Finally was able to take the neighbor kid (he's 30 but in school) out for a day to shoot chucks. He's been studying hard for the past several years and needed a break. I had him shoot one of my 223s that's loaded with Sierra 77gr TMKs. My Kestrel is programmed for that rifle/load and the MV is trued up to 900 yards. Once he settled down and got used to the trigger he popped six chucks in a row at 485 yards and was jacked. He told me on the way down to the farm that he thought 200 yards was the max for a 223. Made me happy to see that someone besides me can shoot my rifle and experience extreme accuracy.
I also took along my 25-06 that I've been working on for the same purpose. It's a Savage BVSS that I epoxy bedded the action into a Choate Tactical Custom stock and mounted a Nightforce NX8 4-32 X 50 scope onto. It also has an Erik Cortina Tuner/Break on the barrel. I load it with Berger 115 VLDs and it is sweet to shoot.
We spotted two chucks at 657 yards so I got that rifle out and dialed in the solution from my Kestrel. Got both chucks. The second one was laying flat out on a rock and went a couple of feet in the air with miscellaneous body parts going everywhere. I'm hoping that I will have an opportunity to get one at a longer range before they all go to ground for the season. (rock chucks hibernate early in the summer when their forage dries up)
It was a great day.
I also took along my 25-06 that I've been working on for the same purpose. It's a Savage BVSS that I epoxy bedded the action into a Choate Tactical Custom stock and mounted a Nightforce NX8 4-32 X 50 scope onto. It also has an Erik Cortina Tuner/Break on the barrel. I load it with Berger 115 VLDs and it is sweet to shoot.
We spotted two chucks at 657 yards so I got that rifle out and dialed in the solution from my Kestrel. Got both chucks. The second one was laying flat out on a rock and went a couple of feet in the air with miscellaneous body parts going everywhere. I'm hoping that I will have an opportunity to get one at a longer range before they all go to ground for the season. (rock chucks hibernate early in the summer when their forage dries up)
It was a great day.