had to happen...i missed!

[lpreddick]

last season i killed 26 consecutive ghogs without a miss with my custon 22BR 12 twist kreight, stiller, jewell, tracker stock, sughtron 8-32 shooting 64 gr bergers. sat on a hill with wind left to right and the pig was walking at 374 yds. FORGOT to hold into the wind and i MISSED! in just a few no 2 appeared at 375 yds and i held on his tail and splattt. he rolled and crawled into brush. waited 30 min and went to inspect blood everywhere and the trail led to the animal, barely alive. dispatched and weighed...6.5 lbs. wind only blew bullet 7 in into gut. next farm and one was grazing at 275 and NO wind, so out comes my new 22 BR 14 twist, kreiger, stiller, jewell, shurley brs stock shooting 52 fowlers at 3700 fps. 8-32 sightron 1/8 tgt dot on chest and bang-splat...this mv has to be real as the bullet seemed to splat her before the bang was finished! 7 lb 14 oz with very little blood and grass still in mouth instant death. saw another ghog but ranged at 1075 yds and i didn't have my long gun plus i didn't have land owners permission which will be the next thing to do when i return. our club record is 748 yds. temp just hit 70 deg, gotta go.

 

[Nomad47]

My condolences on the miss, LP. But glad you're back on track.

You will have to get permission and nail that one at 1075 yards. That will better my best by 13 yards.

Dang, I sure am itching to get back into the fields but it won't happen until mid June this year.

 

[CaptainMal]

Neat story. Brings back memories.

920 +- is my longest chuck (hog) shot in Pa. Got lucky and did that with an old JLK bullet out of a 22-250.
Today it would be very dooable but I would have to use my Dasher.

Thanks again for the story.

 

[Alex Wheeler]

I know I will take some heat for this, but I have to ask. When I was taught to hunt, you where never to take a shot you were not certain of, out of respect for the animal. Does that same ethic not pertain to varmint hunting? I read a lot of stories of wounded varmints crawling back to the hole or running off, exc. It seems like it is just a common thing in varmint hunting, but if you heard a deer hunter talking that way every one would be all over him. I don't get it? I could not imagine the pain of laying gut shot for 30 minutes.

 

[Nomad47]

You've got to remember that MOG (Minute of Groundhog) is a whole lot smaller than MOD (Minute of Deer).
I try to only take shots that have a high probability of a kill. And usually it is either a kill or a miss. But once in a while a groundhog only gets wounded. One more thing to remember, my farmer friends would be highly upset if I only took shots that I was 100% sure of.

And also remember that the bullet weight to animal weight ratio is much higher for a groundhog than it is for a deer. That makes a lot of shots that would only wound a deer kill the groundhog.

 

[Alex Wheeler]

I hear what your saying. I guess what confuses me is the way its talked about, like its no big deal, just a normal thing. I think most guys would be too embarrassed to post about a gut shot deer or elk but, dont think twice about a g hog? Not knocking the sport, I shot a lot of g hogs when I was younger. We can drop it, I dont want to start an issue.

 

[Nomad47]

One more comment and I will quit, too.

I feel bad when I do wound one and see it crawl off to its hole. But I have a friend that says "Its only a groundhog".

So I guess it depends on your perspective.

 

[rmr]

there are several factors that contribute contribute to a crawl-off, of which none are the fault of the shooter. just yesterday, while squirrel hunting in oregon I had several crawl-offs in which the 3 or 4oz critter was hit solidly with a 6TCU. the squirrels were blown completely in half, and somehow still managed to crawl 10feet, and down the hole. I'm not sure how I could have done a better job of hitting them. crawl-offs happen.

 

[lpreddick]

i DO NOT like wounding a varmint! when i shot a lower velocity varmint gun this was too common...i have a friend who thinks nothing of trying to "kill" a ghog with a 22 hornet pushing a 35 gr vmax at any range...even 300+yds. he wounds a lot and i can't convince him of the lack of sufficient terminal energy in this small bullet at those ranges. i now shoot high velocity, heavy enough bullets with enough terminal energy to instantly take the varmint...if i place the bullet properly. not reading the wind was my error and the reason for waiting is important in reducing the suffering time of the wounded ghog. if you rush a wounded ghog, they will struggle until they get too a hole and may not die for days and i have always felt badly in such cases. if, however, you wait just 15 or so minutes, they will often stop as soon as they reach shade, tall grass or even the edge of their hole, or just under a barn door. there they feel safe and will rest, often dying at that point. if still alive, they seem to freeze and if you approach them slowly, they can be terminated safely. i apologize if my description suggested an intent to make an animal suffer. wounding a varmint bothers me much, much more than a miss. on sat i scoped a ghog at 200 yds with a left to right mild wind and i replayed this event in my head and held a few inches and bullet hit center neck and the ghog didn't move...DRT.

 

[onelastshot]

It's not a justification for wounding groundhogs but please remember, farmers have no qualms about using poison. Not a pretty way for any animal to die. Gut shots do happen because of the size of the animals and distance shot. On a positive note, considering the size of the animal in relation to even a 55 grain bullet, a gut shot is going to do extensive damage in most cases causing the animal to bleed out rather quickly. The varmint hunters I know, hand load, practice often and pride themselves on making DRT shots.

 

[Nomad47]

Excellent points, onelastshot. The bullet weight to animal weight ratio is huge when comparing a groundhog to big game. And distances are usually long while the animal is small.

 

[K22]

I've been hunting ground hogs for more years than I'd want to admit and I absolutely hate to wound them but its inevitable if you hunt them as much as I have, despite taking reasonable precautions such as and accurate 1/2 moa rifle, a sufficient caliber (223/22 250/ 243) for the distances you are hunting and knowing your limitations.

I practice a lot shooting off shooting sticks and my limitations is about 300 yards even with my 22 250 or 243. Even so, out of the 1,566 shots fired at ghogs (since I began keeping such records), I've wounded 31 meaning evidence of a hit and blood trail but the ghog was not recovered.

One of the things I always do when if I see signs of a hit but the hog runs either into the tree line or it's hole is I follow the blood trail and check the hole. Last week I hit one at 210 yards, saw him roll, get up and run into the tree line as if he was unfazed. Later when I checked the blood trail I found him, dead at the entrance to his hole inside the tree line. It was bad shot, low and gut shot, but a moral wound nevertheless. For me, retrieving the hog gives me a sense of closure.

Where it gets real ugly is when you find one, still alive but unable to reach it's hole. The humane thing to do is put it out of it's misery which is not fun at close range. I've only had this happen a few times but one is too many but it comes with the territory so to speak.