After shooting a few Rock Chucks last week with my 32 maggie & have them run a bit before realizing they were dead I decided I better raise the firepower a bit so I left the single six home & grabbed my 8 shot Blackhawk 327 stoked with 135 gr. Ferminator HP's & a heavy charge of H110 & headed out to one of my favorite Ground Squirrel spots. This spot is also a great spot for some USDA prime badgers & there's always 3-4 Boone & Crockett size bad boys that live here because there are so many Ground Squirrels.

On this day I didn't see any of the badgers but that's they way it is with them, even though they are big they are always very hard to see. They can lay as flat as a dollar bill when they want to or hump up the size of a camel when they are looking for trouble, which is most of the time. I knew they were there because the sign was there. Big holes had been dug trying to dig out Squirrels. Badgers & Squirrels are very destructive on fields! I probably seen about 40-45 Squirrels but there was still some snow in the area & the hay was just starting to sprout up so it wasn't a great day although I did get 8 Squirrels with 13 shots, maybe more but it's hard to tell sometimes it the brush & dead grass without climbing through barb wire fences which I don't do very well.

When this 135 gr. HP hits a Squirrel it's a real bad wreck, sometimes it blows them in half but next time I'll use the 113 HP's, they will be even more explosive. These 135 gr. Ferminators have a long shank & they are really better for something like Rock Chucks or Coyotes, etc. I would even use them on deer with confidence because of that long shank at reasonable distances. Here's my 8 shot Blackhawk with a set of my Amboyna Burl stocks.


You can see the damage they do to a hay field, farmers hate them & the badgers.


This mule deer died a slow, horrible death. They try to jump the fence & catch their legs below the top wire & then wrap down around the second wire & it's over, they never get loose & just hang there & die a long lingering death.




Dick

Good Shooting Dick. This destruction looks worse than Prairie dogs. Excellent field testing.

Well done Dick -- and nice looking stocks on your Blackhawk!

X2

Well done! Sound like a fun day.

About like groundhog damage in the good ol' days. Now ours live along fence rows, old houses, barns. Very few fields in WV have this kind of damage now.
You got the honey spots, Dick.

The badgers are the worst because they dig such big holes. When the hay gets tall enough to cut the farmer comes along with his swather & doesn't see the dirt mound & hits it & many times it can damage his equipment.
But the squirrels are almost as bad in some places & there are a lot more of them. I shot 183 in one day once using a model 41 S&W Target & a 6" Colt Python, couldn't keep either gun loaded.
Couldn't go back there for a couple weeks it stunk so bad. Here's a photo of 2 of the 3 Chucks I got last week with the little 32 maggie using light loads. I was expecting to use it on Ground Squirrels so all 3 ran a bit after the hit. I was really proud of the first one because it was 41 yds, offhand it a howling wind that was blowing my hat off.



Dick

327 Federal is my next revolver. Gonna do a complete overhaul on a Ruger Super Balckhawk with at least 8 in the cylinder. Thanks for fueling the fire!

I bet every buzzard in the state showed up to where you'd been hunting.

[quote=sixshot]
Couldn't go back there for a couple weeks it stunk so bad.

You mean you don't eat them?

Rocking it again!
Good stuff there.

That varmint hunting looks like a lot of fun. I have not figured out how the .327 fits into my hunting, but I sure am enjoying my Single Seven. Flat shooting and crazy accurate, what's not to like?

big power in a small package.....

What's with the red, James? Powder coated??

Yes those are powder coated. James took that photo when he visited me about a year ago, maybe a little longer, can't remember. Anyway, that's the same bullet I used on the Ground Squirrels except I was shooting up some old one's I had loaded that weren't powder coated.

Dick

i also have a ruger 327 mag,havent had a chance to shoot it yet but mine is a 7 shot.how did you get an 8 shot?

At one time Ruger made a full size Blackhawk with an 8 shot cylinder. They are pretty spendy if you find one for sale but one will show up from time to time on Gun Broker.

Dick

That's what mine is gonna be. A Ruger Super Blackhawk custom done by Jack Huntington. Gonna put 8 shots in the cylinder for sure. Normally I'd go with less just so I can have more meat in the cylinder since I like to run hot loads a lot of times. But on a 327, I can't imagine a "hot" load being to much for an 8 shot cylinder.

Just trying to find a donor gun now...