17HMR HUNT REPORT

d2admin

Administrator
Been a long day, so this is a reprint from another board. Might have some info of use for PM members.

Day started at 4:00 A.M. when I piled into the pick-em-up truck and pointed it towards a new valley 170 miles north that I had not shot before. Once I got out of the city, it was a pleasant drive on an old 2 lane highway that twists through several mountain ranges and across even more huge empty valley's, past a couple of nice desert oasis lakes, a couple of "here it comes - there it goes" towns and on into the freaky "Alien" valley I was heading to tucked right up in a notch of Area 51 (of A-Bomb testing and Men from Space fame). Didn't take me long to get on the right dirt road that lead a couple more miles out to the ranch I had been invited to come do some ADC work for. Found the ranchers wife at home, but the man had been out since 2 A.M. trying to get one of his center pivots back into operation. So, I drove on out to meet him there. Turned out to be a heck of a nice guy, and we hit it right off. I even got to be his hero and a half right up front when I got his equipment working for him after about 10 minutes of tinkering with it (I grew up on a ranch much like this one BTW). Anyway, it has 32 sections planted in Medicago (alfalfa/hay), laid out like a checker board with desert range sections in between - he has about 80 sections total. Here's a picture of one of them.

Ranch

My main target was to be the invasion of jack and cottontail rabbits and badger, but they are mostly night shooting with spotlights, so today I just drove all the roads to get familiar with the whole ranch and did a little shooting at the Belding Ground Squirrels. Here's a little feller that came out to see what the noise was and then laid down to keep an eye on me.

Belding

With these guys, the "buffer zone seemed to be about 150 yards. Inside that, and they would run for their holes. At about 150 they would dive, but then come right back up with just their head showing to keep an eye on me. Out at 175 and beyond, they would stay out, but were still pretty nervous. I later learned that the rancher and his son's shoot them once in a while when out riding horses. Anyway, these little Beldings would give me my first opportunity to see what the 17HMR would do on flesh and bone. Varmint Al and others have commented on how it just knocked them over ("they just laid down") and didn't even exit on the grey diggers out in CA. Well guys, the Belding are a whole bunch smaller than the Califoirnia diggers, and my Bullberry Hummer Carbine not only shot like a laser at the 150-175 yard ranges, it also put on a heck of a show as well. Most where head shots as that was all that was showing above ground - and these all lost their heads - completely. And then there was those that were above ground farther out and gave body shots. Penetration? I blew most of these completely in half. Flyers? Tossed several of them high in the air with chunks coming down everywhere. Red Mist? Yes, often on the body shots. So at least for the smaller diggers of the Nevada deserts, the 17HMR is instant death and destruction. Here's a picture of some that there was enough left of to photograph.

Hummer Kills

BTW, the one on the right I don't know about. It was a close to 200 yard shot, but I guess I just scarred him to death as I couldn't find a hole anywhere in the carcass. I did watch him kick for a few after I shot and before he died, so I can only guess that maybe I knocked a rock into him hard enough to do the job???

When traveling between planted sections, I kicked up 4 of these guys as well. Rancher said I am welcome to hunt them on his property too. Looks like I will taking my 6.5 Super Bower pistol up in season if I can draw a tag. BTW, this is out the window while he was running the opposite direction I was driving.

Prongs

This picture is of an interesting sign I passed along the way - seemed appropriate for this board. Don't you agree?

Sign

And this one was at 75 miles an hour out the window as well. This guy was riding the thermals over some small hills alongside the road. Sorry its blurred, but these digital cameras are a little hard to use when bouncing down a 2 lane highway, especially when dead tired from a long day.

TV

Truck died on me 100 miles from home, so I had to back track 20 miles to the only "watering hole" I'd passed in 60 miles. After an hour of fooling around with it, I made the run for home. Almost made it to, got within about a mile when it died again. More fiddling and I made it the last mile. Looks like my mechanic gets it tomorrow.

Have lots more pictures I will have to work on, but its 10 P.M. here now and I have yet to grab a shower and some dinner. Hope some of this rambling and the photos will be of interest.

Later,

Ladobe
 
Great story Ladobe! Where in Nevada do you live. I live in Henderson Nevada and am tryingto meet as many Predator hunters that live close by. Can nevr have to many hunting buddies. Lance /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
Great story and pictures as always, Larry

I don't remember shooting a prairie dog last Saterday that didn't have an exit wound.

We also had a few that opened up.

Give the edit another try. Things seem to be okay.

-Mike
 
Mike -
Edit worked fine when I went back days later. Why it didn't work that one night is still a ???? But thanks just the same pard.
Larry
 
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