Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Couple of LR Rockchucks

Yesterday was one of our rare-for-this-year sunny and relatively calm days so when my son got home from school, I asked him if he wanted to run out and try for some long range rockchucks. I was shocked when he said, "yes". So, we grabbed a quick bite to eat, loaded up our stuff and headed out.

We don't have a ton of rockchucks in our area so we try not to take them too early and impact our populations too bad. Our agreement this year was to not take any shots under 1000 yards until May. It tends to make it quite a bit easier on the resource if you know what I mean! We had made a couple of attempts this spring but hadn't connected until this trip. We set up near the road in a spot we had shot earlier. Both of us shoot M700 .243AI's with eight-twist Kreiger barrels in A5 stocks. Ben's shooting 105 grain A-maxes and I shoot 105 gr Berger VLD's. We both had a pretty good idea of our drops from the previous trip so when Ben (Verminator2) started shooting he was immediately putting rockchucks in danger at close to 1100 yards. Being the good dad I am (and, because I shot first on the last trip ), I spotted for him until he used up all his handloads. On one shot we both saw a rockchuck's head drop but it went out of sight so we couldn't confirm the kill.

It was getting late by the time Ben finished shooting and the rockchucks were starting to go down but we spotted quite a few rockchucks on another rim that was a little closer--only in the 1025 to 1050 yard range. I only had a 1000 yard trajectory chart taped to my rifle and the drops start to change pretty dramatically at that range so my first shot was about one and a half minutes low. A couple of adjustments got me dialed in for elevation but now the diurnals were battling the previous wind complicating the windage calls. Long story short, After several attempts, I center-massed a large 'chuck just as it was getting dark. We were able to drive to within 40 yards of the 'chuck for a hero shot then Ben headed to the other rim to check on his shot. Before I could get all my stuff together, I hear Ben hooping and doing a jig in the evening glow on the top of the other rim like a Neanderthal that just discovered psychodelic mushrooms. His 'chuck was confirmed as well!

Not exactly one shot, one kill sniper stuff but we'll take it!

Ben added his rockchuck to one he took last year at 1044 yards. This was my first 1000+ yard varmint. Gonna have to start shopping for a .338 Lapua now to go 1500 with! :thumbup1:

My 1030 yard rockchuck.



Ben's 'chuck. Not bad for a sixteen year old kid.



Ben allowed as how it took a lot less skill to hit my rockchuck than his because mine was so much bigger...I'll give him that!

Cool, what scopes are you guys using?

Absolutely awesome! Curious about the glass as well.


Travis

Thanks, guys. Ben's using a Leupold 6-18X Target on an EGW 20 MOA base. Mine is a Leupold VXIII 8.5-25X with the Varmint Hunter reticle. It's mounted on a Ken Farrell 20 MOA base.

This long range stuff gets pretty addicting if you can get over missing. "Close" usually still equates to "Minute of Deer"--not that I'd take a poke like that on a big game animal...just sayin' it keeps you going. Pretty fun stuff.

Very cool. Did you try other rigs before these two? Or are these your first 1,000yds chuck guns?


Travis

That's pretty much been it, Travis. Ben did start with a ten-twist Douglas barrel in .243AI which he later changed out to the Kreiger. That was mostly to get the eight-twist though. I just put the .243AI together because we had the dies and knew a little bit about it. Ben started wanting to set up on the 'chucks where my .204's were running out of steam so I had to either put another rifle together or find a new hunting partner. He'd already cost me too much to change hunting partners so I built another rifle!

cool!
460 is my longest and i was aiming at the one next to him! dang wind.

Well good on you for setting your son up right. Hopefully he follows Dad's lead in the end. Kudos to you both.


Travis

I hear ya', Nimrod!

Deflave: He got a few pieces for birthdays and Christmas but a lot of it he earned for himself. His only motivation for work is a burning need for another piece of kit....

oooh Rah!

Great job Tim and Ben!

Same here and I'm 33!


Travis

That looks like quite a memorable trip!

Good Job to both of you!

How fast are you guys pushing those 105s? Nice post!

221: My Bergers are leaving the muzzle at 3168 fps. Ben's A-maxes are a little slower. He could tell you exactly but I think they are at just under 3100 fps. I hear of .243AI's going 3250 fps but we load for accuracy then dial for velocity. I've also heard the sweet spot for the 105's is 3100 to 3150 and that seems to be pretty close to what we've seen in ours.

Thanks tt35. How do you hold for these long shots with your particular scope? Do you dial it all or do you use that VH reticle up to its 500 yd line first? Or perhaps you only use the reticle out to 500, but use dialing exclusively for shots past that? I am trying to understand the advantage and/or use of combining the VH reticle and the target knobs.

Also, any problems picking them out at that distance with your scope? I have a hard time finding them at 500 let alone 1000! Would love to hear your experiences using that optic with this type of long range chuck shooting.

Have you noticed any difference betweeen terminal effects of the different bullets?

Also what loads or powder are you using? I just picked up a box of amaxs on monday to try in my 10 twist 243AI. Was going to try and pick up the boxes of 87 bergers in the classifieds but hrnhunter beat me to it.

221FB: Good question. I dial almost exclusively for elevation but I use the VH reticle for windage when it's not blowing too much or to make shot to shot adjustments after dialing in the basic windage. It's worth the price of admission to me for that alone. The windage marks are pretty narrow which is handy for LR targets. I've done the same with mildot and TMR reticles. It's nice to have a firm reference for a windage adjustment.

The main problem with the VH reticle for holdover is that it's calibrated for less than maximum power. I went to Leupold's website and made some calculations for the VH at 25X because I almost always go to max power on longer shots. I can give you my calculations but I haven't yet confirmed them in the field.

Ben gets along amazingly well with an 18X scope at these ranges--nice to have sixteen year old eyes! At 25X it can still get dicey seeing targets clearly unless you have some decent contrast for the target. It was clear when we shot these and the low evening sun made some of the 'chucks stand out really well which helps alot.

Partagas: Darned hrnunter! The A-maxes stabilized OK in Ben's ten-twist Douglas barrel. The Berger VLD's are longer and may not. I believe that the A-max is significantly more fragile than the Berger and many other target bullets. I actually had my rifle throated for the A-max but it decided it liked the Bergers better. The 87 grain V-max has really good terminal performance but they lack some of the BC of the 105's. We've had very good luck with the 87 gr V-maxes out to 750 yards when the wind isn't blowing to hard. I used them in my rifle for the fireforming loads but for some reason, I couldn't get it duplicated in Improved cases. Go Figure. If the 105's don't work for you, the 87's are a pretty good option.

I'm really no expert in this LR thing. Just scratching the surface of it still. Just passing along some experiences.

This is Ben.

Thanks for the comments guys! It was fun.

221: My 105 Amaxs are going 3145 fps 21 ft. from the muzzle. I could push them faster, but then I would begin losing accuracy, case life, and barrel life.

Partgas: 105 Amaxs did not stabilize in my 1-10 Douglas barrel. 95gr. Berger VLDs would stabilize, but I think they were on the verge of stabilization because I never could get them to shoot well. The 87 Vmaxs shot great out of my Douglas 10 twist and they work well out to 800, maybe farther.

Thanks Ben and tt35. I am getting 3235 fps with the 87 VMs out of my 23 1/2" Sako 75 .243 Varminter 1-10" twist using 46 gr. of N160. I am not kidding that they literally shoot into one hole at 100 yards. I just shot this new rifle for the first time monday. It only took 12 shots to sight it in, find my load and get some chrono data. Nice not to have to screw around much at the range. I am looking forward to getting it out in the field soon. It currently has a VX-3 6.5-20x40mm LR with the VH reticle but just the regular hunter knobs. Something tells me I am going to have to get a better elevation dial put in it or a different scope for dialing past the 500 yards my VH reticle allows me.