TheCZKid
Silver $$ Contributor
Yesterday, I got to go to a friends farm in Alfalfa, Oregon. He runs an organic dairy, and last year I shot in his field with great results. That time I got started at 2:30 and ended at 8pm, got 195 confirmed kills, and likely about 225 total. He let me shoot in his half-pivot grass pasture, around the cows. I had great hopes...
This time it was windy as heck, probably 10 mph to 20 sustained wind, and 30 mph gusts. At first my friend Eddy and I went to the western part of the field, saw zero rats! Utt-oh! But, we got permission to move to the other half, and thankfully we saw some mounds and rats, so we got to shooting.
My buddy shoots off the roof of his Tahoe (you can see him on the left side of the photo, below my table) and I shoot off a BR-Pivot out of the back of my pickup truck. Thanks to Rick in Oregon for getting me dialed into the set-up shown here.
Here's one of my close-up candidates, and I am trying to make heads and tails of what happened the middle of this guy!
I mainly shot my CZ 17 Hornet, with Varmint weight barrel, super accurate. I started with a 17 HMR, but the wind was really heavy, so the Hornet made it a lot easier to keep the long shots on target. I was able to get shots out to 200 yards, with just slight adjustment for distance and wind, very pleased with that rifle!
Here's a brave sage rat, really showing a lot of guts, I gotta say!
After a bit, we shot out this field, not that many, definitely disappointed compared to my first time there. I think I got about 35 and my friend about 20 out of this field.
But, we had another smaller field available on the farm, they call it the "goat field" as that's where the goats hang out. There we got about another 20 between the two of us, and within about 45 minutes, no new customers were showing their heads.
So, even though it was not a stellar day in regards to volume, it was better than some, and it's just great to finally get out and shoot some sage rats! I have "rats on the brain" all winter, and look forward to the time, after the snow and all that, to get into the field. I brought a Sako 222 I recently purchased and got a good load developed for. I was anticipating maybe shooting it at something other than a paper target, but it stayed in the truck.
This time it was windy as heck, probably 10 mph to 20 sustained wind, and 30 mph gusts. At first my friend Eddy and I went to the western part of the field, saw zero rats! Utt-oh! But, we got permission to move to the other half, and thankfully we saw some mounds and rats, so we got to shooting.
My buddy shoots off the roof of his Tahoe (you can see him on the left side of the photo, below my table) and I shoot off a BR-Pivot out of the back of my pickup truck. Thanks to Rick in Oregon for getting me dialed into the set-up shown here.
Here's one of my close-up candidates, and I am trying to make heads and tails of what happened the middle of this guy!
I mainly shot my CZ 17 Hornet, with Varmint weight barrel, super accurate. I started with a 17 HMR, but the wind was really heavy, so the Hornet made it a lot easier to keep the long shots on target. I was able to get shots out to 200 yards, with just slight adjustment for distance and wind, very pleased with that rifle!
Here's a brave sage rat, really showing a lot of guts, I gotta say!
After a bit, we shot out this field, not that many, definitely disappointed compared to my first time there. I think I got about 35 and my friend about 20 out of this field.
But, we had another smaller field available on the farm, they call it the "goat field" as that's where the goats hang out. There we got about another 20 between the two of us, and within about 45 minutes, no new customers were showing their heads.
So, even though it was not a stellar day in regards to volume, it was better than some, and it's just great to finally get out and shoot some sage rats! I have "rats on the brain" all winter, and look forward to the time, after the snow and all that, to get into the field. I brought a Sako 222 I recently purchased and got a good load developed for. I was anticipating maybe shooting it at something other than a paper target, but it stayed in the truck.
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