Another Epic Rat Shoot
Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2021 4:19 pm
My crew and I spent a full week in the Orygun outback recently shooting our buddy Skippy and his pals. Seems like a good crop of squirrels this year, so good that I'm contemplating going again after first cut. Our rancher buddy really makes us feel welcome, as part of our crew stays in what could be called a line-shack, another stays in his CVT (Cascade Vehicle Tent), and my trailer gets hooked up to power and water. We use it in the evenings for "guy movies" after dinner and all the rifles have been cleaned (and of course it's my "room").
Rifles this trip ranged from the usual .22LR's, 17HMR, 22 K-Hornet, 20VT, 204R (of course), 7mm Mag and .338 Lapua. The last two were there just for getting on paper and trying their suppressors. Amazing how "quiet" a seven mag can be with the right can.
The line-shack and the G-Man's tent rig on the hill behind my trailer. A camp kitchen was set up next to the shack.
Home sweet home for the week. We can shoot here as far as we can see. There's rock chucks in the nearby cliffs too....I'm pretty sure our buddy Dan brings his .338 with them in mind.
The first couple of mornings, I shot this high hillside at the base of the cliff overlooking a pivot below, full of rats. I usually started out with my Cooper 20VT, always having a 204R nearby for the long pokes. My rifle is in my cleaning cradle on the tailgate after a robust 50 rounds downrange.
Our buddy Gary glassing for rats from his bench. He's shooting his M21 Cooper 20VT and also has his Cooper Phoenix 204 handy. My truck and bench setup can be seen in the background high on the hill.
Dan's .338 Lapua ready for rock chucks:
A look down range to show the mound complexes. A wide-angle shot here is amazing, as there's mounds in a 360* circle of the pivot, about a mound every five or six feet. It is truly "rat rich" and a target-rich environment.
Yours truly working a rat-rich area just under the far fence line. A lot of shooting here at the 240 - 300 yard mark, but my longest shot of the trip was here at the far right of the fence line at a lasered 402 yards. Nothing spectacular, but decent. That was with the rifle shown, my 20VT. By the time I saw squirrels farther out, the mirage was running too hot for any precision shooting.
During these shoots when we're bench shooting, we always have a pet .22LR handy nearby for the rats that pop up unexpectedly from 25 yards out. Most of us have tweaked 10-22's for this. The only thing remaining Ruger in mine is the outer action. The rest is all Volq and Power Custom. I can't count how many rats this little rig has claimed, or how many bricks of WW and Mini-Mag HP's it has sent downrange.
My Cooper M38 20VT right after the long shot at the fence line, cooling her barrel. The little Ruger 10-22 got a bit of use during this particular cooling session (grin). All my 20VT and 204 shooting this trip was with the 32gr Nosler BT and Varmageddon. Disclaimer: Many rodents were indeed harmed during the making of this post.
It was a grand time out there, and we all grumbled at the thought of having to go back to town after a week of sunshine, good friends, epic rat shooting with favorite rifles. We always have evening pistol drills before movie time, and this trip I took my Kimber Aegis Elite Custom with a Vortex Venom 6 MOA dot factory mounted. The rock outcropping in the photo has a 6' grey rock at the left center bottom at exactly 233 yards from the G-Man's truck hood shown here. With the optic, hitting that rock 9 our of ten times became routine once the hold was established. Nice to know a handgun is good for more than across the room ranges. Even at this range, the bullet splashes can be seen on the rock.
And once home and all the rifle and pistol brass is out of the tumbler, couldn't resist a pic of my Kimber with the brass shot this trip at our steel and at that silly rock.
So that's our recent trip to share. Here's hoping more of you guys will share your trips this season too, as with this covid crap, last year was a bust, so more of us are getting out this year. So come on, what have the rest of you been up to? Let's get this forum alive again!
Rifles this trip ranged from the usual .22LR's, 17HMR, 22 K-Hornet, 20VT, 204R (of course), 7mm Mag and .338 Lapua. The last two were there just for getting on paper and trying their suppressors. Amazing how "quiet" a seven mag can be with the right can.
The line-shack and the G-Man's tent rig on the hill behind my trailer. A camp kitchen was set up next to the shack.
Home sweet home for the week. We can shoot here as far as we can see. There's rock chucks in the nearby cliffs too....I'm pretty sure our buddy Dan brings his .338 with them in mind.
The first couple of mornings, I shot this high hillside at the base of the cliff overlooking a pivot below, full of rats. I usually started out with my Cooper 20VT, always having a 204R nearby for the long pokes. My rifle is in my cleaning cradle on the tailgate after a robust 50 rounds downrange.
Our buddy Gary glassing for rats from his bench. He's shooting his M21 Cooper 20VT and also has his Cooper Phoenix 204 handy. My truck and bench setup can be seen in the background high on the hill.
Dan's .338 Lapua ready for rock chucks:
A look down range to show the mound complexes. A wide-angle shot here is amazing, as there's mounds in a 360* circle of the pivot, about a mound every five or six feet. It is truly "rat rich" and a target-rich environment.
Yours truly working a rat-rich area just under the far fence line. A lot of shooting here at the 240 - 300 yard mark, but my longest shot of the trip was here at the far right of the fence line at a lasered 402 yards. Nothing spectacular, but decent. That was with the rifle shown, my 20VT. By the time I saw squirrels farther out, the mirage was running too hot for any precision shooting.
During these shoots when we're bench shooting, we always have a pet .22LR handy nearby for the rats that pop up unexpectedly from 25 yards out. Most of us have tweaked 10-22's for this. The only thing remaining Ruger in mine is the outer action. The rest is all Volq and Power Custom. I can't count how many rats this little rig has claimed, or how many bricks of WW and Mini-Mag HP's it has sent downrange.
My Cooper M38 20VT right after the long shot at the fence line, cooling her barrel. The little Ruger 10-22 got a bit of use during this particular cooling session (grin). All my 20VT and 204 shooting this trip was with the 32gr Nosler BT and Varmageddon. Disclaimer: Many rodents were indeed harmed during the making of this post.
It was a grand time out there, and we all grumbled at the thought of having to go back to town after a week of sunshine, good friends, epic rat shooting with favorite rifles. We always have evening pistol drills before movie time, and this trip I took my Kimber Aegis Elite Custom with a Vortex Venom 6 MOA dot factory mounted. The rock outcropping in the photo has a 6' grey rock at the left center bottom at exactly 233 yards from the G-Man's truck hood shown here. With the optic, hitting that rock 9 our of ten times became routine once the hold was established. Nice to know a handgun is good for more than across the room ranges. Even at this range, the bullet splashes can be seen on the rock.
And once home and all the rifle and pistol brass is out of the tumbler, couldn't resist a pic of my Kimber with the brass shot this trip at our steel and at that silly rock.
So that's our recent trip to share. Here's hoping more of you guys will share your trips this season too, as with this covid crap, last year was a bust, so more of us are getting out this year. So come on, what have the rest of you been up to? Let's get this forum alive again!
