Thursday I arranged for four of us to take our soon to be wed buddy on a guided ground squirrel shoot. We met our guide in Klamath Falls and he took us to the designated ranch for the shoot. Our guide had a split level trailer with 2 shooting benches on each level. The fields were planted alfalfa that was trying to sprout. The farmers are forbidden to use poisen so shooting is the only way to salvage a field of alfalfa. Our guide said they don't have to pay to shoot the fields. The farmers grant them rights to waterfowl hunt the fields in season if they kill diggers off season. Our defensive position consisted of:
Bushmaster Predator 223
TC Contendor 22-250
Savage LRV 204
Ruger 10-22 (x3)
Winchester 61
Marlin auto (the "marlinator")
Savage MKII BV
Remington Fieldmaster
Taurus semi pistol (the "pistol whip")
To say there was an infestation would be an understatement. Within a 400 yard radius of our first set up there were at least 500 diggers up at any time. We would start by shooting as many as we could up close and working our way out as they became wiser. It took about two hours to thin this area out enough to stop for lunch. Some of the highlights of this set up were making 200 yard shoots with the Savage MKII. Hold was just above the bottom of the cross hairs. This shot was suprisingly repeatable if the wind was calm. After luch we decided to move to the end of the field where we could see alot of digger activity.
The second set up was the money shot. We pulled out between two fields which allowed shooting off either side of the trailer. It was also a great set up because we were now shooting parallel to the water lines. This set up also gave us shots out beyond 500 yards. I pretty much gave up using the Savage MKII because it was too easy to take anything inside 100 yards. I tried to pace myself using the Bushmaster at 150 - 325 yards. Any digger inside 200 yds was a dead digger with this gun. At 250 there was alot more trouble with the wind because that was outside the tree row. At 300 to 350 it was normally shoot, spot the strike and shoot again. The squirrels at that range would just stand there as thier mound exploaded around them. Perfect for a follow up shots. I tried some shots out to 400 yards but could never confirm any kills. I did have confirmed kills at 325 and was very happy at that. The most spectacular results were achieved at 75-125 yards with the 223. The load is Hornady 60gr VMAX loaded to 2,900 fps. When hit at that range when the body parts fell from the sky there was little left. At times you could only find 1/2 of a body.
Over 2,000 rounds of 22 lr were expended, 60 rounds of 204, 40 rounds of 22-250 and 240 rounds of 223. Everyone was trying to figure out how to plan another trip ASAP. It was truely the ultimate batchlor party activity, short of nekid women on trampolene's.
I do have some pictures and short videos but they are graphic enough to preclude them from being posted.
