Nice photos and write-up.
After shooting gophers the PD's seem almost gigantic don't they.
I generally have a couple of thousand gophers down by the time we go to PD camp the first part of June. When I first start shooting the PD's my thoughts are "these things are so big that I should never miss one" - but we all know how that works out.
Glad you had a great time - I feel sorry for folks who don't have gophers and PD's to shoot.
drover