This morning the phone rings and one of the farmers that I do critter control for told me he had the second cutting off the river field. He also mentioned that the charlies were out of control. That's all I needed to hear. I grabbed the 243 Striker and headed out with 9 rounds of ammo. I would have taken more but didn't realize that was all I had loaded. Within 5 minutes of hitting the field I had a sighting. I few seconds to set up and I had the first charlie of August on the ground. This chuck was a medium sized and the distance was 222 yards. I have been working with a balistics program and the mil-dot scope on the Striker. It has helped a lot to make longer connections easier.

Around 11:30 I had a charlie come into the edge of the field from the tall grass. I anchored him and reloaded. No sooner than I close the bolt and I see another one standing up 10 yards to the right of the first one. I line up and shoot. I'm not real sure I hit this one as I can't see the chuck in the scope and I didn't hear the slap of the bullet like the first one. I reload and see another one, or the one I just missed stand up. I hurried the shot a litle and I see this chuck run back into the tall grass. Checking the yardage I had the first chuck at 170 yards and the second chuck was at 162. The third was the only miss for the day. If I had connected I would of had 3 charlies in 2 minutes. I hunted from 10:30 to 2:30 and ran out of ammo. On the way back to the truck I saw 3 more chucks and could of had 1 for sure and a good possibility of 2. They will live to be hunted another day. I don't think 8 for 9 was too bad and an average of 136.5 yards per shot.

Woodchucks teeth grow continually. They usually meet and thier constant chewing keep them worn down. Every now and then the teeth are misaligned and they grow past each other. This chucks upper teeth were grown back around and were pushing up into the roof of the mouth. I had to force the 243 case under the teeth for the picture. Over time the teeth grow into the head and the chuck is in pain and slowly dies from starvation. I usually get one like this each year. Mother nature can be cruel.

So it's actually possible to die from an under-bite... You did that animal a favor.

Nice shooting. Load 'em up and get back out there!

Great shot - great photo.... I had heard of this happening to a chuck but never saw any pictures until now. Send it to the game wardens to show people.....