Thank you, Idaho Varmint Hunters

[predatortoprey]

This may not be the correct place to post his but Thanks. I have tried to get my cousin to come up to Idaho to shoot some whistle pigs and rock chucks for several years. Karamojobill, (aka Bill) has held to his past ties in Central Oregon and has by passed the hunting opportunities in western Idaho.
Well, this year through the help of IVH Forum and a great year of killing black bears in Oregon and Idaho for the Hook Clan. Bill arrived at my place on Thursday night for a few days of Idaho carnage. My plan was to hunt Friday rock chucks, Saturday rock chucks and maybe Sunday Yotes/whistle pigs depending on how deep the grasses are.

Here is what happened on Friday!!!!!!!!!!!Updates to follow on this thread.

5/27/11am, Weather does not look great but O-well. We load the ATV's and pursue the chucks. Arriving at the the front end of the ranch and riding 5 miles in we hit a bench that shows a few chucks. Bill makes a 75 yard shot and a hit but the chuck is able to make it to his whole for the escape. Then comes the rain!!!! We move to an old grain silo for a little protection from the rain and we find Mr. Pack Rat in the silo. Karamojobill attacks with his .410 Derringer and has to deploy two shots to secure this structure for keeping us dry. Pack Rat down and we are now sitting in a 12' silo watching it rain side ways.

After 45 minutes we decide to load up the ATV;s and head for the truck. We arrive at the truck, unload and load the ATV's and head for home. Now 6 miles down the road I'm watching the sky and I'm feeling like a beep. The sky is breaking and I turn the truck around. We go back to the starting place, we unload and once more pursue the rock chucks.
I am so glad that we made this choice for the day.
Now we move deeper than we were at the silo and the chucks are starting to appear. Riding in, I try to get Bill to take a 200 yard shot but he can't see the chuck. 175 yards and the chuck is down-vaporized.
We move to a rock wall, shooting 125 yards max and we count over 30 confirmed kills. Karamojobill does damage with his 22-250 bolt, until he runs out of ammo. We then retreat to the ATV's and retrieve the AR-15 .223. Bill gets in the mojo and and is smacking them two at a time. A couple of hours later and a lot of carnage we gather up the waste.

We retreat back to the ATV's and have lunch. Riding back toward the truck I spot a rock that has a chuck at 328 yards the longest shot for Karamojobill ever. You don't shot tis far in the Oregon coast!!!!. I have this on video and will post the pic later when I separate the frames out. Great shot!!! Bill made three more shots in this area with my TC Encore 300 win mag. I may have to buy him one of these guns so he does not take mine.
Time to sack out, we have a date in the morning with a few more chucks. More pic's tomorrow night and a update on the carnage.
I hope that you all are enjoying the weekend as well!!!!!

[leper]

It is obvious you guys were vastly out numbered. I'm surprised? you both made it back in one piece ;D Especially that close quarter fight with the rat. I'd consider mounting me a bayonette on that little derringer. Incase, I was rushed by two or more rats at once
Thanks for the hunt story.

[predatortoprey]

The rat moment was a little intense but I had Bills back and was quartered away with my 40 cal.

Here's how Saturday went!!!!!!!!
Four of us (my wife, my all around hunting partner Kraig, and cus Bill), left for the far end of the ranch with not a lot of hope for good weather. Up on arriving and about a 1/2 mile in, my wife draws first blood.

Note the blue sky. We had a fantastic day and weather. Light breeze and good skies until around 3:00pm. We continued into the ranch and found a draw that contained a population of chucks that let us shoot for over 4 hours. We confirmed with collections and video over thirty taken chucks in this area. Barrels were hot and the smell of powder was in the air.
While having lunch I spotted a chuck at an all time range for myself. I ranged it at just over 650 yards. Very light breeze and five rounds later with a couple of adjustments to my shooting platform and while on video, I gave this chuck an air born detachment from his rock perch. That shot felt great and even better when I collected him and seen his size. Just a pup.

We moved up the canyon and collected more great shots and kills.

We finally ended the day around 6:30pm with Kraig finding a nice 7 point hard white Elk shed and more chucks eating fatal mushrooms.

All in all we figured that we took over 80 rock chucks most of them around 150 to 200 yards. I will be spending a couple of days at the reloading bench with over 200 rounds of ammo deployed on Friday and Saturday.
Sunday tried to get Bill a Yote but we had no luck, Weather was bad, windy and rainy but we still managed to take a few whistle pigs.
I think that Bill is all ready planning for a spring 2012 Idaho rock chuck hunt.

[leper]

.40cal, not sure You might? need more firepower ;D
That chuck your wife nailed. We use to call those exit shots, "field dressed" Back when we hunted cottintail rabbit with shotguns.

Here in Iowa, we have [wood chucks]. They burrow dens in the ground & can climb leaning trees quite well. They can get mighty large. Like a large boar coon. Shot one out of a tree when I was a kid.

Beautiful country you got there.

[Timber Butte Outdoors]

predatortoprey,

On behalf of IVH! You are Welcome! We are glad to have you and your cousin here. We appreciate enthusiastic varmint hunters, and we look forward to reading and seeing more of your escapades.

It looks and sounds like you all are having way to much fun! Keep up the good work.

Have a safe Memeorial Day. Salute to all of our Service Men and Women, Past and Present.

Hey Bill - Welcome to Idaho Hunting - It gets in your blood!

Gary

[karamojobill]

All I can say is THANKS THANKS & MORE THANKS to my cousin & his beautiful & wonderful wife. I had one of the best times of my life!!! I'm HOOKed.... (heh heh heh) on Idaho & rock chucks.

I was treated to a varmit hunt that most people can only dream of. They fed me wonderful food like Dutch oven antelope back straps w/ bacon, home done antelope peperoni sticks, & mule deer braats on the B-B-Q. He fixed my Harris bi-pod & is doing euro-mounts of our bear skulls. I felt like I was a king!

Now the shooting....Cuz, P2P, spotted for me because I have not had experience seeing chucks in this kind of country (& color blind to reds/greens). Then ranged them telling me aproximate hold over & amount of windage. Then he gave me some of his special handloads for my .22-250 Kimber, (that I'd never been happy with before this trip). He let me make my longest shot with his tricked out T/C .300 WM! He COOKed our lunches in the field! Our counts were WAY beyond my expectations. Shooting with his wife & buddy were a LOT of fun.....Say goodnight, Craig (you lurker) . I REALLY could not tell ya'all how much fun I had.

I got to participate in a couple family B-B-Q's that would make anyone jealous of having such a close family.

Yep, I'm planning on coming back again...& again.....& AGAIN. You have created a monster, Predatortoprey!

[Timber Butte Outdoors]

Hey Bill,

That is AWESOME! It sounds like a great trip and a great family.

That is the whole premise of Idaho Varmint Hunters! To bring people and families together, for unlimited amounts of fun, shooting, and large amounts of good food.

We at IVH believe that getting together with good food, conversation and socializing is a intergal part of our club. We love sharing tailgating lunches, and BBQ's with all of our friends and family, while in the great outdoors.

It is great to see families come together - our mission is completed!!!

Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. I hope to read more adventures.

Gary