Myth-gophers don't come out in the rain.

[DDgofer]

My friend and fellow gopher control specialist SteveO dropped me an email last week asking me If I would give him a hand with taking some fellows coming up to visit him, gopher hunting. He had 4 guys coming. I would take two of them in their vehicle. Let's see he wanted me to go gopher hunting-their vehicle-their gas--can anyone see a no in there.

We all met Friday morning at SteveO's place.

Since last Thursday it has been raining up here in Northern Montana. Saturday the weather service said the accumulated total for May was 3.8 inches. Not bad since before Thursday, it hadn't rained all month

This is good for the farmers as they needed the rain for their crops. This was not good for gopher hunters, or so we thought.

It has always been my experience that rain drives the gophers down and it's a waste of time to even go out. I found out different Friday and Saturday.

I have also been told that if you drive in a rain soaked field you can get stuck...no admission of first hand knowledge, no sir I not copping out.

It had poured down rain all night long and still hadn't let up. It was ugly. We decide instead of going out to different locations and getting stuck in the mud alone, we would all go to the same locations and get stuck together.

Well we saw gophers in the rain, but they were usually onseys and twoseys.

http://www.fototime.com/A9C65BE485B3AA8/standard.jpg

This was the wettest gopher I had ever seen.

At the end of the day we managed to find 20 or so gophers to shoot.

If we thought it was raining hard Friday, it was raining hard to the 2nd power on Saturday morning. We knew where some rock chucks were that we could get access to. The road to them usually isn't bad when wet and even then it isn't too far to walk to the farm house to get a tractor. So headed over to them.

No luck. The road was barely passable, but we did manage not to get stuck. We went to an area that was good and grassy and looked for gophers. We saw a few and got some shoots, but the rain got harder than when we started, so we decided to go touristing.

http://www.fototime.com/B229A9DB03A614E/standard.jpg

We headed back to SteveO's place for lunch. Almost as soon as we got there we saw a break in the clouds, so we choked down some Red Vines and Elk sausage and head for my Gopher honey hole. EUREKA!!! What an afternoon, it rained off and on all afternoon. So the two fellows with me would have a good opportunity to shoot gophers, it was my intention to not to any shooting. Shooting was so good I fired 250 rounds of 17HM2. The two guys with me fired a lot more than that.

We even managed to get a B&C Gopher.

http://www.myhostedpics.com/images/ddgofer/mikebcgophervhforum.jpg

Here is the best shoot of the day with my group of guys. Bowling ball triple. The fellow shooting a Savage Bolt gun in 17HMR had a group of 6 gophers at about 40 yard. At his shot the gophers flew like pins flying in a bowling alley. I'm not sure he didn't get more as there was a bunch of blood.

http://www.fototime.com/10060DF2E9430A0/standard.jpg

Myth-gophers don't come out in the rain. BUSTED

Myth-you can get stuck hunting gophers in the rain. CONFIRMED

http://www.fototime.com/AC59842BB6329AE/standard.jpg

For the record, this is the other guys not my group.

[Rick in Oregon]

DD: Looks like you pulled a great day's shooting out of what could have been a "Staycation" at home instead.

One of my best days of ground squirrels in memory was many years ago during a time I lived in (gasp!) Northern Kalifornia. I roamed a friend's ranch all day with my Sako 223 sporter and a fanny pack of ammo in a steady drizzle all day. I had 300 rounds with me and ran out of ammo! There were rats everywhere that day, and I found out the same thing you guys did...myth busted.

By the way, do you guys have a problem showing your faces in photos? Are you or some of that crew wanted by the law or something? ;)

[DDgofer]

These guys are all executives from a company who is not a sponsor here. No pay, no faces, no fame.

Although their product may be used by Varmint hunters, there target market is Public Safety.

This post is about shooting in the rain.

North Kalifa? McDoel? Picket Pins? I thought I got them all.

[charlie sterner]

did you get my Mother to take the pictures? No faces in any of them. Looks just like our family album! :D

Looks like it was a fun trip.

Charlie

[DDgofer]

Those V-max bullets are pretty hard on Gopher faces...oh you mean the people..see post Number 3.

[Rick in Oregon]

DD: You know the area alright....but not McDoel, although I've left quite a blood trail there too. I can tell you're a died-in-the-wool rat shooter.

Although your buddies may not be sponsors, I really don't think Mike or John would either care if their faces were shown, nor would they or anyone else most likely recognize them if they were. No biggie either way, but I'll agree that V-Max's are pretty hard on rodent faces!

(At one time I was both a sponsor and advertiser here, not now, but Mike & John still let me come here and play....)

Thanks for sharing. :)

[DDgofer]

My friend and fellow gopher control specialist SteveO dropped me an email last week asking me If I would give him a hand with taking some executives from Streamlight out gopher hunting. SteveO said there were 4 guys coming on their annual trek to Montana. I would take two of them in their vehicle. Let's see he wanted me to go gopher hunting-use their vehicle andtheir gas--can anyone see a no in there.

We all met Friday morning at SteveO's place.

Since last Thursday it has been raining up here in Northern Montana. Saturday the weather service said the accumulated total for May was 3.8 inches. Not bad since before Thursday, it hadn't rained all month

This is good for the farmers as they needed the rain for their crops. This was not good for gopher hunters, or so we thought.

It has always been my experience that rain drives the gophers down and it's a waste of time to even go out. I found out different Friday and Saturday.

I have also been told that if you drive in a rain soaked field you can get stuck...no admission of first hand knowledge, no sir I not copping out.

It had poured down rain all night long and still hadn't let up. It was ugly. We decide instead of going out to different locations and getting stuck in the mud alone, we would all go to the same locations and get stuck together.

Well we saw gophers in the rain, but they were usually onseys and twoseys.

http://www.fototime.com/BA5657EEB0D1C13/standard.jpg

Gary started it off with this gopher. This was the wettest gopher I had ever seen.

At the end of the day we managed to find 20 or so gophers to shoot.

If we thought it was raining hard Friday, it was raining hard to the 2nd power on Saturday morning. We knew where some rock chucks were that we could get access to. The road to them usually isn't bad when wet and even then it isn't too far to walk to the farm house to get a tractor. So we headed over to them.

No luck. The road was barely passable, but we did manage not to get stuck. We went to an area that was good and grassy and looked for gophers. We saw a few and got some shoots, but the rain got harder than when we started, so we decided to go touristing.

http://www.fototime.com/B229A9DB03A614E/standard.jpg

We headed back to SteveO's place for lunch. Almost as soon as we got there we saw a break in the clouds, so we choked down some Red Vines and Elk sausage and head for my Gopher honey hole. EUREKA!!! What an afternoon, it rained off and on all afternoon. So the two fellows with me would have a good opportunity to shoot gophers, it was my intention to not to any shooting. Shooting was so good I fired 250 rounds of 17HM2. The two guys with me fired a lot more than that.

Mike even managed to get a B&C Gopher.

http://www.fototime.com/6391FD2533D38D6/standard.jpg

Here is the best shoot of the day with my group of guys. Bowling ball triple. Gary was shooting a Savage Bolt gun in 17HMR had a group of 6 gophers at about 40 yards. At the shot the gophers flew like pins flying in a bowling alley. I'm not sure he didn't get more as there was a bunch of blood.

http://www.fototime.com/9315CCC1D7490AA/standard.jpg

Myth-gophers don't come out in the rain. BUSTED

Myth-you can get stuck hunting gophers in the rain. CONFIRMED

http://www.fototime.com/F7C63FA3A6A6A57/standard.jpg

SteveO was the driver, but Jeff was the navigator, can you guess which one is Jeff. SteveO and Brad make sure we know the Navigator is responsible for not directing the driver around a badger hole.