They are out in abundance this year. Seems like more are running around then normal. Makes them easier to spot when they do that lol.
Hunting & Fishing Groundhogging
- Thread starter deersniper
- Start date
We have those here in very limited numbers. Would be cool if it was more target rich. Guess i’ll stick to squirrels. Shaping up to be a good year for critters in general, big and small.
Nice covert!
Nice covert!
Only 2-250. Most are around 3-400 yards but I have shot them from contact distance out to 680. That's a 6.5 creedmoor. Hit the one at 680 with a SAC .223 conversions and hornady 53 grain super performance.
Here's a 1 yarder. Would have been 2 dead if I had been a hair faster.
Tagged. I'm going to be in SD the first week of June for a PDog hunt and won't be back to my native Pennsyltucky until July for the annual culling of whistle pigs.
I just rolled back in last night from my PDog hunt in SD last week. I've hunted whistle pigs since I was a kid but this was my first Pdog hunt and now I am hooked!! I ran .223Rem in two rifles with three flavors of ammo: 55gr Vmax @3200fps, 73gr ELD-M @2975fps, and 75gr ELD-M @ 2975fps.
The 55gr Vmax is a clone load of the factory Hornady Varmint Express load with 24.58gr of XBR8208 in LC brass lit by a WSR or CCI400 and loaded to OAL of 2.250in. The 55gr Vmax load was devastating on Pdogs inside of 350yds with a red mist and pieces of Pdogs flying everywhere!!
The 73/75 ELD-M ammo are my custom hand loads for my 26" Criterion 1 in 8 twist Wylde chambered barrel. Load recipe is 25.18gr of TAC in LC or Lapua brass lit by a CCI41 and loaded to OAL of 2.545in. I mainly used it on 350yds and farther unless the wind was howling. The 75gr is mainly for the 500yd and out shots because it has better wind drift numbers than the 73gr.
I've been chucking with the 73gr for a few years and inside of 500yds they tend to fragment nicely upon impact and dump all their energy into the chuck with a minimal or even no exit wound, whereas the 75gr tend to blow right through.
I did land a first round hit at 563yds on a Pdog with a 75gr in 5-8mph crosswind. He dragged himself to the hole minus his lower half. My buddy got one at 625yds with the 73gr and it just fell over dead right there, never twitched.
The 73/75 ELD-M's are awesome bullets!!
185 jug at 230 yds, standing with the AX off a gamechanger between the door and windshield.
I have had good luck with 22lr. Subs for stealth mode work. Velocitors work real good too. I have heard the cci segmented rounds work well also.
No experience with HMR but it should work great
I'm getting my stuff together now to go out this evening. Looking forward to some Long Range Groundhogging here in the beautiful Virginia piedmont.
So much fun! My buddy and I shoot them off his uncle's farm. He hates them. Good shooting guys!
Had a beautiful hike in to my shooting spot, but had to beat a hasty retreat when a huge storm rolled in about 45 min after I got into position. No groundhogs, but 45 minutes of hunting beats 0 minutes of hunting.
75* at the end of October? Yes please. Hope this isn't the last one for the year.
229 yards
229 yards
Our Rock Chucks (sort of a Western ground hog) like to start hibernating around the last of August
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