Chuck hunt turns into an EVENT!!!
Posted: Mon May 18, 2009 7:38 am
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
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
