First Marmot Hunt of the Year

I decided today was going to be the day I was going to go out and do my first "Pest" hunt of the year. This means I would be targeting Marmots and pigeons. I go to a local ranch where the pigeons nest in the barn and the Marmots tear up the pastures. Today was going to be even better because Maddy was with me.

As soon as I came through the gate I see the first marmot sunning on a log. I get out and for the first time use my Gorilla shooting stick. Since it is a monopod and it is the first time I have ever used one like this, I was a little unsteady and missed at about 50 yards. But it still felt good to be out and after the first shot I got a full whiff of fresh burnt gun powder, which is one of my favorite smells.

The next one I saw at about 150 yards, I put a sneak on in and got within about 40 yards. This one wasn’t as lucky as the first one.




The next two were close to each other. I saw the third one walking through the grass at about 10 yards and closing. I had my scope on 12 power and I could see it was carrying something in its mouth. I figured it was a clump of grass. When I shot it was so close it was fuzzy and I missed. I racked the bolt and powered down my scope to 4 power. When I shot the first time the Marmot just froze. The next shot was easy at about 7 yards. When I took that shot about 20 yards away the fourth one popped its head out of its hole and I took that one out as well. When i walked over to retrieve the third on I found that it did not have grass in its mouth but a newly born baby marmot. I did feel a little bad putting the baby out of its misery.

Next I went over to the barn and found two pigeons sitting and feeding off of a salt block. I was able to set up the camera to get video of the shot. Just as I shot the bird started to look up and the shot was just a little left. So instead of a DRT shot it took about 20 yards of flying to realize he was dead.

I had a great couple hours out with my daughter hunting and I look forward to many years of it to come.