Any groundhog hunters here?

[Hildy]

Enjoying the groundhog hunting with this nice weather fella's?

I know I am.

Took a hog the other day at 310 yards with the 223 Handi. We set up on a hay bale on the hedgerow of about 50 visible acres of field. On our left was the majority of the long-range shooting with 500 yards of shootable field. After spooking a close one, we spotted a black dot a ways out there on the left field. I noticed movement of this anonymous shape and realized its a groundhog. I set up the gun on the hay bale shooting off of a bipod, loaded with a moly 55g V-max at about 3200fps. Aiming above the hogs head several inches, I pulled the trigger and watched the action through the scope. Over rolled the hog and I was one happy camper. 310 yards is my furthest kill with the 223 handi.

I put a Choate stock/forearm on it and it seemed to tighten groups even more so I was confident making the shot.

Hope to get the CZ 204 out next weekend for hogs. Sorry guys, its not a Handi, but that thing is smokin' accurate with 32g Vmax.

[knight0334]

I enjoy the art of exploding whistlepigs.

I just got my new .223 sighted in over the weekend.  Hoping to get out soon..

I beat myself to death using 45-70's the last few years on them.  I was using the farm's Springfield Trapdoor, then migrated to a Buffalo Classic and 22' Handi after picking them up.  

My longest kill was a couple years ago with the Trapdoor, close to 400yards.  I'm not sure if I hit him directly or the small rock in front of him.  ..there were rock fragments all over the place and throughout what was left of his remains.

You having a hard time finding chucks lately?  They are getting kinda scarce around here.  We are starting to think the influx of coyote and hawks are getting the best of them.  ..seen alot of both in recent years.

[myarmor]

I have noticed that there are a few less around the Farm this year, though I blame that in part on the damage of last season, and the raise of Foxs and Coyotes.

[EVOC ONE]

I finally found a farmer that would let me do a little ground hog hunting this year.  Was out twice last week.  Hit one at 292 steps and another at just under 400 steps (I lost count close to where I hit him).

I'm using a .223 Handi with 22" tapered barrel, Bushnell Sportsman 3X9X40 and Leupold Rifleman rings.  I use the scope on 6X. I've been using Federal American Eagle 50 gr Flat Base HP.  They shoot real good out of my rifle, but so far I've not had a clean kill.  The first one ran about five yards before dropping in his tracks.  The second one spun and rolled over then limped into the hedge row.  We've talked about it on another post and the conclusion seems to be that the HP's are not opening up as they should.  The bullet is a FMJ HP design.

I'm going to switch back to the Win White Box, but I have to get to the range and zero the gun to 200 yds. with that ammo.

I'm having a great time, though.  I zeroed the gun to shoot about an inch or so high at 200yds and so far I'm holding dead on at the ranges I've been shooting.

You are correct.  The weather this past week in has been awesome for field hunting.

Continued good luck to you!

EVOC ONE

[Big Moe]

Been to the farms once,  1 kill 130 yards. Still a little early. The farmer should have planted his beans last week. Great timing, next week the beans will be up, mother hog has had babies and weened them and time for fun. I try to wait till the end of May so the litter is up and about. Shoot them too early and you kill the new litter. I did some scouting and found several yellow dirt mounds in the fields, soon to be the "Ground Hog Grave Yard" Another good sign is the activity spotted, they were running all over the place as I drove around the fields. I too shoot the .223 fluted barrel ultra varmet. A lot of practice at the local gun club with the WWB 45gr hp. The gun is on but I still miss, big difference in paper and hunting. Yep, I'm excited I've been waiting and shooting all winter hoping to spend a few quiet relaxing days hunting on the farms. I hope you folks are blessed with many successful, safe and relaxing hunting trips. Please share them, I'm still new at this.
                                                      Moe

[Ranger J]

In my neck of the woods the only live groundhogs are those that can outrun the coyotes.  I guess I need to start shooting the latter.
RJ

[shaner]

ohio pig hunter here havent got outto shoot any i wait till  i know the little ones are all ready to go , sort of my replenishing thing i guess but iam ready anytime , usually right afterthe first hay cutting, then they are all fair targets

[Fred M]

Hildi.
Had a good day yesterday pm shooting gophers they are a mini ground hog that's all we got here. They stand about 8" high and 2" wide.

I practiced with that new Burris Ballistic mil dot. One mil on a gopher is 222 yards. I consider 3/4mil max range for my rifle to hit these critters that is 296 yards. It takes a 1/2" rifle to do it.

The second dot below the x-hair  seams to be close to the point of aim at that distance with my 6x47. It is an easy way to judge the distance.

I was using a 58.0gr Hornady V-max bullets, and do they ever shread the gophers. On my way home to my friend place I spotted a coyote laying down on the hill side.

The coyote is about a yard long from the nose to the rump 3.5mils equals 285 yards  I held dead on with the the second dot and disembowled the coyote. That bullet blew the bottom out of the coyote. I did not think it would do that much damage.

Whenever I have some time I need to find out excactly where the dots shoot to with my rifle. But I think it somewhere between a 223 and a 22-255

The 3rd dot down would put me to about 375 yards.
I have some objections with this Burris 6.5-20x50 that is the power settings are too tight and so is the objective lens paralax adjustment I hope it wears in a bit.

Its called improved water sealing as if you were to go swiming with a scope.

[218Bee]

Good shootin, Fred :grin:  

I've got the Ballistic Plex on my 22-250. I'm still working the bugs out of the setup. The hype is that with certain factory round you can hold the second tic @200, the third tic @300 and so on given big game sized targets.

I scored a hit on a woodchuck at just over 300, (held about the second tic) but had two misses at 200 +/-. I think I went over them. I set it up to be dead on at 100.

It's a nice clear scope but there's no substitute for practice at the actual ranges, something I haven't done.

Sounds like a good excuse to shoot up some paper :lol:

Best to all,

Rick

[Fred M]

Rick.
Many years ago I used a 22 Varminter that was the name for the 22-250 long before Rem came out with it.
The secret of  a successfull varmint rifle is one load one bullet one powder and never change. I was shooting 55gr bullets only in a 1-14" twist.

Once you get used to what a varmint looks like with a mil dot, it gets almost instantaineous. I think it is a great system.

I am doing the same with the 6x47 at this point I am still using new brass. Made up 250 shells. Once they all fire formed accuray usally improves a bit. Shooting gophers burnes up a lot of ammo. One thing about the 6x47 it has very little recoil and you can often see your hit.

One other thing about that scope there is realy no need to change power at 14x I am good ot to 300yards. When the light goes bad the 6.5 wortks well out to 200.
The exit pupil at 20x is only 2.5mm and is only good in bright light.

[Hildy]

Looks like you guys are having fun :grin:

Up to my number 4 whistlepig kill as of about 40 minutes ago. 223 headshot at maybe 80 yards. 55g moly vmax

Sure did give him a face lift.  :-D

[Beekeeper]

I shoot whistlepigs when I get the chance. Disease hit ours hard ten or so years ago, and the rest of them moved into the towns.