650 Yard Sagerats

[tt35]

I had some hunters here from NW Washington hunting sagerats with me this week. Two of the three shoot F-class and are no strangers to long range shooting. As the shooting progressed and the 'rats became thinner near the platform, they started stretching it out onto the flat beyond the rise they had been shooting. Eventually they were really stretching it out.

Here's the set-up on my platform.

One shot a Cooper .22-250 with a NF 12-42X for most of his LR shots. The other used a Rem 700 Tactical but I don't recall the glass. They also used their AR's some. Each had several hits in the 650 yard range. These targets are only two inches wide. The hit percentage wasn't really high but after they got dialed in, the misses were pretty close on most of them.

Here is a photo of their mascot in front of a Sako .204.

Those were the longest confirmed shots I've seen on sagerats. I thought it was some pretty impressive shooting. Thought some of you might be interested.

 

[HARPERC]

Good looking platform, good looking mascot, but I especially like the country in the background! I'll have to find my way back sometime.

 

[winmag]

That's some incredible shootin'!
For those who haven't shot sagerats before, imagine a target the shape of a rockchuck, but the size of a toilet paper roll with little arms & legs, & a tail about 1-1/2" long.
In order to consistantly score kills on targets that size, at that range, you gotta be on your game.

I dont normally frequent this section of LRH, but after this post I just might Wowgun)

 

[tt35]

Pretty crazy, huh? When Winmag says they are the size of a toilet paper roll, he doesn't mean "a roll of toilet paper" but the cardboard roll on the inside! They are a very small target. There is a certain amount of satisfaction coming close at that range. It would still ring almost any gong out there.

As usual Carl, you're welcome anytime!

 

[HARPERC]

I just got me a new sage rat, coyote, zombie gun. Tikka T3 Scout in .223. My Mark 4 2.5 - 8x looks like it was made to sit there. Sage Rats got tabled, my partner couldn't get a permission slip from mom. If the Zombies and crick don't rise, I'll be back in December for a crack at Oregon coyotes. I'll find out tomorrow if shoots minute of Zombie. No rule says your Zombie gun has to be semi-auto, with a high capacity magazine is there? I should set a parameter that isn't creek based though-we've got serious H2O moving through here.

 

[tt35]

Sounds like a coyote/sagerat killin' machine!

 

[coues7]

Who makes the benches?

 

[tt35]

They are the Caldwell Stable Tables. Good swivel bench for the money.

Caldwell Stable Table

 

[B23]

I grew up in the Yakima Valley and over the course of my 43 yrs I've shot literally thousands of sage rats but my dad and I always used our rimfires.

When I was in my teens every spring my dad would always buy a case of 5000 CCI stingers and buy the end of summer they would all be gone. Never shot any with our centerfire guns but have always wanted to take a trip to Baker or John Day Oregon for some long range sage rat shooting. Areas we always shot them about 150yds was max distance.

Comparing a sage rats size to a toilet paper roll is pretty dang close to spot on and that's the full grown adult size. Depending on how early in the spring you shoot them alot times they aren't even that big.

 

[tt35]

Good memories, B23! Yeah, the babies right now are about the size of a spent 12 ga shotshell. Pretty tough target at 250 and beyond with an accurate centerfire rifle. It was sunny and calm yesterday and a client was making pretty consistent hits on adults out to 175 with an Anschutz .17 Mach 2. Pretty darn good for the cartridge. It's all relative to the equipment but 650 is still impressive. gun)

 

[B23]

IMHO, 650yds on a sage rat is outstanding!!!

Last mothers day weekend my dad and I talked my older sister into going with us for what was supposed to only be a couple hours of sage rat shooting. Ok, to be honest, we pretty much had to drag her into the car and promise we wouldn't be gone more than a few hours so she could drive back to Seattle before noon. Now, my older sister is a big Corporate Exec. and shooting sage rats is about the LAST thing she ever wanted to do or atleast that's what she thought.

Kicking, screaming and bitching the whole short drive there about how my dad and I promised to have her back by noon as we head out on our way. I'm serious about the bitching part. At one point I was getting so sick of hearing about how we better not get her back late I almost said screw it and turned around and went back to my folks house.

We get to one of our honey holes and start plugging away. After shooting about 20 or so I asked her if she would like to try popping one. Her reply, "nope, I told you I'm not into this ****!!!" Ok, no problem but could you atleast please stop complaining? Her reply was, well, anything but lady like.

Then I shot one that was really close and she got a good look at the SPLAT factor!! I'm not sure if her inner demon came out or what but now she wants to give it a try. I've got a nice little Savage thumbhole 17hmr with a 4.5-14 Vari XIII that I let her use. After getting her setup so she could atleast see them thru the scope she lets one fly. She misses but the miss was so close she saw her hit and realized, Hmmm maybe I can do this. She racked another and tries to find another target. Finds one and SPLAT! Direct hit. Holy cow you would have thought she just won the MegaMillions lottery. She's jumping all around like a flippin jack rabbit. Now she wants to shoot another, then another and another. I spent the rest of the day loading mags so she could shoot sage rats.

Hours of rat shooting go by and I remind her it's getting close to noon and does she still want to leave. Her reply "hell no this **** is fun. How long can we do this today?" I asked her, uh, hey I thought you said you weren't into this stupid stuff? "Shut up and load me another mag, I'm out and these thing are sooooo stupid they just keep popping back up" LOL

I guess it's safe to say she had a lot of fun because now she has her own 17hmr scoped up just like mine and 3 extra magazines. I told her when she goes now she has to load her own mags though...

 

[tt35]

"Shut up and load me another mag..."

gun)

That's too funny right there!