Goin' To Hell For Sure?

I first started varmint shooting as a kid. We would skip school, grab our varmint rifles (usually a .22) and head down to the local dump along the Missouri River bottom to shoot the plentiful rats that lived amongst the trash. The dump was a perfect shooting gallery, just like at the carnival. There were different levels and ranges that the furry critters would run back and forth on.



The first time I was slapped on the back for splattering a varmint I felt a tinge of guilt. The giggles and snickers when a rat's head went sailing off or the red mist flying out from a groundhog made me feel kind of bad too. Afterward I wondered if this was what got you into hell? The trigger time made us better riflemen but what was the price we would pay? When you get to the Pearly Gates is this one adventure that is recorded on the "Bad Side" in the ledger of your life?

Fast forward to today and I'm still zinging the varmints that need shooting. Depredation many call it, which means plundering; to pillage [Latin depraedare to pillage]. The ground squirrels here in California do tremendous damage to cattle and horses when they fall into the ground squirrel burrows. Heck, I've almost snapped a leg bone or two due to them dern "squeaks" and their tunnels they have everywhere.

I catch a lot of flack over the varmint shooting videos I post. Many are antihunters or antigunners who rant on with all kinds of name calling and foul language. I'm not so sure about some of the other comments, some may be just folks who drop in on the link not sure what the link is about and they are neither a hunter/shooter or an anti. Shooting animals and giggling about it must appear to be pretty callous to the uninformed. Would a caution or advisory about the varmints being pests before the video rolls help?

Am I going to hell?

One old friend offered another opinion on this catch 22 situation. While at the range during a media event where the outdoor writers were shooting ground squirrels he overheard one old scribe from the south offer that varmint shooting may not get you straight into hell, but you were darn sure to be getting a warm room for doing it.

Lord forgive me, I wonder if they make asbestos in 3XL?

War Is Declared In Camp Happyland

Some of you may remember my battle with a pocket gopher a couple months back. I've got another squatter moved in next to the patio by the garden in the backyard. Game on sucker. Fire Mission coming up. Going to Defcon 2.

Video of one of these cheeky fellers in action



Video of my last victorious engagement in June 2008



I set one trap last night and he sprung it pushing up dirt. This one's a smart one. Then he plugged up both ends of the tunnel where the trap was so good I couldn't reset the trap there.

Never had pocket gophers around here in 30 years and can't find any gopher mounds within several blocks. I'd rather go with the propane like the Rodenator uses to collapse the tunnels instead of having to trap these dang dudes every month and have to fix the damage to the lawn and garden.

Dubya D from our JHO Forum posted this pic on how he solved his gopher problem using his bow. I've been creeping out with my longbow hoping to catch the little turd out but no joy so far. Pocket gophers don't seem to come out as much as a ground squirrel it seems. Gonna set the game cam on his hole to pattern his sorry butt.



BDB (Steve) from the forum suggested I "make him a little friend", go to the HE (High Explosives). My first reaction was to blow him in place but he's under the foundation I think. Right next to it for sure and I'd take off half the patio if I went to the big bang.



The other problem is the Sweeney gopher traps I have don't fit in the tunnels very well, I have to dig the tunnels out a bit to fit the trap jaws. Does Sweeneys make a smaller version? I got these at Lowe's and they were marked gopher traps. Maybe one inch narrower would work.

I flooded the boy out tonight, hope he had his john boot handy. Then I collapsed all the tunnels I could find. Frustration has set in. I don't wanna go to the nuclear card but I'm not going to have the house collapse because the foundation was undermined.

Defcon 3 declared.