Sage Rats this weekend 5/14 - 5/16

[TonsOfOregonBrass]

Sage Rats are out everywhere this weekend. Shot 327 of them from noon to 6 pm today, and 2 rabbits.

The weather is perfect for them, so if you can make it to Eastern Oregon and get some rats for the farmers you should.

Read More

 

[Member 5605]

[start: jealousy]

Shush up.

[end: jealousy]

 

[Warthog]

Thanks to my sons job at McDonald's my trip which was planned months ago got concealed, at the last minute. I am hoping next weekend will be just as good! I can't wait!

 

[bt97006]

A buddy and I are actually on a mission to find some sage rats this weekend. We stayed the night in Bend last night and we are gonna head out early this morning and start knocking on doors to see if we can find us a spot. We've heard good things about Christmass Valley and may head down that way unless anyone here is willing to point us in a better direction.

 

[TonsOfOregonBrass]

Christmas valley is a good area for sage rats. Pretty good for rabbits also. Head out early and check at the locals hang outs. Most people will point you to where they are thick.

 

[bt97006]

Christmas valley is a good area for sage rats. Pretty good for rabbits also. Head out early and check at the locals hang outs. Most people will point you to where they are thick.

Will do. Thanks We were thinking of finding some gunshops or hardware/feed stores to see if any of the locals knew a rancher who welcomes sage rat shooters.

 

[86-0134]

Thanks to my sons job at McDonald's my trip which was planned months ago got concealed, at the last minute. I am hoping next weekend will be just as good! I can't wait!

you should have gone to the manager and asked for his last check. hunting with dad is more important than mcdonalds

 

[Bazooka Joe]

I killed one this morning in my garden, but it was with a bamboo stick.

 

[ORBrit]

Headed to CV tomorrow morning for my first Sage Rat trip.
Sighted in all our rimfires yesterday.
My Sig 522 groups well out to 75 yards so that will be my primary.
I have a Marlin .22 WMR and a Savage .17 HMR as backups.

 

[bt97006]

We're in Christmas Valley now and have not seen much. They are just not out like we thought they would be. The weather was good, mild and not too windy but still only saw a handful. We are going to head north tonight and try around grass valley tomorrow.

 

[ORBrit]

Should we plan on heading somewhere other than Christmas Valley?

 

[bt97006]

Should we plan on heading somewhere other than Christmas Valley?

Idk you can try CV, but we didn't have much luck today. We talked to other hunter in the area and they said the same. Other places we've been before were just crawling with the little buggers last year. We stopped off at the bar in Ft. Rock and they told us about Dinsdale Farm & Equipment, who owns quite a bit of property and allow rat shooters. You have to go and sign in and they have maps with their properties and rules printed out at their office. You can give it a shot and hope they are up tomorrow but it was kind of a wasted trip down for us. Good luck wherever you decide to go.

 

[TonsOfOregonBrass]

We're in Christmas Valley now and have not seen much. They are just not out like we thought they would be. The weather was good, mild and not too windy but still only saw a handful. We are going to head north tonight and try around grass valley tomorrow.

Thats lame,

Not to rub it in (well kind of to rub it in). I personally shot 263 yesterday and 325 today. Tomorrow won't be a full day so who knows what the count will be.
Between my dad and i we have over 800 killed.

Ft. Rock is usually good hunting.

This will be the last weekend where we go for a couple months. The grass is getting to tall, and next week or the week after you wont be able to see them until it is cut in late summer.

 

[Warthog]

I went to Christmas Valley last year and we didn't see many. There were a few fields with large piles of dead ones, but thats no fun. I was planning on heading over next weekend, but the extended forcast is for rain, so looks like I got Mc-skunked this year.

 

[bt97006]

Thats lame,

Not to rub it in (well kind of to rub it in). I personally shot 263 yesterday and 325 today. Tomorrow won't be a full day so who knows what the count will be.
Between my dad and i we have over 800 killed.

Ft. Rock is usually good hunting.

This will be the last weekend where we go for a couple months. The grass is getting to tall, and next week or the week after you wont be able to see them until it is cut in late summer.

Yeah it is lame,
Instead of rubbing it in why don't you tell us where you went that it was so good. I mean we spent all day looking for a good area and there was just not many to be had where we were. I understand people not wanting to give up their secret spot but a general area where the rats are up now is not too much.

 

[TonsOfOregonBrass]

We went to Hines

 

[bt97006]

We went to Hines

Thanks, I appreciate that. I'll have to check it out, that is if you left any alive.

 

[TonsOfOregonBrass]

a lot of the farms out their are leased by guides, so there are not a ton of fields for people to hunt. I have a family friend who lets us exclusively hunt their fields when we are down. but we did wipe out a couple of their fields. total for the weekend between two people, 1157 killed.

there are some really good fields down there. The grass is probably going to be too tall next weekend.

 

[2gr8dgs]

got to shoot some rats this weekend also. we tried christmas valley, fort rock & the silver lake area. It wasn't the best shooting I ever had, but I had a good time anyway.

View attachment 206635

 

[ORBrit]

We arrived at Ft. Rock around 8am and then headed to Dinsdale Farm.

Signed up and setup right at Dinsdale #1.
We started seeing a few rats right away but many were further out - at 180 yards and some at 300+.
We got about 15 between us (5 shooters) before 10am and then decided to drive around and look for more activity.

We tried various other Dinsdale pivots with very little activity.

It was completely dead for about 3 hours. Almost no sightings.
During a brief stroll through some sage brush we observed and photographed a family of badgers - mother and 3 young'uns.

We then spoke with a friendly ranch hand named Harold, who invited us to shoot at the pivots behind his house - which are not normally accessible to hunters.

On the way we passed a private ranch with a field where there were probably over 100 rats just standing there looking at a group of 6 bald eagles. We asked permission but they were about to work in the field so we couldn't hunt - they were nice about it though and I'm sure it would be open to hunting another time.

We got to Harold's house on the Ft. Rock to CV road and he told us where to set up - we had 2 pivots right there and activity picked up.
It wasn't spectacular, but it was better than the morning.
Our party shot around 120 rats and 1 rabbit (30 rats and the rabbit were mine) and it gave me a good insight into sage rat hunting.

My learning points from today were:
-Get to know a local ranch hand! They are a great resource.
-You need some magnification to shoot sage rats. I started with my Sig 522 with 1x red dot and could only see the ones in the open close in (less than 40 yards)
I ended up using my Marlin 883 .22 WMR which proved to be devastating to anything that popped it's head up.
-I learned what to look for. At the start of the day I could only see the really obvious standing rats. At the end of the day I was able to spot the babies barely visible in the alfalfa.