Ground Squirrels in WA

[CWA360]

In the last 15 years or so, we've seen an infestation of ground squirrels at our hunting spot near Republic, WA. They're only out between April and July-ish. When I say infestation, they absolutely ransack cabins and trailers left unattended with a means of entry. Curious if anyone has seen anything similar.

Makes for good target shooting with the .17 hmr though. What's your preferred caliber for varmints?

 

[riversidejeep]

What kind of ground squirrels ? The short tailed in the alfalfa kind or the longer tailed sit on stumps / rocks sunning themselves style?. Here in northern komifornia its the stump sitters and there is nothing I look foreword to more than a infestation of them ! The cycle of them is coming around the last few years and this year should be epic. My choice is a ar-15, 18" varmint barrel BDC 4-12 scope and 43 grain lead free TNT speer bullets. More fun than deer hunting!

 

[CWA360]

Longer tailed - sunning themselves variety. Do yours also engage in cannibalism? We've seen it several times where we'll go through and get a few, come back a little later to see the little buggers feasting on their brethren.

 

[riversidejeep]

Longer tailed - sunning themselves variety. Do yours also engage in cannibalism? We've seen it several times where we'll go through and get a few, come back a little later to see the little buggers feasting on their brethren.

Yes, they really dont care whats for supper. Our variety tend to stay out of the burrows from spring thru late fall just before the rains hit , makes for a lot of rounds down range.

 

[JMundy84]

Makes for good target shooting with the .17 hmr though. What's your preferred caliber for varmints?

.22LR or .17HMR for close ones and .204 or .308 for further ones. And yes to the cannibalism thing I've shot plenty next to a burrow and waited a little while and shot his buddy trying to eat him

 

[B23]

Nearly all the ground squirrels I've ever shot have been Belding's ground squirrels, generally called sage rats, but it doesn't sound like those are what the OP is talking about. Have shot literally thousands upon thousands of sage rats over the past 45 years. Started shooting them when I was around 10 with a Win model 74 22lr my grandpa let me use, I still have it. Over the years I've shot them with a variety of different 22's but once the 17HMR came out and started using one of those I hardly ever shoot the 22's.

If most of the shooting is in the 50-ish yard range it's pretty hard to beat a 22lr but once the shooting starts reaching 100 or 100+ yds then the 17 HMR really shines. I got a 17 WSM a few years ago and that has made shooting sage rats at much further distances and still with a rimfire, a lot of fun. Was down in Oregon a couple years ago and had a little group of them on a mound out at 350 yds and was able to connect pretty regularly on them.

Rimfires are always fun to shoot, especially on live targets like ground squirrels, but screw a suppressor on the end and the fun meter stays on high all day long. There's no way around the sonic crack but a good rimfire suppressor, even my 17 WSM, makes me giggle like a little girl everytime I pull the trigger and the damn thing sounds like a pellet gun.

 

[riversidejeep]

California ground squirrel, from coastal Washington to Mexico

 

[FB Trout]

I love to shoot ground squirrels! Suppressed .22 LR with a wide meplat subsonic load is the best! I do love whacking them a suppressed .17 HMR or Hornet, too, though.

 

[riversidejeep]

I love to shoot ground squirrels! Suppressed .22 LR with a wide meplat subsonic load is the best! I do love whacking them a suppressed .17 HMR or Hornet, too, though.

I'd give a left nut to be able to have a suppressor on a digger gun, that would be so sweet to be able to not wake the entire mountain with every shot! I'm assuming that shooting suppressed the squirrels are much quicker to come back out of hiding ?

 

[FB Trout]

Yes, they come out quicker and often run for a bit, then come back to investigate and snack on there buddy that just got whacked!

 

[PanhandlePilgrim]

17 HMR is hard to beat for high volume varmints inside 250 yards. Next would be .223 for price per round but really anything pushing a V-max over 3200 fps is pretty awesome.