Hunting Washington Forum
Other Hunting => Coyote, Small Game, Varmints => Topic started by: team goosebusters on April 05, 2009, 10:05:20 PM
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gonna try my hand at varmit hunting hunting for the first time all i have is a 22. see alot of them around wenatchee do i have a enough firepower?
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are you talking about gray diggers thoes little ground burrowing squirrels? if you are heck yeah why not, but the best thig is to spook them then pop them with a 410 and watch em' do some cartwheels. A little advice, when you shoot one leave him be, then another one will come out and check him out, then waylay the investigator.
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That is a ton of fun.
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thanks alot guys bein a college student i dont have much extra money for a .223 good to know i can use the ole rimfire
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Make sure the first one you pop stays close by, them little guys will want to know what he is doing and you can have quite a bit of fun with the rest of them!!!!
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they are tons of fun but you better be careful. I was at my grandparents property in Goldendale and i had a pile of the gray diggers at my feet, I was having a very successful day. And all the sudden I saw something coming through one of the deer trails. Once i got a better look at it i knew it was a bear. Now i was very excited because this was my first time seeing a bear in the wild. So i took a knee next to a stump and was going to enjoy the show. That bear was about 25 yards off and just stopped. He got a good down wind whiff of my pile of dead gray diggers. then started running at me. :yike: I stood up and waved my arms and started yelling, i think that bear was just about as scared as i was because of the fact that his next meal was yelling at him. But i guarantee i ran out of the area faster than that bear did.
Anyways good luck on the hunt. Don't forget the major pitfall of a gray digger is his curiosity.
Just for fun you should post some pics of some successful digger hunting trips.
:mgun:
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Dang sounds like a rush fishermanjoe :chuckle: :chuckle: I have been wanting to try to find some grey diggers/ground squirrels, hope fully one of these days.
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You can use pretty much any kind of weapon you have to shoot them. A .22 LR will work just fine.
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ya you can kill them with anything. It is best to shoot them with hollow points though. If you shoot them with lead they will be able to run back in the hole. With a hollow point they go splat.
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Ive shot about 1/2 dozen this spring with my 17hmr. If shot in the middle it dosent exit. if ya shoot'em around the edges it gets messy :yike:
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Goosebuster I live in the Wenatchee Valley and I believe what you're seeing are Yellow Bellied Marmots, commonly called rockchucks or groundhogs. I shoot them with 22LR, .223, 22-250, and 6BR. They're pretty tough so you should try to shoot them in the head with a 22LR, otherwise they are often able to get back to their den and die slowly. I also wait until I see that the babies are weaned and out before I start shooting them, so they don't starve if you shoot the mother.
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22 is plenty. Fun sport......
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Hey skunce :hello: When do you think the babies are weaned and out and about?
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Should be soon, but I haven't seen any babies yet. I've been seeing the adults since early February and have been itching to start shooting them. But I don't want to exterminate the whole colony by shooting the adults too early. I like to shoot them at 300 yards or more, so I only use the 22LR when I don't want to make a lot of noise.
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Just shoot the males and let the females take care of the kids! :P I've killed hundreds of them with a 22lr, but I especially love how my 22 mag ruins their day! :IBCOOL:
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How do you tell the difference in sex? Usually I know if it is male or female after I waylay them. They don't have the biggest pair if you know what I mean. Unless you have the worlds biggest scope on a .22
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babies are out here in the wenas, and they will die today too.
