SmallCaliberCentral

Our ground squirrel 'season' is about over, as the little buggers hate the heat and go down early in the mornings now, and by mid-July are all down for the year again. We had a great last shoot recently with our .20's that included 204's and 20 Vartargs.....although the sage rats may feel quite differently.

As usual, we set up on the edge of an alfalfa irrigation pivot. Here's Rat Force One (Dan) raising the colors to start the morning action:



First rifle up for me was my Cooper M38 VR .20 Vartarg. With the 32gr NBT over RL-7 for 3,800 fps, it's good for rats out to the 500 yard marker. Once the afternoon winds kick up, I move to one of my 204's, this time my Cooper M21 MTV.

The little 20VT set up and ready for the start of the action in the morning sun atop my BR Pivot Lite:



As the alfalfa crop was still not too high, we could see the squirrels all the way out to 600 yards:



20VT's in the CRT Bench Tray.....they just look cool sittin' there (Brad, you sure do nice work!) :



Necessary tools on the bench top (or equipment porn ):



Terminal performance of the 32gr NBT from the little 20VT just past 275 yards after a nice short vertical takeoff:



Dan sez: "Did you see how high that sucker flew?!!":



A bunch of empty 20VT cases in the excellent CRT Bench Tray....proof of a very good time afield.:



After about 200 CF rounds downrange and many flying rats later, it's time for a sandwich at the trailer (my son Dave in his ghillie....he was snooping for badgers):



Dan catches a power nap in the trailer out of the sun and wind (not much gear needed to kill rats, right?):



Once feeding time is over, the wind is usually up and it's time to move to a faster stepping rat rifle.....this time my Cooper M21 MTV in 204, affectionately named "Wicked Wanda", and for good reason. She's pushing the 39gr SBK and/or the 40gr NBT a tad over 3,800 fps, and shoots both "quite well indeed". :



More gun porn....Cooper and Leupold just seem to go together. There's a 40gr NBT in the chamber waiting for flight:



Here's Jim White from the forum having his way with Skippy with his M700 204 from his RCBS bench:



Captqc with a smile that sez many rats have been sent skyward with his Cooper Phoenix 204:



As my son Dave is the Glock LE Mgr for the western US, and has been trying me to join the clan now for over ten years, I finally succumed to the siren and had him get me the new G30S .45ACP. It's the one developed for LAPD SIS, skinnier, flatter, short frame, and carries 10+1. Ugly, but boy even a dyed-in-the-wool 1911 fan like me has to admit they really DO shoot, and shoot well. Here I'm trying the demo gun out on our steel combat targets at the end of the varmint day:



The Glock "travel case".....take your pick from 9mm all the way to .45 or 10mm:



Once home and all the brass has been cleaned, it appears by the empties we had a good time, even the pistol drills went well and most of the .45 brass managed to find it's way home:



As it's now early June, only about another two months left for rock chucks before they bail too. With the ammo and component shortages in effect now, it didn't break my heart to not have every day be a 300 CF round affair; the components are getting purty hard to replace, so
the amount of shooting we had was just fine, thank you. More for next year, right?

I hope all our forum members are having a grand beginning of summer. Hope you enjoyed our pics, we're always looking forward to seeing yours.

Great post, Rick!!! Sure nice to hear you are well and having fun. Take care.

Just beautiful Rick.. Thank you for sharing those with us. Bill K

This year was kind of a bust for me, I hope we get some components before next year! I had to start fresh on places to shoot, got some leads and hopefully next year will be the best yet! Hope Nosler cranks out more varmageddons...

Man you guys sure know how to party RIO!!!!!!!!!!! Heck a great day for me here in Ohio would be 6 groundhogs!! But I sure aint complainin!! Nice writeup & great pics as usual!!

Thanks you guys.

Glen, that sounds about the same talley for us shooting rock chucks here. But the squirrels are in such numbers that after hundreds of rounds downrange in one field on Saturday, other than the flock of eagles, hawks and ravens dining on the previous days victims, you'd never know we were there, as the field is crawling with rats again Sunday morning when we set up.

Here's a look at one of the fields we shoot, looking back at the benches from "Skippy's view" showing the mound density.....



You can imagine how much that many squirrels can/will eat in a month.

More than one varmint rifle barrel has been burned up shooting these pesky little buggers. Shot disipline actually comes into play, at least if you value that $600 custom barrel you're heating up that day on Skippy.

Rick,

Thank You for sharing the pictures, I also appreciate the kind words about our products.

Brad

What a great trip, thanks for sharing it with us. Looks like you could use a bigger trailer, so there will be room for me of course! I made it to Montana for some prairie dog shooting again. Other than that only made it out for sage rats a few times. Good thing is that I still have a bunch of bullets loaded up for what is left of this year and next year. Have to send some down range on coyotes. Sure glad to see the raptor feeders did well.

P-dogs & ground squirrels are a blast to shoot,, even tho I've never had the opportunity to do so,, but they are so destructive. And as much as I like blowing things up I'm happy for our farmers here that we have neither. You guys just keep shooting as many as you can & I will live vicariously thru your posts!!

Rick looks like fun . Those little pest sure do destroy a field .

Hey Rick, your posts with pics are deffinatly appreciated here also. I only got out twice this year. The ranch we have been shooting for more than 35 years, sold this past year, to an insurance company, so shooters and guns are no longer welcome on the property! So like Bodei, I had to find other places to shoot.
Thanks again!

I am inspired... something's gotta DIE!!!

I did whack a woodchuck yesterday... It was raining and they are cute when they blow up!!

Rick, I'm super thankful for the great post! Man, i feel good, LOL!!!

Rick,

Thanks for posting the pictures. I'll say again, it has a real blast and I had one heck of a time meeting all of you fine folks. One thing I can say that really surprised was the eagles and hawks sitting out in the field with rounds flying in close proximity, pigging out on the rat snacks we provided. In my previous trips they would hang out at a distance but only fly in once we quit shooting.

Anyway, I'll get around to posting a few pictures of my own from the trip.

Jim

Clint, as we're talkin' about how destructive these little buggers are, here's another look at one of our fields using a 200mm tele lens showing the mound density. In the mornings, most of the mounds have their inhabitants above ground munching and running about......."yes", a very target rich environment.



Dave, son #2 shooting supressed as usual; he's a sneaky one that boy.....(you never know when some Tannerite may go off, and he's purty good shooting from helecopters too...... )



Jim: As for the raptors you saw in abundance during the shoot......now you know why we are called the "Eastern Oregon Raptor Feeding Society". Sometimes in the grocery store, an elderly lady will come up to one of us after seeing our shirt graphics and say how proud they are of us for taking the time to feed the raptors......if they only knew the truth.

Our colors tell it all.....proud Americans, and benevolent bird feeders.....yeah, that's us alright.


bow shot: Congrats on that chuck bud, glad you got out, even in the rain. That's dedication!

Kevin: You're not alone on the ranch being sold to unfriendly folks.....same thing for us. Our prime ranch of 15 years got sold due to divorce to some Canadian company that will poison all the rats on the ranch. Looks like we're all gonna start from scratch again. I'll have to get out my "Rat Book" of ranch phone numbers and hope most of them are not dead or sold out too. Just dandy..... (Just think of all the components we "saved" this year though!)

Glen, glad you're able to live vicariously though our little adventures....now I'm gonna have to get hot and locate another good ranch to keep you entertained. I'll do my very best, I promise.

Sidewinderwa: That trailer is a work in progress. When fully stocked for deployment, we all look at the thing stuffed to the gunwhales with gear, and ponder the amount of gear "required" to kill squirrels. The logistics would amaze the unenlightened (read: liberals).

Brad: You're welcome bud...you know you're stuff is tip-top. Don't think I've ever enjoyed using a powder funnel so much as I have since I received my CRT unit.

Just for fun, and to illustrate the amount of rimfire shooting out the truck windows we usually have, here's a look at the floor at my "waist gunners" position behind Dan the driver after two days of travel from the house to our benches:



Nuthin' like having to shoot your way to your primary bench location eh? Man I love this stuff!

thanks for story and pix rick one question tho are those shooting rest home made or store bought id love to get my hands on one of those cheers bazz