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Thread: Too many rock chucks

  1. #1
    Boolit Master
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    Too many rock chucks

    Well, we made a full day out of it yesterday but we saved a farmer a whole lot of barley in the process. Last Saturday went I killed 15 I estimated that I had seen maybe 70-75 before I quit for the day & that tuesday (yesterday) we would make them pay a heavy price for munching all that free barley, and we did! We started at 7am, me, one of my 4 son's & his 14 year old son. The 3 of us shot 36 chucks in the morning before the heat run us off for a lunch break back to town. We also popped quite a few ground squirrels & one field lion but we were mainly focused on chucks.


    Again this year there has been a warning in the paper about some ground squirrels carrying the plague, its best not to pick them up bare handed or even handle them at all, so beware if you are a first time squirrel hunter, the plague is some bad stuff! This front page story was in the Idaho State Journal a few weeks ago.



    After a trip back to town we still had some time to kill so we made a quick trip to one of Butch Cassidays favorite towns (he liked to rob it) where we picked up a hog my son had butchered. After putting it in the freezer we headed back out for the afternoon hunt. Grandson Mason was running a little low on 223 ammo so I grabbed some of mine that I had loaded for my AR & we headed back out.


    It had started to cloud over a bit & the wind was picking up a little, there were some scattered rain showers going on around us but we didn't get wet, although the wind kept the chucks down in the low spots a bit. Many of these old lava craters are deep & the chucks can get down in there & get out of the wind, making it really tough to approach them. This was going to make it a challenge. This is one I sneaked up on & shot in one of the sunken craters with my 32/20 Blackhawk using a 113 gr. HP, it really "rocked" him.



    We finished the afternoon with another 39 chucks for a total of 75 in one day! A new record but I way under estimated the number of chucks on this guys place, we didn't get half of them & I'll be going back in the next couple of days. Some of these old chucks are huge & they can really eat a lot of barley in a hurry.


    This is my son Travis & his 14 year old son Mason, I was really proud of Mason, he has a couple of muleys under his belt, a very good black bear, a B&C antelope but not very many rock chucks until yesterday. He changed that, yesterday he got 47. breaking my old record.



    You can see the barley above this lava reef, not so much below it. I killed a bunch of rock chucks here, they eat it right down to the dirt.



    This bad boy was sneaking down the edge of the field & I bush whacked him with the 30 Carbine shooting 32/20 loads, the 113 gr. HP really punched his ticket. The only thing that moved was his tail, it flipped around for 5-10 seconds & it was lights out at aboout 1350 fps.





    This is one of the sunken craters where the chucks like to get down out of the wind, this is where I shot the sneaky one with the 32/20. There are hundreds of these in the area. The tall reefs can be 20-30 feet tall & many run for several miles, almost always in a north-south direction.





    This was a chuck harvest to help a friend & many were taken with rifles, all of mine were taken with the TC 221 FB or my 8 shot 327 or the 30 Carbine shooting 32/20's since the only rifle I own is an AR. 90 chucks in 2 days & we've taken far less than half, I've got some work to do.


    Dick
    Last edited by sixshot; 06-08-2016 at 01:53 PM.

  2. #2
    Boolit Man
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    Dick, All of you keep up the good work. Fun read and good photos. Thanks

    Charles

  3. #3
    Boolit Buddy

    Sensai's Avatar
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    Dick, that sounds like a great family day out! It's great when you can do something that you enjoy, and somebody else gets a benefit from it too. I just have to ask, what's a "field lion"? This is the first time I've heard that term.

    Gary
    Gary

    Takeoffs are optional, landings are manditory.

  4. #4
    Boolit Master
    prsman23's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sensai View Post
    Dick, that sounds like a great family day out! It's great when you can do something that you enjoy, and somebody else gets a benefit from it too. I just have to ask, what's a "field lion"? This is the first time I've heard that term.

    Gary
    Feral cat


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  5. #5
    Boolit Master
    DerekP Houston's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sensai View Post
    Dick, that sounds like a great family day out! It's great when you can do something that you enjoy, and somebody else gets a benefit from it too. I just have to ask, what's a "field lion"? This is the first time I've heard that term.

    Gary
    lmao I had to google "field lion" too

  6. #6
    Banned

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    anything in a field that far out is fair game.. they just don't belong there.


    the 30 carbine with 32-20 brass and a 90-120 gr boolit is flat shooting out to some surprisingly far reaches.
    I run mine a bit slower than Dick and use a little lighter boolit too, but it's poa flat out to @100yds.
    and the flat point usually just pushes it's way right through them little guy's.
    a twitching tail is about the only response I get from a good hit.

  7. #7
    Boolit Master

    Uncle Grinch's Avatar
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    I've always wanted a 30 Carbine Blackhawk. It's nice to see one in action. Great thread and keeping the kids involved is the way to go. Keep up the good work!
    Shoot Safe,
    Mike

    Retired Telephone Man
    NRA Endowment Member
    Marion Road Gun Club
    ( www.marionroad.com )

  8. #8
    Boolit Master Tenbender's Avatar
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    Starting to see a lot of groundhogs around here. Guess the $50.00 coyote bounty is paying off.

  9. #9
    Boolit Master 4719dave's Avatar
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    YES REMEMBER DONT TOUCH OR PU ... whoops ..looks like fun ,use to shoot those in upstate ny ..fl not so much
    Dave Biesenbach
    port charlotte fl

  10. #10
    Boolit Buddy

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    HaHaHa!! It's against the law to get caught shooting any cat here in Virginia. I guess PETA convinced some of our bleeding heart legislators that they were all "companion animals". Obviously they haven't read the reports of wildlife destruction by Fluffy, when allowed to roam free. From now on I'm just going to have to shoot "field lions" and let the poor little kitties go !
    Gary

    Takeoffs are optional, landings are manditory.

  11. #11
    Boolit Master
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    Field Lions kill a lot of birds but I have a special hate for them because of an experience I had when I was a young boy. When I was about 5 years old we lived on a small farm in Milford, Utah, this was in 1950 & no plumbing. Anyway, my mom told my older brother, about 11 yrs old to go out to the chicken coop & get some eggs, that's about as fresh as they get. After a few minutes we could hear him screaming bloody murder & we ran outside to see what was going on. He was running for the house & was bloody. A field Lion had got in the chicken coop & when my brother went in it jumped him & was clawing the heck out of his back when he scraped it off & ran for the house. My mom got the shotgun & blew that field lion into 50 pieces & then patched up my brother.

    Dick

  12. #12
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    Texas by God's Avatar
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    I want to go chuck hunting in Idaho! That boy will remember that day for sure. I keep three neutered male cats around for rodent control on our farm but all others get shot. I personally think they helped cause the quail population crash in Texas. Best, Thomas.

  13. #13
    Boolit Master Markbo's Avatar
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    Dick you know I love your stories. "WRITE THAT BOOK! WRITE THAT BOOK!"

    But seeing pics of your son weirds me out a little. I dont think I have ever seen a father and son that look THAT much alike.

  14. #14
    Banned

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    try stopping the truck to talk to Dick at the store or wherever,,,,,, and it ain't him.

  15. #15
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Good story well told. Thanks for sharing.
    Endowment Life Member NRA, Life Member TSRA, Member WACA, NRA Whittington Center, BBHC
    Smokeless powder is a passing fad! -Steve Garbe
    I hate rude behavior in a man. I won't tolerate it. -Woodrow F. Call, Lonesome Dove
    Some of my favorite recipes start out with a handful of depleted counterbalance devices.

  16. #16
    Boolit Buddy
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    Quote Originally Posted by Texas by God View Post
    I want to go chuck hunting in Idaho! That boy will remember that day for sure. I keep three neutered male cats around for rodent control on our farm but all others get shot. I personally think they helped cause the quail population crash in Texas. Best, Thomas.
    I firmly believe feral cats have all but decimated the quail population here in Tn too! Thanks for the story sixshot.
    luvtn

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