Never had this happen before...got a letter from a lady who had been complaining to a friend about ghogs eating her garden. Friend gave her my name as I hunt ghogs on his place. Called her and she begged me to come "kill all of them"!! She offered lemonade and sandwiches! Her place is small but we can always find a way to harvest the vermin. Went today and had no problem finding 4 holes in a colony. Went to the barn and one was staring at me from his hole with well worn paths to the barn and another small building. Sat up on a hill overlooking all this and in10 min one comes out oblivious to my presence...bad move. Short range so used my Les baer ar varmint shooting 52 cheeks with h335. DRT. 15 min later and his brother comes out of same hole to stretch and samo, samo. 25 min later and one runs from barn to the killing zone...what was he thinking? Joined his siblings. I had a pile of dead ghogs, so I called it a day and will return soon as mama and papa are still there. The nice lady arrived home and upon seeing my handiwork, placed a kiss on my cheek and a plea to return soon. How could I say no?
ghog season has begun!
- Thread starter lpreddick
- Start date
Good stuff!
I've been putting the DGR .243 through its paces. 12 ghogs so far this year. I went out this evening and saw one at 275 yards. I used the Shooter App, dialed the necessary elevation and dead ghog. Next groundhog I saw, I ranged it at 562. App called for 36 clicks of elevation from a 100 yd zero. I felt good at the shot and saw the bullet strike above the ghog at the first horizontal line of the lrmoa crosshair. Chambered another round held said 1st horizontal above center on him and nailed him. I'm thinking I need to check the 100 yard zero. Other ballistics tables called for same elevation. Obviously an inch off will be significant at distance.
This has been a very good year so far. I just got back home after three days of shooting groundhogs and this is the first year that I killed 200 before the end of June. Ended up with #222 for the season so far. Most have been with 20vt, 204, 221fb, and 223ai although I did get one at 219 yds with my 17 hmr two days ago. That is my longest shot with the 17 hmr and I was happy to see the tail salute on impact. He was hit just above the ear.
Rick in Oregon
Gold $$ Contributor
Well the chuck shooting has been good out here in the west too. Been out a few times locally with both my Anschutz 17HMR and my Cooper 20VT.
A good morning cruising about with my Anschutz (All head shots):
And for when the little buggers are peeking over their rock pile at "extended range", time to go back to the truck and retrieve my Cooper 20VT, my favorite rockchuck medicine:
Even the local paper gets all excited when the chucks come up every year (but not as excited as me!):
Once they go down for the season, it seems boring during the summer without them, as our guys go down by the first week of August. By that time, it's time to put away the rifles and just go jump in the lake!
A good morning cruising about with my Anschutz (All head shots):
And for when the little buggers are peeking over their rock pile at "extended range", time to go back to the truck and retrieve my Cooper 20VT, my favorite rockchuck medicine:
Even the local paper gets all excited when the chucks come up every year (but not as excited as me!):
Once they go down for the season, it seems boring during the summer without them, as our guys go down by the first week of August. By that time, it's time to put away the rifles and just go jump in the lake!
Rick, do you know if rock chucks and eastern groundhogs are the same animal. They look about the same but here in the east they start to appear in late Feb. and will be out until late Nov or early Dec. depending on weather. I also shoot a model 38 20 vt, it is my favorite varmint gun but have been playing around with a classic as they are a little lighter and I do a lot of walking.
Rick in Oregon
Gold $$ Contributor
varmintshooter said:
They're related, but NOT the same critter. Our rockcucks are actually Yellow Belly Marmots, and are out from early Feb and are all down for the year by the first week of August.
You could call them east/west cousins I suppose.
Gotta love that M38 in 20VT, eh? It's become my favorite rifle/caliber combo for what I do here.
Nice Snertin' there!
Tater, you try the 120 gr. A-Max Yet? I get 3600+ fps from a 28" 7mm SAUM but haven't taken it out yet.
potatoe
Silver $$ Contributor
No, I did try the 162 a max on em and it had really good results but the bergers shoot better and seem to do as much damag . I'd be very interested in the results of yours, that speed is impressive. Mine are chugging along right at 2900 so 3600 would be vicious 😀
The temp has finally dropped below 90° and more ghogs are coming out. The rains have been daily, so that has hurt. Went to a recently mowed field yesterday and started glassing the visible holes. Shortly, a canine of sorts was running thru the farmer's yard, across the road and up the narrow road toward me! It was a coyote! Not very big but he was on a mission and did not see me. I chambered a 55 gr Berger/ 22 BR that goes 3700 fps. I really expected him to stop and look at me, but he kept coming. I remembered reading an article about coyote hunting, esp if they are running and don't see you. The author would "hey them up". Shout " hey,hey" and they would very often stop to see what the hell is " hey,hey". So, at 70 yds I " hey, hey" with cross hair on his chest and he froze! I could here him thinking "what the f---", but by then, he was. At that range the energy transfer was awesome! Left side neck blown out as was a large portion of shoulder. He was small and mangey and thin...a poor hunter as ghogs abound in that area. Temps are dropping and rain is to stop, so I'm hoping for better hunting this week. Good shooting guys.
Well done! Kill'em all!lpreddick said:
the temp dropped to the low 80s and we went out sat. mowed field and one edge was shady and sure enough, one was grazing. 180 yds with a slight 3 o'clock wind, so i put the sightron dot just into the wind stilll on his chest as he stood up...about 1.5 inches. i sent the 62 gr berger euwin bullet at 3450 fps out of my slightly modified 6x47 and he jumped??? and ran into the tall grass at the fencerow! what the hell! others shot with this combo drop dead without a quiver, one at this same site a few days earlier. we went to see if by chance he was dead. found a large hole and there was BLOOD on the grass, so i did hit him, but no ghog. i got down on my knees to peer into the hole but the sunlight was so intense i could not see very deep into the hole, so i stuck my face(brave me) as far as i could and waited for my eyes to accomodate to darkness and,lo and behold, there was a body!!! i swore i was looking at a nose and two eyes and they did not move. a good poke with a stick confirmed that this was a ghogs body and a dead one at that! i still put on a glove and had to lie down and stick my arm as deeply as i could to grab the critter and with some effort i extracted him from his home. he weighed 10# 7 oz but to my surprise the "two eyes and nose" were two gonads and an ahole! he died on the way down his hole. i have extracted many dead ghogs that got into their hole, and turned around facing out, then dying. this one was obviously showing as much disrespect to me as he could before dying. the bullet hit dead center chest with a small exit but these critters are really tough,as we know. later used the same gun to take a 10# 14oz male and this one did not move. best shot of the day was 321 yds, 22 BR 55 berger, 3700 fps and this one also was a DRT tipping the scales at 7#. amazing as to how big they look thru an 8-32 sightron. another good day away from the office!!!
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