Chucks were out today! Saw a bunch and along the highway holes are cleaned out! Kinda felt bad for them as all the grass is brown...
They will be damaging crops soon enough, and you and I and like minded folks will ventilate their brain housing group. They will be there for us.
Around these parts, you can't hardly find a woodchuck anymore. Used to be, I would drive around after work every night and shoot them out the window of my truck. I used to take a weeks vacation when the beans got a couple inches tall, just for Chuck huntin. Good times
We sure aren't hurtin' for them, but I haven't seen any yet. Seems like they must be lazy or like warmer temps because around here I don't see them until the weather gets well into the 60's typically. I have posted a trail camera photo of one that came out with snow on the ground, but he was definitely not typical. There is nothing like that "WOP" and watching him roll over day-yod!!!
The great western yellow belly rock chucks will be out & breeding soon. They are fecund enough to provide good shooting in late May. Papa chuck runs the den and kicks out baby male rockchucks upon some maturity. They have nice hibernation dens located deep down below the frost line for their long winter naps. They eat lots of crops like alfalfa and being sort of related to squirrels have moderate tree climbing abilities. Unfortunately, they carry fleas and that makes them carriers for plague. They also like to hangout around farm/ranch dumps like abandoned cars & farm machinery - look there's a chuck sitting on the tractor seat. I like a .22-.250, 7.7 twist loaded with 75 gr. ELDM bullets.
A warm day finally arrived and I saw a pair setting up housekeeping. I will be out on patrol for a couple hours this afternoon. Horse farms want them killed ASAP.
I grew up in Western New York. When I was in my teenage years and early adulthood, I shot 'chucks as often as I could. Back then, I would use 22-250s, 6mm Rems. and the like. After I moved to Texas, I never had the chance to go 'chuck hunting down there.. However, I would go back to visit and take some rifles with me. One of the rifles I took was a Marlin .22 Mag. To be honest, it became more fun to sort of "sneak up" on them, get within 100-150 yards and drill them. I still miss 'chuck hunting in the clover fields of Western New York!
The best shot I ever made on a chuck was with a brick. We were doing preservation work on a 1837 house( R.E.Lee spent time there) and were running them off best we could..... only thing we could use was a pellet gun because of it being in town. We jacked a buttload of squirrels..... Anyway this huge hog is sitting on top of a fence rail looking like he owned the place. It was part of a barn. So the first thing I picked up was a half a brick from our work. With my guys watching...... figured I'd at least hit the fence or barn..... threw it about 40yds and nailed him right between the eyes!
