Oregon Sagerats 2023 Season

[Ray123]

jd, some of the very best rat shooting I've ever enjoyed was in northern Kali, but with the commie/libtard rules of no lead when my shelves have thousands stashed, then add in that myself and my entire crew of five guys all carry legally here, and would be felons if caught in The People's Republik, so we just don't visit that place any more, don't buy their license, don't buy their gas, pay for a motel or visit any of their restaurants. We have plenty of good shooting right here, right at home. Screw 'em.

I know the effort is about meaningless, but we all have our own personal reasons for not supporting a state that basically hates us. And on the upside.......it's now March, won't be too long now.......

Exactly ... about 1972 as I remember, in N Cal a sign said "Entering Modoc National Forest"...not a tree in sight... but tons of sage rats to shoot. It was a lot different there too, many yrs ago.

 

[TheCZKid]

Got word, the sage rats are out and about in Lakeview, OR. The adults at least, kids show in April. That's about 165 miles south. But encouraging!

 

[searcher]

jd, some of the very best rat shooting I've ever enjoyed was in northern Kali, but with the commie/libtard rules of no lead when my shelves have thousands stashed, then add in that myself and my entire crew of five guys all carry legally here, and would be felons if caught in The People's Republik, so we just don't visit that place any more, don't buy their license, don't buy their gas, pay for a motel or visit any of their restaurants. We have plenty of good shooting right here, right at home. Screw 'em.

I know the effort is about meaningless, but we all have our own personal reasons for not supporting a state that basically hates us. And on the upside.......it's now March, won't be too long now.......

I'd not let that get in the way of using lead-free ammo and doing some shooting in Cali. The lead-free V-Max and the Barnes Varmint Grenades are as accurate in my rifles as any other leaded bullet, though they start to destabilize a bit sooner than lead. Still - out to as far as most of the alfalfa and hay circles and fields run - the lead free will get the job done. And VERY explosive - more so than leaded in my opinion. And don't worry - Cali doesn't need your purchases. The leaders think it better to tax the top 3% to pay for everyone else. Me - I prefer to spend my dollars elsewhere as well. I, along with everyone I know that makes money - will leave this state when opportunity is present. Many of my friends have fled to states like Idaho and Texas. Mine comes when my daughter enters college (soon). When I leave, California will be much safer, (far fewer guns) - and a higher percentage of retards. Sorry - I'm not politically correct on anything. I live here.

 

[jxb]

How did everyone do this year? Please post the general area of the state.

Wondering if someone has a report from Crane area, good, bad, ok and if everything is tied up with fee shooting or if there's free shooting around. Mostly interested in places safe for centerfire, hill behind, etc.

 

[nakneker]

How did everyone do this year? Please post the general area of the state.

Wondering if someone has a report from Crane area, good, bad, ok and if everything is tied up with fee shooting or if there's free shooting around. Mostly interested in places safe for centerfire, hill behind, etc.

If I had honey holes where I could burn hundreds of rounds a day I wouldn't post an area or if I did it would be a lie. Call me stingy but that kind of info would be well guarded. I’ve taken too many guys to some of my favorite fishing spots only to return the next week and see them all over it. We don’t have a lot of good fishing here in Arizona and no sage rats, we have prairie dogs but not like other states, you might get 100-200 rounds off. I do have a couple spots that remain untouched just because most guys have no idea you can buy a permit for that area.

I’m jealous of all this SageRat talk.

 

[jxb]

If I had honey holes where I could burn hundreds of rounds a day I wouldn't post an area or if I did it would be a lie. Call me stingy but that kind of info would be well guarded. I’ve taken too many guys to some of my favorite fishing spots only to return the next week and see them all over it. We don’t have a lot of good fishing here in Arizona and no sage rats, we have prairie dogs but not like other states, you might get 100-200 rounds off. I do have a couple spots that remain untouched just because most guys have no idea you can buy a permit for that area.

I’m jealous of all this SageRat talk.

Exactly why I asked for general area of the state, not specifics. I learned long ago not to share my spots, but I'm not so stingy that I wouldn't share the general area as a person still has to do all the leg work to find places with what a person is looking for, then they still need to get permission on one or more of them which is much harder since fee shooting took hold.

 

[Rick in Oregon]

jxb:
General area is east of the Cascades far from cities. That's the best I can do.
We were out for 8 days, got excellent conditions with plenty of rats six of those days with high wind spoiling the other two days. Snow covered many fields the first few days in the area, the females were still underground nursing their young, so no babies out while we were there the 2nd week of April.

But.....



To answer your other question, the entire area is being taken over by fee shooting, we saw as many as 8 chase/customer vehicles following two platform truck-trailers, so the city boys willing to pony up substantial bucks get most of the good shooting areas. No complaints here, we had a bonaroo time, over 1K rats got flying lessons. HTH

 

[jxb]

Thanks for the update, yeah I'm pretty sure I know where you were. As for the city folks, well I guess they are propping up the local economy over there so that's a good thing. Besides, it seems there's still plenty of rats to go around.

I haven't made it over to the east side this year and likely won't this season as work is keeping me tied to home. They even asked for a quote for Q3/Q4 so no fall hunting for me, just more points. I'm pretty sure I can hunt buck in any unit now, just need to know I have fall off and of course choose the place. My elk, doe, and sage goat points getting up there too but not nearly like buck points.

On the other side of it, more time to get ready for when I am not working and have ample time to shoot wherever/whatever. I'm still thinking next spring is likely so I'll poke around talking to property owners when I'm over there between now and then, hopefully line something up.

 

[drover]

Not Oregon related but species related - here in central Idaho our gopher population is down so low this year that I almost feel bad shooting them. Our spring was (is) so fouled up that it was the second week of April before I saw the first one of the year, I didn't bother going out until a few days after that. I was shooting for 4 hours on my trips - my first one I got 21, the second trip I got 33, the third trip I upped it to 55, I was out today and got 24. This time of year my daily count is usually in the low to mid 100's for a 4 hour trip.
I was talking with a friend just a few minutes ago and he is seeing the same thing. I know that it is not other shooters hitting the ranches I shoot because I am the only one who is allowed on them and there is no evidence of trespassers or vehicle tracks.
The ranches are far enough apart that I don't think that the plagule could be hitting all of them at the same time.

signed - at a loss!!!

drover

 

[jxb]

Not Oregon related but species related - here in central Idaho our gopher population is down so low this year that I almost feel bad shooting them. Our spring was (is) so fouled up that it was the second week of April before I saw the first one of the year, I didn't bother going out until a few days after that. I was shooting for 4 hours on my trips - my first one I got 21, the second trip I got 33, the third trip I upped it to 55, I was out today and got 24. This time of year my daily count is usually in the low to mid 100's for a 4 hour trip.
I was talking with a friend just a few minutes ago and he is seeing the same thing. I know that it is not other shooters hitting the ranches I shoot because I am the only one who is allowed on them and there is no evidence of trespassers or vehicle tracks.
The ranches are far enough apart that I don't think that the plagule could be hitting all of them at the same time.

signed - at a loss!!!

drover

Sometimes a fast thaw and refreezing will do that. Basically they get moisture in their dens and then the refreeze kills em. We'd see that occasionally in NE Oregon with the ground squirrels and in central Idaho we'd see that some winters with the chucks, some years it would kill out most of a colony if that hillside was susceptible. Speaking of chucks I mostly quite those when numbers got really low. We had a couple places that clubs would come shoot and wipe out so many they took years to recover even small numbers. Clearly those folks didn't adhere to rule #1, always leave a good breeding population.

 

[drover]

That is an interesting theory, I hadn't considered that. We have had an odd winter and spring this year and there were quite a few times when the snow thawed off.

drover

 

[jxb]

That is an interesting theory, I hadn't considered that. We have had an odd winter and spring this year and there were quite a few times when the snow thawed off.

drover

Yeah if I recall correctly it mostly happened when we'd have a thaw where of course there was enough snow and moisture to run water down the holes, but also hard freezes shortly after. Like below zero for sure, back then -30 wasn't uncommon both sides of the Lemhi range. I also recall seeing it when we had mult thaw/freeze, but mostly it needed to be cold enough to hard freeze down through the slide rock. I can't remember the conditions in NE Oregon for the ground squirrels as it didn't usually get that cold back then but lots of snow was regular so maybe a chinook followed by a hard freeze.

Of course it's possible they simply got covid or some other blight and it knocked off a good bunch of them in your area.

 

[dirtclod]

Hi ground shooting was excellent, low wet ground very poor. Added fun was watching the drumming of these sage grouse.

 

[jpx2rk]

A landowner stopped by to chat at one location while on my recent rat expedition and he mentioned the same thing ((thaw/re-freeze and killing the rats off), I could see where it could kill the young pups, but would think the adults would survive. I am a rookie in terms of rat knowledge tho.

 

[Kittitas George]

I saw a bunch of rock chucks on Thursday. More than I've seen, in one spot, than I've seen in many years. They were all this years young and not alarmed or afraid of me. Just busy eating as fast as they could. I would guess there were at least 25 or 30 scurrying around in a nice grassy area next to a big river. It was a beautiful city park.










I would

 

[jxb]

I saw a bunch of rock chucks on Thursday. More than I've seen, in one spot, than I've seen in many years. They were all this years young and not alarmed or afraid of me. Just busy eating as fast as they could. I would guess there were at least 25 or 30 scurrying around in a nice grassy area next to a big river. It was a beautiful city park.










I would

Such good news. I hope they get a chance to thrive and grow to numbers that require thinning ;-)

 

[TheCZKid]

I finally got out today for some Sage Rat shooting action. The field owner said to just go out any time, so a friend and I loaded up and drove to Fort Rock. I was concerned the alfalfa might be too high to see them, but when we got there, turned out the field was not planted, just dirt, hmmm.



Above you can see my CZ 17 Hornet and the field behind.

But there were rats out running around a bit regardless, and I was finally able to but my 20 Vartarg to the test. DANG, it's really nice! It's a great round to buck the wind and make distance over my 17 Hornet, with my 32 Vmax at about 3710 fps, and very accurate, really glad I was "talked into it" by a friend, thanks Rick!

We left around 4 as thunder storms were starting, and a bit of rain, but overall a very satisfying day. Was able to put the BR Pivot into the back of a friends pickup bed and use my rests and so on, for the first time with sage rat shooting. Very fun.

 

[jxb]

Odd it's not greened up as it looks like it was worked up for planting. I can't tell whether those are harrow or drill marks under your rifle clip. I guess if the water wasn't on then not, if it was then maybe its a late crop or a cover crop for new alfalfa. Regardless lucky break to have wide open shooting.

 

[TheCZKid]

There was a farm vehicle which went a couple passes from one side of the field to the other right in the middle by the pivot, and then it left, but left those tracks in you see beneath my magazine. The green field photo is showing Fort Rock, for which the town is named, and the looming clouds. Those fields have some pretty lush alfalfa or hay, it was actually really high, would have been pretty much impossible to see any sage rats in those fields.

 

[jxb]

There was a farm vehicle which went a couple passes from one side of the field to the other right in the middle by the pivot, and then it left, but left those tracks in you see beneath my magazine. The green field photo is showing Fort Rock, for which the town is named, and the looming clouds. Those fields have some pretty lush alfalfa or hay, it was actually really high, would have been pretty much impossible to see any sage rats in those fields.

Yeah that was our experience over in Crane, don't bother to go in May as it was too high and warm too (80's). We just stuck to March/April. Of course that was a decade or two back.