Spring Break finally arrived at our school, so Tuesday I went over to my cousin's (Gus) house to try to get some squirrel shooting in, and maybe try to get the first rockchuck of the 2010 season. Turns out Wednesday and Thursday were nasty. It was hailing, raining, and snowing, along with 15-20 mph winds. Still got some squirrel shooting in, while hiding behind the down wind side of railroad ties.
Friday showed up and it looked like it was going to be another bad day. Sure enough, the wind started blowing and it started to snow. About noon we were eating lunch and saw that it was getting sunny out and the wind wasn't quite so bad. I got out the spotting scope, and within 30 seconds I saw one chuck, then another one just down the rim. We took the rifles out and Gus got the range on the rim. I was going to take a sighter shot, but the rockchuck came back out so we decided to just shoot. First shot, nothing.
My uncle says " You know what you guys just did?"
"No, what?!?"
"You just shot my powerline..."
Turns out, in a huge vacancy of space, there was one power line connecting the power from the barn to the shop about 100 yards away. The way our scopes were set, we couldn't see the power line in them. No one had even thought about it, but I dead centered a 1/2" cable from 100 yards and broke it in half on the first shot,on accident. I don't know what the odds are to have everything aligned to make that happen, but it has to be huge. Just shows how careful you have to be when shooting.Luckily the power company said they wouldn't charge to fix it, they probably got a good enough laugh out of it.
Once they got the power fixed we went past the power line and shot again. It took 15 shots to determine that Gus had ranged the rim 200 yards further than it actually was. We got closer and tried again. 3 shots, 10 minutes of windage(~100") and we were in business.
Now I haven't told you yet, but we were trying to get into the 1000 yard club on this rockchuck, just cause.... well why not? So the range on this was 1008, but the rock was farther down the rim. Where the rockchuck was ranged at 989. So we packed up all of our gear and walked back down the road away from the chuck 15 yards.
The rockchuck pops back up, but before we can get correlated on it, it starts getting closer on the rim. Well crap, we can't shoot it then find out its 998 yards. So while Gus spots to make sure it doesn't come back out, I am moving stuff back 50 yards, just to be sure. Then I get in the scope while Gus runs back. Serious sniper stuff. Well kinda. Pretty soon 2 cottontails started running around on the rim rock. I don't think real sniper shoot rabbits while in the hide, but whatever. I didn't hit it.
So we wait, and wait, and wait. About a hour and a half later, and an agreement to dub it Bad Luck Chuck (powerline, rangefinder wrong, ect.), it comes back out. I jump on the gun and Gus gets on it with the spotting scope. I chamber a .243 AI case with 46.7 H4831 and a 105 Amax and get lined up. After a light squeeze on the trigger and 1.5 seconds later Gus calls it 18 inches low. Woops. I throw in another cartridge and adjust the scope up.
You know those old western movies where the bad guys are up on the rim having a shoot out with the good guys on the flat, and when one gets shot they clutch their chest and fall forward? Well after the shot Bad Luck Chuck stiffened up and then fell off of the rim, flipping 2 times. Nice.
We jumped up ran in circles, yelled, cartwheeled, and probably other things I can't remember. My other cousin and friend jumped on the four wheelers and the 4 of us took off to the rim. After a good climb we found the chuck laying 12 feet below where I hit him. We climbed up to the spot and ranged back. 1042, 1046, 1044, 1044. 1044 yards, second shot, first chuck of the year, first chuck over 1000 yards, entered the 1000 yard club. Doesn't get much better than that.
Congras on one heck of shot!! Great story and as far as the electric wire ..........it happens.
We shot it las night and were getting 5 shots into about an inch with a 15-20 mph cross wind. The remarkable thing was that in each group we had 3 shots in under a 1/4", so I guess the wind just lined up perfectly for those shots. Anyway it looks to be a shooter. So far I have taken 3 more chucks at 618, 450, and 380.