AirRifleGuy
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qwerty
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Oregon Sage Rat hunting questions
- Thread starter AirRifleGuy
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trukreltrog
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Heres my experience. A lot of people go to Christmas valley. We drove thru last year, saw hardly any rats. It looked like they had a lot of poison set out too. Also wet spring = poor rat shooting. I use shooting sticks and walk around, you get a lot more shooting in. A lot of places only allow rimfire anyway, so a bench really is'nt needed. Go farther south, possibly even into Kalifornia. You really have to take time and explore, find those out of the way places that are'nt shot up. Good luck.
Sage rat hunting can be hit or miss in SE Oregon. If you can find an alfalfa pivot, and the rancher lets you hunt, you can burn up a lot of ammo. I went last week and shot five boxes of .17 HMR between 9:00 am and noon. A few rats were out by 9:00am but the shooting really picked up as the day warmed. It seemed to me that the better numbers were in the cultivated fields, esecially alfalfa.
My brother farms a couple of hundred acres east of Burns. His crop is mostly grass hay and he had rats but not in the numbers I saw in the alfalfa pivots.
I later went to my cousin's ranch in Catlow Valley (60 miles SW of Burns) and he had no rats. Plenty of jack rabbits but no rats. Of course he doesn't raise alfalfa either.
The grass is not yet too high but it will be near the end of April.
When I shot the alfalfa pivot, I shot from the truck. It provided a pretty good rest for shots out to 150 yds with the scope cranked up to 15 power. If you are going to make long shots with a 12 to 16 power scope, I am thinking that a walking stick may not be steady enough. If you are shooting a 22 LR out to 50 yards, you are probably OK.
Fortunately, I have relatives in sage rat country. I call my brother and he gets me access to pretty good shooting. However, I understand that some ranchers now charge a fee to access good rat ground.
My brother farms a couple of hundred acres east of Burns. His crop is mostly grass hay and he had rats but not in the numbers I saw in the alfalfa pivots.
I later went to my cousin's ranch in Catlow Valley (60 miles SW of Burns) and he had no rats. Plenty of jack rabbits but no rats. Of course he doesn't raise alfalfa either.
The grass is not yet too high but it will be near the end of April.
When I shot the alfalfa pivot, I shot from the truck. It provided a pretty good rest for shots out to 150 yds with the scope cranked up to 15 power. If you are going to make long shots with a 12 to 16 power scope, I am thinking that a walking stick may not be steady enough. If you are shooting a 22 LR out to 50 yards, you are probably OK.
Fortunately, I have relatives in sage rat country. I call my brother and he gets me access to pretty good shooting. However, I understand that some ranchers now charge a fee to access good rat ground.
AirRifleGuy
New member
Good Morning 35WD and trukreltrog,
Thanks so much for taking the time to think about my problem!
I didn't know about the rimfire restrictions imposed by landowners. Taking the "time to explore" is what my wife and I love best but making her wait for me to get enough hunting is a bad idea. I'll be taking a fishing buddy that will require some babysitting and I don't REALLY know if he likes driving crappy gravel roads at 3 mph and not being in ANY hurry- that's how I find cool spots.
It's a crapshoot for sure because the best laid plans don
t ensure that there will be PD's waiting to get popped.
Last summer we were up near John Day (Aldrich Mts.?) and it occurred to me, after seeing a fenced area with four horses and SIX sage rats, that I could easily take out that colony without any danger to the horses. I'd like to find those kind of special situations like the orchards I hunt near my home.
Thank You,
John
Thanks so much for taking the time to think about my problem!
I didn't know about the rimfire restrictions imposed by landowners. Taking the "time to explore" is what my wife and I love best but making her wait for me to get enough hunting is a bad idea. I'll be taking a fishing buddy that will require some babysitting and I don't REALLY know if he likes driving crappy gravel roads at 3 mph and not being in ANY hurry- that's how I find cool spots.
It's a crapshoot for sure because the best laid plans don
t ensure that there will be PD's waiting to get popped.
Last summer we were up near John Day (Aldrich Mts.?) and it occurred to me, after seeing a fenced area with four horses and SIX sage rats, that I could easily take out that colony without any danger to the horses. I'd like to find those kind of special situations like the orchards I hunt near my home.
Thank You,
John