tc article

Varmints at Mach 2

by John Shelley

Product Sales Director/Pro Staff

Bowhunting North America, LLC

As co-owner/operator of an archery only day hunting service in Texas, I get to share in all the fun stuff of running a hunting business. The fun stuff like setting up and maintaining over 30 deer stands. Fun stuff like mowing roads and trails to deer stands. And the most fun of all, trying to keep an old, and I stress “old” mobile home used as the camp house.

When my hunting partner and I started this operation 8 years ago, we inherited a ragged old mobile home on the property. Now while there are some really fine and well built mobile homes on the market these days, this ain’t one of them!

This poor old shell of a house has got every issue that ever gave a mobile home a bad reputation. Pressed wood floors, aluminum wiring, plastic plumbing, doors hung backwards – you name it, if it’s a problem, this thing has got it!

One of the biggest chores in keeping this house livable has been to keep the varmints from making a home underneath the floors. In spite of our best efforts at patching holes in the underpinning, skunks, possums, raccoons, and who knows what else seem to find a way under the trailer.

Now if they’d just burrow under there and make their home and leave it at that, it wouldn’t be such a problem, but they won’t leave it at that. The skunks stink, the raccoons fight, and the whole lot of them seen to find it fun or necessary to chew the insulation off the plumbing and the dang pipes freeze up with every cold snap. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to lay on my back in the mud and water trying to fix leaks in 15 degree weather!

So, we decided it was time to declare war on the varmints. First of all we re-plumbed the whole house, then put new underpinning around the trailer and also picked up a brand new Thompson-Center R55 rifle in .17 Mach 2.

The plumbing and underpinning wasn’t a lot of fun, but the new R55 is a blast! Wow – what a sweet little gun. Imagine your old Red Rider BB gun with a ballistic tip BB and the speed of a juiced up .22! This is a great caliber for taking out varmints and when you get a hit on an animal, there is no question – it goes down!

The R55 is a semi-auto action and operates as smooth as butter. Never jams or misfires! It has a black stock and stainless steel barrel making it a rugged and easily maintained gun. We even carry it in the truck when doing maintenance on the ranch to shoot coyotes when we see them. The R55 is very effective on varmints even that size

The R55 in .17 Mach 2 has been a great tool in helping fight the war against insulation eating varmints and other smelly critters. The only problem it has created is the arguments over who gets to shoot the next critter.

Bowhunting North America, LLC is sponsored by these fine companies!

Mathews, Inc., Carbon Express, The Gean-Edwards Company, DoskoSport, Lumenok, Tru Fire Corp.,
Limbsaver, Huntin' Hoist, Beard Buster, Sure Grip Gun & Bow Racks, Advantage Max-1 Camoflauge, Nikon Sport Optics, Barnett Crossbows,

and Muzzy Products Corp.