What an outdoor adventure, Corey! Lions, tigers and bears, oh my. Did that skunk release after you shot it? I had an afternoon/evening similar to you...
I picked up a buddy at 3:30 and headed to the fields. At our first field I peeked over a spur and saw a coyote approaching the same grove of trees I was going to glass for a groundhog!!!
I needed to crawl to a decent shooting location but eventually had a perfect, clear 150 yard shot. Mr. Coyote turned broadside, I put the crosshairs right behind his shoulder and touched off the shot. It was a clean miss and the coyote hit high gear and was gone. Instantly I knew I had left 500+ yards of drop dialed into my scope from my previous outing and the shot went way high at 150.
Crap!
There was no further activity in this area so we moved to our primary objective - an alfalfa field where we can observe 1200 yards of brushy creek-edge. I've taken several in this area recently and missed a few as well so knew there would be opportunities. One situation was particularly enticing - a round haybale where a large sow likes to perch to survey her crops. And sure enough she came out and climbed up there soon after we arrived!
My buddy had previously shot my 17FB and was loving it as he contemplates his own rifle purchase, so today I brought the heavier 243 so he could experience something different. We had to set him up in the bed of my truck to get a straight shot at this groundhog..we ranged it at 284...a little dope dialed in...BOOM! my buddy sends the 75 grain Vmax downrange. I'm watching with my binos and see a tremendous impact as both the groundhog and shreds of hay explode into the air. It looked like a good hit but I'm wondering if perhaps it went low into the bale and caused all that hay to fly about? We go find out and sure enough he nailed the 'hog and sent that sucker flying backwards into the undergrowth. It was a heck of a shot as the groundhog was laying flat and only presented about a 3" profile. We surmised the hay we saw came from his claws clutching the bale..?
We spent the next hour playing cat-n-mouse with a 'hog out around 575 yards. I sent several shots his way but none connected and we couldn't tell what adjustments were needed. A little later I played the same game with one around 450, sent several his way but no hits. Probably not doping right for the wind.
We ended the evening watching another area, getting a hit on this hog at 180 with the Browning 22 Hornet, then missing another at 480 with the 243 again. Maybe time for a barrel cleaning and zero check at the rifle range.