sixshot
Buckeye
When I left the house this morning it was 40 degrees but clear, by 10am it was probably close to 50 & believe it or not, there wasn't much wind! I spotted several chucks but the owner of the farm wasn't home so I had to leave them alone, I've hunted this place before but always like to let people know I'm hunting, that way there's no surprises.
I went down another road a couple of miles & my phone rang, I pulled over & had a good visit with a friend & I look up & there's a big, dark red, gray muzzled old boar rock chuck eye balling me from 200 yds away.
This old boy was big, even though he had been sleeping for 8 months he really looked like a hog. As I watched him though the 10X's I could see him look at me then ease out into the field, take another look & another step, this wasn't going to be easy.
As soon as I moved he took off for the lava reef, you could tell he had been in on this little game before, you don't get that big & ugly unless you are smart. I got within about 60 yds of the reef & settled in to see if the old gummer wanted to munch some of the grain that was just barely starting to break through the ground. The snow had only been off this field for a couple of days & the rock chucks all had a belly ache from their long nap.
I was packing my Ruger 10" 357 Maxie with a 4X leupold perched on top, pretty good medicine out to 150 yds or so. My favorite load in this gun is a 180 gr. LBT cast slug ahead of 22.5 grs of 4227 & a small rifle primer. This load honks pretty good out of the 10" tube! My bullet is GC'ed & I cast them from 50% WW's & 50% linotype. You can get away with a softer alloy with a GC style bullet. I don't normally use GC style moulds but in order to maximize the Maxie it has to be done.
It took about 15 minutes for the barley bandit to poke one eyeball over a lava rock, then he slipped out of sight & moved about 10 yds & took another peek, same eyeball....no shot! Finally he made his move, I was already in position, reclined, gun between my knees & the hammer eared back, I let him move out from the reef about 10 yds & then he settled down & starting hitting the feed bag, his fat little jaws going 100 miles an hour.
He was quartering away from me & the big cast slug tickled his rib cage & exited his right front shoulder, yowee! He ran just to the edge of the reef & realized he was dead & flopped over. Man, I was pumped up, I had whacked an old geezer, & I'm sure he had tricked a lot of folks that meant to do him bodily harm.
Even with a 4X scope its very hard to pick them out, if they are in the lava rocks they blend in perfectly. Out in a field its not too bad but if they are in the rocks they can almost become invisable. I stepped it off back to my pack & it was 64 yds from muzzle to gut pile....I love gut piles!
I had spotted 17 chucks but will have to wait another day until I can talk with my farmer friend. Ken O'neill would melt his barrel down if he was with me tomorrow.
You can see the entrance hole on his left side, the right shoulder was mush. I think the soft alloy at 1600 fps + expanded on the old boy.
You get some idea of his size when comparing to the 10" barrel on the Maxie.
I would guess him to be just a little bigger than Fermin's whitetail last year!
You can see the storm rolling in behind me, right now I can hardly see across the street its snowing so hard.
Dick
I went down another road a couple of miles & my phone rang, I pulled over & had a good visit with a friend & I look up & there's a big, dark red, gray muzzled old boar rock chuck eye balling me from 200 yds away.
This old boy was big, even though he had been sleeping for 8 months he really looked like a hog. As I watched him though the 10X's I could see him look at me then ease out into the field, take another look & another step, this wasn't going to be easy.
As soon as I moved he took off for the lava reef, you could tell he had been in on this little game before, you don't get that big & ugly unless you are smart. I got within about 60 yds of the reef & settled in to see if the old gummer wanted to munch some of the grain that was just barely starting to break through the ground. The snow had only been off this field for a couple of days & the rock chucks all had a belly ache from their long nap.
I was packing my Ruger 10" 357 Maxie with a 4X leupold perched on top, pretty good medicine out to 150 yds or so. My favorite load in this gun is a 180 gr. LBT cast slug ahead of 22.5 grs of 4227 & a small rifle primer. This load honks pretty good out of the 10" tube! My bullet is GC'ed & I cast them from 50% WW's & 50% linotype. You can get away with a softer alloy with a GC style bullet. I don't normally use GC style moulds but in order to maximize the Maxie it has to be done.
It took about 15 minutes for the barley bandit to poke one eyeball over a lava rock, then he slipped out of sight & moved about 10 yds & took another peek, same eyeball....no shot! Finally he made his move, I was already in position, reclined, gun between my knees & the hammer eared back, I let him move out from the reef about 10 yds & then he settled down & starting hitting the feed bag, his fat little jaws going 100 miles an hour.
He was quartering away from me & the big cast slug tickled his rib cage & exited his right front shoulder, yowee! He ran just to the edge of the reef & realized he was dead & flopped over. Man, I was pumped up, I had whacked an old geezer, & I'm sure he had tricked a lot of folks that meant to do him bodily harm.
Even with a 4X scope its very hard to pick them out, if they are in the lava rocks they blend in perfectly. Out in a field its not too bad but if they are in the rocks they can almost become invisable. I stepped it off back to my pack & it was 64 yds from muzzle to gut pile....I love gut piles!
I had spotted 17 chucks but will have to wait another day until I can talk with my farmer friend. Ken O'neill would melt his barrel down if he was with me tomorrow.
You can see the entrance hole on his left side, the right shoulder was mush. I think the soft alloy at 1600 fps + expanded on the old boy.
You get some idea of his size when comparing to the 10" barrel on the Maxie.
I would guess him to be just a little bigger than Fermin's whitetail last year!
You can see the storm rolling in behind me, right now I can hardly see across the street its snowing so hard.
Dick
