ground squirre;ls

[Bill K]

They are calling for some more snow/rain in my area, but then say it should start clearing and maybe then a few days of sun and temps rising will start making a difference and something will start poking heads out.. all I can do, for now is hope.. Bill K

[Rick in Oregon]

Bill, same weather outlook for us here....arrgghh!

My rancher buddy tells me that even if we don't get any more precip, the fields are muddy as all getout, so even if we do get out there, it will be a real mud-bog. Like each of your boots weighing about 12 lbs! And when you get home, figure three hours to de-mud your truck. All that to snipe some rodent from afar. We must really like this stuff!

[Bill K]

I guess we do Rick.. If you remember, the photo's I posted last spring of me and my shooting Buddy "Varmint Shooter" out on one of the first trips, and when we set up at 0600 hrs it was minus 13 on the truck temp gauge. Then we left 2 hour later it had gone way up to around 16 above. But even with scattered snow, us bundled all up in warm clothes we still shot around 150-200 squeeks.. Crazy, more than likely, but we had fun. Bill K

( I should add, right now 1230 hrs and sitting at the PC, it is snowing now)

[Bill K]

Sworn not to tell, but a young looking one is showing up. A little early yet, but this gives hope.

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Bill K (Photo taken this morning)

[terrace]

They're out in force here. But still too muddy where I have access

[Bill K]

Well checked one area and the pivot's in it and the ground is drying fast, sprouts showing a looks like a few mounds are starting to push up. If this continues and the sun shines more and warms, a week or two, maybe some heads will really start popping up. Then maybe I can start popping some heads. Bill K

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[broper]

We've had perfect weather here the last few days. Going out tomorrow and see if I can get some more of them to do some acrobatics.
Hope you can get out soon.

[Bill K]

Well not ground squirrels, but Rock Chucks today. Check out on of my old rim rock haunts and found about 10 out and about in different areas. Being it is really early and some snow was still lingering around the shaded area, I did not want to shoot more than two, which I did. One each at various locations. let them raise the young under ground for another few weeks. But I just could not contain my itchy trigger finger and did take two, one at 210 yrds and one at 190, just to make sure the old dial worked on the 20-223AI and the 32 gr V-max. Dead on. Both were taken across canyons, so no photo, this time.. Too old to climb up and down those rims and canyons like that. But overall it was nice out this morning, sun out and very little breeze, even with temps holding around 40 degrees. Bill K

[broper]

I'm ready to go look for some rock chucks here ! We went out yesterday and shot a few ground squirrels. There weren't as many as I expected but we had fun with what we did get. It was a beautiful day, lots of sun, almost no wind and in the high 50's. May try another area tomorrow.

[broper]

Any of you guys in Oregon getting any shooting yet? A friend and I went out today and created some carnage. For some reason we're not seeing any badgers this spring. I've only seen a couple and couldn't get a shot at them. We did see two rock chucks today but they were on private property gorging their selves on new alfalfa. Had a fun day giving the squirrels some elevation though.

[Snoplop]

Had great weather and a fun shoot on some east side private property last weekend. Plenty of carnage and no shortage of targets.
Still quite a bit of standing water in areas.
We took 22LRs, 17HMRs & 22mags for short range work and my son raised havoc with the 204 at 200 yds out. Plenty of Rock chucks in the scree and rim rocks. He nailed 6 at 430 yards - left plenty to repopulate the area.
Will head back in a few weeks after the next ammo shipment comes in with a larger compliment of armament for rotation.
After working one area over pretty good- a line of us walked & shot it & turned around to see just as many behind us.
Shame they are scheduled to poison many of those fields but they cant seem to kill enough to put a dent in the population.
There are still plenty of organic fields (read target rich).
Good times ahead.

[Snoplop]

This guy was one of the players we saw just before packing up (over 400 yards away so it may be a little fuzzy)
I swear he was yelling Alan..alan..alan..
https://youtu.be/XgvR3y5JCXg

[Bill K]

Well if the rain and wind that we have had move back in over the last week would just leave, sun come out and things warm back up again and the pivots and rocks dry off and also warm up, some of the critters I got into a week and 1/2 ago might just come back up and I can enjoy some fun, like you guys. It is really testing my patience. Bill K ( keep the photo's coming fellows )

[surfclod]

Some early season Richardson's Ground Squirrel. This is from a couple weeks ago, the pasture grass is starting to green up now. Got more varminting done in the past 2 weeks than the previous 5 years, glad to be back into the hobby.

Rifle is a Remington Rolling Block in 218 Bee, with a replica Malcolm 6x scope. Despite an oversized chamber (I suspect this will shorten brass life), a heavy trigger, and peering through a 3/4" inch optic; this little gun is so much fun to shoot.

[Bill K]

Like the old rifle and the vintage era scope makes it all the more so. Might be somewhat peering through it, but the end results shows you are having fun and enjoying it and in 218 Bee. Thanks for sharing. Bill K