A rockchuck kinda morning....

Glen

Moderator
Staff member
We went out this morning and saved a little alfalfa. My buddy has a spot where the local farmers dump their scrap concrete and farm waste (onions, etc.), and it overlooks a large alfalfa field. No surprise, it has a population of rockchucks that call it home. We hiked in through a couple hundred yards of sagebrush, and set up on a slope directly in front of the manmade cliff of rip-rap, busted up concrete, and culverts. Shots ranged from about 50 out to about 125 yards, so .22 Hornets were the theme of the day -- mine a 10" Contender, and Pat's a sleek little Winchester Low-Wall. I missed the first couple of shots before I got the feel of Mark's shooting sticks, then I started connecting regularly. I was shooting the NOE 45 grain GC-FP over 11.5 grains of AA #1680 for 2035 fps. All told, we got a dozen of them before they went underground for their midday siesta. It was a good day!

22 Hornet and NOE 45 GCFP.jpgyoung rock chucks (May 2019) cropped.jpg
 

Ian

Notorious member
Title had me thinking of a Sergio Mendez cover of a Joni Mitchell song. Chucks are good, too!
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
I haven't (yet) plagued the rockchuck tribe in great depth. Total number is in the one dozen ballpark. One of these got cartwheeled off the top of my backpack in 2000 via a Walther PP in 22 LR that I NEVER should have sold a month later. Hindsight is always 20/20, though. At least half have been taken with handguns, perhaps most now that I ponder it. And I wasn't hunting for 'chucks, specifically--usually I was chasing some other critter when the shots got offered--trout, coyotes, or chukars, most often.