Bench-Talk

Last Thursday, Tom 'BLING BLING' Gollob and BIG MIKE loaded the old RANGER and headed down I-90, for the  BIG HORNS - the mission: hunt for, locate and shoot a few Rock Chucks, or, yellow bellied marmots. It had been 30 years since I had hunted and shot rock chucks - way before BIG MIKE was conceived - marmots had been a long-time dream of Tom's.  We'd been talking about getting it done for years, but could never fit the trip into the schedule. Last week, we finally just said to hell with tradition - tournament shootin' -  lets go! :)

The BIG HORNS are located in North central Wyoming - as usual, the scenery was GREAT - all the way across SD, and WY, the grass was green from what appeard to be unusually frequent and voluminous rain fall! :)

Following a little four wheel trail-blazing and hunting for chucks, and well before noon, at an elevation of 8800 Ft., Tom shot his first Yellow Bellied Marmot (not the one pictured) ! :) The remainder of the hunt was awesome . . . maybe more later. RG

Here, Tom poses with a chuck dispatched using a 700 Rem. based custom 22/250, smithed by Mike Bigelow: 'Bling's' Lica said 290 Yd., BIG MIKE's GPS recorded 8500 Ft. elevation.

Here, Tom holds a marmot following a 400+ yard shot, made with his 22/250: the gore, created by the 56 Gr. BIB, is nicely hidden from view! ;) The RANGER is 420 Yd. away - Tom executed the shot from a handy rock just this side of the right-of-way . . . the elevation at the chuck: 8800 feet. The quartering breeze required 16-18" of hold-off; about 1&1/2 chuck lengths.

 Hey Tom and Randy, I love this stuff..keep the narratives and photos coming, most excellent!!!  Closer examination of the last photo, I can just make out "BIG MIKE" peeking his head over a boulder on the far side of the mountain!!  I bet he is contemplating a raid on the empty pickup in search of a sandwich!!

Here, in the early AM fog,Tom glasses a couple of chucks which we had located the preceeding evening - we had made a 'stalk', and approached these wary critters from the timber: the closest [biggest] rock ranged 270 Yd. Using his 6MM LongNecker 6/250 Ackley Improved case-body, featuring a 6MM Rem. neck length), Tom shot two chucks: the 95 Gr. BIB FB rendered both D.O.A.

This proved an interesting venture - Tom found the aestthetics to his liking. :) BIG MIKES dreaded Alpine (Borden) actioned 20 BR rests to Tom's left . . . by the time we were ready to head home, the local chucks had filed a petition, with their local & state congressman, for protection from 20BR toters. Out to 400+ Yd., the 1:11" twisted PacNor, launching 40 Gr. Berger BTs, at a solid 4000+ FPS, proved simply deadly . . . and it didn't miss often. ;) RG

Here's a zoomed-in shot of the rock-pile - at the left, on the biggest rock, a large rock chuck is just visible (I think) . . . 

Here's a view of Tom, following a little lifting of the haze, deciding which chuck to anoint . . .