SmallCaliberCentral

We just returned from four glorious days of sunshine, 204R rifles, pistols, countless ground squirrels, and a badger as a bonus here in Oregon.

We stayed at our favorite ranch at the house provided for us by our rancher friends, affectionatly called "The Rat Hilton", and for good reason....zillions of ground squirrels, aka sage rats. And I DO mean ZILLIONS! The young ones have hatched, half grown, and provided targets from right in front of your bench (pistol fodder), all the way to out of range for our 204's and beyond.

Here's some highlights of the trip for those interested.....

This is the view I had of one corner of the field I was shooting. The fence is right at 325 yards away. I saw what first appeard to be a HUGE squirrel foraging about, but immediately realized it was a large badger munching on one of my recently dispatched squirrels.



As I already had my elevation dialed into the scope, I just held dead-on the shoulder and torched off my new 204, now known as "The Silver Princess of Death", the rig I built with the custom reamer on the Pac-Nor stainless Super Match barrel. The range was only 226 yards, and the critter just rolled over and never twitched a muscle. No exit wound, just jello inside from the 39 grain SBK at 3980fps over RL-10X.



A better view of the nice female:



Here's my crew and I deployed with sunshades, benches, and our 204's "having our way with Skippy":



Far across the field by the irrigation wellhead, there is a test hole dug, and a large mound of dirt piled up that many squirrels kept scampering about on. Captqc and I had much fun launching the little rats off the mound at a lasered 436 yards. More close misses than hits, I have to admit, as we had switching winds from the benches to the mound, but it was grand fun regardless. The mound as seen from my bench:



A shot of my elevation turret showing the 'come-up' for the 39 SBK at that range (hold dead-on, allow for wind, caress the Jewell trigger......):



We all gave our pistols a good workout this trip, as the rats were everywhere. My old Ruger MK-I 5.5" Bull Barrel with Leupold/Gilmore LG-1 got her barrel warmed up quite well on this trip, both from the bench and out the truck window:



My Kimber CDP-II with their Rimfire Target Conversion Unit mounted is usually my belt gun for these forays. Whenever I was taking a stroll, it came out of the holster quite often. Here's Skippy after poking his head out at the wrong time: (gotta love those Winchester Power Points!)



Rat Force One enjoying his new Ruger Charger with Captqc spotting:



This rat met another Sierra 39gr BK at 326 yards out of The Silver Princess while frolicking about his mound with a buddy. This is what I call bullet expansion! (my bench w/green shade can be seen in the background. The telephoto effect makes it look closer than it actually is):



Topside view of the same rat. This guy got right about 12' of air in the process prior to landing:



This is a 200mm telephoto view looking at a mound at 225 yards. There are five squirrels in the shot. Many times it was not a case of looking for a rat to shoot, it was deciding on which ONE to shoot:



See what I mean? A true 'target rich environment', and a varmint shooters utopia (range here was only about 150 yards):



Captqc and Rat Force One (Gary & Dan) discussing which target to engage next, and which one has the highest "Launch Potential".....



Yours truly having my way with Skippy:



Dan, aka Rat Force One giving his trigger finger a well deserved break in the heat (it was almost 100 deg F - Note Ruger 22/45 22LR nearby in case of a 'charge'.....):



On this trip I shot my Sako Vixen 17 Mach IV and my custom Remmy 204R (SPOD, or Silver Princess of Death). Here she is cooling her barrel in a break from the action:



So far, this was one of the best trips of the year. Rat Force One even cooked up a great batch of rainbow trout for dinner one night, then his homemade spagetti the next....what a guy! There were so many targets on the private road leading back to the house from the field (all on private property), only a five minute drive, that sometimes it took us almost an hour to get there IN THE TRUCK, because of so many targets available for "drive-by" shooting with our rimfire pistols (WARNING! Don't try this in L.A.!):



This residue tells the story of how good it was (the back seat was also awash in empties:



Next month we take off again, this time to Northern Kalifornia for our annual Rat Rodeo. Hey futuretrades......going to be in the neighborhood? Hope you enjoy the photos, it sure was a great trip, despite what Skippy has to say......

hey rick
i am planing on making the trip. looks like you guys are really well set up for the skippy rodeo. i may have to invest in some shade too! i like where you put your bullet drop chart, great idea.
i was planing a trip last thursday, but temps were close to 100, so we called it off. no shade and today, it is supposed to get all the way up to 60 degrees, but it is raining now so won't make it
good day to catch up on some reloading. i will try to make another trip this thursday. with the price of gas here, ($4.19 per gal), this may be my last trip this year.
always love your stories and especially the pics.

Another excellent write up Rick!! Good to see you guys had another blast out there!!

future: Same here....89 here yesterday, 58 today and it just rained. Love the West Coast, eh?

Gas: Yep, it's getting pretty rediculous alright. We used to go two to a truck, have our gear on the tailgate with the bench nearby. Not now, we truck-pool four or five to a truck, and take portable tables with our benches in place of the tailgate for all our gear. The sunshades are a virtual must this time of year, either for squirrels or PD's in Montana or Wyoming....... just too blazing hot to shoot without a sun shade.

Hope to see you at The Rat Rodeo if you can scrape enough gas money. It will be our last trip of the year....gas prices and the heat.

Glen: Thanks, it was fun alright, I just wish it didn't cost so dang much just leaving the house in a vehicle these days. This is getting down right expensive! We all now long for the "good old days", only about two years ago, and we were still griping about the price of gas then! We didn't know how good we had it, eh?

Hey pop-
great write up and sounds like one of the best trips y'all have had for awhile. i am liking the resolution that d40 is kicking out. those pics make me feel like am right there with you. seeing all that and knowing exactly where you are sitting and shooting makes me jealous, but you know the situation. give me a few years and i will be a regular again. i sure miss being in the field with you, but our breakfast safaris we have every once in awhile make up for it.

talk to you soon,
andy

I know your schedule precludes you from coming on these trips Andy, but you're with us in spirit. I know if you COULD be there, you certainly WOULD!

Pretty soon your Coopers are gonna need to be taken out and stretch their legs, not to mention that primo switch barrel Nesika rig. Maybe we could hit an "alternate" closer-to-home varmint patch before the season peters out......

I'm gettin' to really like that Nikon D40-X too....one sweet camera. Glad you liked the pics; they'd be better if some of them had you in them.

Another excellent write up Rick!!
Sorry to borrow the quote from above. "Rick excellent on all" grounds, pics, firepowder and sunshade along with good meals to finish the day. Love the empty brass on the floor of the vehical! Gota love a target rich enviroment.
On the side Rick, next your around the Leupold factory take a look thru a scope with TMR retical and let me know what you think.
Later and thanks again!
Ray P

Ray P: Thanks for the words of encouragement; glad you enjoyed the adventure. In regard to the availability of furry targets, this was indeed the best shoot this year so far. When I go through a couple hundred or more 204's or any of my centerfire varmint ammo on a sigle trip, I know full well that it was a good one. When the floor of the rig is coated in empty 22LR brass too, I know it was truly grand. We should be as fortunate to have those conditions all year!

As for Leupold's TMR (Tactical Milling Reticle) I'm very familiar with it. Garth, my good friend and shooting companion has one installed in one of his scopes mounted on a HB M700 VLS in .223 Rem. For it's intended purpose, it is an excellent choice, which is both military and LE tactical shooting. It is intended to be used sans a laser rangefinder, so as such, the operator must know the size of his intended target to a fairly accurate degree. It is best used on human or like-sized targets, so for my use, it is not really suitable, as I always use a Leica LRF-1200 laser rangefinder and use my target elevation turrets and "come-up" charts, made specifically for each rifle/caliber I shoot in the field. This system provides for pin-point first shot hit probability.

My primary target is the ground squirrel, sometimes PD's and rock chucks also (for coyotes I use a standard Duplex reticle). These critters vary in size from the young ones to the older adults. The same would hold true for your eastern chucks, so if using the TMR, you'd have to average the size of the intended varmint, and by doing so, your range or hold could vary enough at extended ranges to cause a miss.

My other concern, purly subjective on my part, is that the TMR is a bit clutterd for my taste, as is the Horus Vision and some Night Force reticles and others of that ilk. These reticles have their following, they are just not for me. For those who do not use come-up charts or use a laser rangefinder, they have value though, but you must do the math with the TMR, or have a Mil-Dot Master available in place of the rangefinder. Too much for my taste, I prefer to just spot, range to target, quickly dial and shoot. In the 40 years I've shot squirrels and other small varmints, this is the system that has evolved best for me. (The TMR sure does look cool though! )

You're right Rick. We thought it was bad then didn't we? I'm afraid it'll only get worse too. It took a $.27 jump this AM to $4 here in Ohio. I think Cali is about $.25 above that yet.

i just gassed up, and the price was up to 4.15 and the chevron was at 4.23 my good friend has one of the local garbage services here. he said he was paying 4.89 for his diesel. from what i ben hearing, there is no end in sight either!

Rick--Thanks for another GREAT report. The photos were just plain fantastic as usual! With that target-rich environment, I'll bet it is tempting to keep shooting until the barrel almost melts!!!! Those sun shades are really nice for the conditions you were in there.

My son and I went out for an afternoon prairie dog hunt on Tuesday. There were no pups out and about and not many adults were out either. We did a three hour walkabout. My son took 9 shots and hit 8 prairie dogs. His shots ranged from about 50 yards on out to 185 yards. I only took 6 shots and connected on 5 of those. My longest shot was 155 yards and the shortest shot was about 75 yards.

The PD below was shot from 135 yards away with my .204 Ruger using the 39 gr. Sierra BlitzKing bullets. He was standing up facing me on the mound where my rifle is sitting and there was a slight left to right wind, coming from the direction of the top of the photo. I aimed a bit left of the center of his body and squeezed off the shot. I could see him cartwheel through the air with maximum altitude of only about 7 or 8 feet. There were parts flying everywhere as he eventually landed about 12 feet from his mound. There were more pieces of his intestines that wound up about 6 feet to the left and south of where he was sitting and one of his front shoulders, including the leg and paw, wound up about 10 feet left and a little bit north of where the rifle is sitting!!! Those 39 gr. BlitzKings really do BLITZ those prairie dogs.



Once again, Rick, thanks for the great report. I'm hoping that in a week or two the prairie dog pups will be out and we'll have some better shooting around here. It's a bummer when you only get a total of 15 shots for two people over a three-hour period!! However, it was certainly a lot more fun than staying at home!!

www.badgerbadgerbadger.com In honor of Rick's latest victim de jour

Silverfox: The kind words are most appreciated by one's peers. It was indeed a task to keep track of shots fired and barrel heat, especially with over $500 invested in the fresh barrel on my 204....."heat-be-gone" as it were. Those sun shades are part of our regular gear now, we even had my old BR Pivot bag maker, a Marine friend who owns Red Oxx in Montana make us up Ballistic Nylon sleeves for them to replace the flimsy factory nylon things that came with them. A very important piece of gear. Gotta protect our tender skin, right?

It appears you and your son have also masterd the Art of Prairie Dog Disection, or complete viseration! Always interesting to see how far some crucial body parts land from the carcas. The 204 and Blitz Kings seems ideally suited to the task too. I always enjoy your photos too, this one is no exception. Liver indeed!

About the only advantage we have with our Belding Ground Squirrels, is that by virtue of their 1/3 smaller size, they fly higher/farther than those nice, plump prairie dogs with a direct hit. What fun this is, eh?

I hope the young-un's emerge in masse for you guys soon. Be sure to keep us posted on your next outing.

glenn: That dancing batch of badgers are alot happier than the one I met! Thanks for the jig.

Rick, Thanks for the write up. Living in Tennessee we don't get many targets in one day. A good day here is a field with 2 or 3 groundhogs. In the early 70's we could go out and take 15 to 20 groundhogs in one afternoon but not any more to many houses and to many coyotes. Maybe you could catch a pair and send my way and I could grow my own targets. Thanks Jacky

Jacky: Same here bud; too many condo's, yuppie mini-ranches, and shrinking hunting land close to town. Back in the mid 70's, during the springtime, I took one of my K-Hornets or 223's to work in my truck, then cruised around the edges of town until I found a good rat-filled field and had a couple of hours of good shooting until going home for dinner. Those were the days.

Breeding Pair: Ha! You'll never know how many times I've considered doing that exact thing, and dropping them off in a nice promising field close to home. That would be very neat indeed, however I just know the ranchers would feel quite different about it.