Just got back from a two week trip to Eastern Oregon and shot 41 rock chucks and 19 diggers and thousands of sagerats. A good time was had by all but the varmints. I was using my Vudoo 17HMR and CCI A-17 ammo and one of my custom CZ 455 17HM2.
West of Lakeview , I also hunt Idaho every April for a couple of weeks around Twin Falls area for Yoties and chucks .
Sage rats are Belding's ground squirrels. I think you have Richardson's ground squirrels which are very similar just a little bigger. I think the diggers he's referring to are grey diggers which is a big bushy tailed grey squirrel.
Getting ready for my annual pilgrimage to Idaho in a few weeks. Always a great time for me, not so much for the chucks! Very nice rifle you have there.
Thanks B23. You are right that most of our ground squirrels (localy called gophers) are the Richardson variety but we do have some Columbia ground squirrels as well. There are no prairie dogs in Alberta but there are about 50 miles south of the border in Montana.
Ugh, I feel your pain. I live in NE Washington and the places I see the largest populations of rock chucks are in rural or semi rural areas where you can't shoot the friggen things. I sit out on the deck at my sisters and watch the bastards running all over the lawn and rock outcroppings and I swear they do it just so they can flip me the middle finger and say Ha Ha you can't touch me. I sooooo badly would love to sit on her deck with my suppressed 17 WSM and smoke them but her neighbors would have me locked up in minutes.
And as Rick can tell you, they are just about as stupid as they are cute. There's times you'll have clusters of them like that shoot one of them and the carnage will literally blow dirt in their face yet they'll all still just stand there looking around like a bunch of stoners saying whoaaa dude did you just see what happened to Bodie. It's the damndest thing I've ever seen.For those not familiar with sage rats (Belding's Ground Squirrels), and have only seen those in the blown-up phase, here's a set of young-un's just out of the burrow here recently.
Being about1/3 the size of a PD, when hit with any worthy CF cartridge, the "launch factor" is gleefully high.
Oh it's ton's of fun. I just got back from my first sage rat shoot. It's the most fun you can have with your clothes on.
Jesus take me home and lay me down in green pastures!Agreed! After exactly 55 years of doing it, it's still my passion and what I look forward to every spring. Imagine this setting every morning....sunshine, good friends, your most accurate rat rifle on the bags and an alfalfa field literally swarming with ground squirrels.....
If heaven is not a "gun free zone", it's how I envision it for me. It truly is the most fun you can have with a rifle. Clothes on or off (I recommend "on", as you don't want that sunburn on your hiney!)
