SmallCaliberCentral

Why wild you wonder? Well, take a short trip with Captqc and me to our favorite rat patch here recently, and you'll see. We planned on a four day shoot; Thursday through Sunday. Both of us took our Cooper 204's (among others) to have some late season fun with our favorite rodent.

Our rancher buddy was nice enough to park his semi with doubles hooked up at the most infested area of the ranch. This gives the ultimate shooting position with the added elevation, especially later in the season when the alfalfa is anywhere up to 8"-10" high, allowing for what we call "head & shoulders" shooting, as all you can see of the little buggers is that much of them when they stand up for a look-about. Very challenging shooting, especially around the 300 yard mark.

Here's our setup the first day overlooking the alfalfa pivot:



Gary (Captqc) was shooting his Cooper Phoenix in 204, I was using "Wicked Wanda", my new Cooper Montana Varminter, also in 204. One side of the shooting setup overlooked alfalfa, the other side a hillside about 200 yards away. The top of the hill was just under 300 yards, and both sides of the truck was literally infested with Beldings Ground Squirrels, the alfalfa ranchers worst enemy.



Here's my view of the hillside from my bench. Squirrels were everywhere on that hillside, especially in all the dirt areas where they had mounds or worn the grass away. It was grand shooting.



Some Cooper porn....my Cooper MTV 204 on the bench. I was shooting 32 SBK's over RL10X at 4,035 fps:



My drop chart in MOA for the 32gr SBK RL10X load that seems to work so well in this rifle (.198" best so far):



A "squirrels eye view" from the hillside looking back at the semi after we had torn down for the day:



Here's one of the rats I shot at the very top of the hillside at his hole at 288 yards with the 32 SBK. Note the amount of fat on the little guy. No wonder the ranchers hate these critters:



Landry, the son of a very dear friend joined us for some fun also with his M700 22-250. New to the sport, he's already hooked:



Okay, now the wild part. This late in the year, the weather is usually pretty good around these parts. We fully expected cold, but shootable conditions the next day. Well, we got cold alright, in the form of a ligitimate blizzard raging the next morning when we awoke. The wind was 40 mph, and it raged for six hours Here's a look out the front door of the Rat Hilton:



My truck parked outside....not late May spring rat shooting weather :



The very next day Mother Nature smiled upon us, and we got ideal shooting conditons; sunny, warm and dry with blue skies and squirrels running about everywhere on the ranch. Captcq and I got right with the program with our Coopers again:



This shoot will go down in the books for diverse weather conditions. It was great to have a wood stove during the blizzard with flatscreen TV, DVD "guy movies" and our 204's waiting for the sun the next day for more fun with Skippy and his pals. No complaints from us for sure. I'm sure once again though that Skippy's kin that are left see it quite otherwise.

Sounds like a most excellent adventure that will not soon be forgotten, Rick. Thanks for taking us along for the ride!

Now that's a rat whackin trip right there!! Here in Ohio we only have to wait a couple hours for the weather to change tho.

How many rats do you guys usually obliterate on a 4 day binge??

RIO you and captqc look like you had wat to much fun outside of the snow bit.
Liked the pics and story.Glad to see someone still drives a truck of real iron not this plastic and aluminum junk.say about a 76 by the front markers.
COOPER PORN is great beutiful rifle.
Chomping at the bit no . No bit left to chomp its go time.
Thanks for sharing.

Glen wrote:How many rats do you guys usually obliterate on a 4 day binge??

Glen,
It depends of course, but we usually fire between 200 & 300 CF rounds a day. With the equipment we have these days, most of us shoot in the high 90% range out to about 300 yards, which is where the majority of shooting takes place. So depending on how many of us are shooting, plus add what we shoot during our ranch drive-abouts with our 10-22's out the windows, any one guy could easily shoot 500 rats per day combined. It's a truly great time to be sure. Get out of bed and shoot till it's too dark to shoot any more. Good stuff.

Clint: Glad you enjoyed the pic trip. "Wicked Wanda" as she's known is a sucker to pose for Cooper porn....glad you approve.

My old Chevy is a '75 year model, built in Canada with all the HD stuff available back then. I've had the old girl now for going on 36 years come this December. She's balanced and blueprinted, 4-speed .030 over 350 cu in motor, but next year she gets torn down for a complete frame-up and a 383ci built from my original that's still in the truck. Good American stuff alright.

On the hill overlooking the killing fields:

Rio i should have known better (cooper porn wicked wanda) those girls can get sensitive when you dont address them properly : .
I knew your truck wasnt a 77 78 or79 front markers were white not amber production change mid 77 . Side trim was wrong also 78 79 used wide black trim not thin chrome strip accutuley alluminum polished.Ya im a truck nut .
Your truck shows how well you take care of your equipment.

Dang that's a lotta blood & guts!! No wonder the Farmer's practically adopt you fellas!!

Cool deal & I hope you get to whack a few 100 thousand more!!

Rick........ Thanks for sharing the nice write up w/ pics and weather report. Good temps for shooting .........didn't have to worry about the barrels getting to HOT!!
Later
Ray P

Way to go Rick. Looks like Wanda is performing well. Thanks for the pictures. It is hard to justify a 6 hour drive for me to get there when bad weather is in the forecast. I have a new 20 VarTarg that needs to be broken in the way Wanda was. I have been trying Ramshot X-Terminator and it looks very good at the first experiment with it.

We usually have to worry about sunblock over thereNot this year, how high was the alphafa it looks like u need that trailer for a better shoot. Is the crop on its usual g rowing pace? Just wondering for our next trip after the first cut. Great story and pictures Rick sounds funn

majcl5 wrote:We usually have to worry about sunblock over thereNot this year, how high was the alphafa it looks like u need that trailer for a better shoot. Is the crop on its usual g rowing pace? Just wondering for our next trip after the first cut. Great story and pictures Rick sounds funn

Thanks for the comments guys, glad you enjoyed the pics and story.
Mark, Yep, no sun-bloc needed this trip. No sun-shades either. Crazy weather for the end of May for sure. The average length of the alfalfa right now over there is about 8", so it's all just "head & shoulders" shooting, as all you can see of the rats is their heads when/if they stand up in the stuff. When they're down feeding, you can't see them at all, one reason I shot that un-planted hillside with the rat-condo's all over it. The added elevation of the semi-trailers made for some good shooting, as at ground level you could hardly see the little buggers out there in the alfalfa.

The shooting won't be good at all until after first cut now. It'll be about a month till we can get back at Skippy and his pals.......the wait is torture, but gives time to load all these empty cases back up. Good shootin' on your next trip.

Ya know what RIO...that's enough now!!!!! You guys are ALWAYS teasing us with these AWESOME hunts that I feel you should have to "treat" us in some way....Like an ALL expenses paid trip to these "Honey Holes"!!!!! 500 squirrels a DAY!

Just kidding buddy! Always appreciate the posts/pics and stories of your hunts! It's like being there with you! On a serious note though...why do you say late season? Is this prior to the heat hitting? Harvest? In my neck of the woods, we are just getting started on the woodchucks!

and nice truck BTW! 36 years is a LONG time and one HECKUVA commitment to a vehicle!

Ya Rick i cant wait till our next trip my hunting partner has a son getting married in the end of june so i hope the grass holds out for the cut after that. You really have to hit that shoot right after the bails leave the field your margin for error is fairly small.

Walther, yup it's late season for us in a "normal" weather year as the little buggers don't like hot weather and they spend most of their time underground. As you can see in the pics this ain't a normal weather year...2" of snow!!!!! We have one more trip planned next month and that's it for the year. And by the way, we can shoot 500 sage rats a day between our .204's, .17 HMR's, .22LR's, etc. There is one guy that visits the ranch who claims 800 a day just using his .22LR. (I suppose it's possible on a good day but he is sitting in the field for 8 to 10 hours straight) I think a more realstic number would be around 350. Gary

Rick,

I thought I had my 1970 Trans Am for a long time but you have me beat by 3-years. I purchased it back in 1978 for $2500, a lot of bucks to a young sailor back then. A fun car to drive but it requires premium fuel, the type from yester-year. The premium at the pump today just don't cut it, so I use racing fuel mixed and she purrsust like a kitten.

For me, I drive the wheels off of cars. My Bronco has 221K and I've had her now for 13 years. I think about getting rid of her every now and then but one thing I really like about it is the "tight" turn radius. Besides, my youngest one wants it.

Jim