gophers

[carpshooterdeluxe]

so i just cashed in my pocket gopher feet...made $660...anybody else get a good run of blind toothys?

[frabillfisher]

wow..goin to go buy some more hunting equipment? ...were exactly do u take yours in at?

[carpshooterdeluxe]

i turn in my feet to the treasurer of the township where my family farm is located in swift county. the county set a bounty of two dollars per gopher and then the township also throws about fifty cents i think ontop of that. all the gophers were trapped within three miles of our farm, with the exception of a bout two dozen or so that i got off a newly seeded plot of crp of my friends. and i mainly only trapped every other weekend as i live in sioux falls and only come home so often. as for the bounty money? well lets see, id like a new layout blind, some more full body decoys, a gps/flasher combo, some new traps to replace ones that got stolen by predators, and a new .17hmr or .204 ruger to get rid of the trap stealers! somehow i think i need to trap a lot more than gophers to pay for all that though!!!

[MasterGophHunter]

$660 worth of gophers! WOW that is impressive. How long did it take to get that much? What types of traps do you use? Those are just pocket gophers right? As you can tell by my name, I also like getting rid of those pesky varmits. I can't wait until spring when those stripies come out. Keep up the good work!

-MGH-

[carpshooterdeluxe]

oops i forgot to specify...a third or so of the gophs were from the previous year...never got time to turn those in so the coffee can just got fuller and fuller this spring and early summer...yeah i also cannot wait to start stalking the township road shoulders for striped gophers...i did learn that you better be in the grass while shooting though, i shot three gophers off my fourwheeler with a ruger back in the day, all seen through a 60 power spotting scope attached to the window of a big green government plated dodge truck. minimum maintainance road...no houses for a mile or two, shooting at a rodent...warden didnt give me too bad of a time but i had to do some extra trapping to pay for that ticket!

[kc0myy]

I use a leg trap for gophers. The size for a rabbit. and I flip it over. Then when a gopher pops its head up it hits the pan and the trap shuts and kills the gopher. I found this out by accident. AND IT WORKS GREAT AND ITS A CLEAN QUICK KILL. Justin Westrup Annandale

[BLACKJACK]

carpshooter, if you feel like coming into Kandiyohi county and trapping, I have lots of pocket gophers in my CRP. I can't keep up with them! I'm in NW Kandiyohi county, 2 miles from 104 if you're interested. Too bad we don't have that bounty...

What kind of traps do you use for gophers, the leg hold or the death clutch? Also, on pocket gophers, do you cover the hole after your set or leave it open? As a kid we always covered the hole after the set, now a days I leave the hole open under the theory that they'll come to plug the hole.

[carpshooterdeluxe]

wow thanks for the offer...but like i said i dont come home to often anymore since i work in sioux falls....what type of grass is your crp? i was under the impression that the pocket gophers didnt like switchgrass roots, but they like the seed i guess. as far as traps and techniques go; i use both styles of traps. typically i use the death clutches when i find a hole that doesnt split off into two or more directions right away...after i set that trap, i leave the hole uncovered, to entice the gopher to come up that tunnel to plug it..then snap goes the rib cage. as far as the leg holds or pan traps are concerned, i set those anytime a hole splits off in more than one direction, and i try to set the trap so that the top of it is flush with the bottom of the tunnel...so as to not allow the gopher the luxury of bumping into the side of the trap and becoming wary. when using a pan trap i cover the hole. another trick with the pan traps is to stake the chain at the front of the large loop...then if a gopher is caught and pulls on the chain you can easily tell without having to jump out of the truck of fourwheeler because the ring will be pulled tight against the stake. this saves alot of time when you have a lot of traps set all over the area.