OK . . . I Admit It --- THEY ARE OUT ! ! !

Bounty Hunter 6 and I went to scout for chizzlers in Iron County on Thursday 2-15-2018*.  We left home base around 8:30 a.m. and arrived in alfalfa field at around 9:45 a.m.  We saw several big old boys running around and looking for food and companionship.  It would seem the rut is ON in the chizzler world.  They eat a little, wrestle with potential mates, then eat a little more.  REPEAT.

I was excited to be there and to see the furry big fellows coming up for air after their long winter naps. Bounty Hunter 6 and I both brought .17 HMR rifles as we knew the shooting would be at some distance.  We set up the squirrel-o-matics in the back of BH6's truck and proceeded to reap chizzlers without hesitation.  We shot for about 1 1/2 hours and ended a significant number of profit stealers for the farmers.  I was hitting about 70% of the time at distances of 40 to 125 yards.  BH6 scored about the same.  The wind came up and was blowing at a rate of between 5 and 10 MPH.  This makes hitting chizzlers a task at distances over 50 yards.  The little .17 caliber bullet just gets blown around in the wind.  We still, made some excellent shots and reaped a bunch of chizzlers.  We decided to call it a day due to the wind factors and the factor that we had shot about 300 chizzlers in a short time. We stored our rifles and headed out of the field. 

Check out the smile.  You just would have had to be there.

Satisfied smirk and smile of death for chizzlers.

As we were leaving Bounty Hunter 6 said lets go over to the field just north of us and see if the windbreak trees are doing their job.  I agreed and we went , just for a "look see", over about 3/4 mile to the north.  As we drove into the field I said "Stop let me load up my .22LR rifle and see if any "sappers" come to try to derail us as we travel into the field".  Just self defense you know.  BH6 agreed and I loaded my rifle and a 10 round magazine, rolled the window down, and put myself on guard duty.  We entered the field and there were chizzlers all over the place.  BH6 said shoot some of the closer ones.  I did as ordered by the Captain.  I shot about 40 chizzlers just from the access road to the pump house for the circular in less than 5 minutes and 300 yards of travel.  Bounty Hunter 6 was excited to watch me shoot.  I told him, "Let me drive and you shoot" but he was laughing so hard if I missed I think he didn't want to start up shooting.  BH6 called our dear friend Mr. Bob, the king of chizzler reaping, and told him we were into them at that very moment.  BH6 just wanted Mr. Bob to feel he had missed an exceptional opportunity to reap chizzlers. {Kind of mean friends aren't we?}  Mr. Bob was on speaker phone and we were driving down a pivot access road Mr. Bob knew very well from other adventures in the same spot and I was shooting like a well oiled machine.  Finally Mr. Bob's call was ended and BH6 said let's put up the squirrel-o-matics and shoot here for awhile.  I had to agree as the targets were far and away more than I could take care of.  After all our intent is to help the agriculturalists.  

Se stopped in a good spot and angled the truck for maximum reapability.  Bounty Hunter 6 got out a .22 LR Ruger 10-22 target model and some 25 round magazines and proceeded to try and eradicate all the vermin from the field.  Of course he didn't get them all but together we did make a significant dent in the population that was visible that cold blowing morning.  I don't worry about over reaping.  I know there are still thousands of little profit sealers out there.  the chizzler population will continue to bear offspring and eat the alfalfa fields.  NO matter how many I reap there always seem to be more when I come back in 2 or 3 days.  I will continue to do my best to help the farmers in Iron County, Utah as the spring progresses.






 *Bounty Hunter 6 facebook post about the adventure:
Craig Mangus laid a guilt trip on me.
I had explained to him....why we shouldn’t go up to Beryl to shoot Squirrels. 33 degrees, rain, snow and sleet.....and 25 MPH wind...nope today would be a good day to hang out at home, I told him.
He agreed with a long sigh and fading voice sounding as if his cat had just died.
“I guess I’ll just hang out here at the house”....long quavering sigh.
Ok, Ok.... I know when I’m licked, we’ll drive up look around a little and come right back.
Squirrels were out, in the heavy wind and cold, thicker than fleas on a hound dog.
Between the two of us, we shot over one K of 17HMR AND 22LR. Estimating killing approximately 600 plus vermin....A lot of Kentucky windage and Tennessee elevation....after shooting approx 500 Rds of 17HMR, I switched to my heavy Barrel 10-22....Loading Magazines with cold fingers was hard.

CAN YOU KEEP A. . . . . . secret?

Just to prove I am not a bad person I offered to take my dear wife, The Supreme Commander, for a drive.  The Supreme Commander was raised on a ranch in Idaho.  She is a beautiful and tough girl.  She and I went out in the country on Saturday, 2/3/18, and somehow, I don't know why, we ended up in a chizzler field in Iron County, Utah.

Get this -- I just happened to have in the back of my truck all the necessary items to hunt chizzlers. So I figured 'what the heck' and set up shooting stations for us. It was a very calm afternoon and the temperature was around 60° F.  At 3:30 p.m or so there appeared out about 125 yards a few early riser chizzlers. Just up from their winter's nap. They were frisky little buggers running to and fro. I managed to sight in on and end the frolic for about two dozen of the alfalfa stealing demons with my 22LR dispatcher.  My closest shot of the afternoon was at 95 yards.

This is the absolutely earliest day in the year I have ever helped agriculture with their vermin problem.  The targets were far away for my little rifle. I didn't shoot all that well. I left way too many for seed. I did however, reduce some of my pent up frustration about hunting chizzlers. The S.C. and I spotted and shot for about 90 minutes then packed up and motored towards home.

What a day. What a glorious day! 👍 😀   😈

"The early bird" gets the round

{P.S. Bounty Hunter 6 heard about my adventure with the Supreme Commander.   He demanded a photo. He posted about it on his facebook account. Then he made me go back to the same chizzler field and hunt with him on Monday, 2/5/18.  We shot for about 2 hours in 9 MPH winds and then the weather took a turn for the worse.  We had endured winds for our entire time hunting but the actual storm front came in and rain was starting so we packed it up and left.  We reaped about 4 dozen total.  Not fast and furious shooting but still so fun to help agriculture after many cold lonesome months just thinking about it.}

CRAP-O-RAMA Not Yet

Bounty Hunter 6 and I went to Iron County to look for early rising chizzlers on Tuesday.  We figured some of the early risers would be coming out of their burrows right now.  YES, I know it is still January.  But it has been a mild winter more or less.  Crap-O-Rama -- we had a nice drive up there, we discussed the various topics of the day i.e., Trump, the Super Bowl, and of course chizzlers.  It was a nice sunny day with temperatures in the 40º's.  We had real high hopes.  We had brought our .22LR rifles just in case.

We saw no chizzlers.  We saw no signs of chizzlers.  The only thing that was compensating was the view of several bald eagles sitting in trees surrounding the alfalfa circular fields that looked extra hungry and in a bad mood.  The two dozen or so crows standing around were waiting in the fields for the chizzlers right on the ground  examining closely the mounds of dirt piled up by the chizzlers last fall.  The crows were way anxious and they were on a significant diet of no chizzler meat at all.

All in all we were blanked out.  The eagles were starving and the crows got what they deserved --nothing.  We didn't even in case our rifles.

Check out photos of last year and what we hope for real soon.  I will keep you all updated.

20 minutes work a month into the season

Early season chizzler