The late afternoon sun dropped lower in the brassy colored sky, the sun-baked hayfield taking on a softer and more golden hue than the previous dried out, pale straw color it possessed during the heat of the day.  

As the sun continued to drop, the temperature dropped with it and a cooler, refreshing breeze began to blow.

We were watching a large hayfield in the hopes of catching a woodchuck or two venturing out of their holes to feed in the cut fields. It had been a week or two since haying and some new tender grass was coming up. We had positioned ourselves under a big shady tree, just inside the wood line.

Once a woodchuck has been shot at he becomes a very cagey animal and hunters positioned in plain sight will keep the smarter chucks under cover.

This day we didn’t have the traditional woodchuck calibers with us.

Since the field sloped down to a stream and then up a steep hillside and there was no danger of a bullet deflecting toward any houses, we were shooting our deer rifles and traditional deer loads.

One way to get truly acquainted with your rifle is to shoot it at distance and if you can hit or come very close to a woodchuck at 200 to 400 yards, any deer you see in the fall will be at a serious disadvantage.

The sun was almost completely behind the hill when a thin, dark line appeared in the grass just out from an old fence line. It hadn’t been there before and as we watched, it moved ahead a few inches and raised its head.

No doubt now, it was a woodchuck, but he was out there a ways. A quick look through the rangefinder put the distance at 329 yards.

Dave was shooting his 7 x 57 custom Maser with 140 grain bullets at about 2,800 feet per second with a 3×9 power scope. Hardly the perfect woodchuck set up with the heavier bullet, but we were out to improve our deer hunting skills, not necessarily hit a bunch of woodchucks.

“How high do you think I should hold?” Dave asked, settling in behind the rifle and turning his scope up to 9-power.

At that point I remembered the ballistics table with all our bullet data and hold overs at various distances had been left back at the truck.  

We looked at each other with blank expressions for a second or two and started to laugh. Hey, at least we had our rifles and ammo, things could be worse!

“If you are sighted in at 200 yards, I believe your bullet drops about nine to 10-inches at 300,” I said.

Dave peered through his scope and frowned.

“I can hardly see him in the grass and the crosshairs pretty well cover him up. Whistle or something and get him to stand.”

Some very loud whistles finally got the chuck to raise his head, but instead of standing up he turned around, starting back to the fence row, suspicious of the commotion.

It was time to shoot before he completely vanished.

Dave slipped off the safety, steadied his rifle on the bipod and held about eight-to-nine inches over the woodchuck’s back, let out half a breath and squeezed.

The big magnum went off with a roar, the muzzle blast flattening the short grass and raising a respectable dust cloud in front of us.

Watching through the scope I saw the woodchuck’s head and back vanish, the ground immediately behind him exploding upwards.

“Good grief!” I exclaimed. “You hit him. What a shot!”

“You’re kidding!” he said, a big grin on his face.

“I couldn’t see him clearly at all, just held high and hoped!”

When we walked over just before dark, we found he had indeed drilled the woodchuck dead center; the critter hadn’t moved an inch.

Dave later hunted out west for mule deer and elk, where his woodchuck hunting experiences had him well prepared and confident when it came to taking longer shots at 300 or 400 yards.

After all, even a small deer looks huge across a canyon compared to a woodchuck!

When preparing to hunt woodchucks, there are a great many calibers specifically designed to do so. The .17 Remington, the impressive .204 Ruger, the .222, .223, 22/250, .243 and other high velocity, flat shooting calibers are what you’re looking for.

If you don’t wish to buy a rifle specifically to hunt woodchucks there are light weight bullets available for varmint shooting for almost every deer round up to 30-caliber.

If you are using your deer rifle to hunt woodchucks in order to be a better big game hunter you really don’t require specialized equipment.

A quality scope (A 3×9 power is probably the lowest power you can get by with) is a big help, but a 4×12 is better and a good deer hunting/woodchuck sniping compromise.

Zero your rifle in at 200 yards; take your range finder, a bipod or other rifle rest and head to the hayfields.

You are sure to learn a lot in just a few hunts. Oh, be sure and get permission from the farmers before you hunt their fields.

If you are going to specialize in the sport, get a small caliber, high velocity rifle. I prefer the tried and true 22/250 or the new sizzling .204, but there are many other calibers you may prefer.

I favor a high powered scope with turret adjustments specific to your caliber.

If the woodchuck is at 350 yards, set the dial to 350, dope the wind and squeeze the trigger.

After you hunt woodchucks for a while you’ll gain an appreciation for your rifle and its ability to shrink those fields down to size.

What once looked like an impossible shot, may in fact, with practice, become quite routine.