Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Gophers up - Yay!!!

We have had a few warm days (mid-50' to one day of 65) here in central Idaho. yesterday afternoon was not too bad - 55 & a light wind so I couldn't stand it any longer, I took a 22 and a 223 rifle and headed out to see if any were poking heads up. There were more than I expected, it was a great start to the season - 83 in 3-1/2 hrs. Not nearly as good as it will be in the next month or two but a grand start after a long, miserable winter.
Unfortunately there aren't any more decent warmth days forecast until the middle of next week.

drover

I shot a couple today, but not many were out.. Killed one several wks. ago.. But they are not out in force.. I hope there was not adie off... Couple years ago I only shot a couple hundred, when things are right, that is a good afternoon.. The time is on us..

There were several up and out in the snow, but I haven't seen any since it started raining.

Ours were out but then we got schit on and they're gone again.

Too early to ask for permission though.




Clark

Our Columbias live up in the edges of the timber so they're still under a couple feet of snow.

PS....you guys suck...

Saw a gopher in the hay lot the other day. First one I have seen in a decade.

The prairie dogs in the back yard are up nicely though.

I wish gophers were as weather tolerant as PD's. I like hunting them even more than PD's, probably because there are so many more of them when they are up.

If it is too cool they stay down.

If it is too warm they stay down.

If it is too cloudy they stay down.

If there is a rain cloud within miles they stay down.

And then there is the issue of them only being above ground about 4 months of the year.

Oh well! Not complaining too much since we do have them some - lots of folks don't have any of them to hunt.

drover

The ground squirrels have been out in So. West Idaho for over a month. Not a lot yet but enough to shoot a few. I finally blooded my Ruger American .223 with 50 grain V-Max. Hope I wasn't to under gunned!

Shot a few gophers this AM.. More prairie dogs.. I don't like shooting dogs this time of year, but my pal has a real problem in his hay field.. Glad to help out..

Don't shoot them all save a few for me. We come down to your area every year in late May / early June for a weeks worth of PD shooting.

drover

They'll be waiting for you.

too muddy to get into the fields here.... Farmers don't want their 'roads' mucked up.. or want to have to go pull someone out of their field with the John Deere...

the tree huggers got plenty of water this year... hope they drown...

Ganja was telling me its been fantastic for his growing needs this year tho...bumper crop of all his different varieties of maryjane...

Yep

And my wife can turn a gopher hunt into a [bleep] safari.. as a figure of speach

So what's the preferred ammo in 22 LR's for gophers, the faster 36 grain hollow points, or plain 'ol 40 lead round nose?

Not counting the availability and/or accuracy side of it.....

I like the Fed bulk HP's....

Any reasonably accurate HP.
When using round nose too many go back their hole to die, or be eaten alive by their relatives. Even a gopher deserves a quick death.

drover

I love Stingers. And the Aguila Hyper Velocity.

They split them most of the time and I like to double tap on top of that.

Gopher shooting is the best.




Travis

HP's kill way better and have the audible thump.

Thanks all, I figured HP was the way to go.

One of these times I making a dedicated trip for gophers.

I've got a hodge podge of HP's, but a while back I made a hell-of-a-deal on 5K of 40 grain lead is why I asked. Of course they don't shoot for shiit out of my 40-X......