On the way home from the range I swung by a few of my favorite charlie fields. It was about 7:30 and nothing seemed to be out. I was a little bummed because I wanted to see how the trigger was in a hunting situation and to see how the SSP’s did on charlies. As a last minute idea I went back across the farm and checked a clump of holes I have been watching all summer long. There is fresh activity in the holes, but I can never find the charlie out and about. Well to my surprise he is out and feeding about 10 feet from the hole. I slowly pull into the fields farm road and stop the car. I tell my two boys to sit tight and watch from the car. I get out and slide up along the car and lay down about 10 feet in front of it on the center ridge of the road. It was just enough height to get a clear shot from the bi-pods. I squeezed off the shot and when I get the scope back on the chuck from the recoil I see he is going no where. I then take a quick look down the pasture edge to see if the crack of the gun has brought up any other chucks. Sure enough there is a huge one looking right at me on top of his hole. I slowly swing the gun to my right about 40 degrees from the first chuck, load another cartridge and settle in. Looking thru the scope there is a 2” branch that had fallen down and was right in the sight picture across his upper chest and lower neck. I knew the distance was about 100 yards so I put the crosshair right on top of the stick and slowly squeezed the trigger. The chuck disappears. The boys and I pace off the distance to the second chuck and find him slumped in the hole at 97 yards. We then go out to the first chuck and take a few pictures. The distance to the first one was 107 yards.
Nate on the left is 4'-8" tall and Buddy is 5'-2". The charlie Nate is holding was all of 15 pounds and I would guess closer to 18. The boys thought it was cool to whack 2 charlie in a matter of one minute. So far I have taken 5 chucks with the 80gr SSP. It has passed thru all with about a 1" exit hole.
