New Guy With Trip Report From Cedarville California

[atavuss]

Hello All,
allow me to introduce myself.........my name is Ed and I am from the Central Valley area of California. I have had a Ruger M77 Mkll in .204 Ruger with a Bushnell 4200 Elite scope for several years and until this year it was a paper puncher only. I found out about a place in the extreme NE corner of California that had access to lots of private property and I took a trip there to try out things. the weather did not cooperate but for a few hours on a saturday I was shooting a squirrel a minute roughly.
I then found out about another spot a short distance away called Cedarville. I have gone there several times early this summer and this is what my report is about. I will share the last trip first.
arrived Sunday around 10am after driving 6 hours (had to stop for an hour nap when I got sleepy). started shooting with a .17HMR (another Ruger M77 with a Bushnell 4200 Elite scope) and got all the close in squeaks then switched to the .204 Ruger. I use whatever factory rounds I can scrounge up. I use the heavier bullets when it gets windy and for the longer shots. longest verified shot this trip was 227 yards. shot until 5:30 and went in for the day.
Monday I got in the field at 7 am and shot until 8:30 that evening, stayed 13 hours in the field. on arrival in the field that morning there was a golden eagle sitting on a irrigation pipe that let me get about 20 yards away before it flew away. lots of crows, magpies, hawks, buzzards and one seagull on clean up detail.
at times the shooting was as fast as I could pull the trigger and reload. my shooting area is an alfalfa field that is 200 or 300 acres.
went back tuesday morning from around 7am to 10am at which time I had to leave for the long drive home. got a small jackrabbit at the edge of the field. I did try a FX3 Electronic caller and Jack in the Box decoy with no results. the weather was in the upper 70's and lower 80's with a brisk wind. I had an old beat up umbrella that the wind killed this trip. I ended up wearing a hooded sweatshirt with a cap to keep out of the sun. I use a RCBS R.A.S.S. swivel shooting bench, pretty satisfied with it.










this little guy seems to have lost his lower part of his body:


rabbit:

[Captqc]

Ed, Welcome to the forum! Based upon your first post you'll fit in just fine around here! We love pics like these! Gary

[Song Dog]

Can't beat a introduction like that.
Welcome.

In Christ,

Song Dog

[futuretrades]

Hi ED, as Gary said welcome to the forum and I also think you will fit in just fine. What days were you over in cedarville? Just curious, as I am about 2 1/2 to maybe 3 hours west of there.

[acloco]

Excellent write up.

.....and we like to have FUN on this site.

......"golden eagle sitting on a irrigation pipe that let me get about 20 yards away before it flew away. lots of crows, magpies, hawks, buzzards and one seagull"

Is it legal to have spotters? LOL!

[Gube]

As said before, "welcome aboard Ed". With pics and story like that, you'll fit in just fine.

[Rick in Oregon]

Ed, welcome to the 204um. I'm not going to tell you that you'll fit in here fine, as it appears you already have. Great first post.

By the way, Cederville has been a long time squirrel hot spot. Every year in March, the Surprise Valley Chamber of Commerce hosts what they call "Squirrel Wars". This is an annual event for shooters to come and bring their rifles to thin out the squirrels before they breed the young-uns. There is a BBQ, prizes for the most tails harvested, and a big shindig at the end of the shoot. Most guys just use 22's or HMR's, as with centerfires there's not much left of a rat, and the tail may be in the next zip code after contact with a 3,500 fps bullet.

PETA filed suit over the event a few years ago, and the mayor of Cederville himself put up a website telling the world that the animal lover freaks were out of line, wrong, and that the squirrels cost the ranchers hundreds of thousands of dollars yearly due to crop damage. PETA finally gave up thankfully, and the Squirrel Wars continue every year.

As you have found Squirrel Uptopia, you may want to consider to start handloading now......

[Silverfox]

atavuss--Welcome to the Board. I sure enjoyed your writeup and photos, especially the ones where the squirrels are missing lots of parts!!! That was amazing to read you got so close to that golden eagle. I would have thought it would be long gone before you got within 50 to 75 yards of it.

Keep the reports coming.

[atavuss]

WOW, thanks for the warm welcome everyone!
Silverfox- I think it had to do with me being in my vehicle that I was able to get so close to the Eagle, it was probably used to farmworkers in the fields all the time. I did not drive directly at it either but drove at an angle which might have made it more comfortable.......or maybe it was just too full to care?
Rick in Oregon- I do need to start handloading, I have saved all my brass but I have been reading that even reloading components are difficult to find. I can only imagine what a zoo Cedarville must be during the squirrel roundup! I don't think I would want to go there during that time. I like solitude and I had plenty of it all by myself in the 300 or so acre field for a couple of days.
acloco- I was so tempted to pop the crows but I was not sure if it was open season on them or not. I tried the crow call on the e caller and they did not seem to care or maybe they were too far away.
futuretrades-I was up there two weeks ago on a sunday, monday, and tuesday. I am guessing you are in the Redding area? I sure wish I was closer! we have lots of ground squirrels here in the central valley but getting permission to hunt is another story yet!
I just got a Thompson Contender Encore SS Prohunter pistol in .22-250 with a 15" heavy fluted barrel as a backup. need to get a scope mount and figure out what scope I want to put on it. should make a heck of a squeak blaster! bet the noise that thing makes will wake the dead! I chose .22-250 because ballistics are similiar to the .204 Ruger and there seems to be a good supply of factory ammo for it just about anywhere.

[Rick in Oregon]

I can only imagine what a zoo Cedarville must be during the squirrel roundup!

Ed: Yes, you are correct that it's a virtual zoo it is during that time. The precise reason I never go near the place during the roundup. I only mentioned it because it illustrates just how popular the place is for squirrel shooting. Like you, we keep our group small and enjoy the solitude these great places offer, not to mention the great scenery and target availability.

On the 22-250 for squirrels, a great caliber to be sure, but not at all suited to prolonged strings of fire common in the rat patch, as I've seen more than one need a new barrel at the end of a good weekend of shooting. This is why the 223 and 204 are so popular for PD's and squirrels, less powder, less ejecta, less heat = longer barrel life. Seeing your hits also plays a big part in the smaller capacity cases.

I've been shooting squirrels for over 40 years, don't claim to know it all (never will), but I do know what works. This may be the reason I own five 223's and three 204's.....they work quite well indeed.

Good to have you aboard, thanks for sharing your recent outing.

[surfclod]

Those are the photos that we like

Its kinda neat having the birds there on clean up duty. Where I go to shoot on weekends the eagles, hawks, ravens and magpies are all "trained" to the sound of gunshots. After a couple shots in the morning they all show up for the easy feast. Its always entertaining to watch them fight over remnants and smaller birds struggle to fly away before a larger one steals their treat from them.


And I definitely have to second the reloading route, besides improved accuracy and lower cost per shot, there is just something very enjoyable about the reloading process. Its somewhat meditative and soothing to me, especially some music low in background or an outdoors/shooting podcast to listen to while cranking out fresh new loads.

[Sidewinderwa]

Atavuss, welcome to the funnest site on the net. Great bunch of shooters that stay on the light side and full of information to share. Your pictures are great. Wish I could take those action pictures like that. Thanks for sharing. We all like a fix every once in awhile!

[Verminator2]

Welcome to the forum atavuss, good introduction There was a golden eagle that was injured somehow at my cousin's farm last year that would let us get within 5 feet of it. My little jack russel dog just about got ate They are really cool birds. We did call and had somebody come out to rescue it.