Gopher Shooting

[Charlie Lamb]

Don... I've shot a bunch of squirrels up W.Boulder creek on a friends ranch. Bet I didn't do much damage to the "herd".

As all westerners know, ground squirrels do a hell of a lot of damage, can pass disease and are a danger to livestock and humans as well.

I sure miss not having them to shoot. It made me a better hunting archer.
   

[Doug Campbell]

These little buggers are a blast to hunt, if you get to where you can hit a gopher regular deer and elk are a piece of cake.    Like has been said already the squirells we have up here destroy literally thousands of acres of pasture land every year. It might be different is the little 1" dia critter would dig a similiar size hole but they aren't happy till that hole is a foot in diameter with a dirt mound that may be six foot in diameter. Imagine a few hundred of these per acre and you can start to get the picture...
 

[Bonebuster]

When I first moved into my house (16 yrs ago) the entire yard/area was INFESTED with the 13-lined ground squirrels.

At the time, my wife was always against killing them. By the end of the first summer, when she learned that she would never be able to grow ANYTHING...she changed her mind.

The decendants of those early raiders are just starting to show themselves for the summer. After getting after them for a bit, they get wise and become quite a challenge.

Great pictures Charlie and Doug!    

[Maxx Black]

Gordon!
I've been after these gritters since before the earth was green! Using all kinds of forms of termination. But my archery skills as many have posted are a lot better using gophers as targets,also helping the local farmer with the pasture cleanup. I enjoy stump shooting most of the time during off season but this is fun! Thanks for the reminder . Maxx

[Zradix]

I'm curious..
And I'm not trying to pick a fight..really I'm not.

I see you have pics with your bag for the day.
Obviously you gathered up your kills for a reason rather than just letting them lay.

What do you do with em?
Garden fertilizer, I would imagine the smaller ones might be good bass bait, skins have a use???..

Really just curious.

Thanks

[hova]

id say furs maybe. or there might be a reward for them...


-hov

[Walt Francis]

The local raptors and scavengers (bald, and golden eagles, red tails, artic gyrs, and especially the ravens make them disappear: of course that is after me getting some target practice/shooting in.

[Walt Francis]

Doug,
That looks like the new Tolke, and the sun was shinning, so the picure must been taken within the past week.  The Boulder was high and a redish brown when I drove throgh Big Timber today, looks like your place will be divided in two soon.

[Joseph]

I have always liked Judo points and have never had a problem killing stuff with them.  They even work good on Porcupines if you shoot them in the head!  The only thing I ever shot with a Judo that got away was a big Rock Chuck and that was not a square hit.  Zradix, I suppose there are things you could do with them but other than gathering them for a picture I don't know anyone that does.  They are nasty little critters and on several occasions I have seen them canibalizing one that has been shot earlier in the day.  I always figured that the buzzards got to eat as same as the worms and in nature nothing ever really goes to waste.    

[moththerlode]

I use a cat for such things, she even lets me have the trophys by leaving them on my door step.

[LONGSTYKES]

Doug, It looks like your new bow shoots well. Your old bow still does her part well also. Lets shoot some gophers soon. Don

[Doug Campbell]

Nah guys, that's an older photo of one of the St Jude bows, a Horn I believe... Not been many gophers out yet and certainly not enough "Spring" weather or sunshine. Typically our gophers are fair weather critters, windy, cloudy or even too hot and they stay underground.

Wont be long Walt and I may need a boat to get to the shop...

Nope John, I just gathered up those few for the photo shoot.

I forgot to mention that I've found a plain old field point works best for me. Most shots are at partially obscured critters or maybe just an eyeball peeking out of the burrow. The field point will slick thru the grass or even the edge of a dirt mound and not be deflected or stopped. I have witnessed Charlie's big rubber blunt in action though