The big problem with varmint shooting today is gaining access to places with sufficient populations of animals. You used to be able to find all the shooting you wanted on public land and easily do it on your own. Not so any more. Nowadays, most serious varmint shooters engage the services of outfitters who lease prime tracts of private land, or at least do the hard work of finding willing owners of private land.
In previous issues, I've filed reports on a number of varmint outfitters. The outfitter I want to tell you about this month is Cameron Jensen of International Flyway Outfitters. You'll need to tuck Jensen's contact details in your hunt-planning file for next year, because he operates in the vast grasslands of Alberta, where the grass gets too high for shooting after about June 15. Typically, the season here runs from about April 1 to June 1 in wet years, and April 1 to June 15 in dry years.
The varmints on tap with Jensen are gophers, which thrive in his part of Alberta. He's been offering shoots here for five years. Shooters typically fire between 200 and 500-plus rounds a day.
Jensen has a close working relationship with about a dozen large ranches, where he and his clients enjoy a cordial welcome. In fact, the ranchers go out of their way to direct Jensen and his shooters to the areas with the highest concentrations of gophers. Sometimes the shooting can be so........(continued)
