SmallCaliberCentral

Today being sunny 'n all, I decided to take my Cooper 20VT for a walk at a neighbors place to thin out their rockchucks a tad. This retirement thing is really kicking in.....

This place is fairly small, only about 40 acres with neighbors about, so shooting one of my 204's was overkill....hence choosing my 20VT for the little walkabout.

Nuthin' like sneaking about for a couple of hours with a rifle and bino's, looking for little chuck heads peeking over their lava boulders outside their dens on a nice morning. I caught this one outside his den in the open grass before he could zip to his burrow...range only 159 yards, but DRT with the 32gr NBT and 18.5grs of RL-7 for 3,715 fps:



Thinking the chucks had done the DD back to their dens after hearing the shot, I spied one through juniper branches peeking at me from another rock pile just under 200 yards. I had to shoot off an old juniper stump and try to thread the bullet through the branches and through a lane over his rock......I prevailed:



That one was a female that appeared to be done nursing (thankfully). I saw scat from her young around the rock pile, so know that there's a future chuck hatch in the works (grin).

Chuck and Roxanne appearing briefly with "Scooter", my pet Cooper M38 in 20VT after my morning stroll:



All in all, not a bad way to spend a couple of hours on a nice sunny spring morning. Any time spent taking your rifle for a walk is a good time, right?

Nice photo's Rick. Glad to see "Scooter" doing well. Bill K

Ever consider getting a supressor? I have a rimfire supressor coming, but one for the vartarg and 204 I think would be just the ticket!

Bodei wrote:Ever consider getting a supressor? I have a rimfire supressor coming, but one for the vartarg and 204 I think would be just the ticket!

You are really making it hurt, Bodei. I live on the wrong side of the line, so can not have any, they sure would be nice to cut noise and noise pollution, but Feinstein and others still believe the movies and gangster mentality. Bill K

Bodei wrote:Ever consider getting a supressor? I have a rimfire supressor coming, but one for the vartarg and 204 I think would be just the ticket!

Hey there Bodei.....yep, I've considered a supressor, most likely one from GemTech that would slip over various rat rifle barrels, but unless you're shooting subsonic ammo, it's not totally effective, but I'll agree, much "quieter".

One of my sons, Dave, using his GemTech on his M700 223 out in the rat patch recently. It fits over the barrel of three of his favorite rat rifles:



I may make the move some day, but where I shoot most of my rockchucks, the report of my VT really doesn't bother the chucks on adajcent rock piles, so it's not really one of the first things on my "get" list, but it IS on the list.

No wonder I couldn't get hold of you yesterday! I am very envious Rick! Guess I need to find my own place to shoot some chucks. Your little outing with that VT sounds like more fun than watching some old Three Stooges movies Always glad that you share with all of us.

Looks like a grand day for sure, unless you are a rock chuck Much better day than enclosing my garage door! Hope to get out for some sage rat shooting and chuck tumbling! Thanks for the pictures and taking us along.

Very Nice Rick!! The groundhogs are running from burrow to burrow here too. The winds haven't been very co-operative to re-sight the rifles so they are safe for now. Itching to post some pics too!!

Thanks you guys.....it was a fun day indeed.

Here's a shot of the terminal effects of the 32gr NBT in the 20VT on larger varmints....both DRT with hardly a quiver:



For those that feel that only the 39/40 grain bullets are "adequate" for chucks, I offer Chuck and Roxanne above to testify that just ain't so.

Now to start gearing up for an epic rat shoot soon......"film at eleven".......

Nice Rick.. By the way let them buy all the 39-40 grainers they want That way we will have more of the 32's for our pleasure. Bill K

Bill K wrote:Nice Rick.. By the way let them buy all the 39-40 grainers they want That way we will have more of the 32's for our pleasure. Bill K

Not so fast there, Bill......my 204 11-twist thrives on the 39's and 40's!

But there's nuthin' like a sweet shootin' little 20VT to take advantage of those zippy 32 grainers........

So correct my little 20 is loving them, but the critters sure do not. Bill K

Looks like fun Rick, ever BBQ'd one? lol looks like they died happy and quick.

Thanks for sharing. Great story and pic. Glade to see you out for a walk about will good results. You never seam to wast ammo. One shot one hit.......nice very nice. Your eyes and trigger finger are in good shape after a cold winter.
Later
Ray P