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.
