I also lightened the trigger on the .22.

[fundmark19]

I have a shotgun! Let's shoot things I have clay disks if we want while we wait for those pesky gophers

[2Stonedbirds]

Originally Posted by fundmark19

I have a shotgun!

And so it begins.

Scattergun works great on gopher families who like to hang out on top of their dirt pile. Pretty tough to beat a day of skeet shooting. Anyone have a mechanical thrower? I'm still rocking the hand held chucker.