Post by sixshot on May 5, 2023 1:43:26 GMT -5
I went for a little drive today looking for Rock Chucks even though it was a bit windy & it looked like maybe a storm was brewing. Chucks will tolerate a little rain if it isn't too cold but wind will drive them under. Sometimes you can find them in a low spot out of the wind but it makes it hard to get a shot. I was hunting a guys place that had a lot of cows but so far, in quite a few years of hunting here I've always managed to be able to tell a Rock Chuck from a cow & never hit one yet.
It was a pretty slow start & took me several minutes before I even spotted one, the wind was nasty & I was about to leave when I spotted a huge old gray bearded male tucked up under a Lava reef out of the wind & he was looking right back at me at 156 yds. As soon as I turned the Jeep sideways he was gone, he had played this game before & he wasn't having any part of it.
This went on for 45 minutes, usually I would have left but he was so big & now I was determined to get him. I had spotted him 4 times before he finally made a mistake & gave me a shot. I was shooting my Contender 223 with 50 gr. TNT's, & a gigger of BLC2, a bullet I really like for Chucks & Prairie Dogs. The gun has a 12X Burris on top & I had a perfect sight picture when the shot broke. He never even twitched, just a tiny twist of his tail. He was a real whopper, longer than my 14" barreled gun. He seemed to be all alone so I moved on. I shot him right between those cows, over that snow bank on the Lava reef.
This is an old potato harvesting machine that was out in the field, you can see the metal conveyer that runs the potatoes up the belt, knocking off most of the dirt on then dropping onto a second rubber conveyer belt that somehow loaded onto either a truck or another belt. This is an old machine!
I got 5 more Chucks on the edge of a high Lava reef overlooking the river. And this time I got lucky, I actually recovered 4 of them, usually they all fall down into the big crevices in the rocks & you can't recover them. All of these were large males, I think maybe the females might be in the den hole or else just hiding from the weather, it was raining off & on with a little sleet mixed in, not my finest day. You can see the river down in the valley where it is overflowing it's banks. Lots of flooding going on right now. I think it's the last photo that shows a small Lava reef off in the distance, that's where I was parked when I shot these last 5 Chucks, the distance as near as I could range them was 241 yds. Total was 6X6 for the day, fun stuff!
I usually use one of the scoped revolvers for everything under 100 yds & the scoped TC for shots over 100, today all shots were well over 100 yds & high winds.
Dick
It was a pretty slow start & took me several minutes before I even spotted one, the wind was nasty & I was about to leave when I spotted a huge old gray bearded male tucked up under a Lava reef out of the wind & he was looking right back at me at 156 yds. As soon as I turned the Jeep sideways he was gone, he had played this game before & he wasn't having any part of it.
This went on for 45 minutes, usually I would have left but he was so big & now I was determined to get him. I had spotted him 4 times before he finally made a mistake & gave me a shot. I was shooting my Contender 223 with 50 gr. TNT's, & a gigger of BLC2, a bullet I really like for Chucks & Prairie Dogs. The gun has a 12X Burris on top & I had a perfect sight picture when the shot broke. He never even twitched, just a tiny twist of his tail. He was a real whopper, longer than my 14" barreled gun. He seemed to be all alone so I moved on. I shot him right between those cows, over that snow bank on the Lava reef.
This is an old potato harvesting machine that was out in the field, you can see the metal conveyer that runs the potatoes up the belt, knocking off most of the dirt on then dropping onto a second rubber conveyer belt that somehow loaded onto either a truck or another belt. This is an old machine!
I got 5 more Chucks on the edge of a high Lava reef overlooking the river. And this time I got lucky, I actually recovered 4 of them, usually they all fall down into the big crevices in the rocks & you can't recover them. All of these were large males, I think maybe the females might be in the den hole or else just hiding from the weather, it was raining off & on with a little sleet mixed in, not my finest day. You can see the river down in the valley where it is overflowing it's banks. Lots of flooding going on right now. I think it's the last photo that shows a small Lava reef off in the distance, that's where I was parked when I shot these last 5 Chucks, the distance as near as I could range them was 241 yds. Total was 6X6 for the day, fun stuff!
I usually use one of the scoped revolvers for everything under 100 yds & the scoped TC for shots over 100, today all shots were well over 100 yds & high winds.
Dick
