OK now that I figured out how to add my story....I am tickled to have run into this thread because I don't currently know anyone as dedicated to shooting hogs as myself.
I started at 17 which I owe to being able to drive since I didn't live in a rural community. I shot along the James River in Va with a Mossberg 640K Chuckster in .22 Mag. It was only good to about 130 yards to anchor a full size hog and many wounded ones drug themselves off. Truth is I hit the largest one of my life at 125 or so, he side rolled 3 times, got up, and went into a hole suitable for a grown bear. My shooting buddy had begged me not to shoot because it was too big to be a groundhog! He looked like one, sat up on his haunches like one so ......
Enough of that stuff. Went and bought a new Winchester in .225. Looking back not a great gun but it worked to about 500 yards if all went right. It wore a Unertyl external adjustment 20 power scope made for Varmint guys versus benchrest models. I used it win the eastern half of Va, mostly bean fields and averaged 10 a day for many years.
Then I discovered Benchrest Shooting and wanted to shoot 1000 yards with the IBS. I made a big leap to a 75 lb heavy class smithed by Clay Spencer that was in 30.338 Win Mag since I had not done serious reloading until then. It wears a NF Benchrest 12-42 power scope and it has a 34 inch barrel 1.875 inch diameter. I primarily shot 175 pills because I did not have extreme ranges as a possibility.
I started working the mountainous areas of Va (to the west) and WVA and always shot off my portable bench. Right away I had many 800 yards or so kills with little difficulty. I accumulated a Barr & Stroud Optical rangefinder and had very good ballistics which I printed out for every 5 yards to 1200 for the temp, altitude, etc of the farm to be hunted that day. All misses were horizontal, the charts were ON THE MONEY.
I had purchased a new Suburban just to carry all the stuff that went on a trip and bought a second bench, the BR Pivot 360 degree model that was $850 way back when! Well, at that point I had more benches than guns so I ordered a custom IBS light gun Tooley MBR stock in 6/7.5 x 55 by Dave Tooley. It shot 105 Bergers at 3300 with superb accuracy. Glass was 12-42 power Nightforce Benchrest It was a good hog gun to 1300 yards but had many get away because the long 105 Bergers, good for competition, were slicing through and exiting too easy.
I had a .22 Vais chambering (6.5 x 55 Swede) that shot molyed 80 grain Berger VLDS at 3560 and use the above gun both ways and it quickly became the default gun because most hogs were within range of it and it was devastating to them with strong WHOCKS coming back from 1000 yard kills.
Now with 2 superb BR quality rigs and TWO tables I started 2 and 3 day expeditions to western Va, and Wva. Vacations and long weekends had me working new territory in Pa and Ohio with kills out to 1355. OK, now I am all in. I bought a diesel powered short school bus (about 7 mpg!) and drug a 6 wheel Polaris around behind it while working for 4-6 months at a time working in Ohio and Pa and shootiing weekends. I had a pair of BigEyes assembled with 2 Swarovski 65 mm spotters which made long periods searching for volunteers possible without major headaches.
This combination worked for many years (.22, 6, and .30). In 2001, after attending the Shot Show, I could not wait to order parts and have assembled a .408 Cheytac and decided I would kill one at a mile before I croaked. Did I mention that I put the US Optics SN-9 scope on it which does well to 2.5 miles. I built a 65 lb bench gun with a 36 inch barrel in a wildcat configuration and it shoots 419 grain solid pills at 3100 fps! Unfortunately, living in Va, I found I was not welcome many places with that kind of horsepower. (more on that later). At this point I am having to be in the northeast to shoot partly because coyotes ate most of Virginias hogs!)
Lots of time passes, I shoot less and less UNTIL I RETIRED and got single again. I am now 70 and still get excited searching and shooting these critters. The bad part is that I often am by myself because all by shooting buddies were still working or babysitting the grandkids, etc.
I have made some good contacts in numerous websites to find people to join me for a couple of days in the northeast and I can leave without notice and stay till I run out of money. That translates to maybe 4 weeks total of shooting at prime locations AT THE RIGHT TIME.
I had not planned on buying any more sticks as a poor retired guy but I got the itch to play the tactical shooting game and had a first class rig built in a .260 Ackly with MacMillan A5 stock, a 30 inch Brux barrel, a BAT Tactical short action, and a new NF ATACR with the Tremore-3 reticule. Unbelievably, my smith shot a 3 shot group at 100 when I was finding a load that was .004 over the .264 bullet diameter which surpassed my TRUE benchrest guns! This is now getting the most attention with setting up with this on one bench and my .22 Vais on the other. I keep a .17 Mach IV handy in case they rush me! My number 1 goal for this coming season is to bust one with the .260 Ackly at 1500 yards and if I can do it (might take two seasons) I will try for the mile. The more time I spend in the NE the more chances to put together opps for hogs at extreme distances. There are NOT many opps to do this.
This is my off season and I enjoy reloading and have a serious ready to go source for all the sticks, I will likely start in western or central Pa when the crops first break ground and work all the hay cuts. My vehicle now that I am retired gets 14 MPG and is a gas powered 350 Ford Van with the extra 30 inch tall top and the extended length. I can sleep in the upper part and all below is packed with 5 sticks, shooting benches, optical range finder, big eyes, 2 tripods, cleaning stuff, and reloading necessities, first aid kit, bowling pins for slow days, etc.
I have enjoyed reading about people that went crazy like I have over these furry critters. I am always wanting to be contacted by those in the NE that I could shoot with on my trips and even hope to find someone like myself that is 1) a groundhog nut and 2) retired and ready to GO.
I did not get into specifics about my kills but they are fairly unusual for the east coast, I want to get a hog with EACH gun at the absolute longest distance possible for that cartridge. I do not show my victims in pictures because It would take a LONG time to walk out and get them particularly since they may not lie on the land I got permission to shoot from AND if I collected them I would have no time to shoot others.
Obviously if I started at 17 and I am now 70, I have left out a lot, but it is past my bedtime.
I now live in Hatteras NC because my no 2 hobby is offshore fishing which costs a lot more than my shooting. Life is GOOD!
No scope, open sights & no rangefinder!! He was better than me but I could hit 6 out of 10 all day long. Have no idea what the ranges were but a lot more than 100 yards. Of course I was a teenager then. 
