Gopher Hawk success

[TPC]

Gophers wiping out the neighborhood.
Maynard leased some land to farm and is having success with the Gophers Hawk and now clearing our place:

 

[Taboma]

View attachment 1500455
Gophers wiping out the neighborhood.
Maynard leased some land to farm and is having success with the Gophers Hawk and now clearing our place:

I've had great success with the two I have --- IF and when soil conditions allow. I find around here during the winter when the soil is damp, it's soft enough and stable enough to penetrate, yet remain firm enough to allow a good solid set. Now, in many areas are starting to dry out and the DG forms a hard layer that's hard to penetrate to the desired tunnel depth. So now it's back to digging out the tunnels and setting one of the other various types I use depending on the tunnel diameter and access.
That looks like good soil for setting them, similar to the nice rich soil I have down in my avocado grove where I water.
No question, they are really easy to use and work well, when conditions allow.
I have also found that by resetting the traps (All types) and leaving them for a few days, I've been successful in trapping one or two adults, plus one or more young gophers from the same tunnel.

 

[Flyinbowtie]

Ordered.

I cannot be outside with my pellet rifle 24-7, and the bastard have a sentry someplace that spreads the word when I am on overwatch.
Maybe this'll make 'em nervous.
Ross tell Maynard thanks for me...

 

[EmpirE231]

I have one sitting on a shelf… never was successful with it. Used to dig out and set the snap traps in the tunnels and those worked well. Not sure if I was using the gopher hawk wrong or what but I have up and a guy monthly to handle the gophers

 

[TPC]

Maynard took some time off from his engineering job to head down South to work on a family farm for a few weeks.

Evidently he is interested in a girl at church so of course canceled those plans now has time to also help out around here.

Neighbors landscape got wiped clean by gophers and they are out there now setting Hawks.

 

[trucker507]

Iv caught dozen of gophers with mine, set it and forget it, check to find yellow on top. Highly recommend them

 

[Grease Monkey]

Always had good luck with these. Open the hole, set trap, place trap in the runner and cover the hole with a bucket lid or cardboard. Put dirt around the edges of the cover. 9 out of 10 success rate.

 

[4Waters]

Always had good luck with these. Open the hole, set trap, place trap in the runner and cover the hole with a bucket lid or cardboard. Put dirt around the edges of the cover. 9 out of 10 success rate.
View attachment 1500470

Neighbor has a gopher that we have been trying to get for almost 2yrs. Those don't work and have a black hole in there now

 

[Looking Glass]

Neighbor has a gopher that we have been trying to get for almost 2yrs. Those don't work and have a black hole in there now

How serious are you about wanting to Eliminate him? PM Me and I will give you a Guarantee Kill.

 

[Grease Monkey]

Neighbor has a gopher that we have been trying to get for almost 2yrs. Those don't work and have a black hole in there now

Just takes time

 

[TPC]

Always had good luck with these. Open the hole, set trap, place trap in the runner and cover the hole with a bucket lid or cardboard. Put dirt around the edges of the cover. 9 out of 10 success rate.
View attachment 1500470

I did too for decades. . Eventually they stopped working

 

[DWC]

I think our neighbor 5 houses down breeds them. They make it to our place every couple years. My go to is 3-4 gopher gassers and a blower. You’d be amazed at how far/wide the smoke comes out. The snap traps covered with cardboard/dirt is #2. Need to pick the Hawk up and try it out next round.

 

[Flatsix66]

We have three tools in our program. 1.. Early AM when you see the cock suckers breaching the surface of the lawn: 22LR 10/22 shit to the head!. 2. Fresh mounds from the cock suckers: Water hose therapy until they come out or drown, shovel to the head is quite satisfying. 3. Gopher Hawk and wait for yellow to pop up and toss the cock suckers to the crows to pick their eyes out.

 

[Cray Paper]

We don't have have gophers in western Washington but lots of mice, rats and shrews. My parents were born and raised in North Dakota and every summer we would go back and visit their family. Sitting on the tail gate of the country squire wagon with 22's and gopher hunting was one of the things we did every year. Are these things like rats? I don't recall what gophers actually were, just remember thinking how fun it was to shoot them.

 

[Dunerking]

Got this asshole the other day.

 

[4Waters]

Got this asshole the other day. View attachment 1500555

I've got that one in the hole right now

 

[Xring01]

Wimpy bastards.
Let me show you how its done.

Drop 100 or more before I refill the air tank…

 

[n2otoofast4u]

We don't have have gophers in western Washington but lots of mice, rats and shrews. My parents were born and raised in North Dakota and every summer we would go back and visit their family. Sitting on the tail gate of the country squire wagon with 22's and gopher hunting was one of the things we did every year. Are these things like rats? I don't recall what gophers actually were, just remember thinking how fun it was to shoot them.

We definitely have gophers in western Washington!

 

[Taboma]

Always had good luck with these. Open the hole, set trap, place trap in the runner and cover the hole with a bucket lid or cardboard. Put dirt around the edges of the cover. 9 out of 10 success rate.
View attachment 1500470

That style is one of my favorites Another favorite I really like is the old style 0625 Victor Black Box, but requires a larger hole in order to get them set in both tunnel directions. I cover both traps pretty much exactly as you do.

The great thing about these traps, despite a bit more effort to dig, set and check them, is you know you're in the tunnel(s).

 

[stephenkatsea]

Once set an old style gopher trap in our yard. Same as previously posted by Grease Monkey. Tied it off to a stake with 20lb monofilament fishing line. Later I found the trap missing and the line chewed in 2. Reset another trap. This time tied it off with 300lb monofilament and left some slack. Next day found the slack was pulled tight. I began pulling on the line to pull the trap out of the hole, and it pulled back! Then with both hands I pulled out the biggest friggin’ gopher I’d ever seen. And it was still alive. I quickly ended that with a shovel. Should have taken photos. I think that thing might have been part woodchuck.

 

[Cray Paper]

We definitely have gophers in western Washington!

Guess I should say we don’t have them in Kirkland where I grew up or in the Millcreek area where I’ve lived for almost 30 years

 

[Mandelon]

My wife used the Hawk, and snap trap. Both help. The cats get a few too.

 

[Cray Paper]

I’m glad we don’t have gophers near my home. My female cat Penny would be dragging them in the house and eating portions of them like she does with rabbits.

On a side note, there are numerous big pounds around my place. It’s not uncommon to run over a horny beaver trying to cross 132nd or 35th. They are much bigger than you would think, like medium dog sized but rounder. I haven’t hit one yet but see 4 or 5 a year on 132nd that met their demise via vehicleside. The corpse seems to hold up well to vehicle trams so they must be fairly dense.

 

[havasu5150]

When I had my acre in Buckeye, had a huge problem with gophers,,,,,until I got the Gopher Hawk. No gophers at the Havasu domicile.

 

[stephenkatsea]

My astounding catch was in Port Hueneme CA. We lived adjacent to a nice park. Those gophers were likely making their way from that park and into our backyard. Our home sat on a slab. At night you could sometimes hear those damned gophers under the slab. Rather soft sandy soil made burrowing pretty easy.

 

[jet496]

Always had good luck with these. Open the hole, set trap, place trap in the runner and cover the hole with a bucket lid or cardboard. Put dirt around the edges of the cover. 9 out of 10 success rate.
View attachment 1500470

100% success rate with these from Home Depot (2 in a pack). The key is to not cover the hole back up & set one in each direction in the hole. They come back to fill it in because of the light, breeze, or whatever & that get's them (an animal remover guy told me the trick).

I will try a Golpher Hawk to see how it works though. Curious.

 

[Gelcoater]

m glad we don’t have gophers near my home. My female cat Penny would be dragging them in the house and eating portions of them like she does with rabbits.

We get them in the front yard on occasion.
Last couple of across the street neighbors apparently didn’t give a shit their yard looked carpet bombed?
I’ve stuffed smoke bombs down the holes in the lower area of the yard closest to the road. And pumped it with the leaf blower.
We see smoke coming out of the ground
Across the street.. a couple houses.

Never had one in the back yard more than 2 days.

That’s after I said “Squirrel!”

Squirrel, rabbit, gopher, no different to her

 

[Cray Paper]

Guess I should say we don’t have them in Kirkland where I grew up or in the Millcreek area where I’ve lived for almost 30 years

We do have moles, but they are smaller than gophers, blind and all black like a shrew. My cats love hunting those as well and letting loose in my home.

Last week was entertaining, big rat died in the top drawer of the nightstand on my side of the bed, right below my c pap. One of my cats was circling it so I popped a couple of drawers out and lifted it up. Didn’t find anything. A couple of nights later I woke up to a foul smell in my mouth. When I came home from work I could smell that sewer smell in my bedroom. I opened the top drawer and found a dead rat laying next to my 357 revolver. Glad it didn’t die on top of it. The next day one of the cats is sniffing around the base of the stove, I pull the bottom drawer out and there’s mouse shit and piss in it. I pull the electric stove out while both cats are intently watching. I look behind the stove and the fucking rat is clinging on to the back near the top and my face is about a foot away from it the cats chased it in to the neighbors yard. A day later I found its head and tail in my backyard.

 

[old rigger]

Mom and her asshole husband had a neighbor up in Arroyo Grande who also had a 5 acre place. He'd fill the gopher tunnels with propane and had a little ignighter like on a BBQ that he'd run down the hole with maybe 20 feet of wire to the switch. I'd never seen one before, was pretty impressive.

And when we were kids we had a large field that ran behind our house, maybe 1/2 mile wide. Quite a few neighbors had gardens out there. Next door was a great ol guy and he showed us how to fill their tunnels with the garden hose and wait for one to poke his head out. All we had for fire power was an old school pump pellet rifle and always nailed them with one shot. I guess we didn't need the fancy set up @Xring01 needs. haha

 

[Xring01]

Mom and her asshole husband had a neighbor up in Arroyo Grande who also had a 5 acre place. He'd fill the gopher tunnels with propane and had a little ignighter like on a BBQ that he'd run down the hole with maybe 20 feet of wire to the switch. I'd never seen one before, was pretty impressive.

And when we were kids we had a large field that ran behind our house, maybe 1/2 mile wide. Quite a few neighbors had gardens out there. Next door was a great ol guy and he showed us how to fill their tunnels with the garden hose and wait for one to poke his head out. All we had for fire power was an old school pump pellet rifle and always nailed them with one shot. I guess we didn't need the fancy set up @Xring01 needs. haha

Taking heads off pigeons at 75 yards…
Coyotes to 150….

With a username of Xring01… I obviously love accuracy, and have state championships to back it up.

FX Impact is one hell of a pellet gun, and it shoots dime size groups at 75 with pellets, and quarter size groups at 100 with slugs.
I am hoping I can get a better tune for slugs this spring… Hoping for 1/2” groups at 100 with slugs…

 

[old rigger]

Taking heads off pigeons at 75 yards…
Coyotes to 150….

With a username of Xring01… I obviously love accuracy, and have state championships to back it up.

FX Impact is one hell of a pellet gun, and it shoots dime size groups at 75 with pellets, and quarter size groups at 100 with slugs.
I am hoping I can get a better tune for slugs this spring… Hoping for 1/2” groups at 100 with slugs…

I was just kidding and I'm sure you're a much better shot that I ever was.

 

[Xring01]

I was just kidding and I'm sure you're a much better shot that I ever was.

Me to..

Back when I stopped competing… 15 years or more ago…
At that time… I would accept just about any bet, any amount of $$$. I rarely missed… Shooting 1/4MOA at 600yds is what it would take all day to win competitions back then and pretty close to 1/2 moa at 1000yds. Any less than that, you wouldn’t be in the top 10. Yes I played at out to 2500 plus.


Age has caught up to me. I am not that person any more. But I sure love my pellet gun. Stupid accurate, cheap to shoot and Eliminating pests is something I do quite well.

Lets just say I keep the pigeon/coyote population in our area under control.

But I also love just poking holes in paper and shooting the smallest groups I possible can.

I should dust off the cobwebs of my competition guns soon. And truly see how far off I am now, compared to what I used to do with them. The last time I shot my 300wmag… was literally training a Marine Recon kid, the weekend before he shipped off to sniper school. At least 12 years ago or more. LOL… I have neglected that gun. But literally, that Marine was shooting 1/2 MOA @ 750 yds by the end of training session.

 

[Taboma]

100% success rate with these from Home Depot (2 in a pack). The key is to not cover the hole back up & set one in each direction in the hole. They come back to fill it in because of the light, breeze, or whatever & that get's them (an animal remover guy told me the trick).

I will try a Golpher Hawk to see how it works though. Curious.

I've had "Luck" using both methods and four different types of traps. I've had runs of 100% success covering them, and then periods when nothing worked and they buried everything I put out --- including gopher hawks. Then success again, often an entire family one after another from the same tunnels and not always from the same direction in the same tunnel. What I've never been able to figure out just what makes a gopher tick, anymore than rodents. The most predictable rodents I've trapped are ground squirrels.
100% success trapping 34 squirrels in succession until I finally took out the entire family and all their living relatives. Gophers and rats seem much smarter