We had a heavy rain this afternoon & I told Callshot if the rain stopped before dark we should find some critters out looking for some supper. The first 30 minutes it just kept raining, I took some pretty nice photo's of the thousands of acres of barley with a rainbow in the background.
In this part of Idaho the farmers grow hundreds of thousands of acres of barley, a large part of it goes to Budweiser, but the rock chucks also get their share of it! A rock chuck will go a long ways for a belly full of barley.
These fields run for miles & there are many lava reefs scattered throughout the area, some of the reefs are 100 feet tall & you can't see them until you get right to the edge.
This is very remote country from Soda Springs north, clear to Yellowstone.
As the weather started to clear up I told Callshot to drive through a farmer friends place, hoping to scare up a badger. When we got next to his equiptment shed we had a long lava reef running between 2 large barley fields, perfect! We immediately saw some real hog rock chucks running out of the fields towards the safety of the rocks.
Our main problem was, neither of us had a scoped sixgun on board, we had left them home! I was packing a Bisley 45 with a 260 gr Keith seated over 9 grs of Unique, Callshot had his flattop 44 special stoked with 220 gr Ferminator GC slugs fueled with 7.5 grs of Unique. Very accurate!
We could spot the dark colored rock chucks with the binoculars but couldn't pick them out went we pulled down on the iron sights, wow, it was frustrating! It was like staring into a closet, we just couldn't pick them out.
We both took several shots but couldn't connect, finally one peeked one eye ball around a sharply pointed rock & I could see his head, neck & perhaps an inch or so of his shoulder, the barely gave me a little bit of a background & I light the switch, the shot felt good but the chuck was gone when the 45 came down out of recoil. I walked down the road 100yds & found a way below the reef.
Throughout most of Idaho the chucks have been down for several weeks, its only in these higher elevations that any are still out feeding. This area is around 6,000 ft elevation & as you can see its still plenty green. The chucks that are still out are huge, they almost look deformed. Very large bodies & no neck........I know a guy like that!
I had left my holster home, also my Barranti & Rob Leahy cartridge slides & speed strips, yikes! I was traveling light & fast, just me, the 45 & a fast pair of Croc's. Climbing up on a lava rock I spotted a very fat & dead rock chuck. Stepping it off the best I could it was 103 yds, hard to get it perfect but probably within 10 yds plus or minus.
This barley munching bandit was stuffed right to his lips, we had saved the farmer a lot of barley. A local rancer drove though & obliged by taking our picture together.
This thing had some chompers like a Utah cheerleader.
One very well fed rock chuck, Ruger Bisley 45 with a set of Cocobolo stocks.
Five minutes after the guy left we spotted a old pot belly sneaking out into the barely, I told Callshot to hold some front sight & tickle the trigger, standing with his butt against the truck it broke the shot offhand & the old chap jackknifed & stuck all 4 feet in the air, I was stunned, the shot was much farther than mine. I told Steve to walk down to where I had whacked mine & then start stepping off the shot, he went another 78 steps, making the offhand shot 181 yds, for sure one of the finest shots I've ever seen with a sixgun. Always has that big smile on his mug!
That little black dot down in the barely field is Callshot walking back to the truck carrying his rock chuck. Mine was huge, his was much bigger.
Two very large rock chucks held up by 2 old fat guys.
Dick
