When do you begin shooting woodchucks?

[Don Wald]

I haven't hunted them lately, but when I did I usually waited for July when the offspring had matured a bit. When do you begin hunting them?

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee86/DWald_photos/Woodchucks.jpg
Don

[Bushman]

They are a protected "endangered species" in WI. Don, so to answer your question... Never. Only thing that I can figure is that years ago, our shooters were better than your shooters and our guys mowed them down to the point of extinction here. Pity because they look like they would be fun to hunt with my Cooper .221 Fireball.

[Bayrat]

Don,
Same here, leave 'em alone until July-ish.

We've been watching several hay fields near by (the girl friend loves to go along) and we're seeing not only more, but also larger litters this year. Three and four kits per litter where in past years only one to two kits.

One of those hay fields, of about 8 acre size, has at least 15 chucks - of which more than half are kits.

Good sized chucks over your way !! What's the rifle in your pictures ?

Bayrat.

[Don Wald]

Bayrat,

It's a Remington M788 in .22-250 with a Weaver K10. My favorite though was Ruger M77V in .22-250 with Weaver V16.

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee86/DWald_photos/RugerM77V22-250-2.jpg

[Bayrat]

Don,
Nice !

I'm curious as to why the Ruger over the Rem?

Bayrat

[ncboman]

That's easy. The Ruger is the better rifle, made from better materials to more exacting tolerances.

ncboman

[Bill Gunn]

Don,
Same here, leave 'em alone until July-ish.


Unless they start eating my vegetable garden in June-ish... Then their kinda dead-ish :mad:

[Bayrat]

When I started hunting chucks, not knowing any better, I started in April and shot every one I could.

After several years of that the farmer was extreamly pleased, but I had none to hunt ! :(

Now, older, and ever-so-slightly wiser, I've learned to wait for the youngin's to be weaned .... and only take out the ones in the fields. 'Edge' chucks are left alone to re-seed for next year. ;)

This year, they must have started early - I'm seeing bigger youngin's and two and three per litter instead of the usual one or two. One farm has a field with a couple mounds showing more per litter. Want to stop in at that farm and see if they need some 'removal service'.

Haven't shot it in years - I dusted off the 22mag and got some of those CCI V-max 22mags that I want to try out.

Bayrat

[Bill Gunn]

Hope we get over run ! Haven't shot it in years - I dusted off the 22mag and got some of those CCI V-max 22mags that I want to try out.
Bayrat

I always had very good luck with the Winchester Supremes in my 9422mag.


http://www.midwayusa.com/mediasvr.dll/image?saleitemid=690519


I even take it out west for prairie dogs, and have nailed them out as far as 180+ yards !!

[ncboman]

Bill,

sighted in at what range and what kind of holdover at 180yds?

I've got a 9422mag also but I haven't tried those bullets. They're on my list now though. :D

ncboman

[Sabre]

That's easy. The Ruger is the better rifle, made from better materials to more exacting tolerances.

ncboman

Not so simple as that by a long shot. I would strongly suggest that the Ruger has the better action design but made from better materials to more exacting tolerances ? Not by a long shot ! I'm no big fan of Remington but Ruger tolerances have always been subject to rather wide variation {sloppy}and the Wilson barrels they used up until recently were some of the worst ever put on a rifle. If I were in the Market for a tack driving varmint rifle I'd be shopping the pages of the Remington and Savage catalog's {or better yet Sako/Tikka} well before Ruger's.

[Sabre]

When I started hunting chucks, not knowing any better, I started in April and shot every one I could.

After several years of that the farmer was extreamly pleased, but I had none to hunt ! :(

Now, older, and ever-so-slightly wiser, I've learned to wait for the youngin's to be weaned .... and only take out the ones in the fields. 'Edge' chucks are left alone to re-seed for next year. ;)

This year, they must have started early - I'm seeing bigger youngin's and two and three per litter instead of the usual one or two. One farm has a field with a couple mounds showing more per litter. Want to stop in at that farm and see if they need some 'removal service'.

Haven't shot it in years - I dusted off the 22mag and got some of those CCI V-max 22mags that I want to try out.

Bayrat

You're lucky there are still woodchucks to hunt up your way. I used to shoot alot of them around here 30 years ago but they're practically extinct in this area now. Still lots of them in the Cortland area and I usually make a trip or two out that way to shoot a few when the mood strikes these days.

[Bill Gunn]

Bill,
sighted in at what range and what kind of holdover at 180yds?
ncboman


Here's and entire drop table. That Prairie dog I got at 183 yards I actually OVERSHOT once :p
I was surprised the drop was only around 10" or so !!
I really like those Winchesters (and I love my 9422M), in my gun they are also the most accurate.
Right now their hard to find with all the ammo hording.

http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2250/777751/13525437/367673902.jpg

[Sabre]

Here's and entire drop table. That Prairie dog I got at 183 yards I actually OVERSHOT once :p
I was surprised the drop was only around 10" or so !!
I really like those Winchesters (and I love my 9422M), in my gun they are also the most accurate.
Right now their hard to find with all the ammo hording.

http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2250/777751/13525437/367673902.jpg

I've used the Supremes and they're OK but the Remington premieres are quite a bit more accurate out of my rifle and they also outperform the Supremes in terms of trajectory and long range velocity/energy retention {135 ft lbs. VS 114 @150 yds}.

[Bill Gunn]

Here's the factory info on both the Remington's, and the Winchesters, and a drop table for the Remington's.

I would use which ever you can get better groups with...

REMINGTON, 33-gr. WMR Premier V-Max Boat Tail (R22M1), 2000 MV, 293 ME, 0.137 BC

WINCHESTER 34-gr. WMR Jacketed HP (S22WM), 2120 MV, 338 ME, 0.102 BC


http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2250/777751/13525437/367677307.jpg

[Sabre]

Here's the factory info on both the Remington's, and the Winchesters, and a drop table for the Remington's.

I would use which ever you can get better groups with...

REMINGTON, 33-gr. WMR Premier V-Max Boat Tail (R22M1), 2000 MV, 293 ME, 0.137 BC

WINCHESTER 34-gr. WMR Jacketed HP (S22WM), 2120 MV, 338 ME, 0.102 BC


http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2250/777751/13525437/367677307.jpg

Sorry Bill, was going by memory on the 150 yd energy figures and my memory ain't what it used to be.:( Still, the Remingtons do significantly outperform the Winchesters at longer ranges and are MUCH more accurate out of my rifle.

[Bayrat]

Bill,


I always had very good luck with the Winchester Supremes in my 9422mag.

I tried the Winchester Supremes - even have some left over from those trials, but my Savage prefers the CCI Maxi Mag HP.

The farm I used to hunt on, the farmer had retired and sold off all the cows, just sold the hay. No cows to worry about, and it had some very large hay fields that presented shots that too often, were beyond the affective range of a 22 mag. So I got a Savage .223 with a Sightron 6-24 mil dot. With that, I had no problem reaching any part of any of the hay fields. So, I stopped using the 22mag.

I went back and forth about selling the 22mag, but after seeing this new farm with all the wood chucks, and because the farm is in sort of a bowl on the side of a big hill, that puts the cows not far from the gun noise. All the fields are long and narrow, boardered by brush and trees, so unlike the farm before, none of the fields have areas that I can't reach from cover with all shots being under 100 yards.

I figured the 22mag being a bit quieter than the .223, it may come in handy if I let the farmer know I can get rid of his chucks without scaring his cows up a tree.

One more tool in the arsenal !!!! :D

Bayrat

[Bayrat]

Sabre,

You're lucky there are still woodchucks to hunt up your way. I used to shoot alot of them around here 30 years ago but they're practically extinct in this area now.

We're seeing more this year than ever before !

And the color variation is increadable !!!! Not just the usual brownish gray and black, but some that are all a rich orangy-red with no black at all.

Even saw two 'blond' ones, which I didn't know they could ever get to be so light colored !

Bayrat.

[Don Wald]

Bayrat,

nbcoman is right. I'd also traded away the Remington by then. Best woodchuck gun I ever owned was an oldie Sako L46 Riihimaki in .222 Rem. which would regularly turn in .3MOA 3-shot groups, when I did my job.

[Smokey]

I have a Remington 788 I bought for the wife in .222. At the time this rifle had a very fast lock time which helped contribute to its accuracy. The lock time was faster than most other rifles at the time. Mine is a very good shooter that has taken several deer in the process.

[Sabre]

I have a Remington 788 I bought for the wife in .222. At the time this rifle had a very fast lock time which helped contribute to its accuracy. The lock time was faster than most other rifles at the time. Mine is a very good shooter that has taken several deer in the process.

I had a very early 788 with real walnut stock {later ones were stained birch}chambered in .222. It was one of the most accurate rifles I've ever owned in my life. Alot of people confuse pretty checkered walnut and high polish bluing with "quality" and/or "tighter tolerances" but it ain't neccesarily so. I gave up on expecting the older Rugers to shoot really well when I started pulling those cheap Wilson barrels off of them and chucking them up in a lathe for the purpose of rechambering and/or recrowning. Some were crooked enough you could see them wobbling just by rolling them across a precision surface plate. Others had out of round and/or off center bores, some had uneven lands and some were afflicted with several of the above all at the same time ! No wonder when Shooting times magazine did their big bolt action shootoff {back in the 80's} where they accuracy tested 10 "off the shelf" bolt action rifles {that's 10 of each brand mind you} from Remington, Winchester Ruger and Savage, the Ruger 77 finished dead last.

[Bayrat]

Rimfire choices have been mentioned, but what centerfire works for ya ? Reloads or off the shelf?

I only reload for shotgun, so I buy off the shelf.

My Savage .223 likes Black Hills 50 gr V-max. Glad I stocked up on them a couple years ago, because they are tough to find for now.

Bayrat

[Scout]

It's been a few years since I've put any serious effort into hunting them...but we normally waited until the first of July. I spoke with our game depatment biologist about it and he said that by July 1, the young'uns should be good to go.

The last couple of years that I was serious about chasing them, they became very sparse in our area. I like to think it was our shooting ability...but the reality is most likely that the coyotes moved in real thick and began to eat down the stock.

As to rifles....my favorite was a Winchester heavy varmint in .243 or a Remington VSS in .22-250. I sold both of them and now depend on a CZ in .223 for my carrying gun and a Ithaca LSA 55 in 6mm for my long range gun.