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Due to scheduling conflicts my brother, his son, and I were limited to this past weekend for our annual rat shoot (Belding's ground squirrels) outside of Klamath Falls. The weather report looked iffy at best but if we didn't go, we weren't going to go. Besides, if we got rained out we could always drink beer and watch basketball.
The weather actually turned out better than forecasted and the rats were out in decent numbers Friday. We had pretty good shooting until the cows moved in and pushed us out. I've been shooting on this land for six years and wanted to be invited back, and nothing will close a door quite like a dead cow.
Saturday was a little better, as we tried an adjacent field. The afternoon hunt was great, since we decided to try a different field. The owner was happy to let us shoot but he didn't want us driving into the field. We knew where the rats were, so we just carried our gear (minus the tables and chairs) and shot prone.
The problem was losing perspective when prone. The ground had a slight roll to it, so we really limited our vision. I saw some wheel lines near the center of the field and we used the wheels to both hide behind and steady our shots. Let the fun begin! My primary rat shooter is a Tikka Superlite .223 with a Leupold FX3 12x40 AO with target turrets.
I had just found a great load with Varget and 75 grain ELDM so I loaded 600 of them.
I had a range card handy with MOA adjustments out to 1K yards. This combo really put the hurt on the rats farther than I'm willing to admit.
We only had a few hours Sunday morning before we had to head back, but the morning made the whole trip. We got permission to shoot a rather exclusive property and the rats were simply everywhere. This is where my .17 HMR really came in handy. I had two 10-round magazines. Ten shots, ten dead rats. Swap mags and repeat. Take a break, load both mags, kill 20 more rats. When that drove the close rats down, get out the .223 and shoot until the barrel got too hot. Pick up the .17 and start over.
The .17 was deadly out to 175 yards or so. Much past that and hits dropped to 75%. When the wind picked up the distance shortened. The .223 was money a long way out. The farthest first-shot kill (no walking the shots in) went to my brother, at 655 lasered yards. That shot cost me $2, since I had the record at the time. He was shooting his Tikka varmint model .223, with my 50 grain Ballistic Tip accuracy load my son named "Pest Control."
The goal was head shots. About the size of a quarter.
My nephew was scary good with any rifle, my Superlite or my spare Tikka, also in .223. Here's the spare, a 1-10" twist I developed Pest Control for, my son named Blue Lightning:
Keep in mind that a sage rat is about the same size as a skinny dollar bill. Hits at distance are tough.
All in all we had a great time helping the farmers with pesticide-free crop augmentation.
P
The weather actually turned out better than forecasted and the rats were out in decent numbers Friday. We had pretty good shooting until the cows moved in and pushed us out. I've been shooting on this land for six years and wanted to be invited back, and nothing will close a door quite like a dead cow.
Saturday was a little better, as we tried an adjacent field. The afternoon hunt was great, since we decided to try a different field. The owner was happy to let us shoot but he didn't want us driving into the field. We knew where the rats were, so we just carried our gear (minus the tables and chairs) and shot prone.
The problem was losing perspective when prone. The ground had a slight roll to it, so we really limited our vision. I saw some wheel lines near the center of the field and we used the wheels to both hide behind and steady our shots. Let the fun begin! My primary rat shooter is a Tikka Superlite .223 with a Leupold FX3 12x40 AO with target turrets.
I had just found a great load with Varget and 75 grain ELDM so I loaded 600 of them.
I had a range card handy with MOA adjustments out to 1K yards. This combo really put the hurt on the rats farther than I'm willing to admit.
We only had a few hours Sunday morning before we had to head back, but the morning made the whole trip. We got permission to shoot a rather exclusive property and the rats were simply everywhere. This is where my .17 HMR really came in handy. I had two 10-round magazines. Ten shots, ten dead rats. Swap mags and repeat. Take a break, load both mags, kill 20 more rats. When that drove the close rats down, get out the .223 and shoot until the barrel got too hot. Pick up the .17 and start over.
The .17 was deadly out to 175 yards or so. Much past that and hits dropped to 75%. When the wind picked up the distance shortened. The .223 was money a long way out. The farthest first-shot kill (no walking the shots in) went to my brother, at 655 lasered yards. That shot cost me $2, since I had the record at the time. He was shooting his Tikka varmint model .223, with my 50 grain Ballistic Tip accuracy load my son named "Pest Control."
The goal was head shots. About the size of a quarter.
My nephew was scary good with any rifle, my Superlite or my spare Tikka, also in .223. Here's the spare, a 1-10" twist I developed Pest Control for, my son named Blue Lightning:
Keep in mind that a sage rat is about the same size as a skinny dollar bill. Hits at distance are tough.
All in all we had a great time helping the farmers with pesticide-free crop augmentation.
P
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