Many, many years ago, a friend of mine and I used to hunt gophers with .22 pistols. He lived in Dillon, MT and the ranchers there didn't mind folks driving up and down the back roads popping off the little buggers as long as they were careful to watch for livestock. For us it was the greatest! Ruger Mark ?? pistols, 4 or 6 in barrels, .22 cal. .22 rounds back then (late '70's?) were dirt cheap. For a couple bucks, we could spend practically all afternoon ridding MT prairies of the dreaded gophers.
That was then and I'm sure that times (and laws) have changed quite a bit. But oh, those were the days, weren't they??