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Riding slowly along the edge of the field of Apple trees, looking down each row as it comes into view, I spotted the third Woodchuck of the day. He was 125 yards and happily digging a new borough at the base of an Apple Tree, totally oblivious to me. The Orchard I was hunting is in upstate NY where I now call home. I was certain my Chuck hunting was over 11 years ago when I transferred from Kentucky to New York, oh how wrong I was. The Chuck hunting in New York was many times better than Kentucky. I halted the Honda 450ES and slid the 77/22 Hornet from the scabbard as I exited the four wheeler on the opposite side of the Chuck.

Crawling around to the front of the Four wheeler the chuck came into view again and I was happy to see still unaware of the danger at hand. With the 2-7 leupold maxed out I opened the bipod and took careful aim at the chucks Boiler room calculating a ½” drop at that range. The gun surprised me when it went off as I had just touched the trigger. Then I remembered,  just two days earlier I had installed a custom trigger on the little Ruger and had it set to only ½ Lb. As I looked up the Chuck lay motionless except for his tail twitching in the air and I knew I had hit my mark. I gathered the Chuck on the front rack and took him for his last roundup in the woods that bordered the Orchard.

The first two chucks of the day were taken in the same method. Being a Polio Survivor with limited mobility I am eternally grateful to the farmers I have known who have graciously allowed me to ride my four wheeler on their farm and continue my true love of hunting. Apple Orchards are ideal for me for several reasons. The Farmers want to get rid of the Woodchucks and the Orchards are the perfect place for four wheeler riding and Chuck shooting.

By now it was noon and I wanted to pick a spot to set back, eat lunch and wait for a Chuck to appear and I knew just where to go. As I approached the freshly cut Alfalfa field I was surprised to see 3 Chucks run for cover and I knew my lunch would have to wait! I rode around the edge of the field across from where one of the pasture puppies had disappeared into his hole. I had no trouble spotting it as there was a large mound of earth around the hole. I was 175 yards from the chuck but I didn’t dare ride closer. I had just stopped the Honda and got setup on the edge of the field when the chuck reappeared and I realized I had the wrong gun for the job. The Hornet was good for maybe125 Yds but beyond that was stretching it and I didn’t want a wounded Chuck. I decided to get closer so I began to crawl through the field. I inched along until I was only 100 Yds from my quarry. Again I was surprised by how light the trigger was and again the Chuck didn’t even wiggle. I was shooting Hornady 35 Gr. VMAX bullets and am truly amazed at their explosive effect of small game. I have owned 3, 22-250 caliber varmint rifles and taken many hundreds of Chucks but even that screaming, super accurate, varmint caliber doesn’t dispatch Chucks as quickly as the little Hornet! As I have stated,  the Hornet is good only out to 125 Yds or so and the Alfalfa Field was 200 x 1000 Yds so I gathered up the fourth Chuck to dispose of on my way to the truck to exchange weapons for my long range rifle, a Winchester 70 Heavy Varmint stainless in 22-250 topped with a Leupold 24x target scope and Harris bipod.

Having dropped off the Chuck and the Ruger, I returned to the Alfalfa field where I picked a high spot half way across the field and about 1/3 the length to setup and finally eat some lunch! Again as I pulled into the field the Chucks went scurrying for cover. I knew my spot was Ideal but I had no idea just how Ideal! I hadn’t even stopped the quad when a chuck appeared about 225 yards. I unrolled the army blanket and unfolded the Harris Bipod, I learned a long time ago that my ability to judge distance was not one of my attributes so I took a look at the chuck through the Bushnell Laser range finders to be amazed it measured exactly 225! That doesn’t mean I am a better judge of distance than I used to be, it just means I got lucky once. I then twisted the Objective lens on the Leupold to bring the chuck into Focus. The big varmint gun was rock steady as I squeezed of the shot, score number 5 for the day!

I don’t know about you but anytime I can bag 5 chucks in one day, it is a good day! I surveyed the field with the binoculars and didn’t see any chucks so I opened the Cajun dry box on the rear rack and  hunted through the ammo and pull straps for my lunch. Another reason I love to hunt is the solitude to ponder the more important aspects of life and the universe. While eating lunch I thought of my best friend who had moved to Texas a year ago and how he would have loved to be shooting Chucks with me today. We had hunted Chucks together for 5 years and I really missed him, even though he would have taken half the shots as we took turns, we always had a lot of fun.

Some time passed before my thoughts returned to the Alfalfa field but when they did I was looking at three of the little vermin out at the same time, WOW I thought Dave, my friend in Texas, won’t believe this! I got the first at 200 Yds and to my surprise the other two just stood up to look around, Big Mistake! The next was a bit further at 210 but not a serious problem for Billy Berou (the nickname my friend had donned on my varmint rifle from Caddy Shack Movie). The third didn’t stick around but now my total had increased to 7!

Only 10 Minutes passed when I looked behind me and saw a small chuck at a measured  350 Yds. Now that is starting to challenge my favorite rifle and my shooting abilities but we prevailed and number 8 was taken. I sat in that spot and racked up four more to bring the total for the day to 12.

 What a day that was in July when I scored twelve Chucks and had an absolutely perfect day. I thanked the farmer when I rode back to the truck and was given some really bad news. He had sold the farm to one of the biggest Apple growers in New York. I am sure the new owner won’t care, he said, but I will have to talk to him myself before I will hunt there again. I took 49 Chucks in 2000 and had two other hunts as good as this one and if you liked this one, Email the editor and let him know and I will write of them too.