SmallCaliberCentral

The squirrels started coming up last week I went out today and shot a couple with the .17 Fireball. It was fairly windy and the squirrels were skittish, making for some hard shooting. I managed to kill a few. Hopefully I'll remember to put a couple pictures up here in the next day or two.

Glad to hear that they are getting active. Keep us posted. May want to use a heavier caliber to buck the wind a little better.

Yours are coming up, and our public season is coming to a close the end of Feb .

I need to head out and make friends with some grass farmers.

Here's a little video I put together yesterday. Nothing too spectacular, but there are some kills there.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Hunter67808 ... Oxb3C0CaUk

Thanks for the video--it will be quite some time before us North Dakotans get out after prairie dogs and gophers, so keep the videos coming so we can get the excitement building for spring.

they were up here today . I watched a friend take them out to 670 yards with a 270 weatherby
most met their end with the 204

terrace wrote:they were up here today .

As you don't list your location, we have no idea of where "here" is........

Won't be too much longer till we're out in the rat patch teaching Skippy to fly again this year. Tick-tock, almost time to rock!

Phase One: Get out of burrow, look all around for danger (pay no attention to the guy on the bench 350 yards away):



Phase Two: Take flying lessons (from the guy on the bench......350 yards away.....):



Phase Three: The Landing...."Man, I HATE those 204's!.....was THIS from the guy on the bench 350 yards away?":



Coming soon to a rat patch near you!

Rick, I would like to star in that movie. Hope to be making a home movie like that myself!

central coast of California

Monterey County?

terrace wrote:central coast of California

Well then, that figures. Our rats come up about a month after the Kalifornia squirrels emerge. That's some beautiful country there in that area. Hope you have a good season, let us know how you make out.

Remember, we like pictures here......

P.S. Thanks for adding your location....now we know where you're comin' from.

My good shooting buddy in Klamath Falls, saw his first rockchuck in the middle of January. He says everyday that is halfway decent that same chuck is out sunning himself on a rock pile. We won't hunt them until the middle to the last of may, so there will be more targets with the young running around. Time sure does pass slow during the wait but does allow time to sharpen the accuracy of the rifles and shooter.

Lenard: I understand leaving some for seed. But our 'rat rancher' who raises alfalfa, actually calls me to schedule us to come to the ranch early to shoot the sage rats so the population is down a bit for later in the season. Another local lady calls me mid-April to thin out her chucks for the same reason....just too dang many of them on her property. With readily available food sources, these critters breed quite well it appears, as every year I "get the call" to thin out some more.

Leaving seed chucks on the rockpiles out in the outback is sure a good idea though. It would make for pretty thin shooting next year if you clean off the rocks completely. On either Federal or private land, we always leave some for next year too.

This would be a good view of the rock pile after a day of good shooting when you're breaking down for the day.......



Is it spring yet?

Rick, last year I shot 57 on the first trip(with ony 5 misses)and 8 on the second. My shooting partner shot 12 on the second trip. Typically, we will shoot over 50 per year in two trips. Because we don't start until late may, we just have lots of young ones for targets. We are not as good a shots as some on this board and generally kill ours from 250-300 yards. Been hunting this ranch since 1990 and try hard not to overkill. We so look forward to it each year.

As for rats, we head to Burns in mid march and along with some adverse weather, have cleaned out 5 circles of alfalfa. Killing those mama rats early really puts a dent in the populations. I'm hoping there will be some jacks to shoot this summer as we have had some major shoots on them around the alfalfa fields. One weekend a couple years ago, we shot over 225 jacks in the daylight.

So at the request of the rancher, are you going to go over early this year?

Rick in Oregon wrote:

terrace wrote:central coast of California

Well then, that figures. Our rats come up about a month after the Kalifornia squirrels emerge. That's some beautiful country there in that area. Hope you have a good season, let us know how you make out.

Remember, we like pictures here......

P.S. Thanks for adding your location....now we know where you're comin' from.

And our "rats" come out about a month after yours. I can hardly wait.