2013 Woodchuck Season

[dbHunterNY]

last year i posted hunts and photos of thinning out nuisance woodchucks on my parent's farm. so i suppose i'll do the same again. they're just starting to wake from hibernation. first time i made it out was a couple weeks ago and it was very windy. didn't see much at all but managed to get at least one and not get skunked. walked some of the hay fields yesterday evening and ended up taking 5. While glassing some fields next to the road the game warden stopped to check me out. we formally met and talked for a few minutes and then he was on his way. as we talked i noticed a woodchuck that was out at the end of the field. i didn't want to risk walking across the field and spooking it back down into it's hole. so i setup right there. wind meter batteries were dead with a gusty breeze. ranged the little hole digger at 300 yards. it was 310 yards to hedge row at the end of the field. i put in the data to my phone app guessing the wind. dialed in elevation and like an idiot i never dialed for windage. settle in and send a 223 round on its way. in the scope i see the bullet impact right in front of the chuck. it froze for a split second and then ran toward the hedge row at the field edge. i just racked another round and started following it in the sight picture when it stopped at the field edge to detour into the brush. i used some kentucky windage for correction and sent another down range with success. woodchuck was on the smaller side too. i'll be getting fresh watch batteries for the wind meter before i go out next time. maybe then i won't miss. the Black Hills 223 60gr vmax loads are hard to come by these days. there was at least three more much bigger ones in that same field that i never got a chance to get a shot at. hopefully i can get them before they spit out four or so young each. i'll have a dozen more tearing up the field. here's the woodchuck below.

[wtnhunt]

That is a long shot on a small target. Nice shooting.

Don't have those around here, but got some target practice on some nuisances(pretty small targets) with my .223 here not too long back. One of these days gonna have to post about my double kill with one shot. lol.

[dbHunterNY]

yea that's on my bucket list... shooting two woodchucks with one shot. they aren't grouped together like say prairie dogs, so it's a rare opportunity to come by. closest i came was actually on this last outing but both ran off once together. post that double kill up!

i'm going to try and video a 400+ yard shot this summer to share with you folks but there's no promises. lol not impossible but it's different with a bigger caliber oppose to a 223. at that distance i'd be looking at around 3 feet of drop and closer to 4 feet for windage with average wind around here. about a 3" difference in windage with just 1 mph change in wind. with the hilly terrain here in eastern NY we get lots of gusts and swirls. i've only got an 18 power scope too so they'll be pretty small much past that. lots of stuff going on so i might need a helper to run the camera and keep an eye on the wind.

[wtnhunt]

Good luck getting the video and on making that 400 yard shot. Never done any shooting quite that far here, might be inclined to move up to something heavier(less susceptible to wind) if I were to be doing shooting at that distance.