Chuck Season Started

I officially opened my Rock Chuck season for the year today. I usually like to wait until about the 15th so they have their pups weaned but figured the 14th was close enough. I've seen several pups & my trigger finger was itching really bad the last few days so I took off about 5pm. It was really windy so I didn't expect to see very many but there was a lot of them out feeding, I was surprised! I had the 223 Contender for the long shots but in a rush I took the wrong ammo, it's zeroed with 50 Nosler BT's & I had a box of 40 gr VMax's. My other gun was my 32-20 Buckeye with a 1X4 scope on top & I was carrying my Walther carry gun in case anything charged.
I pulled into a farmers field & the place lit up in a hurry, lots of Chucks, lots of pups & quite a few Fermin looking graybeards, all of them running for the Lava reefs. The first one was 48 yds peeking back over a Lava rock, I waited until he raised up just a bit more & sent a 116 gr cast HP Skud missle right under his chin,nasty! He was a very large male barley muncher & you can see compared to my Buckeye he's been around a long time.
All the others were holed up in a large Lava reef at mostly 120 yds. This is where the 223 Contender comes in handy but the ammo was off a bit, I missed 2 for sure & got 4 for sure but couldn't retrieve any except for one that lost his head in the fight. They fall down in the crevices & you can't reach them, it's very dangerous climbing around those jagged rocks, especially alone, if you fall down in one of those big cracks you would never get out. I'm certain I saw 15 but it was getting late & the TC was off, I needed my other ammo, I'll punish them real hard Monday.
https://i.imgur.com/bmmnT2Qh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/5F2TfmPh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ehGtSf1h.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/phLAPgUh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/0x99Brah.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/T9bSazKh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/MFpKM2hh.jpg
Dick

livin the dream Dick
great fun

I love hunt groundhogs with the Contenders in pistol form. I hunt them in early spring until March. Then give em a break till Memorial weekend so the pups will be ok on there own.
I'm working on a new barrel now getting it ready. A 16 1/4 inch stainless MGM In 222 rem. Topped it with a 4-12x40 rifle scope but will be shooting it as a pistol.
I sure wish I was in a good target rich environment like yourself. It would take me a week of hunting to see a dozen around here unless I catch 2 or 3 pups from the same den before they start dispersion.

I shot my first woodchuck of the year on Easter sunday. 55 yd shot with my axis 223. 55 gr sp, 2900 fps. They come up from under the barn, and I positioned some cinder blocks so they have to climb up and show themselves.

Need any help? Just 70 mile from me in Poky.

Wow, one of my formerly favorite pastimes. As a kid, I used a .22rf, but then graduated to my first CF rifle in .30-06. A 110gr Hornady spire point at 3000fps was very final on them. Since the advent of coyotes into the Midwest, seeing groundhogs is a very rare event. Once in a great while, I'll find a den but never see the critter. I consider this a blessing in disguise since they aren't in the barns undermining the foundations like they used to.

Got 11 yesterday, the young ones were running everywhere & I got several big boys. The 223 TC was making it rough on them but I also got 2 with my Browning Hi Power & a 122 gr cast slug. The second one with the 9mm Hi Power thought he was out of range I guess, I was leaving & just about to get back on the paved road & he was right in plain sight by a big solar panel in a guys alfalfa field that I later ranged at exactly 40 yds. I couldn't range him from the jeep but I ranged from him back to the jeep & it was exactly 40 yds. The cast bullet hit him at the base of the neck and went out his head.
You can always tell a head shot because that big old tail starts wringing like a propeller on an airplane. You can see when I rolled him over the cast bullet made a mess of is noggin.
https://i.imgur.com/VDWogy1h.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/glNoczoh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/KJ2inIGh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/fXYrOzyh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/V0Gw16Th.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/9mTVdCMh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/fUOEUp5h.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/d1HiS6Th.jpg
Dick

although you can hunt groundhogs thru the year, i wait until after Memorial Day. you can shoot (but don't need a hunting lic) coyotes all year.

I remember visiting with an old rancher south of Niter. His family had a ranch that was thick with rockchucks in the 1940's. He had pictures of the Bannacks coming off the reservation in spring to set up their tepees and camp there to shoot chucks. It was their traditional first fresh meat of the year. When I lived in Grace the ones I shot were so covered in lice I used gloves. Nice pictures and nice country.

Well they are still covered with lice & I always use gloves when I pick them up for photo's. And one time I had a half Indian, half black kid come down where I was shooting them just outside of Inkom back in the 70's when I lived there & he ask me if he could have the ones I was shooting.
I told him he could & I ask how them cooked them, his mother was full blood Bannock, he said she packed them in mud & baked them in an open fire & then chipped the hard mud off of them & the hair came off with it, said they did NOT gut them!

Dick

Dick I remember hearing a similar story. A friend ate one on a bet with the caveat being the other party skinned it. He said it was as greasy as cheap pork. The rancher I visited with said the natives threw them all in a pit fire. I assumed that was after they coated them with mud. It must have been a tough life.

I wonder sometimes if I am a sick minded fellow. I enjoy killing varmints even more than hunting game. With game I need to gut the animal, butcher it, mix it with fat and grind most of it up, vacuum seal it and freeze it. Varmints require no work.

Hitting a chipmunk/ground squirrel at 50 yards with the air rifle is a lot more challenging than making a 200 yard shot on a deer.

Varmit hunting through the year is what keeps me sharp and gear in good
Working order. Head shots on ground hogs standing up in the September bean fields with the deer hunting rifle - means venison in the freezer if the opportunity arises.
Many of my best outdoor memories are from woodchuck/coyote/ crow hunts

Ahh yep, I stalk in reverse on varmints. Love my rifles.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sixshot

Well they are still covered with lice & I always use gloves when I pick them up for photo's. And one time I had a half Indian, half black kid come down where I was shooting them just outside of Inkom back in the 70's when I lived there & he ask me if he could have the ones I was shooting.
I told him he could & I ask how them cooked them, his mother was full blood Bannock, he said she packed them in mud & baked them in an open fire & then chipped the hard mud off of them & the hair came off with it, said they did NOT gut them!

Dick

---

Yuck !