The 12th Annual Rat Rodeo - 204 Style

[Mike]

Mike....those things even look nasty! I may check them out, but they have to be "hound-dog proof", as the girls are 'free ranging Bassets'

They're quite effective. You push down a section of mole tunnel in the yard and set the trap right over it. There's a pressure plate on the bottom of the trap that gets tripped when the mole comes along and pushes the dirt back up to clear his tunnel. Then....bam! Skewered mole.

Our dogs never messed with the traps when I was growing up, but you might be inclined to put something like a tomato cage around the traps secured with a couple of stakes. Not the prettiest yard ornament in the world, but that would keep the pups safe for sure and the moles will never know the difference.

[Rick in Oregon]

Thanks Mike, I'll be checking them out in person very soon. It's definetely "Mole-B-Gone" time! I'd use one of my 204's with some 32 grainers, but I know the neighbors would not appreciate it in any way.

Can you imagine some nut sitting in a lawn chair with a scoped HB varmint rifle waiting for a mole to emerge in his yard? Sounds like material for National Lampoon, eh?

[assailant]

what the heck!? mole traps??

those things look like torture devices! how does PETA let you guys get away with that stuff!!
they look absolutely brutal!

i cant imagine moles popping up in the backyard... wouldnt the dogs go for them? anyone have any pics of moles in their backyard? sounds hilarious...
i thought mole was just a character from wind in the willows

[Rick in Oregon]

Moles: Nasty underground critters with almost no eyes, a little pink star-like nose, huge claws for their body size that are ideally suited to enthusiastic digging, and about the size of a rat. You almost never, ever see them as they spend all their time underground digging burrows that show in your lawn, with "push-up's" of earth (my term) of earth everywhere in tiny mounds.



If they'd come up and show themselves like a ground squirrel or prairie dog, well.......then I've got the proper medicine for the little rascals, but they're like "land submarines" .....always hidden and never surface. Frustrating for a life-long varmint hunter, eh?

[Mike]

Rick, you and I must be cut from the same cloth. I almost posted that exact same picture of a mole in response to assailant's request.

[Rick in Oregon]

Just goes to show Mike......great minds DO think alike!

Just finished mowing the place, but didn't see any fresh diggins. It's been hotter than all git out lately, maybe it's affected mole movement. That probably just means the thing has dug deeper to stay cool. I gotta git this varmint!

[hemiallen]

Sorry to be late to the show, but great thread Rick.


I have shot ground squirrels in my neck of the woods, but have yet to go north ( I am 30 miles south of Sacramento) but my FIL has a few ranches around Surprise valley he has made contact with the ranchers. A good pull for us, but we hope to go next spring. I have 3 204's just for a trip we planned this year, I "loaned" one to my FIL to wring out with his reloading skills, a VLS I put a jewell in and set at 8oz. He hopes to reload and get her to the range in the next couple of weeks, and my son has my SPS-VSF I put in a Hogue with Jewell. And I have a DPMS 204 that I need to load develop, it has a 2# trigger.


I just picked up a 17hmr Savage lam / thumbhole from your neck of the woods, due to P/U from "quaranteen" Tuesday, and found a sub 1/2" 223 sps-hvy to load for also, when it arrives and is quaranteen- free.

It looks like I need 2 or 3 of those shooting benches, I suspect the setup is pretty stable? My pipe leg benchtops are not so great for 200+ yard shooting.


Thanks again for the loads, picts and sharing.

And I think I have told you before, than you, for serving, and the same for all of you vets and active duty.

Allen

[Rick in Oregon]

It looks like I need 2 or 3 of those shooting benches, I suspect the setup is pretty stable? My pipe leg benchtops are not so great for 200+ yard shooting.

Allen: Thanks for the kind words. In answer to the above, "yes" those benches are quite stable, and have allowed us to make hits on ground squirrels out as far as our rifles are capable, usually around just over 500 yards, and more for prairie dogs because of their larger size. I've made hits with my 243AI on dogs past 800 yds in Montana off mine.

Sounds like both you and your father-in-law are set up in good fashion now....keep us posted on how it goes come spring and the rats are up.