This morning was fun.
Usual morning stuff (horses fed, stalls cleaned, breakfast, etc.) was done by 0730. Temp cool, at least for a couple of hours, bright sun with little drops of dew on the grass, not much wind - felt like a great morning to see if there were any ground hogs with an appitite for tender young alfalfa garnished with glistening diamonds of dew on it. So with the CZ .223, chair, and sticks in the back of the Jeep, I drove to Tims, got there about 0800 and took a look.
Well, whaddya know, walking in to the field up toward the top of the ridge behind his house with the binocs to my eyes I see one down in the bottom of the valley that runs diagonally across the field, I could barely see him over the top of the rise. He's busy eating and not still for long at all.
I do a quick check and it's both a good shooting angle and I'm pretty sure he hasn't seen me. (Those critters have good eyes.) Took a range finder reading - 224 yards. Too far for standing off sticks with my skill set so I bent over out of sight, set up the chair, extended the sticks to just longer than I thought I'd need them, bent my knees and sort of crouch walked till I could just see him over the top of the ridge. Sat in chair, and sure enough, I could just see 'em, my shot would clear the top of the alfalfa on the ridge by maybe a foot.
Got rifle on sticks, set the AO to 200 yards, magnification to 14X, took another range finder reading and it said 204 yards. The range finder automatically corrects for the pitch angle and gives me the horizontal distance which is what I need to know. There is a barely detectable breeze in my face. 200 yards is where the rifle is zeroed - that works just fine. Got the cross hairs on'em, squeezed, and #31 was VF (Vulture Food). Checked watch, it said 0810, about 10 minutes into the hunt! That tied the total for my best year ever, which was 31 in 2009.
Works for me.
I sat right there for a few minutes enjoying the plesant fragrance of morning evaporating off the field, gentle breeze in my face, but couldn't see the big rock ridge off to my left, and I've shot 3 of them on or near it (renewable ground hogs?), so I stood up to glass it and by golly there was one sunning himself on top of one of the rocks. I slung the rifle over my shoulder, stood up just enough to get an RF reading, 184 yards, and them carefully moved to my right a few yards till I could see him while sitting in the chair.
Shot angle is good, barely detectable 90 degree cross wind is no problem, leave the AO and magnification where they are - get the cross hairs on him, squeeze and he's dead.
Watched him roll off the rock, down the bank, come to a stop in plain view, and my second contribution to a sumptious Vulture feast was a done deal. Looked at my watch, it was 0830, and realized I had a new personal best - 32 in one year. I didn't jump up and down and cheer (bad form, besides it scares the ground hogs), but I was pretty happy.
No pictures because I didn't want to walk ~600 yards round trip through the wet alfalfa to take them.
I spent another hour but didn't see any more, the breeze was building and it was starting to get warm, so I packed up and headed home.
That makes 13 out of that newly seeded alfalfa field this year. I wouldn't be surprised if I get a couple more there before the season is over. It's the best field on that farm to hunt given the current crop situation.
All in all, a fun morning outing.
Fitch
. At the rate I'm going, double digits may not happen. I'm being told the 243 is a couple weeks out as well as my western hunt. I see one maybe two more hog hunts in my summer before the deer get my attention.
o get under the AC or youll burn up! Its was 110 air temp the other day!
