The rock pile is on the far side of the fence, the chuck was sitting next to a rock in the split between the junipers:
I saw the chuck flip and fly off the rock, but when I walked over to retrieve him, I saw he had slipped down a deep rock cravaas, and my arm wasn't long enough to reach him, but blood and brain matter on the rock confirmed he was DRT.
A second chuck was spotted just under 200 yards on a large rock pile, but an old withered grey tree was in the line of fire at about 160 yards away, so I had to slither about on the ground in full field camo (if they see you, they bail!) to sneak a shot through the old tree, wire fence, and a juniper tree between the chuck and me. If you zoom on the pic, you'll see the grey tree and the rock pile barely visible beyond.
How the rocks looked walking up to the chuck hide. Only by being right up on it can it really be seen through the trees and brush:
The rock pile up close. The chuck was sitting about in the middle of the pile, just below the top:
He was shot right under the chin looking directly at me. A small bullet frag exited on his bottom side, right next to his poop-chute, the body was just jelly inside:
My Cooper M38 Phoenix 221 'Furball' for work in the nasty lava rock where you do not want a nice wood stocked rifle anywhere near the stuff.
The load used was the 40gr Nosler Varmageddon over a mid-range load of A2200, 7-1/2 in Lapua cases for 3,150 fps (1/4" load). I'm finding that I'm using my 20VT and 221FB more these days with the price of powder approaching the price of gold dust! Getting almost 400 rounds from a pound of powder is looking like a good idea right now.
Just wanted to share a nice morning in the sunshine among the sage, junipers, rocks with another pet rat rifle.
Late Edit: These small local ranches are not tolerant of loud rifle fire. Hence the use of my 20VT and 221FB rifles instead of any of my 204's, which are saved for work over 300 yards in the rat patch. The 204 has it's place, just not on these small local ranches.
