Carnage at the Orchard!

[Guy M]

The call for assistance had come in earlier in the week. An orchardist along the mighty Columbia River was having trouble with invaders again this spring. Hordes of illegal rock chucks were swarming through and under his deer fence, into the cherry orchard! A call to arms!

Acting on the latest intel, young M700 Junior and I arose at the crack of dawn. Well, maybe by 0800 or so... Drove out to the orchard and quietly stalked forward, where we could see the disputed no-man's land between the orchard and the slopes above. The rock chucks had the high ground and terrific natural camouflage. All we had was a pair of smallish caliber rifles and the guts to stand steady in the face of this grave onslaught of predatory vermin.

M700 Junior giving Dad's new .204 a try. He still prefers his tried and true 6mm Remington.


No man's land, aka The Killing Fields. The chucks held the high ground, but rather than staying content with that, they have been invading the orchard below:


Young M700 Junior on post with his 6mm Remington, preparing to send 75 grains of Sierra hollow point downrange. Yes, I reminded him to put the ear muffs on before touching off the round...


This chuck thought he was safe under his fortress boulder. He hadn't counted on the flat trajectory of the 6mm Rem!


Triumph! Another attack beaten back. Here M700 Junior is next to a chuck fortress inside the fence line!


Tally for the morning: three chucks to the .204, three to the 6mm, a dead tie, and the orchard was saved for another season of cherries!

[Pydpiper]

Very cool! Nice shooting!
You guys sure have some beautiful landscape around there.

[acloco]

THAT was some good shooting and excellent pictures.

Glad that some men are still willing to tow the line.

[surfclod]

Good one!

The only thing that is better than a successful days shooting, is one that made the landowner grateful.

[darchell]

Nice Shooting. Keep them cherries safe..

[giterdone]

Great pictures. Nice of you to offer to take care of those illegal invaders for your friend.

[Rick in Oregon]

Guy: Great pics and report. I'm glad you survived the encounter, no WIA's on your end, only enemy KIA's. Looks like a great outing with Jr., thanks for sharing.

The mess dripping from the 'ceiling' inside the rock fortress is an interesting graphic effect not often seen.......nice!

[Guy M]

I thought you'd like the Cave of Death photo...

Ol' Chucky probably thought he was pretty safe in there. Hawks can't get him. Coyotes aren't likely, since this fortress/cave is inside the 8' high deer fence... He started looking at us, and I pointed him out to my son, who promptly took care of the curious fuzzball.

As always, it's an absolute hoot to shoot varmints with my son along. He really enjoys it! Am sure I could have nailed a few more if I'd been alone, but it wouldn't have been nearly as fun...

[Jim White]

Guy,

How did your CZ work out? Mine really shoots 26 gr Barnes, 35 Bergers and 39 SBKwell. Its only so-so with 40 Hornady's. Anyway, I just load tested my loads @ 200 yards yeaterday. A 10 shot group was 0.4 x 0.4 MOA. I was using 27.9gr RE-15, 2.260 OAL. 39 SBK, Remington (virgin) cases & Remington 7 1/2 primers.

I was quite surprised since I was actually chronograph testing (I load and chronograph seperatley) because I've seen chronograph warranties (literly) shot, right before my very eyes (from others) about 14' from the muzzle.

Jim

[WaltherP99]

Great story and pics! Sounds like you and the boy had a great time!!!!!

I am just hoping my ex doesn't spoil it for me and my daughter once she gets older! I am really looking forward to it!

[Guy M]

Jim, I'm just really tickled with the CZ, and with the 40 gr Hornady bullets. Haven't tried any other bullets, except some 32 grain factory loads when I got my first .204 two years ago. They didn't shoot as well as the factory 40 grain loads, so I bought a mess of 40 grainers, some dies and went to town. Am getting just under 3800 fps from them, with a less-than-max load of BLC(2), and roughly 1/2" groups at 100 yards. Only shot the rifle for groups once, and only tried one load so far... Had all of about 20 shots through it at the range prior to this rock chuck trip.

The 40 grain V-Max does put the smack on the rock chucks!

It is however not as barbaric as the 75 gr hollow points from the 6mm Remington which literally rips chucks in half... Not far behind though... I was impressed, one chuck in particular, on a rock at about 150 yards took off airborne when hit with the 40 grainer! Chuckie flew! Didn't really expect that.

The CZ is the varmint version, and has enough barrel weight to hang steady on target. My son shot from his bipod. I just sat down, wrapped the sling around my arm and laid into those chucks like I was on the Highpower range. I like sling & position stuff, on the range or in the field. The CZ took well to it. I like the set trigger too... Haven't messed with the trigger at all, and the standard pull is mediocre, but the set trigger is super!

Was using a fixed 12x Leupold with tapered crosshairs, very fine towards the center. I used this scope originally on my long-range target competition rifle. It worked just fine on chucks too.

Regards, Guy

[Jim White]

Guy,

Those highpower skills sure come in handy don't they?

My CZ is an American so I have to be careful to not shoot to fast because the barrel heats up pretty quick. My rifle wears a Zeiss 4.5-14x50 with a Z-Plex reticle. I stumbled onto this scope and I've thought about replacing it because of the super thick post but the cross hairs are really thin. My thoughts are since the 204 is fairly flat I figure I can just twist the knobs. Eitherway, I'll have to re-evaluate after I get it in the field for a go.

Jim