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Author Topic: Montana Gophers!  (Read 13549 times)

Offline pacyew

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Montana Gophers!
« on: March 03, 2007, 08:17:53 PM »
Several years back some friends invited me along on a Central Montana "gopher" hunt. At that time the word was "bring a good shooting .22 and several bricks of ammo each". Well, we ran out ammo mid-week! They seem to propagate and repopulate every field overnight. I'll have to say that we've been a pretty ineffective means of varmint control for the farmers whose land we've been hunting, but they sure seem to want us back every year.

The arsenal has since expanded to several 17 HMR's (ideal for these varmints!) and my personal favorite Cooper built .22 hornet.

But you don't need anything special rifle-wise. Just whatever you have fun shooting and lots of ammo.

I've an old friend, a retired Seattle police detective, that used to travel to Montana every year for his annual Montana Elk. Well, finally he moved there and now all he hunts are these little "gophers"! Its what's fun.

These technically these are not gophers, but Richardson's Ground Squirrells and according to Montana State web info 35 of these critters eat the same amount of feed as a single steer every day. Multiple that into the millions of individual predatingl critters and you can see what impact they have.

A good part of any good gopher trip is some great land available to hunt on (the average property we hunt is 20,000 acres) and the great company of the other fellas in our carefully chosen party. Throw in a bunch of "gophers" and you can't help but have a great time. :tup:
It's a great life if you don't weaken

Offline boneaddict

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Re: Montana Gophers!
« Reply #1 on: March 04, 2007, 02:10:28 PM »
I'm not sure whether to be proud about this or discouraged.  They are kind of hard on a strawberry patch.  No more than 2 minutes ago, I spotted one out my bedroom window, grabbed the 10/22 and busted him as I rounded the house.  Last year I killed nearly 250 of them just in front of my house in about a 100 acre plot.  good practice for shooting.  Its best if you get at them before the grass gets too high.  They are weird fellows.  I shot one, one came out to eat him, I shot him and within 60 seconds one came out and started humping that one.  We call them sage rats here in the Wenas.

Online Blacklab

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Re: Montana Gophers!
« Reply #2 on: March 05, 2007, 05:27:31 PM »
That sounds like nothin but fun! I would love to enjoy a couple days of paririe dog huntin. Enjoy it while you got it!  ;)
Hey! I'm not a complete idiot I have parts missing. Though sometimes I wonder.

If you want to make God laugh tell him your plans.

sisu

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Re: Montana Gophers!
« Reply #3 on: March 05, 2007, 06:31:42 PM »
Ya, I'm probably not going gopher hunting with Pacyew this spring as I will be gainfully employed starting this coming Monday. Thank god it's a seasonal job spring to fall and then I'm going to burn those 3 to 4 months of off time...skiing, hunting and fishing.

Pacyew, promise to take some pictures of the shooting for us, OK?

Offline pacyew

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Re: Montana Gophers!
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2007, 06:14:34 AM »
Gainfully employed? What's that? Sounds bad! Don't do it!!

But you are coming along, sisu. I have a plan, roughly envolving about six of our biggest squirrell hunting guys and a kayak bag.

I figure once we're down the road 100 miles or so and if we play some Willey Gustafson or such you'll probably settle down and enjoy the rest of the trip. The six guys involved will probably be able to heal in a day or two.

I'll just supervise.  8)

It's a great life if you don't weaken

 


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