Sage Rats this weekend

[Damien]

I was just curious if going sage rat hunting this weekend would be good (Fort Rock area). The weather man says possible showers and highs in the upper 40's to lower 50's. Will this keep the little guys from coming out??? I would hate to travel over there and not have good shooting. What do you think???? Any comments would be great.

[skein]

This time of the year they WANT to be out! It will prabably be a matter of do you want to sit in that weather and shoot. Also, in colder, windier weather, they tend to scurry along the ground rather than stand up.

I haven't looked, is the weather prediction for over there supposed to be cold and rainy?

That said - I WILL still be there this weekend.

PS - I just ordered a new CZ in .17HMR, but it won't be here by the weekend. I can't wait.

Skein

[FallRiverGuy]

From NOAA Weather Forecast - Central Oregon
Does not look that bad other than cool. It has to be a fairly strong system to cause any real precipitation in that area.

Lake County(Central and Eastern)
CENTRAL AND EASTERN LAKE COUNTY-
INCLUDING THE LOCATIONS OF...ADEL...CHRISTMAS VALLEY...LAKEVIEW...
PAISLEY...SUMMER LAKE
440 AM PDT WED APR 9 2003

.TODAY...PARTLY CLOUDY. HIGHS IN THE LOWER 60S. SOUTHWEST WIND AROUND
10 MPH.
.TONIGHT...PARTLY CLOUDY. LOWS NEAR 30. LIGHT WIND.
.THURSDAY...PARTLY CLOUDY. HIGHS IN THE UPPER 50S. SOUTH WIND 10 TO
20 MPH.
.THURSDAY NIGHT...PARTLY CLOUDY. LOWS IN THE LOWER 30S. SOUTHWEST
WIND TO 10 MPH.
.FRIDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A SLIGHT CHANCE OF RAIN. HIGHS IN THE
LOWER 50S. CHANCE OF RAIN 20 PERCENT.
.FRIDAY NIGHT...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN. LOWS IN THE
LOWER 30S.
.SATURDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN AND SNOW. HIGHS IN
THE UPPER 40S.
.SUNDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS DURING THE DAY. LOWS
NEAR 30 AND HIGHS IN THE UPPER 40S.
.MONDAY AND TUESDAY...MOSTLY CLOUDY. LOWS IN THE UPPER 20S AND HIGHS
NEAR 50.

.< TEMPERATURE / PRECIPITATION
SILVER LAKE 61 30 60 / 10 0 0
LAKEVIEW 61 32 60 / 10 0 0

[Chukrchaser]

Skein

Sorry beat you to it -- had my CZ.17 for 3 weeks now -- found a couple of extra boxes of ammo -- you won't be disappointed it is sweeeeeeet!! Put a Leupold 6x on it -- those walnut sized babies are MINE :grin:

Chuck

[ 04-09-2003, 07:54 PM: Message edited by: Chukrchaser ]

[skein]

ChukrChaser,

Would you believe it - mine came in TODAY! I just got back from picking it up. I'll sight it in tomorrow after work. I've got a 10x Weaver to put on it until I decide what works best.

Pretty little rifle, and the CZ's are supposed to shoot pretty well. I take it you like yours. :grin:

What distance did you zero it in for?

Skein

[Chukrchaser]

Skein--
Probably get in trouble for being off topic-- but --
I argued with myself a lot about the Zero -- finally went ahead and zeroed at 100yds. I need to put a couple more boxes of bullets through it especially at 50 - 75 yards to see if I will keep it there -- May change the zero to 75 -- a little weird but may put more bodies in the "zone".

Also -- on the Ammo problem -- I had the opportunity to see the CCI round -- 17gr TNT hollow point :shocked: -- should be arriving in stores very soon -- and I am told that the Remington version is the same as the Hornady so shouldn't have any ballistic differance. Good shooting --

Let me know what you think-- once you've got it dialed in--

Chuck

[seadog]

Spent saturday and sunday in the x-mas valley area. Saturday was real windy and cool, didn't see too many rats so we looked for rabbits, didn't find many of them either Sunday was colder but not as windy early, more rats out and about but no luck finding a farmer to give access. We had dinner sat. night at the Cowboy Dinner Tree, it was everything that I had heard it would be, lots of food and then they bring out these huge steaks that dwarf the baked potato served with it, the waiter says these steaks are a little small so he gives us another!!! Holy cow are these hunks of meat huge, between the wifes and my steak and the extra one they gave us there must have been 5 or 6 lbs of steak, awesome!!!
All in all it was a good trip. Brett

[skein]

We had a pretty good time this weekend, but had some of the same cool, windy weather to contend with. We were over by Mitchell and the lady at the house where we asked was quite anxious for us to clean them out.

She also asked us to shoot any badgers we saw, since her horse had stepped in one of their holes and broken his leg. We didn't ask if she had to put it down, but vowed to do what we could.

As we visited with her, she told us she has a son who is in Iraq, right in the thick of things, and as we spoke I couldn't help but notice that she appeared very brave and upbeat about what he is doing over there. She said she had even seen him on TV and had finally gotten a letter from him written back around the 20th of March. I have to tell you, she looked too young to have a son old enough to defend our country. How many others do we greet and say good morning to and never realize that they have a loved one in harm's way. Bless 'em. [img]graemlins/hearton.gif[/img]

Anyway, I shot my new CZ .17HMR and it's a real rat-popper! What a hoot! I don't have it absolutely dialed in yet, because I didn't have much ammo, but I think it's gonna be a shooter, and it really puts the lights out when it hits. WhooooBoooooy!

Skein

[24 on/ 48 off]

Cool! Gonna be headin' east on Thursday to make some little pink clouds myself.

--spud-- :smile:

[Damien]

Well I thought that I would post our results from our trip this weekend. Saturday got access to a field that looked good from the road. Went out hunting of foot a didn't get much. The rats were very, very skidish. They would take off well before you could get a shot, maybe it was from the weather?. Cold, overcast skies, and windy. Found a tactic of driving the field and getting out to shoot. We finally got some decent shooting that way. Saturday night went out for jack rabbits and got alot of them. This was my first experience with this and it was a blast. We used pistols to make it more of a challenge it was a blast. Sunday did some more sage rats in. The rats seemed to be out a little bit more. The .22's were fun but needed a higher powered scope. The wind would also play some wierd tricks on shots over 100 yards. What a fun time. Looking forward to the next trip.

[HarpMan]

Don't hold your breath on .17 rim fire ammo. CCI makes it for everyone and they are very behind. Check with any Federal Outfitter Dealer as most of them locally have received a priority 1 case shipment before major orders are filled. It will be mid summer before the pipeline gets close to being filled direct or through distribution.

[skein]

Hey, Spud,

How'd you do on the rats? We're headed over on the 3rd and 4th of May, and can't decide whether to head to Mitchell or go further south around Ft. Rock.

Plunker,

You mean CCI makes the Hornaday ammo for them? Didn't know that. I sure like that little V-Max bullet though. Everything I heard was that the supply would be pushing through about the end of the month, but maybe that's just wishful thinking.

Skein

[24 on/ 48 off]

Got back yesterday. We had to change the days to Monday through yesterday due to an unforseen family problem.

Anyway........

Got to Central Oregon about 1200 and soon discovered that the rain clouds followed us over. It was awful. Rats just hate inclement weather and won't pop up. Instead of rat shootin', we went after some Jackrabbits and actually shot quite a few. Seems the cycle is high right now. Monday evening we got about 2 hours of rat shootin' in and killed a bunch. Those rascals were just dying to get topside- they even popped up in the light rain which was real surprising.

Pretty much the same Tuesday- only it rained even harder. Shot more bunnies and got about 2 hours of rat poppin' again in the evening. 10//22's at the < 50 yard shots, .223 from 50- 250 yards. I got some great video footage :smile:

Wednesday we shot from 0700-1200 and it was great. Probably killed 200 of them in that short time period.

They're out. Go get 'em!

--spud-- :smile:

[Fish Hawg]

cowboy dinner tree

[Bounty Hunter]

Forgive my ignorance, but are there any uses for these little guys? Can you eat them? Sounds like something my dad might like to do. I used to shoot ground squirrels in NM, but we didn't eat them.

[24 on/ 48 off]

Naww. No use for them. Too small. The farmers hate them because they eat the roots on the alfalfa. A typical 160 acre pivot or field can have thousands of them. The are officially known as Belding Ground squirrels

Belding Ground Squirrel

Most farmers beg you to come shoot them. Otherwise, they have to resort to poison which lowers the amount of money ranchers will pay for the alfalfa.

--spud-- :smile:

[24 on/ 48 off]

This is what I saw through my scope.

--spud-- :smile:

[skein]

How 'bout the rabbits? I haven't been on a good rabbit hunt in years, mainly because of the down cycle. A farmer near Crane specifically asked us to target rabbits a while back but we didn't get to follow through, so I don't know what the populations were like.

Skein

[24 on/ 48 off]

Rabbits were pretty thick. I was surpised, at least. I think the cycle is coming back around. :smile:

--spud-- :smile:

[skein]

HooooBooooy! I just picked up four boxes of .17HMR ammo tonight. It's the Remington version, which I haven't shot yet, but I'm sure it will work just fine. It's hard to come by, and I guess I stopped in at the right place at the right time.

All we need is a little sunshine. :grin:

Skein

[Big Willie]

We're heading out after work over to Prineville, a friend of mine lives there and says they are everywhere. Can't wait!

Hey Skein, another friend of mine had some sort of wildcat .17 that was shot out of a .221 Fireball case. What a screamer...those .17's are great! Good luck out there.
Gary

[skein]

Same to you! We're headed over toward Christmas Valley. Gotta save them farmers!

Let's see...
22-250 ammo - check
17HMR ammo - check
22LR ammo - check
Shooting bench - check

I'm ready!!!!

Skein

[24 on/ 48 off]

Go get 'em!

--spud-- :smile:

[hustlerrjim]

loretta and I just got back from fort rock area
friday and sat were fantastic shot up 10# of 22s
10/22 scattermatics {we weigh our shells with grandaughters along]
our sons were in post and paulina, not good at all, joined us in fort rock,
dinsdale farms so. of fort rock apx 10 miles welcomes rat shooters with open arms
they have 62 pivots so plenty of room
sign in at headquarters ---turn rt. at road no. 510 c on way to x mas valley.apx 10 miles s
past fort rock
do not drive on feilds
alfalfa still real low so should be good for a coupla more weeks

[Big Willie]

Well, the weather didn't exactly cooperate, but we still got plenty of shooting in. It was partly cloudy, scattered showers all weekend. But when the sun came out...hold on! My longest confirmed was about 250 yds. I lobbed some long bombs in at around 4-500, close but no ceegar. Even got a few with my trusty old Ruger 10/22. What a kick in the pants.

[Cool Texan]

Ok, hang on here. Now I'll admit that I dont hunt....and I dont know anything about hunting, especially here in Oregon.

But hunting for rats? Is that just a euphemism for something else, such as what "gator" is to sturgeon?? Or are you literally going out and shooting vermin?!? [img]graemlins/dork.gif[/img] :whazzup:

If its an actual rat, then I am baffled as to why this would be done...but to each their own I guess.

[Cast'n'Blast]

They're ground squirrels or sage rats or whatever you want to call them. They love alfalfa and do a lot of crop damage. Back in the day, farmers/ranchers used to supply ammo but these days it's hard to get on some fields. On still, sunny days it's a lot of fun.