I got out today for a little while in the am. The field had just been cut and the young are starting to feed by themselves. I was able to spot one down the field over a hundered yards away. As I was lining up he feed into a depression and I could not get a shot. As I glassed the field I found another one off to my right near a pile of tree stumps that had been pushed up from an old hedgerow that was taken out of the field. I changed the setup and took a few seconds to get comfortable and squeezed off a shot. The 75gr V-Max did the deed on a big male. Distance was 157 yards.
The field is long and flat on the river bottom, but it has a lot of little rolling ridges in it that are about 2-3 feet tall. So it makes it hard to stalk up on a charlie that is just a little over a ridge and shoot from the ground. 4 more charlies were spotted but no shots could be made. I came home around noon as the sightings slowed to a stop. I had a little lunch and changed out the short bi-pods for some longer ones and headed back down for a short afternoon hunt. I set up on a little ridge till about 3:30 but no charlies surfaced. I had to get home for my boys ball practice, so as I'm working my way back to the van just over the RR tracks a small one is out in the little 3 acre field that I parked in. Easing down beside the tall grass I set up quickly. Just as I get the crosshairs on him at about 80 yards I see movement in front of me. At 25 yards another small one comes out. Quickly adjusting I put a V-Max thru the closer one. The other chuck makes for the edge of the field post haste. I wait another 5 minutes to see if he will come out with no luck. It was just getting to the that time in the afternoon when activity increases but I had to head home.
So far I have taken charlies in March, April, May and June. I'm going to try and get one each month till they hold up for the winter.