Annual Groundhog tally for 2011

Went out yesterday evening. Man, I just love being out and walking the farmland! Saw 3 and popped 2 with the 17 Fireball. Missed one at 265 when I had a wobbly rest on a hay bale that was really too tall for me to use. Repositioned at the next available spot and got him from 190 when he came back up. Other was at 180. Love that Fireball - DRT.

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I bet that's a heck of a fight. I can see the hair flying and squealing now
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Tim, do they sight hunt them or go in the holes after them? I'm guessing you're using Jagd Terriers.
 
Yeah, I was wondering about that little dog running into some deep, dark groundhog hole. Pretty brave dog to do that!

I had another fine evening last night. I love hot, humid Virginia summer evenings and it is just right for stalking a few bean-eating groundhogs. I saw several but most shots were not at much of a sporting distance. The two I eventually took were at 217 and 212.

This one played peek-a-boo with me for an hour forcing me to change my firing position. Eventually everything aligned and the 20 grain Accutip from the 17 Fireball put and end to peek-a-boo. It was just boo after I pulled the trigger.

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This next one was stretching out the fine summer evening watching dusk set in. I was watching too.

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These dogs will kill just about anything they can get a hold of, and if they cant kill it they will die trying.

Yes these dogs will for the most part enter a den and kill the ground hog, or if it flushes the other dog will kill it. There are times that they will catch them before they hit their holes.

They put up a pretty good fight, but not enough to do much damage. The fur sure does fly!

Tim
 
Was going to go to the shop to finish rebarreling my wife's rifle, but right after we fed the horses the sun came out and it became a really nice day. Definitely not shop weather.

It was supposed to rain later, so I figured there might be some some ground hogs out eating with focus on munching because of the rain coming. So I chamged into camo, loaded the ATV in the truck, and headed for a farm I hunt about 5 miles up the road from home.

Nobody around when I unloaded, but I knew the status of the fields after a phone conversation with the owner the day before, so I took the ATV and motored across the road into the freshly harvested hay field along the road.

Went up to a break in the trees along the road, set up the tripod with the RASS arm on top, got the rifle (.223 CA527 American) out, loaded, scanned a bit with the binocs.

I prefer to scan with the 7x35 binocs. If I see something that triggers interest, I use the rifle scope to investigate. There are a lot of objects in farm fields that "might" be a GH, and frequently the scope at 14X quickly makes it possible to be sure if it is or not.

I was set, had made several scans when for no reason I can remember, turned around, looked through a small break in the trees and scanned as much of the fresh alfalfa field on the other side of the road as i could see. Well by golly there was a ground hog standing next to his hole a cross the road from me about 387 (per the range finder) yards away. I watched him for a few seconds and it became clear he was feeding in earnest.

He was both too far for my skills with the .223 and required shooting over the road which is a no-no, but other than that, it was a perfectly good ground hog to be hunting.

On the other side of the road was another hay field between me and the freshly seeded alfalfa field that had the ground hog in it. That hay field on the other side of the road had about 6 swaths already harvested which would give me a way to get the ATV within easy walking distance of a set up on the hog.

Deciding it was better to go after one I could see, and having a practical way to do it with a good safe shot angle, I took down the rest, uloaded the rifle and put it in the scabbard (unloaded it because I'd be crossing the road), packed the rest of the gear on the ATV, rode down the hay field to a place where it would be practical to cross the road, and came back up the far side of the road on the side farthest from the GH. The good news was my whole trip with the ATV was out of sight of the ground hog.

I stopped at a location that would give me a good backstop, took the chair, sticks, rifle and headed slowly across the uncut hay field up over the rise and staying low got set up so I'd be barely able to see the GH through the scope while seated in the chair with the rifle on the sticks. I took a quick rangefinder reading (184 yards - piece of cake shot with the .223), and waited sitting in the chair with the rifle on the sticks, butt in my lap, glassing the hole with binocs.

It wasn't more than 10 minutes when I saw him working his way into view. Put the rifle scope on him and then watched for another 10 minutes while he squirmed and crawled his way into what would be almost the perfect position. When he was where I wanted him, I squeezed and he dissapeared.

With the recoil, I didn't get to see the impact, so I wasn't sure what happened. I waited 20 minutes or so in case he should appear again. He didn't (turns out he couldn't!) Then motored around the field to the other side, parked next to the fresh alfalfa field and walked over to the hole. He was lying right there on the side of his great big hole. He was suffering from significant dissassembly - definitely not a good candidate for pictures.

This was a GH that had some weight on him. I left him there for the vultures.

I'm spotting more and more of them out beyond 250 yards. I just bought a Nikon Monarch 5-20x44SF scope for the .22-250. Planning to do a little load development (I have some 55g NBT on the shelf so I'll give those a try) and give it a field trial as soon as it's ready.

The farms here are relatively small, tend to have dairy herds and rocky pastures and fields. This particular hunt was typical. I seem to spend most of my time getting in position to take shots.

There are some huge holes in that fresh alfalfa field but I can't get a safe angle on them till after the rest of the adjacent hay field is harvested.

Fitch
 
Good post Fitch. You gotta tighten up and remember the camera!

Here's my trip from yesterday. The 17 Fireball is down for maintenance so took the 22 Hornet and 243 out for a drive in the country.

While walking a field I was within 50 feet of this tree rootball when I saw some eyeballs watching me. I was way too close, wasn't a sporting shot so they get a pass until next time.
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While playing tiddlywinks with the babies in the tree I glanced over to where I had truly been focused previously. A large pumpkin-colored and pumpkin-sized sized head had popped up from a well established hole that I have been watching for a year. Finally, a chance at this sneaky fella! Today I had my Browning A-Bolt 22 Hornet which was sporting a new Burris FFII 4.5-14x42 scope that I had sighted in that morning. This was only a 135 yard shot and the Hornady VMAX 35 grain pill connected with a resounding THWAP!
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As I was leaving this field I noticed a scurrying 'hog in an adjacent field. My heart starting pumping as it looked like I would have a nice 300+ yard shot at one. Long shots like this are rare for me given the rolling layout of the farms I can hunt. Anyway, after a major 20 minute effort to relocate I was set up in the prone with a clear 330 yard shot. By now it was prime time (~ 7 PM) summer evening so I decided to wait him out. I had switched guns to my Savage M10 243 to make use of the Vortex 6-20x Viper scope. Some dang cows moved in and literally walked/grazed right on top of the den. Eventually they moved on, the target reappeared and I missed twice. I could not see where my shots hit in the lush grass to correct and and never got this groundhog.
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It was a beautiful evening to be out!
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I was feeling bummed about missing those 330 yard shots but did get a little redemption on the way back to the truck. It was a real fatty in the grass so I dialed the Vortex back to 100 yards, put the target dot on 'em, and sent the 58 grain VMAX on it's way. Had to have been the loudest POP I think I've heard on a hog. Anyway here's the part I can show you
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Nice job Wahoowad. You'll get that 300yd+ kill yet. You need to start carrying a pistol for those hide and seek close ones. It'll put the fairness back into it, LOL. I scouted my farm Saturday but was dissapointed to see the farmers still working to get the first cut in and now the corn is too tall to hunt over. Hopefully things get better in the coming weeks.
 
Great job, those ones in the tree would have been a great place to stick a terrier or two. I am going to hit it again tomorrow, that is if it dont rain us out.

Tim
 
I did get out last weekend, but forgot to post up. I was at another property and found a few little ones as I pulled into the front of the property but let them go. There were 4 little ones and 2 adults. I went back to the back of the property to check out the hay field and they haven't even taken the first cut yet. I went back to setup to see if the other came out again and ran into this fella.

Sandhill Crane, he didn't even scare off. This weekend I found out why.

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I finally got setup over looking the ditch where I had seen the others but only got a chance at this one. First one that ended up with it's tongue hanging out.

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Here's the hole pose

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and the gun pose. It was right at 105 yards.

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Originally Posted By: ARCOREY You'll get that 300yd+ kill yet.

I might make it work if I can turn my scope knobs in the right direction. Just realized today I adjusted DOWN and not UP!
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Maybe next time.
 
Originally Posted By: wahoowadOriginally Posted By: ARCOREY You'll get that 300yd+ kill yet.

I might make it work if I can turn my scope knobs in the right direction. Just realized today I adjusted DOWN and not UP!
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Maybe next time.

I hear you, missed my 398yd chance twice with my AR a few weeks back. Forgot how to do math and multiplied wrong, 1/8" per click had me all messed up. Shot high so I dialed more forgetting I had a revolution in it and dialed on top of what I already had and shot a couple feet higher
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. I finally took a deep breath, went back to zero wind and elevation and dialed the next one at 325yds for a first round hit. Nothing more range time won't fix
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OK, this time I have a picture (taken with my iPhone). This is #22 for this year.

After I got the horses fed, it was such a beautiful day I decided grab the .223 CZ American sporter (it pretty much sticks to my hand when I reach in the safe)

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and head on over to Tim's farm and see if I could bag a GH or 2 in his new alfalfa field. I hiked out in the adjacent hay field to the point where I'd have a safe shot at better than 75% of the hay field.

By 0930 it was getting pretty windy, but just as I was going to get up and head back home I spotted a little guy in his hole on a rocky berm about 204 yards away (gotta love the laser rangefinder). I could just see him in a dip in the rim of his hole sort of between some weeds. He'd come up, take some bites, go down, presumably to chew, then do it again. He wasn't taking any pauses sitting up or anything to make it easy.

I had my little camo folding chair and sticks. I set the AO to 200 yards, the scope magnification to 14X (which is max for that scope) got set up on him, checked the range and estimated the wind. I waited a couple of minutes but he wasn't interested in coming more than about half way out of his hole - probably the wind was making him nervous, and the breeze was getting noticably stronger by the minute. There was rock to the left of him but dirt above, behind and to the right of him. Weeds below him. I noticed the wind was moving the weeds. So it was at least as strong over there as it was where I was sitting.

I did notice that the weed movement happened reasonably close to when I'd feel the max breeze where I was sitting, which seemed like a useful observation at the moment. Between the wind, my tendancy to move slightly on the sticks, and the 14X magnification, I wasn't feeling real confident, so I decided to take advantage of breeze dips and shoot when the weeds weren't moving and the breeze was dipping at my location. I figured the wind was about 10 mph dipping to around 5mph, almost exactly 90 degrees to the projected flight path. (A Kestrel is definitely on my wish list!)

That wasn't leaving me a very big target. Finally, with all this racing through my head, more in thought fragments than complete thought sentences, I decided "no guts, no glory", put the vertical cross hair along the left side of his body, the horizontal on his shoulders, relaxed, took a breath, and squeezed when there was what felt like a dip in the breeze, the weeds weren't moving, and he was up a bit in his hole.

Gotta love that single set trigger.

The rifle moved and I didn't see the impact. Looking through the scope I couldn't see him, and with the wind rising it was time to leave anyway, so I packed up and headed over.

When I got there, this is what I saw:

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The bullet had drifted right about 2" pretty much as I was hoping (and consistant with a 5mph cross wind at 200 yards as I found out when i analyzed the shot in QuickTarget) and nailed him dead center. He dropped down a few inches, the top of his head was about level with the top of the rock to his left, but was pretty much DRT.

A good morning hunt.

Fitch
 
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Great story and shot. I gotta get better at adjusting for the wind now that I'm stepping my shots out a bit. Good job dropping that small target.
 
Time to hunt has been at a premium the last couple of weeks. The wife has been ill and in the hospital, but is out now and on the mend, so I slipped off Saturday and gave these dirt doggies a dirt nap:
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Got a couple more places to hunt this evening, and this is one of three that bit the 40 grain Berger:
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I lost two weeks of prime beanfield hunting...the beans are getting too tall to see a groundhog unless they stand up on their tippy toes
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F1
 
Blueridgeboy and I went out again this evening and scored three each! Five were killed with my pellet rifle out to forty yards. The one BRB shot with his 204 launched a half grown piggie two feet in the air! I forgot to take the camera today, so no pics. This brings me to 22.
F1
 
Keep it up F1!

I went our for a very long day yesterday exploring 3 new, large farms. I must have walked 10 miles scouting many different fields, fencelines, bean fields, etc. I carried the wrong gun too - my Savage Predator 243 - it is a heavy beast compared to my other varmint guns. The short version is I only saw one groundhog away from outbuildings in about 8 hours of scouting. I did see several close in around some barns and popped them. Ended the day with 4, none over 50 yards. Productive for the farmers I guess but not a good day varminting given the effort expended. Didn't really see any promising dens on these farms. Anyhoo...this fella was taken by the 243 at 30 yards and totally absorbed the shot. No exit hole. I didn't think that was possible.

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Good shooting guys and pics are great.

I am still a little behind, but last weekend I struck out anyway. I did see a coyote and a ghog but no shots.

I went back to get redemption this morning. I setup off a creek that runs along an alfalpha field and waited.

This was my shot view. It is the back field from where I got my first one of the year.
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This is a view to where I was sitting. I got there early and waited until he woke up and went out to stretch.
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This was the DRT pose.

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This is the gun pose with a little effect. Only a 90 yard shot. I hit him above the right shoulder with a 39gr BK. No exit.

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