Few rock chucks with specialty pistol

[M1A1ABRAMS]

I miss Ground Hog/Wood Chuck hunting. My brother, Land owners son and I used to hunt a 1000 yd. field. The field is about 1 mile up along the river, In a desolate area. When the coyotes moved into our area they killed all the Ground Hogs in the area. Except in town and around houses and barns. My brother and I hunted the field about 5 years ago 1 day. From 2pm till dark, Never seen 1 groundhog. Agriculture Dept. traps the farm about every year to protect the domestic animals.
I have a 223 Rem. I put together. Has not had crosshairs on a Ground Hog yet.

I bet the bald eagles got more than the coyotes. I have watched them work on the open fields.

 

[huntingskydiver]

What barrel length you running on that set up?

Nice shooting!

It's a 16" Remington varmint barrel contour.

 

[huntingskydiver]

Mladen is doing good. I've taken a few rockchucks in ID. Not with a Speciality Pistol, but an ol' T/C Contender in .223. Here's 32 of 64 I took in 2 1/2 hours out to 200+ yds. Have used XP-100 in .250 Sav. AI & Encore handgun in 6mm AI.View attachment 529589

Doc, I can't compete with you, you are a legend!

 

[huntingskydiver]

What barrel length and bullet weight are you running and what is the velocity?

16" barrel. Used 140 grain ELDM at about 2400fps
127 grain LRX at about 2500fps. My reloads are fairly mild, I'm new at reloading and kinda hesitant to go hot, I go for accuracy. With ELDMs i get about 0.23 moa and with LRX bullets I get about 0.5 moa

I did use factory loads from Winchester, copper impact 125 grains and those will go 2650-2700 fps if I remember right.

 

[huntingskydiver]

What sort of size and weight are these Rock Chucks, never seen one, the size of a fox or badger maybe ???

It's smaller than a bagger, they are practically the same size as their lowland/farmland cousins groundhogs.

 

[huntingskydiver]

Velocity S-L-O-W !!!

My reload aren't fast but this cow elk at 230 yards didn't make complain it was only 2500fps at the muzzle with 127 LRX. If she knew it was only that much she wouldn't drop right there.

 

[huntingskydiver]

I'm amazed by the difference in color on these chucks. Is this pretty normal there ?

Yes, they can be very different.

 

[huntingskydiver]

6.5 Creedmoor, 24" fluted Bartlein 3B, 1-8. With Berger 135gr Classic Hunters @ 2841 fps.

I was getting about 2700 with 127 grain LRX but I'm afraid of going hot on my reloads yet, still new in reloading.

 

[huntingskydiver]

What State are these photos from!.?

The best one there is, cowboy state, Wyoming!

 

[shooter53]

It's smaller than a bagger, they are practically the same size as their lowland/farmland cousins groundhogs.

Thanks we got nothing like that here, our foxs are 7-9 kg badgers 15-25kg after that its rats and squirrels, but im lucky ive averaged 100+ foxs a year over the last 15yrs i live in a town and can be shooting with in 3-5 mins of home if i reload 100, 95+ will be homing in on a fox stay safe you guys

 

[sheehan93]

Nice work Mladen.

 

[ThSimpson]

Is the picture with the lake in Snowy Range?

 

[Jon L.]

The best one there is, cowboy state, Wyoming!

Agreed! I live is Sheridan. Just Prarie Dogs here though. At least I've never seen a Rock Chuck.

 

[huntingskydiver]

Agreed! I live is Sheridan. Just Prarie Dogs here though. At least I've never seen a Rock Chuck.

You would have to go deeper in Bighorns. Rock chucks are mostly in the mountains, but not everywhere.