Where to find Rock Chucks?????

[lerch]

Well after reading fifty's chuck post and seeing that pick I am jealous as hell. We've only got prairie dogs out here in Oklahoma but I want something a little bigger to shoot. Are there rock chucks in New Mexico or lower Colorado??? Just looking for somewhere to go shoot them on public land or something that I can do over a weekend. Something within 10 hrs driving time of central Oklahoma. Anybody know of anything.

Thanks
Steve [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[goodgrouper]

There are most definetly chucks in Colorado and New Mexico! The only problem is that CO requires a small game license to hunt them and you can only kill 2 per day and bag limit is 4! They have more chucks in CO than any other state in the union and are the only state that requires a license to hunt them! In every other state they are considered what they are-a VARMINT! CO also has a "you kill it you eat it" clause in their proclamation which severely curtails most varmint hunters from going there. However, prairie dogs are not expected to be consumed and chucks should be (and probably would be) in the same category to most fish cops.


New Mexico has limited habitat for chucks but can still be found in abundance according to biology study I read a few years back. However, they are VERY localized there and populations are lowest in this state of all western states.

[Buffalobob]

here are some maps

As is obviuos- the difference in them being in a state and actually finding one to shoot at is the problem.

The overlap between the Hoary marmot and the yellow bellied marmot (rock chuck) in Idaho/Montana is intriguing and I never noticed this before that there were actually two subspeicies present.


http://wfs.sdstate.edu/sdgap/mammal/yellowbelly.html

http://www.marmotburrow.ucla.edu/images/newworld.gif

I do not believe I would spend days driving based upon these maps.

[goodgrouper]

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I do not believe I would spend days driving based upon these maps

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I agree. I have seen these types of maps before. They always show Idaho totally blacked out for 100% coverage of marmot habitat and I know from experience of scouting that there <font color="blue"> IS NOT </font> rockchucks everywhere in Idaho. They are localized in pockets with miles and miles of uninhabited ground in-between. Every state I hunt them in is the same way. SOmetimes I find them exactly where I thought I might, and other times they are in places that shock me anything would live there! And on the flip side of that coin, I sometimes won't see a living thing in places where I would have bet my latest rifle they would be there!
Bottom line, you <font color="red"> HUNT </font> rockchucks just like big game. Scout,scout,scout. It is not like prairie dog shooting.