Gopher Getter

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I live in a area where the use of firearms in this semi-urban area is not allowed. I'm also seeing gophers starting to move into the area. Since I'm not allowed to use my .22 I was wondering what air gun might be good for shooting gophers. The law says I can use a rifle air rifle up to 500 ft/s and 4.2 ft lbs of muzzle energy. Should a person get a .22 air gun or stick with a .177. I know this is all really wimpy, but shooting gophers is more fun than poison or traps and the cops will be on me if I discharge a normal firearm within the community. Thanks.
 
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Use CCI quiets in your 22. They are like using a pellet gun for noise. No one will know the difference between that and a pellet gun.
 
At your velocity they will bounce off and 500 fps isn't a game getter.
Few spring guns are good for larger small game. Mostly PCP.
I agree a .22 with a long barrel and quiet ammo.

That aside I have many gophers and I enjoy watching them.
No reason to blast them unless you have serious issues. Here they pose none.
 
Under 500 fps? You'd be better off using a sling-shot
whistle.gif
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I recommend a Gamo .177 with a built-in muzzle brake. Although fps is well over the allowed in your town, they are so quiet that unless someone is watching you use it directly, they would never know you are just by listening. Compared to the noise level of a .22 rifle using CCI CB shorts or quiet lr, I'd say it's well under half, and fps is as good or more. Mine has racked up hundreds of squirrel, rabbit and gopher kills over the years. I can't remember the model # of mine but here's a similar one on Amazon.
GAMO
 
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I live and Canada and wouldn't use an air rifle anywhere inside town/city limits. You are simply asking for someone to mistake you as a gunman in this day and age and things can go sideways over mistaken identification of the air-gun for real.

You want to have some fun and be effective, set up some of these:

http://www.leestrapworks.com/
http://www.leestrapworks.com/index.php/trap-in-action

I live next to open field rural farmland. I had 2 gophers come on to my property last year. I put these out and they are 100% effective within an hour.
 
Originally Posted By: bruckus
Use CCI quiets in your 22. They are like using a pellet gun for noise. No one will know the difference between that and a pellet gun.


Another good choice are the Agulia .22 Super Colibri's. Primer driven and super quiet.
 
Originally Posted By: Zee09
That aside I have many gophers and I enjoy watching them.
No reason to blast them unless you have serious issues. Here they pose none.

This. Are that causing a problem?
 
A well-armed friend of mine uses a Daisy pellet gun to shoot gophers in his mom's yard - CA has some of the toughest laws on the books. He says it's hit or miss, pun intended. I'll let him know about the quiet .22LR rounds, but a little .22 pistol isn't exactly a good varmint gun.

If you have plants of value or a garden, gophers are a pest. I just leave them alone - if my parents had gophers the cat would be begging to go outside.
 
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Originally Posted By: AZjeff
OP lives in Canada. Telling him to use a .22 is not good advice. He'd probably go to jail if caught. CCI quiets in a CZ 452 Ultra Lux is scary quiet but still wouldn't recommend it.


Maybe here in Toronto, but in semi-rural Alberta I seriously doubt it.

If someone is going to call the fuzz, neighbors will not take the time to discriminate between an actual firearm and an air rifle.

I am a city slicker, but guns are part and parcel of living in the country, just like the US.
 
Get yourself a Red Rider BB gun that has a compass in the stock and this thing that tells the time! Go out and shoot that Black Bart gopher Ralphie. Watch U don’t shoot your eye out kid!
 
I don't recommend using an actual rifle, whether you are a safe shot or not. Big difference in the law if you are caught with a firearm or an air/pellet gun. Not that we have much force behind our laws... another story for another day.

But, what you can do is talk with the town/RM or what ever jurisdiction you will be shooting in and ask for permission. There are numerous people in these parts that get permitted or permission to use small caliber firearms for varmints within town limits. Cant hurt to ask.

What ever route you go, if you are shooting them, get a gopher whistle or even a spent 17 HMR case would work. These have done wonders for me over the years.

Luckily for me I am rural enough that I can use what ever I want. Eleven years ago I bought a Savage 93R17 BV (Boyds stock version) with Bushnell Elite 4200 mil dot and Leupold aluminum rings. Trimmed the accutrigger down in weight, pillar and action bedded the stock and she shoots like a laser. Although my go to varmint gun is a Remington 550-1 that dates back to the 50's.
 
Originally Posted By: billt460
Originally Posted By: bruckus
Use CCI quiets in your 22. They are like using a pellet gun for noise. No one will know the difference between that and a pellet gun.


Another good choice are the Agulia .22 Super Colibri's. Primer driven and super quiet.

I have been looking for those for a couple of years now. Always sold out with no expected date. I think they stopped making them.

I have a 750 FPS .177 pellet rifle and it will not kill a squirrel over 6 or so yards.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
I have been looking for those for a couple of years now. Always sold out with no expected date. I think they stopped making them.


https://www.unammo.com/#Rimfire

This place always has them in stock, and he is good to deal with, and ships fast. Scroll about an inch and a half down. $65.00 a brick of 500 shipped anywhere in the lower 48.
 
A few years ago when .22 LR ammo was impossible to find, I picked up an Umarex Octane pellet rifle mainly for rat eradication in my yard. It worked beautifully, and even had sufficient power to take out some Raccoons that were trying to get into my roof. Although it far exceeds your FPS and muzzle energy limits, it is pretty quiet after the first 20 or so pellets, hits hard for a pellet rifle, and maybe wouldn't be frowned upon like an actual firearm.
 
Originally Posted By: Smokescreen
I live and Canada and wouldn't use an air rifle anywhere inside town/city limits. You are simply asking for someone to mistake you as a gunman in this day and age and things can go sideways over mistaken identification of the air-gun for real.

Not to mention that some municipalities don't differentiate between a real firearm and a pellet gun for the purposes of town bylaws. One has to make sure that the municipal bylaws don't define pellet guns and BB guns as firearms for purposes of said bylaw.
 
Originally Posted By: bruckus
Use CCI quiets in your 22. They are like using a pellet gun for noise. No one will know the difference between that and a pellet gun.


Just act like you're "pumping up" your 22.
wink.gif
 
In the USA they sell " Gopher Getter " cartridges. You light the fuse on one, stuff it down the burrow, and cover the opening with dirt. The cartridge produces large volumes of sulfur fumes that kill any Animal. Not very humane, but, silent and effective. The are sold here under the brand name " little giant "

Not sure if they are sold in Canada. Might be worth a check?
 
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