I went to one of the ranchs I regularly shoot yesterday, the owner asked me to stop in to see him on the way in because he wanted to show me a couple of fields that he wanted shot. When I showed up he handed me to bricks of 22 LR CCI Mini-Mag HP and told me that he had heard that 22 ammo was getting hard to find and he wanted to give me these to show his appreciation for helping hold down the ground squirrel ammo. I told him that I really appreciated being able to shoot there and that I had quite a bit of ammo but he insisted that I take it.
Not only was it a great day of shooting but I was shooting with some good free ammo - something really special in these days of shortages.

drover

Sounds like you had a good day too! While they have not exactly been crawling up my pant leg here in Gem county there have been enough to get some fine shooting in. Yesterday took out my .17 Hornet, .17 Remington, .221 Fireball and .22 rimfire rifle and got plenty of action with them all. I wish that it was as much fun cleaning the guns and loading the ammo back up as it was shooting whistlepigs!

I only used the 22 LR and a few shots from the 17HMR so no real cleaning chore, I had the 223 along but I was getting so many 50 - 150 yd shots that I didn't have to shoot it.
183 total from noon till 3:30 - not hot and heavy but for an early trip it was good enough.

drover

I used to just take out my semi-custom 10/22 and a brick or more of .22 ammo and I was happy as could be. But, morbid as it might sound to some, it's a lot more fun for me to see those guts flying trough the air. My .17 Hornet and .221 Furball just make me giggle. My .17 Rem too but I do not need 4400 fps to kill a whistlepig so I load it down to .17 Hornet speeds or even a bit lower for my shooting pleasure. I get too many runners with rimfire ammo. Even my .17 HMR is not that reliable out past 150 yards. A body hit with a 20 grain Vmax at 3500 fps is pretty humane. Even more so when using the 40 grain pill in the .221 FB.

Have to agree with Rustydust on this .. I used to love going with my buddies rock chuck hunting and making astronauts out of those critters with our 22-250's and other launch vehicles. Seems like some of them would get 20 feet of air with the right hit. Can't seem to get the same air time with the sage rats, but knocking them over as fast as you can find them and shoot at them is a kick in the butt all day long if you find a good field. Unfortunately, it is getting harder to find good places these days and getting permission to hunt private property is getting tougher every day. I guess me and my buddy need to practice our puppy dog face when we walk up to doors to ask permission .

Heading out tomorrow to try to find some new places to hunt sage rats and coyotes. Probably going to put quite a few miles on the truck the next couple days.... if anyone has any leads to point us in the right direction in Oregon, let me know...

Bob

Just spent a week in Crane where it was so blasted cold and windy that none but a few popped up. It was the most disappointing time I have ever had there. Now I'm in Montana where it's supposed to be rather warm for the rest of the week.
All I can do is keep my fingers crossed.
Then next week it's back to Crane for another 3-4 days.
So far a lot of driving on $3.50 fuel just to drop a rat but hey, it's what I do for fun.

Besides,I got three rifles that I haven't shot on this trip yet.

I went back to the same ranch yesterday, the temps were near perfect for gophers to be out but in 3 hours I only got 40. There were very few up and moving, they are doing their nesting/mating thing and so it will be slow for a couple of weeks until they get through with that and are back above ground and active again.

Good luck in Montana, my daughter lives in central MT and it has been cold and windy there also.

drover

I thought they did mating in March , went out to Emmett Id. near Firebird Raceway to do some load testing - big squirrels running around . Read somewhere that those are the males going den to den looking for love . Got my all-time best airtime that day 25-06 75gr. v-max at 50 yards .
When they get really rockin most of May I like sitting right in the middle of them with my fixed barrel Gamo CFX .177 ,9.3gr. RWS match flat-points . Have shot a 500ct. tin in one afternoon .
Seems like the louder cartridge you use the more they stay down altho at times they're coming out no matter what firepower you're using .

We are quite a bit higher elevation here, the ranches I shoot are at 5500' to 6200', it is rare to even see them up here until toward the end of March and even then only a few. Boise country is quite a bit ahead of us for warmer weather.
.

drover

Was in Bonanza Oregon last week....was on a thousand acre field....noon to 5:30.... shot at 10 total.... hit 3...

most of the ones I did see were really small....the three I hit were really pregnant...

so I think their litters are late this year.... at least in that part of Klamath County....

Just got back from running all over southern Oregon from the California line to Lapine and only saw a few fields where many rats were up at all. Concluded we were a bit early even though the temps were in the 80's . The few fields we did see some activity in we would stop and they would keep running around until we got out of our truck, then they went down and wouldn't come back up at all... we'll go back in a few weeks and hope we don't have to fight off other rat hunters to find a place to shoot. We did see lots of rats running around chasing each other off their mounds and lots of obviously pregnant mommas, so they are dropping now or very soon... I think we only shot about six the whole three days, but found some new country we can knock on doors next time out....

Lots of other guys wandering around doing the same thing we were doing- looking for rats to shoot at.
We did see a few guys sitting beside the road with benches in the back of their truck shooting at sage rats, but they seemed to be locals who knew exactly where rats were up and not... saw a couple of very populated fields right behind no trespassing signs, so we said some adult words and moved on...

Bob

We are having cloudy, windy days here for the next couple of days but Wed is looking good so I will go check things out again, although I expect it will be another 10-12 days before they are up and moving very much.

I do about 90% of my shooting from inside the truck, the minute they see a person outside they truck they know something is up, which is odd because I have driven up to within 5 ft of them and they didn't move until they were in danger of being run over. It appears that they do not recognize a vehicle as a danger but the moment they spot someone outside of a vehicle they must think predator - Danger!

drover

A dream come true!

Almost no one here will even let you shoot the chucks that are giving their soybeans and corn Hell and digging tractor-traps all over the fields. Guy at my barber shop was complaining about yotes killing his goats. Gave him my number; no cigar.

Was over around Summer lake and Paisley last week with my Grandson.

We spent two nights in Paisley, and didn't see but a very few sage rats.

Either we were too early or the recent fires had a big effect on the squirrel population.

Virgil B.

I'm back in Crane for the rest of the week and as far as today, the shooting was excellent. Four hundred rounds down the tube before noon. If this keeps up, I just might run out of ammo.

They are still nesting here in central Idaho. I was out yesterday for three and one-half hours and got 112, better than last week but there still were not many up. Usually in that amount of time I would have shot 300 - 400 of them. Another week and they should be running all over the place.

drover

Here in southwest Idaho they're out in full force. Big ones, little one and in between. We went out on Wednesday and shot 'em up good. We were out about four hours and only quit because it was getting late in the day.

Was out the previous Thursday, and shot 3 squirrels in 6 hours...

was out this Thursday, and shot 120 rounds in 3 hours, killing about a 100...

they were little tho... each one I didn't explode, were 4 or 5 inches long at most...

This was down in Klamath County, out in Bonanza....

40 mph wind all after noon...

People who leave early are missing out....I find that the best time for high volume shooting at least here in South Central Oregon, is between
4PM to 6:30 PM.

Just finished a week in Crane. Some good days and some sucked on account of the wind and low temps. The hay is getting high enough so that its mostly head shooting.
Seafire is right that good shooting is after four PM . Must be their dinner time or something..
I might be coming back for a couple days next month after first cutting comes off. It all depends on weather and money.

Kenlguy: Snowed here on and off all day today!
Cold and wet - been a funny spring.
If you get back out this way check in and best of luck this spring/summer.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

ran outta windage clicks here...........

went home..........

Yup, most of the time the wind kicks up about noon anywhere east of the Cascades and doesn't let up until about sundown. Sometimes it is manageable, but most of the time early afternoon is about all a guy can do to hold his rifle steady in the wind, much less hit anything with the wind blowing your bullet into the next county... once it warms up a bit the rats come out a bit earlier in the day and you can burn up as much ammo as you can carry...

Headed south to shoot Belding's this week. Forecast seems good, but we'll see.

Thinking of doing the same thing, but wanted to see if the cold weather has let up yet....

The wind laid down here finally, had a nice clear day, the temps came up and it was not overcast so I finally got back out to chase gophers again. 346 in five hours. I like that - steady shooting and lots of young dumb ones out. The hay is starting to reach high enough that they are hard to see but there are enough around the edges of the fields to keep busy.

I am really starting to like my Tikka T1x in 22 LR for a gopher gun, the 20" barrel is handy for shooting from the pickup, although I do have to be careful with the mirrors (I have already clipped the edge once), accuracy is superb and the trigger is excellent, and as ugly as the 10 round magazines are it is sure handy to not have to refill them so often - it is fast becoming my favorite rifle.

drover

Weather was good from the 27th - 29th, but not that many squirrels in our areas near the border. It was in the 70's during the day and 40's at night. Shot Thursday afternoon, all day Friday, and Saturday morning. I only used a brick and a half. Best shooting was near the edges of alfalfa, but the crop was getting tall.

No sage rats running across the roads was the first sign that things were off. Good for the farmers though.