So we got to his ranch and spent some time discussing life, he showed us around and we decided to kill some vermin. I started things right with my High standard 22 pistol outfitted with a Tasco PDP3 fine red dot, sighted dead on for 25 yards, and while my son was skirting the delapidated building for further shots a Beldens stood up watching him about 30 yards from me. Offhand, single shot to the neck got him a flopping around enough for my son to see Pops drew first blood...lol We ended up seting up and shot 17 HMR, 223 and 204's for a good hour and a half, and killed about 125 until they decided to stay out of sight.. or we killed em all, lol
Went looking at the other fields we drove with the Rancher to scope out tomorrow's 4 person hunt and I found another Belden's near an old set of corrals, and having the pistol ready gave him a headache he'll not recover from. Sun had set so we headed south to our hotel to meet our friends. The next morning we loaded up both trucks and found fog all around us, so we ended up waiting and didn't get to the "choosen field" until about 9:30 to find very fiew targets. I said we need to move until we find better grounds, and ended up back at Thursday's field, and shot there until 11am for a cool 125+ vermin. I called another rancher and had to be back in town at 1pm, so we started south but looked at a few fields and found another shooter who said the quantity was way down from normal, and he was headed south of Alturas if he couldn't find better pickins, so I guess we got to the only "loaded" field just in time.
Met with the other rancher at 1, got some shooting in for about an hour, but it was way slower there, for a count of maybe 75, but many were along the road and tiny, killed with the 17 hmr, otherwise the field was way slower. I suggested we head south and look for more options, got to meet a rancher and his water boss along the road in the area we thought was ok to hunt, and they told us to go back up the road a mile, back an alley and start looing. That field was like Nirvana, at first it looked ok, but as we shot more would either appear, or come out of the hole? We 4 spent from 3'ish to 7:30 shooting pretty fast, and even had to change guns from hot barrels. Kill was right around 250 from my notes.
The next morning, on suggestions of others, we went down below Madeline and found a decent field, it was around 80 degree's and the shooting pretty much petered out about noon. We killed about 150 there and scouting around it seemed all had hunkered down to rest, and as the grass hadn't been watered anywhere yet, I suspect they seek shelter to conserve, as there isn't much grass ( alfalfa) to eat anyway.
Headed back north to yesterdays field and killed another 100, and we were amazed that there were still squirrels, but did find one area to have been picked clean by us. At sunset the squirrels had slowed way down, so we started the howler, and the only thing that came to us was a jackalope, stupid thing got 50 yards from the howler, saw us and went straight back up the road he came down.
Sunday morning we thought we would draw our last blood and head home, but found some hunters in the next over field, and even though we had plenty of targets and could have set up to shoot away from them, I suggested if we were in their shoes and someone set up like we were thinking, I wouldn't be happy to see others, so we left without poppin a cap. I suggested we had a lot of opportunity south of this field, but we never did see any spots to do more than sling lead at 300+ yards, so a half a dozen more kills and we headed to Reno, then home.
My son the Firefighter
Friends
Can you say decapitiation
This little bugger was at 200 yards along with a bunch more
BTW, most of our shots were from 100 to 250 yards, ranged, and very few were in close. I think our average hit ratio was better than I expected, my month old 204 that I bought with ammo from a varmint hunting friend who was downsizing ( I added a jewell set at 8 oz) was better than my 223, even though the 204 with his loads is a half inch gun and my 223 has logged 3 sub 0.2" groups, but it was set at 100 yds and had a cheap scope.
Thinking about our next trip already, I have a bunch of setup changes like less guns, putting the guns all side by side behind the front seats on the cargo shelf dodge has on their quad cab truck, better bed layout for the tables/ chairs and add an umbrella, etc.
Allen
Glad you had a good trip. Once you've experienced some good 'rat shooting, you'll have to go back.