This thread has truly turned into a treatise of woodchucking with varmint rifles--love it!
For me it actually started with a pellet gun shooting birds. When I got a 4X 22 scope on it accuracy then became part of my varmint shooting addiction.
Moved from MD to ME then and devoured every magazine I could get my hands on regarding chuck shooting with accuracy setups, of which back in the late 70's, early '80's there wasn't enough published on it. Bought a used Chileno Mauser 22-250 (wanted a 222 but couldn't find one), and a Rockchucker press and took a long time before I figured out what to do with it. Never had anyone to help me along the way really though since so few were into accuracy shooting/reloading, so I was mostly self-taught.
Never shot 1 chuck in ME though, before I went in the USAF and got stationed in CO. Bought a VW Bug and a Rem. 700 22-250 Varm. Special/Leupold M8 24X from Suter's Gun Shop in Colo. Spgs. in '78, and I was in Heaven shooting prairie dogs/rockchucks all across southern CO. What a life that was!
Back in MD for school in '82, and whilst in a Pawn Shop in Baltimore one day saw a huge 29" bull-barrelled 25-06/Unertl 20X 2"--for me the epitome of long-range accuracy varminting. Every chance I got I was in Western MD at several farms shooting chucks...Heaven, once again!
Found another gem (sort of) in another pawn shop. A Fajen-stocked Martini in 225 Win./Weaver T-10X. Probably beyond the pages of this thread here nobody in those days even knew what a 225 Win. was...but I had one. Never could get that gun to shoot, sure was pretty though--
Had also brought back a 6mm Rem Ruger 77V from CO, that also killed it's fair share of GH's in it's day.
A number of years ago now a coworker suggested I write an article on hunting since I did it so much. I thought about it for awhile and wrote a 2-pg. article entitled, "Woodchuck Shooting in MD." Sent it to 3 magazines and they all turned me down. Finally sent it to editor Mitch Cox at Fur, Fish, Game, and he published it for $75. That woodchuck article was the beginning of my freelance writing career. Sure has been a fun ride so far. Even though I live in in the west now where there's always some varmint to shoot 365 days a year I think often about the great chucking days in Western MD.