Poor season

[broper]

It sure wasn't a good year for ground squirrels here in s.w. Idaho, Started out kind of slow, got a little better but nothing like previous years. Then the weeds & grass started growing, some nearly 3 ft. high. Makes it impossible to see what few squirrels are out there. And I don't know what happened to the badgers. I saw one live badger early in the spring and that's it. Seems like something happened to them over the winter, disease or something. They just aren't there. Usually this is their breeding season and they are all over the place. Last year I shot a total of 19, this year 0. Only got out once for rock chucks but it wasn't bad shooting. We have to travel about 2 1/2 hrs. from here to get into any decent rock chuck shooting. Anyway just thought I'd comment on my varmint hunting season this year so far. Hopefully coyote hunting will be better.

[skipper]

hope you have better luck with coyotes. Getting out is sometimes a reward in itself.

[broper]

Oh yeah, I enjoy getting out whether I shoot anything or not. Sometimes I just like to get out in the hills and drive around, find new places.

[Rick in Oregon]

Broper: It was not the greatest season here either. The ranchers opined that with the tremendous amount of late snow we had, plus a lot of heavy rain, the rats got pneumonia and many died early. This was confirmed when the fields got plowed in any way and moribund rats were turned up as a result.

We got some good morning shooting for a total of about ten days, then like you there, the grass and alfalfa got so long you can't see the little critters in it. A couple of days of "head & shoulders" shooting, then zilch. Good thing part of the equation is the camaraderie with good friends.

And there's always rock chucks!

[broper]

Yeah, I love shooting rock chucks, just wis there were more in this area. In this south west part of the state they've been pretty well shot out. That pneumonia theory could be right. We didn't get hardly any snow down in the valley's but a lot of rain in the early spring, clear up to almost the first of June. Somebody said that the ground squirrels and badgers need a good covering of snow for insulation and that with out that they can actually freeze in their burrows. I don't know what happened but there sure wasn't as many out this year.

[broper]

My buddy and I were out this morning roaming the hills, kind of scouting for new areas to shoot coyotes this fall. We unexpectedly ran on to some rock chucks. I shot 3 with my 22/250 and he shot 2 with his 6 m/m. They were up in some pretty rough, scraggly rocks so didn't get any pictures. We saw a couple more but figured we better leave some seed stock. We were hoping to run across a coyote or two but no luck on that. Felt good to get out and splatter something.