Sage Rats Anyone?

[Greg Y]

My dad's neighbor in Spray Oregon provided us with endless shooting. We'd work a circle with 22's and by the time we made itv back to the beginning....it was like it never happened.

 

[jxb]

My dad's neighbor in Spray Oregon provided us with endless shooting. We'd work a circle with 22's and by the time we made itv back to the beginning....it was like it never happened.

Sounds like most anywhere we shot back in the 90's, our favorite place you'd look out and it was almost like the ground was moving. Seriously

 

[Rick in Oregon]

My dad's neighbor in Spray Oregon provided us with endless shooting. We'd work a circle with 22's and by the time we made itv back to the beginning....it was like it never happened.

We've been shooting some of our ranches since the early 80's, and like Greg mentions, we normally shoot for at least five days at a time, set up in the mornings, never move all day. Every 'new' morning it appeared that no shooting had been done in that field at all with all the rats boinking about, running, standing, playing grab-ass together.

It's no wonder now that some ranchers have resorted to the cabbage poison to control the little pests, as it appears shooting alone does not eradicate them as most alfalfa farmers want. Pity, as we'll shoot them for free!

 

[B23]

In the early days of using the poison it did a pretty good job just not a great job but like most things they got that program dialed in and now when they go in a do a field it flat wipes them out and you don't see many, if any, for years after.

I'm not a hay farmer but I get it and can understand why the farmers do the poison program. Now, if they for some reason couldn't poison them anymore and had to rely on folks shooting them to control the sage rat population, I'd feel bad for the farmers, but it wouldn't be the worst thing to ever happen.

Then again, if some enviro group came along and outlawed poisoning they'd probably find a reason why we couldn't shoot them as well so I suppose it's one of those beware what you wish for things....

 

[Varmits]

We just returned from a ten day rat shoot now that the weather has finally turned from snow, wind and rain to partially sunny in these parts. Our host lets us stay on ranch property, hook our trailers to power and water for a great way to spend a couple of weeks. Shoot rats most of the day, have a grilling session and adult beverages in the evening after rifle cleaning, and 'guy movies' at night on the trailer widescreen. All 'guy movies' include gunfire. (wink)

My Cooper M38 20VT on the bench cooling. The irrigation pivot blurred in the distance is just shy of 300 yards:



Plenty of mounds indicate plenty of targets. You can see a couple of squirrels in the back-lit pic waiting for 'attention'.



We set up each morning on the ranch two-tracks to avoid driving or parking on the freshly planted alfalfa. Everyone shooting into these fields got pretty much non-stop shooting until about mid-day.



Yours truly lining up on one of the alfalfa munchers at around 240 yards atop his mound with my Cooper 20VT:



The effect of a 32gr bullet at 3,680 fps on a small critter cannot be understated:



The rancher has an unwanted badger roaming about, so Dan brought his suppressed 7mm Rem Mag along. Here he's dialing it in at 400 yards in anticipation of the badger showing himself.....he didn't unfortunately.



Rifle cleaning got done either in the field at the bench or in camp on the tailgate....which is always handy as a makeshift cleaning table:



Now home, all the fired brass is in the vibe tumbler getting ready for reloading and ready once again. It was a great way to spend a couple of weeks with like-minded friends having "the most fun you can have with a rifle".

Now if the sun continues to shine, more rat shooting is on tap, and now that it's almost May, the young rock chucks are about done with mom, so they'll be 'qualified targets' too. More fun for us, less alfalfa eating rodents for the ranchers. Win-Win!

 

[Varmits]

We've been shooting some of our ranches since the early 80's, and like Greg mentions, we normally shoot for at least five days at a time, set up in the mornings, never move all day. Every 'new' morning it appeared that no shooting had been done in that field at all with all the rats boinking about, running, standing, playing grab-ass together.

It's no wonder now that some ranchers have resorted to the cabbage poison to control the little pests, as it appears shooting alone does not eradicate them as most alfalfa farmers want. Pity, as we'll shoot them for free!

Hello I have a 600 ac. ranch in Klamath Falls/Bonanza OR loaded with RATS always...Please give me a call to book a hunt....
Thanks
Sage Rat Excursions
916.717.4670

 

[Rick in Oregon]

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