Well, I hate to admit it but I let Ben convince me that yesterday (Saturday) was May 1st. (He actually did think it was May 1.) I gave him a hard time about not getting his mother any flowers and set aside our 1000 yard rock chuck rule. (See previous post.) It was probably a good thing as the wind was blowing pretty good and pretty inconsistent over our left shoulder at the first location where we found some 'chucks.
Now, Ben hates to miss and he actually declined the invitation to shoot at this spot 720 yards from our quarry. He said he was tired of shooting and not killing and since he was getting low on ammo, he would wait on some "closer" shots. We got set-up and I dialed in my best windage guess. My first shot was right on for elevation and about one and a half minutes right. I'm fairly new to this wind doping thing and really didn't feel too bad about that effort. I used the hash marks on the VH reticle to adjust but I had a hard time "getting ahead" of the wind as it increased the longer we were there. Long story short, on my fifth attempt I connected on a light colored old male at 723. I had four and one half minutes of wind dialed and was holding another one and one half minutes on the reticle. The Berger 105 VLD really isn't knocking the pudding out of them at long range however and what later turned out to be a center mass hit sure took a while to finish the 'chuck. I took a couple more shots attempting the coup d'grace but it didn't look like I hit on those rounds.
We moved up the road a bit so Ben could work on some at about 400 to 425 yard rock chucks. Can't say why (He claims his brass was too old...whatever.
) but he had a hard time putting it together on them and we left that spot empty handed.
A Little further we came to a spot that looks down on some lower rims and Ben finally spotted a good rock chuck at 585. He wasn't that thrilled about the longer shot but decided to try it anyway. At least the wind was a little slower on that side of the ridge. I got out the spotting scope while he got positioned with his rifle. The first shot went into the meadow beyond the rim and we couldn't get a good spot on it. The rock chuck moved down the rim a few yards and Ben took another poke at it. The bullet impacted to the side of the 'chuck a few inches but on the next shot I could see some definite red at the time the bullet connected. Turned out to be a perfect head shot.
It was getting late by then so we packed it up and called it an evening. Wish we had some more thousand-yarders to report but maybe next week.
Here's the prey and the tools.
Now, Ben hates to miss and he actually declined the invitation to shoot at this spot 720 yards from our quarry. He said he was tired of shooting and not killing and since he was getting low on ammo, he would wait on some "closer" shots. We got set-up and I dialed in my best windage guess. My first shot was right on for elevation and about one and a half minutes right. I'm fairly new to this wind doping thing and really didn't feel too bad about that effort. I used the hash marks on the VH reticle to adjust but I had a hard time "getting ahead" of the wind as it increased the longer we were there. Long story short, on my fifth attempt I connected on a light colored old male at 723. I had four and one half minutes of wind dialed and was holding another one and one half minutes on the reticle. The Berger 105 VLD really isn't knocking the pudding out of them at long range however and what later turned out to be a center mass hit sure took a while to finish the 'chuck. I took a couple more shots attempting the coup d'grace but it didn't look like I hit on those rounds.
We moved up the road a bit so Ben could work on some at about 400 to 425 yard rock chucks. Can't say why (He claims his brass was too old...whatever.
) but he had a hard time putting it together on them and we left that spot empty handed.A Little further we came to a spot that looks down on some lower rims and Ben finally spotted a good rock chuck at 585. He wasn't that thrilled about the longer shot but decided to try it anyway. At least the wind was a little slower on that side of the ridge. I got out the spotting scope while he got positioned with his rifle. The first shot went into the meadow beyond the rim and we couldn't get a good spot on it. The rock chuck moved down the rim a few yards and Ben took another poke at it. The bullet impacted to the side of the 'chuck a few inches but on the next shot I could see some definite red at the time the bullet connected. Turned out to be a perfect head shot.
It was getting late by then so we packed it up and called it an evening. Wish we had some more thousand-yarders to report but maybe next week.
Here's the prey and the tools.
