Chuck hunt turns into an EVENT!!!

[Lenard]

Friday morning my hunting partner, age 70 and I headed for S. Oregon to hunt chucks. We met up with my other best friend, age 76, around noon. He is a remarkable man, still working half days and enjoying life. He only shoots sage rats now days, using his time with us as a spotter. The 70 year old, was shooting his CZ, 223 w/40 grain vmax bullets at 3750 velocity. He went into this with not much confidence, but proved to be a truely great shot on chucks at 200 yards. During the first day and one half, he shot 10 chucks. An interesting note, is that the 40 grain Vmax bullets did not exit unless the chuck was of this years birth. He had only one chuck that moved after being shot, and that was a large one that went about 10 feet and expired.

I might add, we let a lot of young chucks go without shooting at them. There must have been a pretty good year for them as there were lots of little ones.

I started out with 34 gr. HP bullets in my 204. I never missed a chuck with that gun/load at 3750 fps. But, as with the 223 and 40 grain bullets, that whack to be heard when the bullet hit, was absent. So, saturday morning, I turned to my 223 Sako with 52 grain HP Speer bullets. The whack was back! This is a load of 21 1/2 grains of 4198 that I have used since the early 90's. At 3250, it simply leaves big holes in a large chuck on both sides. We had many shots where only the a chucks head was showing and seldom missed. In all we shot over 3 dozen chucks. Seldom does the opportunity come when one can pass up the smaller chucks and shoot so well. It turned into an event and not just a chuck hunt.

Ironically, I shot 35 chucks by myself at the same place last year. Kind of like having a revolving charge account. And the worst part was, we all forgot our camera's.

Lenard

[Hotshot]

No pictures! You're fired!

Try some plastic tipped bullets in that 204. I get plenty of thwack when I hit a prairie dog with a blitz king.

[Lenard]

Hotshot, I think the days of having a 204 in my safe are numbered. I have no interest in shooting anything past about 300 yards at which time I will use my 243 Sako.

At the advancing age of nearing 70, I just think I made a mistake in buying a 204 as I have a couple 223's that do more than an adequate job for me. I simply find it much easier to make a 223 shoot well.

I am sorry about the pictures, but old age does rob us of a memory sometimes.

Lenard

[Hotshot]

I have just the opposite viewpoint. Once you own the brass, reloading costs are almost equall. So why shoot the 223 when you can have the excitement of the 204. Accuracy has not been an issue with my Savages but my Remington 223's have been a challenge at times.
If you decide to get out of the 204's PM me with a for sale list and maybe we can do some trading.

[Lenard]

I will keep that in mind. The other alternative might be to just transfer gun, dies and bullets to my grandson. I just have not made up my mind yet on how to deal with the stuff.

Lenard

[Guy M]

Seems like one heck of a varmint hunt! Congrats to all!

[acloco]

Nothing wrong with taking two rifles....so one can cool while the other is still on duty.