Went for another Rock Chuck hunt yesterday (April Fool's Day) and there were a lot more chucks out but still quite a bit of snow covering several of the lower lava reefs. The hard part about hunting the low reefs is that approaching them undetected is next to impossible. For me, I'm much like a SEAL, not a Navy SEAL but an Elephant SEAL, which means even when I crawl my head is 15" off the ground & they can spot me! Some of these old silver backs have played this game before & when they hear my 4 wheeler approaching from a distance they are gone. Some of these reefs run for miles so you need a 4 wheeler to get around, also some of them are several feet above ground & some of them are several feet below ground, actually craters. If you spread out your hand in front of you your fingers would be the lava reefs & the spaces in between would be either hay fields, grain fields or barley. If it's hay or barley you are in Rock Chuck heaven, grain not so much.
Yesterday I got 8 shots & got 7 chucks, the distances were anywhere from 88 yds. out to 266 yds. & I had to shoot 4 of them left handed. This country is open & they can see me just as good or better than I can see them, any movement & it's over. I'm hiding behind my 4 wheeler shooting off sandbags on the rear seat.


Just to the left of the muzzle of my Custom Shop 223 is an old silver back chuck with just his nose sticking around a lava rock, me & him have been watching each other for 20 minutes & he finally makes a mistake. I really like this new 3X12 Burris but wish they had extended the lower cross hairs more so that us with aging eyes could see them better, for me they fade into the fur & it's almost impossible to see them. You can see my table top that I use for shooting off of, works great. Yes that's snow you are looking at!



Dick

Looks like you're having fun with that XP -- the chucks, not so much.

Now that's the way to spend the day! Great shooting.

I'm envious of the opportunity you guys who live in hog country and prairie dog country have.

Damm..... Dick..what a great day you had.................

7 a day in WV is just dreams now. Got lucky Saturday and took 5 in overcast, windy weather.
Think UPS would ship a few hundred of them to WV?
There's nothing like hunting my groundhogs. Your rockchucks gotta be as much fun, too.

Larry, if you were here for a few days with a couple of your bigger guns I think you would average 25 a day & in my area the distances are unlimited. I don't have any of the really long range guns anymore, all gone, down to this one 223.
I still think your "hogs" are bigger because I think they eat better for the most part, maybe not in some places but overall I'd say the eastern "hog" is a bit bigger.
A good 260 or 6.5/284 would feel real good again.

Dick

Sorry, I'm wiping the drool off my mouth. That's like the good ol' days in WV. My best was 36 in one day.

plenty of places to dog here....just finally found a place with rock chucks....miss the ground hogs so the rock chucks will have to take their place

Good work my friend!

Larry, I think you need to re-check your notes because I remember years ago, back in the old Sixgunner paper of J. D. Jones that you had something like 44 kills. I remember that because I tried to beat you once & came up short, I got 41 in one day with a custom 223 Imp. my son built me. I think maybe the 36 you are referring to were Viagra pills you gave to some 80 year old widower that had a farm loaded with ground hogs!
Think he died 4 days later!! Anyway, one year when friend Ken O'Neil came to visit he took a very big number each day, can't remember how many but his barrel stayed hot all day, I think he was switching guns to keep the barrels cool.
This is about 1/3 of the Chucks friend Ken O'Neil from Hickory, NC got one day & I think this gun was also a Custom Shop 223, might be wrong. He called this spot "Rock Chuck Central" He simply couldn't load fast enough but he sure could shoot!


Dick

Dick, the 36 still sticks in my mind. I did kill 300 one spring on ONE farm that hadn't been hunted for a few years and did over 500 in 7 of eight years back in the day.
Did 28 one day on a dare from a guy who said it was impossible. Mailed the photo to Thompson and they used in multiple magazine adds for 5 or 6 years. Each time they used it I got a custom knife from them.
Now, I struggle to get 200 a year. Don't think I'll make it this year.
I gave that farmer 8 Viagras. He had a hot, young girlfriend and took one a hour. I went to the funeral. He still had a smile on his face. Undertaker couldn't get it off.

Looks like you had a good day. Nice XP-100.