Back from the 09 Rat Rodeo - Part I (Pics)
Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 11:07 am
Well, the 2009 ground squirrel season is about over, and as usual, ours always ends up at a friends 3,500 acre aflalfa ranch in northern California. A gang of us who've know each other for years gathers yearly at the ranch to seriously thin out the zillions of ground squirrels that plague the ranch, so our 204's, 223's, 17HMR's, and other pet calibers get dragged out of the safe and put to work on the rats each year.
This is a shot of the Eastern Oregon Raptor Feeding Society's setup on an elevated firing position overlooking a vast alfalfa pivot and pastures below (rock chucks in those rocks behind us too) :
My new Cooper in 223 Rem overlooking prime squirrel habitat from under my shade canopy (it was 96* in the shade!):
Dan, or Rat Force One to you guys, giving the "grin" associated with a good hit and launch at extended range (there's a name for that grin, but this has gotta stay nice for the young-un's):
You all have seen Kevin, or Curly's posts here under "futuretrades"......here the gentleman is in action, drawing a bead on Skippy way down the hill using his Howa 204 and the "wet towel" barrel cooling routine (did I mention it was HOT?!):
We shot in a number of locations, but returned to "The Hill" more often than not, as this late in the season here, most of the squirrels have "gone to sleep" as the locals say, meaning they go down when the hot weather hits, go to sleep until next spring. There was still a good active amount of rats to keep all our rifles hot, just not the copious number we usually encounter earlier in the year. Long periods of rain prevented the usual early cutting of the alfalfa this year, hence our late Rat Rodeo.
The crew on "The Hill" having our way with Skippy and his pals:
One of our California rat shooting buddies dinks around in the Sierra's looking for gold. He found this nice nugget in a tailings pile, left by the miners long ago. He buys nice rifles and optics using money from his dinking about....not bad, nice rifles and scopes for free:
My girls, Rose & Lucy were the Star Attraction to the bovines in back of our camp:
Gary (Captqc) and his son Dan (Rat Force One) striking the colors one evening in camp:
Our rancher buddy lets us take trailers, campers, tents or whatever, and even has added full RV hookups at the ranch so we squirrels shooters have all the comforts. It's great to shoot all day, return to the "CP" and relax with a cool one, surrounded by other like-minded shooters, and brag (lie) about those long shots you pulled off that day.
On Saturday evening every year we have a great BBQ, and the rancher usually slaughters a steer, and BBQ prime rib is the order of the day. It beats fried ground squirrel every time!
If you're not bored by now, check out Part II for more.......
This is a shot of the Eastern Oregon Raptor Feeding Society's setup on an elevated firing position overlooking a vast alfalfa pivot and pastures below (rock chucks in those rocks behind us too) :
My new Cooper in 223 Rem overlooking prime squirrel habitat from under my shade canopy (it was 96* in the shade!):
Dan, or Rat Force One to you guys, giving the "grin" associated with a good hit and launch at extended range (there's a name for that grin, but this has gotta stay nice for the young-un's):
You all have seen Kevin, or Curly's posts here under "futuretrades"......here the gentleman is in action, drawing a bead on Skippy way down the hill using his Howa 204 and the "wet towel" barrel cooling routine (did I mention it was HOT?!):
We shot in a number of locations, but returned to "The Hill" more often than not, as this late in the season here, most of the squirrels have "gone to sleep" as the locals say, meaning they go down when the hot weather hits, go to sleep until next spring. There was still a good active amount of rats to keep all our rifles hot, just not the copious number we usually encounter earlier in the year. Long periods of rain prevented the usual early cutting of the alfalfa this year, hence our late Rat Rodeo.
The crew on "The Hill" having our way with Skippy and his pals:
One of our California rat shooting buddies dinks around in the Sierra's looking for gold. He found this nice nugget in a tailings pile, left by the miners long ago. He buys nice rifles and optics using money from his dinking about....not bad, nice rifles and scopes for free:
My girls, Rose & Lucy were the Star Attraction to the bovines in back of our camp:
Gary (Captqc) and his son Dan (Rat Force One) striking the colors one evening in camp:
Our rancher buddy lets us take trailers, campers, tents or whatever, and even has added full RV hookups at the ranch so we squirrels shooters have all the comforts. It's great to shoot all day, return to the "CP" and relax with a cool one, surrounded by other like-minded shooters, and brag (lie) about those long shots you pulled off that day.
On Saturday evening every year we have a great BBQ, and the rancher usually slaughters a steer, and BBQ prime rib is the order of the day. It beats fried ground squirrel every time!
If you're not bored by now, check out Part II for more.......
