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Old 05-27-2022, 06:10 PM
drover drover is offline
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Default Ranchers and ground squirrels

This is why ranchers hate ground squirrels and why varmint shooters love them. This is 120 acre field I shot 352 gophers here in 4 hours last Tuesday, all shots were with a 22 LR and I never moved the vehicle more than a couple of hundred feet. The whole field looks like this - it is definitely a target rich enviroment. I just wish they were above ground more than about 4 months of the year.
I have taken over 2500 from this ranch so far this year and the pups are just now coming up so there is a lot of shooting left.

drover






Then there is the added bonus of one of these from time to time
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Old 05-27-2022, 07:29 PM
Bill K Bill K is offline
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Spot on. Looks like a very overran pivot/field. I also take one of those additions, on occasion in the same areas I shoot those ground squirrels.
Thanks for sharing your photo's.
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  #3  
Old 05-28-2022, 06:32 AM
georgeld georgeld is offline
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IF he values that field, he will spread poison grain around.
It's past time the plague hit there.

That's clean compared to some of the prairie dog pastures

I've seen around here.
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Old 05-28-2022, 11:57 AM
JDHasty JDHasty is offline
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I was in a camp ground in Ellensburg WA with my daughter Bridget when she was about nine years old. Just the two of us went over to spend the weekend cleaning up our RV, do some hiking and get in a bit or rockchuck shooting.

I’m sitting there in the evening relaxing and minding my own business and Bridget is talking to the couple in the next camp space and I hear the woman ask: Why would you want to shoot rockchucks? They are so cute. We were up at Dry Falls park and they were coming right up to people.

Bridget just matter of factly told the woman that if she likes seeing rockchucks that she and her dad shooting them is the best thing that could happen. If we didn’t shoot enough of them to keep their population at a level the alfalfa growers could tolerate that they would poison every last one of them.

Same goes for prairie dogs, grey diggers, gophers, sage rats…..
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Old 05-28-2022, 03:40 PM
Rick in Oregon Rick in Oregon is offline
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Poison: NOOOOOOO!

All our rancher buddies tell us to get shooting or they'll use the poison cabbage to rid them of the rats. The death the rats suffer is horrible too, taking over a day to die an agonizing death. It's much more humane to shoot them, painless and all that. And the poison cabbage is expensive too, over $60/acre to treat. Some of these guys have multiple pivots at over 400 acres each.....it get a bit spendy.

Also, most of the big outfits here have leased their land to varmint "outfitters" now, getting paid to rid them of the pests via shooting. Everyone agrees that poison is not the way to go, but is really the only way to totally eliminate the rats. More reason to shoot more on the land we're allowed to shoot.

Knowing all this, we strive to be good shooting guests, police our brass, treat the land as if it were our own. We always get invited back by doing so. And part of the conversation at leaving time is, "no poison, okay?"

A typical field we shoot often:



It brings true meaning to the phrase "target-rich environment".
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Last edited by Rick in Oregon; 05-28-2022 at 04:22 PM.
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Old 05-28-2022, 04:55 PM
Bill K Bill K is offline
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100 % correct Rick. We can do more good, by helping the ranch/farmers via our fun time in their fields.
Poison, no way. For various reasons.
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Old 05-28-2022, 06:16 PM
georgeld georgeld is offline
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There's NO way just shooting can control the varmints. Killing at least 50% every year will keep them healthy for as long as it continues. Ricks picture proves that!

There's only TWO ways to clear them out. Let them go by themselves until plague cleans them all out for several years. Which will nearly destroy the property,

OR massive poison programs. Like it or not, that's it.
Dad used to say: "the plague is a rancher's best friend when it comes to prairie dogs and ground squirrels".

Rancher east of here with several thousand acres of dryland short grass pastures told us: "see if you can find any and please kill them, I've decided this year I am going to clean them out. Bought 250 buckets of gas pellets $10,000"
shhcoyote: you were with me that day Ed told us that.

kiwi: that was the guy that stopped to check on us when we were shooting
pistols that day.

Rick: good picture, thank you. That is not a massive infestation field though.

For many years quite a few of us shot hundreds each in one large town every week, or month. They were a healthy bunch. When the land owners changed and the new one decided No Shooting. within a few months plague hit and wiped them out. Now Vestas has a huge tower mfg plant on the place. I understand there's prairie dogs in their storage lot.

I am merely trying to help educate you folks, not contradict anyone.
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Old 05-28-2022, 07:13 PM
Bayou City Boy Bayou City Boy is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by georgeld View Post
There's NO way just shooting can control the varmints. Killing at least 50% every year will keep them healthy for as long as it continues. Ricks picture proves that!

There's only TWO ways to clear them out. Let them go by themselves until plague cleans them all out for several years. Which will nearly destroy the property,

OR massive poison programs. Like it or not, that's it.
Dad used to say: "the plague is a rancher's best friend when it comes to prairie dogs and ground squirrels"
When talking about pd's, George's comments have been my experience in the northern Texas Panhandle. I, my 2 sons, and sil have shot for years on a ranch that has multiple groups of shooters daily for about 160 days a year. Shooting is always great and the number of shootable dogs in the late fall is just like shooting is in the early spring when pups are up. Sometimes it looks like there might be more dogs in the fall. Just better educated and further away. The fewest shooter on any day that we've shot there has been 12, and the rancher keeps us well spread out from each other where you hear gunfire but it's distant.

I also still make a couple of trips to Wyo, SD, and occasionally to MT. I have no idea the total length of the shooting season up there, but I'm guessing its well below 160 days, even though I have shot PD"s up there in the early spring with light snow on the ground. True red mist.......

My experience with ground squirrels has been limited to less than 10 times in ~50 years. So no comment on them other than I know that some species hibernate very early in the summer.

-BCB
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Old 05-28-2022, 09:34 PM
moorepower moorepower is offline
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I am "hoping" to find a farmer or two to shoot gs on next spring in Utah.
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  #10  
Old 05-29-2022, 01:53 PM
Dean2 Dean2 is offline
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Never run into a pay to shoot place up here in Canada. Most Ranchers are just happy to have someone shoot them. One spot I used to shoot by Calgary, when I started shooting his place, I would go through 20,000 rounds a year, within 3 or 4 years that was down to about 3-5,000 rounds, so shooting definitely thinned them out. A couple of places have even offered to pay us to shoot, always have declined and done it for free.

I can sort of see the Ranchers in your areas point of view, if you can make a few bucks and get rid of the Rats, plus you have an outfitter actively recruiting shooters to come out, kind of the best of all worlds. That said, I would not be one of the people willing to pay to shoot gophers of PDogs but with limited time I get why folks would. It really is a fun way to burn a ton of powder.
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