Early Season Fun in the Rat Patch

[Rick in Oregon]

Right now I'm thinking of the old adage "April showers bring May flowers". Right, that's all fine and dandy, but DANG!, enough rain, snow and wind already! Like most everyone in the country that owns a varmint rifle, we're gettin' a tad tired of cabin fever and ready to get out and warm some barrels.

So.....an early April outing was in order, despite some rain and mud, rats still frolic about anytime the sun shines. One of our favorite spots to set up for Skippy and his pals is on a low rise overlooking a 400+ acre alfalfa field with it's irrigation pivot. As the irrigation towers are evenly spaced, we use the tire tracks as crude range markers for quick shots. A laser rangefinder is used of course for anything questionable in regard to range.

My "morning office" complete with credenza, overlooking that squirrel-rich field with my 20VT guarding the position (my 100 yd. sight confirmation target can be seen just over my range bag. It's 509 yards across the field):



The crew spread out on the little rise, raining .20 caliber grief to all rodents below:



You can see by my wind flags that there was a cool breeze blowing virtually all day, sustained at about 5-7 mph, with unwelcome gusts to over 15 mph. Nice to have the Leupold Varmint Hunter reticle for the wind hold-off marks.......works as advertised.

This particular rat was quite proud of his areal rat-o-batics, with his gainer and a half landing pose to share with all (easy to do after a 12' lift courtesy of a 32gr NBT zipping along at 3,700 fps. ):



No Rat Report would be complete without showing the instrument of rodent death...in this case my Cooper M38 in .20VT, wearing her Leupold VX3 6.5-20X 40mm LR with M1 elevation. Stoked with 18.5 grs of RL-7 over any 32gr bullet, she's a ground squirrel's worst nightmare, and last.



On our way out of town headed home, we stopped for fuel and a coffee at a local outfit and spotted this sign. The first comment after spying it was "we must have come to the right place".



Now time to reload fired cases, deep clean rifles and get ready for more rat adventures, as we're promised by the "weather guessers" that good sunny weather is on the way......I'm hoping they're right, as we've got plenty of ammo left to 'unload'.

[Bill K]

Wanted to get out also, today Rick, as Varmint Shooter and I have been doing, but rain and WIND was just too much, at least down this way. Glad you fellows had a good outing. Like that sign also, which town, did you see that out in ? Bill K

[jpx2rk]

Good report, thanks for the pics and comments.

[brooksb]

Nice Pics Rick, after last two shoots it's definitely time to reload, I've fallen behind the power curve on that. I also am a Leopold fan, I have them on a 06, 300 win mag, and a muzzleloader, and you probably noticed the VL-X (9 years old) on my Savage, I took it off my 22-250 Rem 722.

[Rick in Oregon]

Well brooksb, I've got a bunch of Leupy's too, on everything from my 338-06 Ackley elk rifle (VX3 1.5-5X), to my 17 Ackley Hornet rat rifle (VX3 6.5-20X), and everything in between.

I got my first one in 1968 that came on a nice M70 .270 Win. Purchase price for the rifle AND scope was a whopping $325! Try that one on now. As I've never ever had a problem with any of them, I've been buying them ever since. Nightforce would be my first choice, but I'm just a humble (read: poor) guy that does not have those kind of resources; like buying 34 of them to replace all my Leupold's.....ouch!

As we all seem to like gun porn, here's three of my pet rat rifles wearing their Leupy's, ready for the rat patch (calibers in descending order are: 20VT, 223 and 204R)



There's lots of other good brands that come to mind, it just worked out that my first good scope was a Leupold, and as I've never had an issue with them, I been using them ever since. Besides, you just can't beat their warranty.

[brooksb]

Well stated, that is Gun Porn...yeah. 338-06 is a local favorite where we Elk hunt in MT. I had a retired miltary friend who recommended a Leatherwood, had one on my 22-250 for a long time held up well, replaced with VX-L. Maybe another rat shoot early next week, gotta take a grand kid home anyway, so I'll just R.O.N up country for a couple of days, shoot and maybe a couple of brovo echo echo Romero's with my buds.

[danielbrothers]

I sure can't compete with 3 Beautiful Coopers... the only problem with them is that they're Rick's instead of mine....LOL.

This is my first.... piece-mill... Savage 20VT... if you Guys save some of those squirrels...I'll come out there and sky rocket a few.

[brooksb]

Dont think the shooters could put them on the endangered list, hevens knows I try though. I actually try to avoid the fat ones in the Spring, especially the Cannibals as I think their the females needing the protein.

[Rick in Oregon]

Well brooksb, like you, we've tried too.......to no avail.

I've been at this since 1968 and there's never been any sign of being endangered, at least not by natural means, as we've hammered them yearly with seemingly no ill effect......good thing for us. Coyotes, hawks, eagles, ravens, badgers, weasels and cougars all have these guys on the menu, yet the little rats seem to bounce back virtually every year.

Daniel: I promise we'll save some squirrels if you come out to play. But here's proof that they can indeed 'rocket':



Now decending......



Then his buddy next door poked his head out and decided to join in on the fun too.....(rat in center of pic prior to shot)



Launch time!



If we had sound effects here, we'd use the "wet washcloth smacking on the tile floor" effect, so you'll just have to imagine the "thwomp" sound.

Now let's all hope for some decent weather so we can really get with the program!

[brooksb]

Hard to plan shoots around all these storms in Northern Ca.

[Bill K]

That's for sure Brooksb. Had another snow storm last night and some on and off all day, up here on my mountain. So no shooting or ventures, plus the wind just will not stop. Bill K

[randyman]

Those are some great photos Rick! I just returned from 3 day hunt in Modoc Co. in N. Cal yesterday. That "thwomp" sound you describe is perfect and I was pleased to hear it numerous times. Sometimes you only see the head or top of their back in the alfalfa but the sound it makes when you hit one is indescribable. How did you get those mid-air shots? I posted some photos and a report on the hunt in the Hunting with the 204 group. Shoulda posted it here instead. Randy.

[Rick in Oregon]

Thanks there, Randy. Always best to share the fun.

As for getting those mid-air launch shots, I use a Nikon DSLR, put it on "continuous", center on the rat and do the old "three, two, one....bang!" routine and try to follow the flying rat through the air. Even with a 200mm telephoto, we try to limit range to about 50 yards to get the full effect.

Here's some more....moment of impact and launch:



Re-entering the atmosphere:



Getting ready for another extended rat trip soon, so should have a bunch more pics to share. Time to warm up my Cooper MTV 204.

Glad you got out for three days for rodent fun. Let's see those pics from your trip!

[randyman]

Thanks Rick. I posted some pics in the “hunting with the 204” group on this forum. It’s titled “an epic squirrel shoot”. Thanks again for the tutorial. Randy.

[Rick in Oregon]

Okay Randy, but now that you've been "toutered", we need to see more pics of your rat adventures. As they say here, "no pics, didn't happen".

(Saw your post over there....looks like a good time was had by all. 'Cept maybe Skippy. )