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A Vartarg Sage Rat Outing

Rick in Oregon

Gold $$ Contributor
We just returned from a week long sage rat shoot in the Orygun outback. Decent weather this time, no blowing snow, just plenty of sunshine and our buddy "Skippy the Flying Squirrel" to enhance our shooting enjoyment.

I took my custom M700 204 Match 11 Twist rifle, but no long range opportunities to justify burning over 25grs of powder, as no elevated positions were available to take advantage of it. Shooting from the flat terrain gets much mirage, making any hits past 350 yards virtually impossible, so my 20 Vartarg got the most action out to 350, then inside of 200 yds I used my Anschutz 1715D HB in 17HMR which did a very fine job of rat launching.

Our rancher host refuses to use poison, so he welcomes us with the ability to hook our trailers to power and water, and a nice place to park them while we rid him of his sage rat problem. A true win-win situation for all, and a photo essay follows for those interested.

Half of us stayed in traliers, the other half stayed in an old double-wide with a wood stove:



Our buddy Skippy was frolicking about just outside the window of my trailer, so he made a good subject for a 300mm telephoto lens, shot out my dinette window. I can never get that close to them when in the field.



An accurate rifle that shoots less than .5 MOA is necessay in the fields when this is the target given when they're peeking at you from inside their mound:



Out of respect for the rancher, no driving out into the fields, so we just set up on the perimeter two-tracks, unload, set up benches and have at it. Squirrel mounds can be seen in the distance, and that rock escarpment has a population of rock chucks also:



My most used rifle of the trip, my Cooper M38 20Vartarg launching a Nosler 32gr Varmageddon over RL-7 for 3,700 fps. Scope is a Leupold VX3 6.5-20X LR, VHR with factory M1 elevation turret...I'm a "dialer".



After a few hours, my ammo box tells the story....plenty of shooting, lots of "rat-o-batics":



As usual when the "Eastern Oregon Raptor Feeding Society" shows up, so do the raptors; bald eagles, golden eagles, hawks and ravens to feast on the generous meals we provide:



The terminal effects of the 32 grainers can't be overstated. It sure makes it easy for the birds to do their thing:



Yours truly having my way with Skippy and his pals. The Cooper VT on the bench:



My buddy Dan scanning for distant rats and rockchucks at the escarpment. He nailed one at 60 yards with his custom 10-22.



The little ones were out, so inside of 200 yards, my Anschutz 17HMR was the perfect medicine for that work. It really thumps those guys:



When the winds get up, cleaning in the field is problematic, blowing patches about, so cleaning back at camp on the tailgate is the hot setup:



There's more of course, but I don't want to use up all the bandwidth. This stuff is truly the most fun you can have with a rifle! Lets just say my truck came home much lighter! ;)
 
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I am envious! Here in central Idaho the squirrel numbers are down to practically non-existent.

I have three ranches that for years have been good for anywhere from 250 to 500 shots per day practically all season and none of them poison. I have been out three times so far this year in perfect weather conditions, the first time out was 100 rounds, the second was 25 rounds, the third was 48 rounds. There is very little sign of activity and places that were literally covered are now empty. The numbers of squirrels have been declining the last 2 - 3 years but nothing like this.
All three ranches are within five miles of each other so the only explanation I can arrive at is possibly the plague, we are over-run with hawks and eagles here I suppose they could carry the virus from one ranch to the other.
Glad to see that you had a good run on them.

drover
 
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Oh the Vartarg

Ran my 12T Pac-Nor for many years…16-17 years probably

Very underrated cartridge
That is the absolute truth!

For years I thought my 223AI was the ideal PD cartridge. It may well be, but for sage rats, the 20VT has few equals when efficiency and performance is considered. This makes 15 years of 20VT sage rat medicine for me, and I do not see any changes on the horizon.

It also works quite well on rockchucks!

 
That’s awesome Rick. Been waiting to hear the field report. Looks like another great year contemplating making the drive over there to one of the outfitters
Fern, that's quite a drive from where you are, but my 'adopted' son just made the trip to be with us from Phoenix where he now lives and works, so it's do-able.

If you're serious, shoot me a PM and I'll give you contact info for a guy here that I trust and have known for some years that has a rat shooting concession and offers prime ranches to shoot, also has meals and overnight accommodations available, but at cost of course. That new 11T 204 Match of yours can really stretch her legs out here.
 
Thanks, I didn't see that Muzzle Mate on your gun.
That is a lot cheaper than the Patch Hog. I like the ability to see the color and condition of the patch as it exits the muzzle.
 
Thanks, I didn't see that Muzzle Mate on your gun.
That is a lot cheaper than the Patch Hog. I like the ability to see the color and condition of the patch as it exits the muzzle.
PB, I see from the Midway site that the Muzzle Mate patch catcher has been discontinued. Pity as the thing works great and has for me for at least ten years. The plastic tube on mine has discolored, and the end has cracked from repeated on-off of the end cap. The price was nice too at under $13 for a pleasent change.

I wanted to replace it with a new one and was a bit bummed to see it's now another "gone item".
 
PB, I see from the Midway site that the Muzzle Mate patch catcher has been discontinued. Pity as the thing works great and has for me for at least ten years. The plastic tube on mine has discolored, and the end has cracked from repeated on-off of the end cap. The price was nice too at under $13 for a pleasent change.

I wanted to replace it with a new one and was a bit bummed to see it's now another "gone item".
Rick I looked at these as well and found you can 3d print them. I used the last of my resin on trying to print them and some came out crooked and didn’t bother trying to redo them.
I will try and reprint them soon as I get more resin and see how they come out. The one I made threaded directly onto my muzzle and screwed any water bottle onto the the end.
If it works I’ll send you one but I am new to 3d printing and still getting hang of things lol
 
PB, I see from the Midway site that the Muzzle Mate patch catcher has been discontinued. Pity as the thing works great and has for me for at least ten years. The plastic tube on mine has discolored, and the end has cracked from repeated on-off of the end cap. The price was nice too at under $13 for a pleasent change.

I wanted to replace it with a new one and was a bit bummed to see it's now another "gone item".
Dang, thats a real bummer...it seems something thats simple & works sometimes disappears. Before I got mine a while back I just used a clear & cleaned soda bottle and it worked just fine as long as the barrel diameter didn't exceed the bottle opening and if you had an extra long rod you could push it off the barrel if you weren't careful.
 
I see the alfalfa is still short enough to see em. We did close to memorial weekend once, just once. Between the alfalfa twice that high and much warmer we learned. We had many wonderful weeks over there in March/April (90's and 2000's) likely very near to where you were here. Once the fee folks got a good hold I spent most of my time in central Idaho. Nice to hear not everyone is into cabbage.
 
Rick I looked at these as well and found you can 3d print them. I used the last of my resin on trying to print them and some came out crooked and didn’t bother trying to redo them.
I will try and reprint them soon as I get more resin and see how they come out. The one I made threaded directly onto my muzzle and screwed any water bottle onto the the end.
If it works I’ll send you one but I am new to 3d printing and still getting hang of things lol
Thanks for the generous offer there, Fern. Looking forward to seeing how that turns out.

For now, I'm going to modify my old Muzzle Mate and just glue a suitable plastic soda bottle to the clamp end of the MM as my buddy Gary did, seen in the below pic, shown on his Cooper M38 22 K-Hornet (which I can't seem to lure him out of no matter how hard I try). If my local plastic guy has clear plastic tubes available, that'll be a decent replacement if they're available.



I've looked at other brands/models online, but none are as handy as the Muzzle Mate, and I can't fathom why it was discontinued, as it works well, and it appears it's still sought-after.
 

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