Oregon Sagerats 2023 Season

[jxb]

I thought I'd start off my first post with a subject that has always been near and dear to me. Sage rat season. I saw the post for '22 but none yet for 2023 so figured I'd start it off. If you don't mind please post the general area you shot/shoot as well since there are many on the dry side.

A few of us used to go to Crane area in the 90's and later, this was before fee shooting got a foothold. Mostly shot centerfire both reloads and bulk purchase to supplement (until one of the guys got a 650XL), but always took plenty of 22LR and 17HMR just in case we ran out. Usually we just packed it back and forth, high power was our thing. We only shot places with a hill behind so that limited our options some, but also meant we weren't competing with the mostly 22LR shooters back then. We mostly shot one place as they had so many rats we didn't even need to move our benches, same spot every day.

Between this and work getting in the way I haven't been back (to shoot) for over a decade now, I go to SE Oregon regularly just not for rats and until recently was only shooting for big game season. Our youngest got into shooting and peaked my interest again, oh boy did he but that's another story, lol. Anyhow as I get closer to retirement I'm getting back into shooting/reloading and of course poking around forums looking at what the opportunities might be. I think fee shooting is fine for those that are into it, just not for me. I don't pay to shoot varmints, it's costly enough without a fee added to the mix. I do like reading everyone's reports though. I shoot 22LR, 17HMR, 204 Ruger, 220 Swift, 22-250, 6.5 Creedmoor, and 7mag. Multiple of each which is almost mandatory if the rats are thick. Before my approaching 30yr career in IT, I spend my life working farms and ranches both Oregon and Idaho so I'm very cow and pipe aware, as well as don't drive except where told, leave no trace, etc.

I might make it over that way for a few days this spring and plan to visit some of the landowners I used to frequent. Not so much cause I think they have opportunities but cause they know everyone and hopefully can point me to someone still allowing non-fee shooting. I can always bring my gongs and work on my LD shooting, and of course do some fishing (anywhere the ice is off). Soon enough I'll have springtime free so I'm more in the prep for then mode while my contract work continues to keep me tied up.

-- Jeff

 

[Kittitas George]

The fee shooting at Crane took us out of the game also. We shot near the Nevada border, south of Crane just before Covid, but they were using poison, so the shooting wasn't very good. Crane was wonderful shooting, killed many sage rats and really improved our skills. We shot a lot of rim fire, mostly 17HMR, but lots of centerfire also. Ir really improved our prairie dog hits. I know there is still a lot of good shooting in Oregon, it's just a matter of getting access. My friend has a very comfortable cabin in MT and we have good access to gophers, not as good as Crane but, we do get a lot of shooting. We see lots of big game, and have developed many friends with the ranchers in the area. They know we are safe, irradicate many of the pesky gophers and respect their property.

 

[jxb]

Yeah when you get a nice relationship with a rancher there's all sorts of bennies that come with it. Both for the rancher and the hunters. Mostly for big game and winter coyotes, whereas rats is simply a keep the numbers down for access arrangement. Idaho is more familiar to me, but western Montana used to pull at me. That was before the big influx of people into the Bitterroot valley, kinda lost interest after it started being overrun.

 

[Rick in Oregon]

Many of our prime sage rat farms/ranches out there have been lost to a variety of reasons, fee shooting being the worst, but the planting of tritical that the rats don't eat, and using the cabbage poison that is so very effective. Sad that so many places are now gone.

BUT, we have a couple of great places to shoot rats out that way, the ranchers even let us bring our travel trailers, hook to power and water too, right on the ranch property. It doesn't get much better than that, but we all know the "good ole days" are now numbered. Glad I'm no younger, started serious rat shooting in 1968, so I've 'had my time'.

 

[jds holler]

This field is one of my favorites, and only a few miles from the house. However that cabbage based poison has turned it into sterile field. The squirrels will start encroaching from the edges, and I about to hop in the Jeep and check it out for the first time this year. Wish me luck. jd

 

[Rick in Oregon]

Good luck there, jds! That looks to be quite the prime field. Hope there's still enough of 'em to give you a good day out in the field. Remember, we're 'visually oriented' here.

 

[jxb]

+1, please share your parting shots ;-)

 

[jxb]

Many of our prime sage rat farms/ranches out there have been lost to a variety of reasons, fee shooting being the worst, but the planting of tritical that the rats don't eat, and using the cabbage poison that is so very effective. Sad that so many places are now gone.

BUT, we have a couple of great places to shoot rats out that way, the ranchers even let us bring our travel trailers, hook to power and water too, right on the ranch property. It doesn't get much better than that, but we all know the "good ole days" are now numbered. Glad I'm no younger, started serious rat shooting in 1968, so I've 'had my time'.

Yeah doesn't look like I'll get out much this year but one of these days my contract will end and I'll have lots of time to just wander around talking to property owners. Figure I'll start with some folks I used to shoot their places years ago and hope they remember me and they offer up some tips of places to check out. Many times it really helps having one vouch for you as a respectful shooter to get you in the door, then you just do right by the landowner. As many know there's LOTS of places on the east side where there's sagerats or sandrats, just not in the numbers we used to encounter near Crane. I can't see the fee places holding access on all of them.

 

[jds holler]

So!! I just got back from a real nice afternoon at the squeak field shown above.
Things were FREAKIN GREAT!! Temp was low fifties, and not a breeze. The squirrels are making a fair comeback from last years poison, and I see some nice relaxing shoots in my near future.

I called the owner to make sure he still is, and he is. Told me I was still good to go, and that I could drive right out pretty much where ever wasn't too soft. So I did, and parked close to where I saw some squirrels. They are sparse, and I'll be shooting at tens instead of hundreds, but I'm not gonna complain.


I just brought my 218 Bee, and this little single shot 22 mag for any close ones that might pop up. (one did) The squeaks were shy, and my shooting was pretty long for the Bee -- mostly 150 to 250 yards. Or maybe that's just long for me. My kill rate was nothing to brag about, maybe as bad as one oughta five shots. The ground is damp, and often hard to see where I hit or missed at.

I hadn't brought my range finder, or set a check target like I often do. I noticed that my kills weren't real explosive, which is common with the Bee at longer range.

When I finished and walked out to view some kills I found that I had a high percentage of noggin shots.




My next trip out will be with my 20-222 and my bench instead of the tripod. That rifle has a new Vortex 5x25 PST on it, and weighs about twice as much as my little Bee. Big squeak medicine

I'm thinking that the squirrel density out there is probably low enough that the owner might not poison this year. At any rate, he won't do it for at least a month or so. So I've at least got several nice relaxing trips ahead of me. jd

 

[jxb]

Nice update, thanks for sharing. Sure light action, but it's only Feb. Heck we generally never got started until early March, of course that was a decade or two back. The field looks pretty clean in those shots vs the others, no mounds yet. If you can keep ahead of them he might forego poisoning again and keep you in business

 

[jpx2rk]

Enjoy your time out there in the fields popping the squeaks.

 

[jds holler]

I'm sure glad I went yesterday. Today and for the next week is gonna be cold, snowy, and windy. As bad as I was shooting yesterday, I need to get that rifle on paper before I take it again. Last year I had been burning up some old factory shells I acquired, and I think I did some cranking on the scope. Ya don't have to be more than a little off to miss a squeak at 100+ yards. jd

 

[Rick in Oregon]

Thanks for the rat report and the pics; always neat to see what the rest of us are enjoying.

We've got a week+ shoot planned for April, so hoping the rats will be out frolicking about then, and the young-un's should be out by then too. Last year was a week long blizzard for a solid week out there with dismal shooting, so hopes are high for this year. Guess we'll see.....

 

[jds holler]

I started seeing the little rascals running around on Jan 12th. They may have been out before then, but -- The temperatures were in the teens, and they must have woke up hungry.

Of course over here, they're pretty much back in hibernation by mid July or August. Natural grass pastures with water, and they seem to stay up all summer.

I've got a field up the highway a few miles that has about 3 bazzilion of them. Shooting isn't good because of houses, barns, etc. so I'm planning on doing a little bow practice on them. I've got a couple of springer pellet rifles, but I think I'm honestly more accurate with my bow. jd

 

[drover]

Here in Central Idaho at mile high elevation I will start seeing the occassional one up around mid-march, by the 1st of April there are enough to bother going out for a day and then by mid April there are enough that I can really start to expend ammo. Every now and then though they do pop up on a bright sunny day and I do love painting snow pictures with them.

Right now we are still getting snow and gopher season seems to be eons away.

drover

 

[Sieg]

We used to shoot outside of Paisley on 5 pivots for 10-12 years, then they started bringing in the death cabbage, went from 600-800 per shooter a day to 300-500, then 100-300.... then they started deep plowing and that was the kiss of death.

 

[sw282]

l shot ground squirrels once around 20 yrs ago near Goose Lake on the 0r/Kali border. The 17HMR had recently come out along with Ruger's 77/17. The weather is what made the trip so memorable! A big snow covered EVERYTHING white. ln Bend 0r every yard was full Mule Deer. Zillions of squirrels shot in the SNOW.
UNBELIEVABLE!!

 

[jds holler]

That town over by Goose Lake is Lakeview. I'm over there every week or so on my job, and there are some real toad muleys that hang around town all winter. Folks there get to pick some pretty nice shed horns in the spring.

I'd like to throw a match in this house of mine and move to Lakeview. Folks are so nice over there that you're only allowed to fight for fun. If I work on my temperament a little, I think they'd let me in.

 

[jxb]

When I lived between Salmon and Challis the chucks would come up early sometimes, was so strange to see them running around on the snow. It wasn't really worth harassing them as one shot and they'd all just go back down for the day. But come the warm days of spring. Ah.... the good ol days when chucks were thick as fleas. Kinda like the rats used to be. lol

 

[jds holler]

I've got a place over here where the chucks are thick, and very getable, but the terrain is about like hunting on a cliff. It's about a 60% grade side hill, and the rattlers are plentiful too boot. There are deer trails that make it a little easier, but they mostly angle up or down, and you don't really want to lose elevation. I frankly don't know if I'm man enough for it anymore. I've got a foot that I busted up a few years back, and it's got more hardware in it than a double action revolver; doesn't like side-hill very much. jd