This alfalfa rancher has numerous pivots, an old uninhabited double-wide on the property with the usual hay barns and other ranch buildings. He lets some of our crew stay in the old house with cots, sleeping bags and propane stove and heaters, some other members take their camp trailers that he lets us hook to power and water; a great arrangement for all of us.
Not wanting to drive or park on freshly planted fields, we usually set up along the ranch two-tracks and shot into the squirrel infested fields each morning.
Another set on a different ranch road:
The squirrels have just had a hatch of young ones, so there were lots of small targets. Most of the females seemed to still be underground with their young, as not too may grown adults above ground. When hit, the little ones really launch into the stratosphere, but not as rewarding as a solid hit on a large, full grown squirrel. The below back-lit shot shows beaucoup mounds and a few squirrels romping about:
The list of calibers present included 22LR (of course!), 22WMR, 17HMR, 17HH, 20VT, 204 Ruger (naturally) and 223. My 11-twist M700 204 Ruger Match never got uncased, as I was saving it for the longer shots over 300 yards. But terrain, lack of elevation and unfavorable safety conditions (roaming cattle) prevented me from unleashing it on the rats. Almost all my shooting was with my Anschutz 1715HB 17HMR and my Cooper M38 20VT.
"hemiallen" smiling after a nice hit with his CZ 17HH:
Allen's M700 Stainless/Laminated/Fluted 204 on the bench cooling. Allen was shooting the 32gr Z-Max's:
Dan having some fun with the rats and his Ruger 22/45 suppressed pistol. It's so quiet, the rats didn't seem to mind....except when hit of course.
My bench with my Cooper M38 20VT in the bags during a lull in the shooting: (Blurred, but the distant pivot line is just shy of 300 yards from the bench.)
Yours truly lining up the next victim for 'flight lessons':
This pic illustrates the huge condo's the rats excavate in the field. Not the two unfortunate residents who literally lost their heads (or bodies, depending on how you look at it) by posing on top of their mound:
The rancher has a large badger on the property that he'd like to remove. So Dan brought along his suppressed 7mm Mag for some LR work on said critter. Here he's dialing it in at 400 yards "just in case" it shows:
The white truck in the background in front of the white shed is Dan, patiently waiting for the badger to emerge for a shot. Sorry about the poor pic quality, it was shot with the sun directly behind the hill shining right at us, but it shows the mound concentration: (The badger never showed while Dan was in position.)
After a few hours of shooting at the benches, some relaxing time at camp. Dan, ever the badger shooter, with his Leupold spotter scanning the field where we last saw the critter. Range to where we last saw him was about 700 yards.....hence the need for the 7mm Mag....suppressed of course so as to not disturb the rats too much.
We've all seen blown-up PD's and squirrels, but it never ceases to amaze as to the effectiveness of an accurate 'rat rifle' in a suitable rat caliber. This fellow launched about 4' in the air prior to landing right next to the hole he was standing guard over, courtesy of my 20VT and a Nosler 32gr Varmageddon Tipped bullet over 18.5grs of RL-7 for 3,680 fps:
In an effort to gain some needed elevation, Gary is shooting his Cooper 20VT from the truck bed:
Garth giving Allen's CZ 17HH a try at a not-so willing squirrel:
Rifle cleaning was usually done in the field, or sometimes back in camp on the tailgate with an adult beverage close at hand. My Cooper 20VT in the cradle getting all sparkling clean and ready for the next morning's assault on the rats:
So now back home, the fired brass is in the tumbler getting cleaned and ready for reloading and the next outing. The weather has now fully changed into "spring" and the rock chucks are now out and about. So......the next time out is for chucks and more fun with rodents. This was a fun couple of weeks with like-minded old guys all set in our ways.
Here in SW MT the spring weather hasn't quite caught up with the calendar as we are still waiting on a warmup to eventually encourage more of the furry critters to become more active. The snowbanks are gradually contributing to the ground water recharge so it's only a matter of time before we start seeing more Richardson Ground Squirrels (our resident small furry critters next to prairie dogs) scurrying about.