For just over a week, we were at a friends 2,800 acre cattle and alfalfa ranch south of here in the foothills of a local mountain range. Our host really enjoys "his shooters" coming to visit every springtime, and has installed five full RV hookups for our travel trailers....talk about hospitality! So we haul our trailers, enough food and drink for a Marine platoon, more rifles and ammo than a guy could possibly shoot in a week, and great DVD 'guy movies' for evening entertainment. It's about the most fun you can have with a rifle and friends.
One of our setups on a hill overlooking cattle pastures and alfalfa fields infested with ground squirrels. Shooting was from "danger close" rimfire pistol action, to rockchucks and badgers at a lasered 908 yards (more on that later), but mostly squirrels from 150 to 500~ yards......fun stuff.
Captqc at his bench with his Ruger No.3 in .22 K-Hornet giving Skippy flying lessons:
Another setup along a nice shady grove of trees at the edge of a 400+ acre alfalfa patch that looked down into a nice gentle draw.....all pocked with squirrel mounds. That's our member "futuretrades" with his Howa 204 on the left using his well-known 'wet-towel' barrel cooling method, "Captqc", and his son Dan, or "Rat Force One":
My bench setup in 'the grove', with my Cooper M38 20VT on duty. That little rifle did well out to just shy of 400 yards that day. From our evevated position, we could look down into the alfalfa to see the little buggers quite well. To say the shooting was excellent would be an understatement. See that wheel track in the field? The rats would hop out of the alfalfa and stand up in the track for a look-about......fatal mistake! There was alot of "boom-thwop" to be heard.
Our host and landowner is a real character to say the least. Gritty, foul of mouth, dirty, and much more intelligent than most casual observers give him credit for. When he pulled up to our bench setup in his little ranch-rig, a Suzuki Samuri, and hauled out a LIVE adult male badger by the hind leg from the back, we all had wide eyes, raised eyebrows and open mouths. The critter was growling, snapping his teeth, and generally making it known he was NOT happy. Our host had shot it from 150 yds with his truck-gun, a Savage 223, and only clipped his back, stunning him temporarily, thinking he was paralyzed. Maybe so, mabe not, but can you imagine a full-grown male badger 'coming to' with you in a dinky little Samuri?
Now that would have been a tussle!Once we finished our interview with Badger Bob, I dispatched him with my Kimber 22 conversion unit mounted on my Kimber CDP-II .45 frame:
Dan, or "Rat Force One" at his bench with his M700 223 shooting 50gr NBT's with Mt. Shasta in the background. I mention this, as Dan clipped a badger at a lasered 908 yards from our hilltop to a rock-strewn hillside on the far side of a wide open basin, hence the grin you see. 908 yards with a 50 grain out of a 223? Madness yes, but he did it, saw it myself!
During a barrel cooling session, "Lucy" my Basset Hound gets a chew-bone and an out of the truck respite (during shooting, she's in her bed, in the shade in the back of the cab):
This was one of the real treats of the trip. Our landowner buddy gained permission for us to shoot "secret valley", a patch of alfalfa infested with squirrels that had never been shot. This is the kind of stuff we live for, seldom get to see, but now it was ours! We had to 4WD up a steep trail through sage and juniper to get to this insolated plateau above the field. Once we got out of the trucks and glassed the mound complex below, we could not believe all the squirrels running about......literally hundreds!
The nearest mounds lasered right at 300 yards, the back fence was 508 yds. Out came the 20VT's, 204's and 223's.......This was barrel melt- down conditions!
Bench-toys: My CRT No.2 Bench Tray showing signs of having fun with my Cooper 20VT. Brad sure puts out some quality stuff for guys like us.
During all shooting, Old Glory and the dredded black flag of the EORFS flew proudly over the bench setups (dredded that is, by Skippy and his pals
):
A break in the shade to cool barrels.......and us:
In closing, a pic of one of my favorite setups at this ranch. I've shot this high hill facing east and west since 1998, and can only imagine the quantity of squirrels that have taken flying lessons from this location in all that time:
It was a great week to be sure. A good time was had by everyone.......everyone that is except Skippy.
Now back home with gear unloaded, just the sound of my brass tumbler to remind me that the trip is still not really over; now the reloading begins again. Hope all you guys enjoy our post and have a great spring varmint season too. 
