following day. Food-gathering activities generally take place twice a day, in mid- morning and late afternoon. These are good times to catch the ’chucks out on open ground, but shooting isn’t neces- sarily limited to those times of the day. Outside of those feeding periods, an observant ’chuck shooter may be able to spot their prey lying on the top of the rocks sunning themselves. This type of shot sometimes can be considerably more challenging because of the rock- chuck’s preference for lying flat against the rocks. This results in shrinking their exposure and at the same time shrink- ing your potential target area. This can mean having only a portion of a shoul- der, or head, as a target to shoot for. As I mentioned earlier, I have found populations of rockchucks below the typical 6,000-foot level, but the spe- cies is predominantly a high-elevation creature. Because of this it usually is best to center your scouting on the higher elevation locales, but of course always be cognizant of the potential possibili- ties of lower level encounters. RECOMMENDED
ROCKCHUCK SHOOTING GEAR Of course it is important to have good glass when hunting marmots and that includes a good binocular, a spot- ting scope, and certainly a riflescope of high quality and one with an ample amount of magnification. It is always easy to turn a variable powered scope down to a lower magnification setting if a close shot should unexpectedly pres- ent itself, but it is impossible to turn a low magnification scope up higher than its highest setting. I therefore would recommend a variable powered scope with at least 12x magnification, and a 20x would be an even better choice. A shooting mat also is a great thing to have along and is particularly nice when shooting in the prone position. There are a couple of worthwhile benefits inherent with shooting from the prone. First, it provides the steadiest field position to shoot from, and second, it lowers your profile and helps to conceal your pres- ence from the ever-present watchful eyes of the sentries.
The choice of rifle caliber is largely dependent upon the conditions that you will be encountering. When shots are typically within 100 yards, I frequently have used rifles chambered in 17 HMR or 22 WMR, but rockchucks sometimes
can be difficult to anchor. With an adult sometimes weighing close to 12 pounds, this can present a challenge for a little rimfire cartridge. Without a doubt, at short range a well-placed tiny rimfire 17 or 22 bullet has the ability to do the job, especially when a perfect shot is presented. Unfortunately, perfect shots sometimes can be hard to come by in ’chuck shooting, particularly when a ’chuck is running for its den. Because of this, a better general-purpose cartridge might be a centerfire 204, 223, 22-250, or possibly a beefed-up smaller centerfire like a 20 VarTarg, 17 Mach IV, or 17 Fireball.
I frequently equip my varmint rifles with a bipod, which can be a great aid in most types of varmint shooting ... and that includes marmots. I personally prefer the models that have the ability to be extended long enough to shoot
from the sitting position, yet collapse short enough to be used for shooting in the prone position as well. My personal preferences are for bipods made by Har- ris Engineering or Stoney Point, but the new models from Vanguard also are pretty impressive. In all of these cases the bipod can be quickly removed and stored away when other types of rests are available.
Stopping in and talking with the local population comes with the advan- tage of reducing your scouting time and will go a long way to keep your gas ex- penditure down. Like ground squirrels, prairie dogs and badgers, farmers and ranchers are not fond of the rockchuck. As such, you may find that they will encourage you to shoot as many as you can find and will point you to precisely the best shooting areas.
A Cooper Firearms of Montana rifle equipped with a high-quality Swarovski scope of good magnification and a Harris Engineering bipod can be a lethal combination for marmot shooting.
www.varminthunter.org Page 89
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