"... everyone knows that an eastern Woodchuck is a rather refined, dashing, sophisticated adversary compared to the rather common, ordinary, run-of-the-mill western Rockchuck... "



Precision Shooting

October 1991
page 20

Without Dave Brennan's permissionmay I add: So very true!

Hammer: I have heard easterners babble about this subject on a few occassions myself!
Its an outgrowth of ignorance!
MANY easterners come out west Rock Chuckin and plink off the young of the year and some long yearlings with ease, and in sometimes impressive numbers.
So be that.
What they don't realize is how difficult it is to bring to bag a wise old 4 year old + 14 pound Boar Rock Chuck!
These elder Marmots are MUCH more difficult to bring to bag than the young that most easterners think are mature Chucks!
I have on MANY occassions gone to extreme measures and taken all manner of sneaky approaches and have spent hours laying in camo waiting for a particular "14 pounder" to offer a shot by emerging from his den or begin feeding at a particular time!
Yes I think the basis for this conception (attitude!) from easterners is due to the high numbers of Rock Chucks found in many areas leading them to believe Rock Chucks are ALL easy targets - they are not!
And I espouse this having had many, many 200+ Rock Chuck days myself!
On those wild days 98% of the Rock Chucks I shot were not the highly prized 10 to 14 pound Boars that WILL test ones Hunting AND shooting abilities!
If I might add only one example for now?
Some years ago I was Hunting some remote scabland with numerous lava rock outcroppings. Where the scabland came near a cultivated field I caught sight of a monster Chuck running into the cheat grass and sage headed towards a lava hill.
I was watching through my spotting scope and in a few seconds that big Chuck scrambled up the lava face and into a crevice without even a look back.
The distant approach of my VarmintMobile had caused this mature Chuck to scramble into his den while many of his brethren stood about and fed around.
This monster Chuck was now on my "menu"!
That afternoon (several hours later) I re-approached this colony, fully camoed and with the aid of intervening Russian Olive trees as natural blinds while I approached. Once I got to about 450 yards the feeding Chucks came into view and nearly at that instant ONE Chuck darted for the lava hill behind them!
Yep, it was Mr. Big!
A double chubby Chuck indeed!
I was miffed AND puzzled. Should I continue my foot approach and shoot some of the lesser Chucks OR lie in wait once I found a nice set up spot and wait for the Big Chuck? I decided to wait.
It was a form of torture!
Many lesser Chucks flitting about eating and venturing back and forth from their feeding spots to their dens.
But not Mr. Big.
I was laying on my Keb-Lab camoed shooting mat with one of my long range Chuck Buster Rifles.
The Rifle was a Remington 40XB-BRKS! It was scoped with one of Leupolds 36 power BR scopes.
I waited and waited.
I was 375 yards from the Chucks feeding area and 425 yards from their lava creviced denning hill.
I was watching the Rock with my wonderful Bausch & Lomb Zephyr 9x35 Made In America binoculars!
No Mr. Big!
Then I decided to give the lava hill a scanning with my 36 power riflescope!
Sure enough a gray faced "large" Chuck was peering out at the world (ME!) from the safety of a shaded crack in the lava!
Damn he's coming out I thought!
I better get ready!
Not so fast VarmintGuy (this was what the Chuck was thinking I am sure!).
I watched him for another hour and he never moved! He knew I was there I am sure. In the distance I could hear my partners firing round after round at Rock Chucks and having fun to the max!
This began to "wear" on me.
I finally began to ache from laying still on my stomach and having my neck "crooked" upwards as I watched the Chuck through my optics.
I finally backed out of there and walked back to my VarmintMobile somewhat dejected but growing intense in my "need" to bring this old boy to bag!
I put my thinking cap on.
The ONLY thing I could come up with was trying to crawl the necessary 500 yards of the approach to where I could hopefully get a shot at Mr. Big! This WOULD be torture!
The next morning I joined in with my partners on a good old fashioned Rock Chuck Shuetzenfest!
But Mr. Big was gnawing at my "ego"! The skies were threatening and rain was forecast. We shot around until in fact it did begin to rain!
Now in this vast country that we were Hunting you can watch storms approach AND you can see the appraoching "ends" of storms.
I saw the blue sky approaching in the distance and even in the drizzle I knew what I had to do! I would approach the remote Chuck Colony in the rain when I knew all the Chucks would be in their dens and wait for Mr. Big to come out and feast upon the wet grasses!
Rock Chucks RELISH eating wet grass after a rain!
I got my gear together and slogged through the sage and grass to my chosen shooting spot and layed out.
NOTHING bothers me more that getting my Rifles wet!
NOTHING!
But I had cleaning gear in the VarmintMobile and I was on a MISSION!
The end of this story was kind of anti-climactic.
Mr. Big was about the number 10 Chuck to emerge from the lava and as he waddled down through the sage and the grass I knew he was in the bag. Even at 375 yards I KNEW he was soon to be a goner!
The wind had quit!
The Varmint Gods were finally starting to help me.
It was simply a matter of holding for elevation and tickling the single shot 40XB-BRKS's wonderful 2 ounce trigger!
I had four more cartridges lying beside me on that mat!
Just in case!
The Big Chuck absorbed ALL the energy from the bullet and barely flinched at the hit! The bullet did not exit and there was no blood at all. I posed the Trophy with my Rifle!
I KNEW he was BIG then!
I did take some time then to "bark" some of the departing Chucks off of the adjoining lava hills!
I felt GOOD getting that smart old Rock Chuck AND a bit remorseful!
He was a worthy Varmint quarry to say the least!
He was so large his picture (enlarged to 8 1/2" x 11") is displayed prominently in two different Gunshops out on the west coast!
I have a copy as well that I keep in my favorite pictures album!
Yeah your typical eastern Wood Chuck Hunter would NEVER even have known this Chuck had eluded him let alone that easterner having any chance of bringing him to bag.
I abstain from calling Rock Chucks mundane, common or run of the mill!
I know better!
I shot my first Rock Chucks in eastern Oregon more than 52 years ago - I have been Hunting them ever since.
I have Hunted them in Washington, California, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming as well as in Oregon ever since then and I hold them in high esteem.
Indeed, they are my favorite Varmint to Hunt!
All right there Hammer, you got a rise out of me - may I ask WHY you fetched up from some snobbish magazine an article 15 years old - then quote from an unknown source that attempts to deride such a fine Varmint Game Animal?
What it is, my man - wha's UP (spoken in the semi-disrespectful, eubonics, inner city, ghetto-ese dialect)?
Long live the Western Rock Chuck!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I think I have to take the rap for Dave's comments. I had written an article on the Idaho chuck population, and Dave had to come back with something...if you know David Brennan you know the deal.

I signed all of my articles from 1988 to 1997 "just a rockchuck shooter from Idaho...".

Rich

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
I think I have to take the rap for Dave's comments. I had written an article on the Idaho chuck population, and Dave had to come back with something...if you know David Brennan you know the deal.

I signed all of my articles from 1988 to 1997 "just a rockchuck shooter from Idaho...".
Rich

Rich?? Is this Rich Kayser?? Good lord if it is u and Boyd Mace were driving that magazine in those days. That was "The Best" stuff PS ever had.