Just wondering if anyone else hunts gophers with their trad bow? I used to shoot them with a .22, than last year I got a compound and shot htem with that. This spring I got a old Bear Grizzly recurve, 58", 52@28", I think it was built in "66. I've  started taking it out after gophers, and I tell ya this is so much fun it should be ilegal. Only problem I've has is that I can't find blunts or proper points in anything over 125 gr. The rubber blunts are not effectivein dropping them dead unless head shot. I've started making my own points using all manner or things like hex nuts with spike's, homemade broadheads, anything to try to make an effective head. What do you small game hunters use that flies well and hits hard?

i dont know how well they will work  for you but i have shot squrriels with g5 small game heads they are kinda sharp and you can sharpen them more they are a little pricey but they hold up good it took me the third time i hit a tree with them to break one of the tips off

It's a good way to fill in the gaps between seasons. Lots of fun. You do get some strange looks from folks though, but........
                               Lin

The original golf. It is a ton of fun. You can get steel blunts in weights up to 160 grns from most trad suppliers and Ace makes a hex blunt up to 200 grns. There are also blunts with small blades like Magnus and tigerclaw, but plain steel ones work great on gophers.

Here's a link to blunts at 3 Rivers (site sponsor).

http://www.3riversarchery.com/Product.asp?c=57&s=43&p=98&i=B211

Ace hex blunts work well...

Whatever you call them, picket pins, squeekers, gophers, ground squirrels, I've been hooked on hunting them since I was a very young man.
 

 

 

My all time favorite ground squirrel head is the HTM rubber blunt. Really puts the "smack down" on ground squirrels.
 

Regular steel blunts, Ace Hex blunts, Judo's, and the Magnus blunt all work as well... just depends on how much energy your bow and arrow combo delivers.

we use hunting broadheads from time to time...not much of a bloodtrail, LOL.

"And we call this one the gopher opener"....

We only have big one's up north!

Used to back in the 60s and 70's. Alot of fun and good practice. May have to try it again.Hard finding a place to hunt anymore. We used to hunt the Universitys land and the golf courses. They won't let us do it anymore.

I love hunting gophers, probably shot a couple hundred with trad gear over the years. I've missed out the last couple years, I work too far north for gopher habitat. Hopefully I can find a few before I leave for the lodge next week. Judos have always worked well for me, in high school when I was broke I used fieldpoints with washers behind them.

Just curious, but how many of the gohper hunters on here eat what you're killing?

Excellent, more then I expected. People definitley do slow down and give you some strange looks, but that's fine. I don't eat them, don't know of anyone who does, though I've heard tht people have done it. Can't be much meat on the little buggers.

i eat what i kill if its not to big the bigger they get the tougher they are i've been using barta blunts theyre about 150gr ill let you know how they do when i actually connect and im hunting ground hawgs not ground squirels

I like Hex blunts because it is easier to find my arrows when I miss but use blunts most of the time because they are cheaper, hum... I mean a lot less expensive.

JC, that wide open view looks familiar.  Vance must have saved some for you.

Charlie, that second picture of yours reminds me of the best day I ever had hunting gophers, 63.  I got 47 the next day but my brother Bob out did me with 48.

Cre8vmynd,
They are considered pests in the western part of North America and we are just helping out the local ranchers and farmers.  The weekend after the gopher hunt I mentioned above, my brother and I went back to hunt again and there were no gophers left on the rancher's property; he had poisoned all of them to protect his crops, livestock, and equipment.  If there population isn't controlled by hunters they are usually exterminated on a mass scale.  I never ate a single one of them, and won't.

When I hunt them I use some c-4 shaped like a friendly woodland creature..Place it in the whole it has a big impact.. ;^)

Cre8,

JC's got lots of good groundhog recipies but I would not reccomend eating prairie dogs as they are a known carrier of the bubonic plague(SP).

Once in Wyoming we skinned out a half dozen (for a museum back home wanted to mount some) and the locals freaked out when they saw us skinning them with no gloves on.

Nope, no p-dog recipes. Like Walt said, considered a destructive pest by local farmers. A colony of these buggers can eat as much vegetation as a herd of cattle...which isn't good for a farmer trying to raise his own herd of cattle. Broken legs from the holes etc. multiple justifications for trying to keep them in check.

Walt, that's actually in a spot near White Sulphur Springs Montana. A buddy and I went fishing there, I took my stickbow (cuz I could) and while busting tin cans in ranch owner's front yard the cowpokes said they would like to see me whop p-dogs with that silly bow. The first arrow stopped one cold and them boys hooted and hollered like I was a stand up comedian. All I heard for the rest of the morning was "Do it again!".

They can be a real pest for sure. Digging and eating and carrying fleas.

Walt... I got into them once with a buddy of mine on a ranch that had a real problem. On two separate days of hunting I killed over 170 squirrels.

Killed between 100-120 on one of the days. They were so thick that I killed more doubles (two with one shot) than I can remember and several times killed 3 with one arrow.
There were even times when I missed the animal I was shooting at and the arrow skipped away and killed another.

At the end of our time on that ranch we put a big dent in the squirrel population, made a friend for life of the rancher, and made our selves sick of shooting squirrels... at least for that summer.