Who Said Squirrels Can't Fly?
Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 3:00 pm
Not too long ago, we had three FEET of snow on the ground here, followed by seemingly endless days of either clouds or rain. Like most around these parts, we all been whining to get out for Skippy and his pals. Even though most ranches are mud-bogs now from all the rain, we hooked up our trailers and headed out to our favorite ranch in eastern Orygun for some fun with our favorite rodent.
The weather was not ideal, but whenever the sun would come out, the rats were up in force. We were able to get in two solid days of almost non-stop shooting as a result. When it rained, we huddled in my trailer and watched "guy movies" on DVD and pigged out. On this trip I took one of my custom 10-22's for casual rat plinking from camp, my Anschutz 17HMR, my Browning 1885 Low Wall in 22 K-Hornet, and of course my favorite rat rifle, my Cooper M38 in 20VT. As I knew we would not be shooting out past 400 yards, I left all my 204's at home (oh the horror!
)
This was the view from my bedroom window on the first morning....rain on the way. When it stopped, it was time for a walkabout with my 10-22. The fields were rich green and loaded with rats.
My little Browning 1885 Low Wall in 22 K-Hornet got a workout from the bench, as I normally just use this rifle for short morning walkabouts here for rock chucks. It did very well on rats using the Barnes 30gr Varmint Grenade over 13.5 grs of Lil Gun for 3,350 fps. Results on the rats was "vivid" to say the least.
The little mighty mouse performs much better than you'd think by looking at the round.
Our rancher buddy was kind enough to park his goose-neck equipment trailer perfectly situated overlooking a rat-infested part of his ranch. We promptly set up our benches, broke out rifles and went to work. This was the view from my bench on the flatbed.
We had rat action out as far as you'd care to shoot, but most action from this setup was mostly all inside of 350 yards, so with an accurate rifle, you'd connect with a "thwop!" with almost every shot. Can you say "fun"?
In this pic, if you look at the end of the field, there's a bunch of grey wooden posts stuck into the ground. Range to the posts was 283 yards; easy shot. This area had a bounty of rats that was amazing. I'd shoot one, six others would scamper about, stopping just in time for me to reload and take another shot. I fired over 60 rounds of 20VT there, and when I broke down, two golden eagles were feasting on the moribund rats.
My 20VT dope on my ocular flip-cover. Range, consult dope, click it in, acquire target, shoot and watch the launch!
My buddy Dan, being the fun guy he is, brought out his Defiance 338 Lapua Magnum for some very long range rock chuck fun. He had one teasing him at a lasered 686 yards on the rock bluff above us.
This was about as bad as my wind flag got....about 15mph. Most of our shooting conditions was better, so my little K-Hornet had a good time without having to deal with shooting a 30gr bullet in the wind. The 20VT had no wind issues whatever.
A quick tailgate cleaning of my 20VT before dinner and a movie. At this time of year, I'd rather be in rat-camp than anywhere else.
Despite some rain, it was a great trip. If the rain doesn't make all the crops grow too tall too fast, there will be more flying squirrels in the near future. Fired brass is in the tumbler, components on-hand, more fun to follow soon!
The weather was not ideal, but whenever the sun would come out, the rats were up in force. We were able to get in two solid days of almost non-stop shooting as a result. When it rained, we huddled in my trailer and watched "guy movies" on DVD and pigged out. On this trip I took one of my custom 10-22's for casual rat plinking from camp, my Anschutz 17HMR, my Browning 1885 Low Wall in 22 K-Hornet, and of course my favorite rat rifle, my Cooper M38 in 20VT. As I knew we would not be shooting out past 400 yards, I left all my 204's at home (oh the horror!
)This was the view from my bedroom window on the first morning....rain on the way. When it stopped, it was time for a walkabout with my 10-22. The fields were rich green and loaded with rats.
My little Browning 1885 Low Wall in 22 K-Hornet got a workout from the bench, as I normally just use this rifle for short morning walkabouts here for rock chucks. It did very well on rats using the Barnes 30gr Varmint Grenade over 13.5 grs of Lil Gun for 3,350 fps. Results on the rats was "vivid" to say the least.
The little mighty mouse performs much better than you'd think by looking at the round.
Our rancher buddy was kind enough to park his goose-neck equipment trailer perfectly situated overlooking a rat-infested part of his ranch. We promptly set up our benches, broke out rifles and went to work. This was the view from my bench on the flatbed.
We had rat action out as far as you'd care to shoot, but most action from this setup was mostly all inside of 350 yards, so with an accurate rifle, you'd connect with a "thwop!" with almost every shot. Can you say "fun"?
In this pic, if you look at the end of the field, there's a bunch of grey wooden posts stuck into the ground. Range to the posts was 283 yards; easy shot. This area had a bounty of rats that was amazing. I'd shoot one, six others would scamper about, stopping just in time for me to reload and take another shot. I fired over 60 rounds of 20VT there, and when I broke down, two golden eagles were feasting on the moribund rats.
My 20VT dope on my ocular flip-cover. Range, consult dope, click it in, acquire target, shoot and watch the launch!
My buddy Dan, being the fun guy he is, brought out his Defiance 338 Lapua Magnum for some very long range rock chuck fun. He had one teasing him at a lasered 686 yards on the rock bluff above us.
This was about as bad as my wind flag got....about 15mph. Most of our shooting conditions was better, so my little K-Hornet had a good time without having to deal with shooting a 30gr bullet in the wind. The 20VT had no wind issues whatever.
A quick tailgate cleaning of my 20VT before dinner and a movie. At this time of year, I'd rather be in rat-camp than anywhere else.
Despite some rain, it was a great trip. If the rain doesn't make all the crops grow too tall too fast, there will be more flying squirrels in the near future. Fired brass is in the tumbler, components on-hand, more fun to follow soon!
( 0530 this morning at my place ) 
