Rockchuck Heaven

[WV Hitman]

I've severely hurt my part of WV groundhogs (at the farmers request) by taking over 16,000 with my handguns (from .22 LR to .416 Taylor). I searched for other game that would offer decent shooting. Seven years ago I found one farm in Idaho that let me come to work on his rockchucks. I took a friend who shoots only handguns like me. The farmer started spreading work about these old guys that shot handguns pretty well and got rid of a lot of bothersome chucks.
This year we hit it right despite the weather- 30s in AM, 40s in afternoons. First farm (a new one) in 2 hours we took 47 chucks from 120 to 324 yards with our .223AI XP-100 & ,22-250 XPR -100. That theme continued the rest of the trip. Winds weretypical of ID-15-35 mph. We read it pretty well. If fact at one stand of rocks we got fairly close and took 30 in 2 1/2 hours from 55 to 88 yards with our suppressed Colt .22 and SSK suppressed RUGER MKIII in 20-30 mph winds. We only missed 3.
We hit an unbelievable milestone for 2 old handgunners in those 7 years. In case you can't read it- that's 3500.
Our total this year was pretty good, too. We ran out of ammo at 3PM the last day. We went to all the farmers and thanked them. They strongly asked us to return next year to help save their crops. Considering the weather and wind, that was an unbelievable hunt.

 

[TonyinKY]

Awesome!!!

 

[Fern]

Wow that is just spectacular

 

[jpjulian]

Very well done!

 

[stacy]

Awesome shooting

 

[ohlongarmisle]

I've severely hurt my part of WV groundhogs (at the farmers request) by taking over 16,000 with my handguns (from .22 LR to .416 Taylor). I searched for other game that would offer decent shooting. Seven years ago I found one farm in Idaho that let me come to work on his rockchucks. I took a friend who shoots only handguns like me. The farmer started spreading work about these old guys that shot handguns pretty well and got rid of a lot of bothersome chucks.
This year we hit it right despite the weather- 30s in AM, 40s in afternoons. First farm (a new one) in 2 hours we took 47 chucks from 120 to 324 yards with our .223AI XP-100 & ,22-250 XPR -100. That theme continued the rest of the trip. Winds weretypical of ID-15-35 mph. We read it pretty well. If fact at one stand of rocks we got fairly close and took 30 in 2 1/2 hours from 55 to 88 yards with our suppressed Colt .22 and SSK suppressed RUGER MKIII in 20-30 mph winds. We only missed 3.
We hit an unbelievable milestone for 2 old handgunners in those 7 years. In case you can't read it- that's 3500.
Our total this year was pretty good, too. We ran out of ammo at 3PM the last day. We went to all the farmers and thanked them. They strongly asked us to return next year to help save their crops. Considering the weather and wind, that was an unbelievable hunt.View attachment 1669992
View attachment 1669991

I'll say it was,PS West Virginia still has a crapload of GH's in East Lynn recently, near the lake, and I saw enough to make it worthwhile to give it a try sometime, was there for a wedding.

 

[WV Hitman]

If I didn't have a sick wife I can't leave for long I'd like to look in to that. I know where you're talking about. Your making me drool a bit. Thanks.

 

[Lone Hunter]

If I didn't have a sick wife I can't leave for long I'd like to look in to that. I know where you're talking about. Your making me drool a bit. Thanks.

Looks like you are using rifle scopes instead of pistol scopes. What scopes and what power are they? I just bought a Savage Striker in 308 win. and Larryh128 ( great member on here ) sold me a .243 win barrel. I bought a Burris E1 4.5-14 rifle scope for it. Just getting into the specialty pistols. Have had Encores and Contenders but not bolt pistols. Sure do miss my groundhog days. Thanks for the memories.

 

[ohlongarmisle]

If I didn't have a sick wife I can't leave for long I'd like to look in to that. I know where you're talking about. Your making me drool a bit. Thanks.

First wife was actually from East Lynn, timber cutters , low coal, we lasted about 11 years before I met an Ohio girl from Appalachia at the ripe old age of 19, the girl,still with her some beautiful creatures come out of West Va and Appalachia. Let me know if you head that way, remember if you flatten WVa out it's the size of Texas I do believe there's a few still to be had.Best regards to wife they're important.

 

[WV Hitman]

Lone hunter, i'm a hardcore handgunner.No rifle scopes, just handguns. I use Burris 3-12X BPlex on all my long range Encores, Contenders, XPs. I've taken about 18 deer with my 6.5/.284 XP from 500-565 yds, total with that gun well over 400 deer plus a large amount of African animals. These scopes work just fine. They last, too. I have them on my two .375/.284 XPs. It took 23 years of heavy use for one to go bad. Burris replaced it free. The other one is still fine.
All but my HS .308 & factory .223 Contender were made by my good friend, JD Jones of SSK Industries. I haven't hunted with a rifle since 1978. Squirrels, turkeys, deer, bears, elk, moose, Africa 100% handguns & handgun scopes.
Be glad to help if you need any handgun assistance.













b












burrie

 

[Lone Hunter]

Thank You for the reply and information. I have always wanted to hunt with a pistol and the times I did I always carried a rifle too. Never felt comfortable with a pistol so I never used one, always scared the big one would come by and I would miss it, thus the reason for the rifle with the pistol. I have been reading in the specialty pistol forums on another site and many suggest to use a rifle scope on the XP’s and Striker. I had the Burris 3-12 on one of the Encore barrels I had and liked it. I bought recently the Savage Striker ( always wanted one ) but haven’t shot it yet. That’s going to change soon. I have killed ground hogs and other varmints with pistols but I will carry just the Striker this year.

 

[WV Hitman]

Lone hunter, you won't regret the Burris 3-12 BPlex. It just takes a little while to get used to it.
Strikers are good, accurate guns. I loaded for a friend's .300 WSM Striker. Killed deer out to 350+ & A BPlex scope.
For your .308, my .308 HS is crazy accurate with 150 BTs & IMR 4064 powder. I've tested a lot of bullets for Lehigh DEfense. They gave me some 110 gr. Chaos .308s. I experimented with powder & found that AA2520 would make them shoot the same as 150s out to 400 yds. They kill very good with much less recoil. Killed 2 deer at 400 with them.
If you're interested in load data PM me.
A better source of info on handguns & handgun hunting is HandgunHuntersInternational. There's a small fee for joining. I've been a member since 1978. We have a paper, The Sixgunner, originally print, but on line now with stories by the members. I was a field editor & wrote lots of stories about guns, reloading, hunting.

 

[jpx2rk]

Sounds like a lot of fun was had. Congrats.