Your progression on groundhogs from earliest age to present - rifles, optics and distance

[Nomad47]

I wish you well, but your hand thing is not carpal tunnel.

Your problems stem from the ulnar nerve, which passes superficial to the wrist's flexor retinaculum not deep to it. The distribution of your hand's symptoms is definitive: it is an ulnar nerve issue, likely an ulnar nerve tunnel syndrome. That needs to be ruled out. The treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome is different from ulnar nerve syndrome.

Your leg problem is not related to your wrist problem.

I wish you well . . . I've known several people who have had entrapped nerves and it isn't pleasant, though many can be successfully treated.

Thank you very much, bloc. That is all very enlightening. I'm still not sure about what type of test I'm having on Friday, but I understand it takes about an hour - EMG (?) maybe.

 

[bloc]

Thank you very much, bloc. That is all very enlightening. I'm still not sure about what type of test I'm having on Friday, but I understand it takes about an hour - EMG (?) maybe.

I would guess EMG (where you stimulate nerves with electricity and see how specific muscles respond) and conduction velocity to determine if the nerve's conducting its impulses correctly. (You stimulate a nerve and measure the time it takes to get from stimulus electrode to recording electrode . . . they'd probably also look at the shape and size of the wave they've stimulated.)

They may well work from the neck or shoulder down to the hand. There are several places where nerves can become entrapped between the neck and the fingers and they may look at all of them.

Just guessing of course . . . I'm an amateur at actually working up patients. But your distribution of symptoms screams ulnar nerve to me. What you described is quite distinct from carpal tunnel syndrome (which involves the median nerve).

I wish you the very best of luck. Trapped nerves are no fun at all.

 

[Nomad47]

Thanks, bloc. Yes, I believe it is the EMG test. With what you have written and described, I now feel better prepared for Friday.
Obviously, the VA Doctor (actually nurse practitioner) misdiagnosed my symptoms as carpal tunnel.
My legs have an odd feeling, semi numbness. Particularly in the mornings and mostly noticed when I walk to the kitchen after coffee. Two trips to the Chiropractor and decompression have had effect.

Again, thanks for all your help.

 

[bloc]

Thanks, bloc. Yes, I believe it is the EMG test. With what you have written and described, I now feel better prepared for Friday.
Obviously, the VA Doctor (actually nurse practitioner) misdiagnosed my symptoms as carpal tunnel.
My legs have an odd feeling, semi numbness. Particularly in the mornings and mostly noticed when I walk to the kitchen after coffee. Two trips to the Chiropractor and decompression have had effect.

Again, thanks for all your help.

PM sent.

 

[Nomad47]

Thanks, Brian.

 

[lpreddick]

Nomad47, as a hand surgeon (semi retired) I agree the distribution of your numbness and tingling is the distribution of the ulnar nerve. This nerve can be irritated or entrapped at several locations, the groove of the medial elbow being the most common. Frequent trauma to the elbow region can produce your symptoms, but improvement is quick if the trauma is removed. If symptoms persist then nerve entrapment (compression) is suspected. There is another site just above the elbow but very uncommon. The EMG and nerve conduction test will localize and measure the severity of the nerve compression. A competent Hand Surgeon can advise you if decompression of the ulnar nerve is indicated as is often the case. The surgery is usually very successful. Diabetes or thyroid disease can slow recovery as these condition can affect the peripheral nervous system. Good luck and keep us advised.

 

[Nomad47]

Thank you, LP. You and Brian have been extremely helpful.

 

[lpreddick]

My initial contact with a groundhog was over 25 years ago. We moved to our current location and I cleared enough land to grow a beautiful and productive garden. Years past and the harvest was plentiful, THEN, things were being eaten. I trapped rabbits, possums and racoons but the garden was still being eaten. A local told me..."you have a groundhog". He described the animal and it's habits. I found the critter's hole and covered it with dirt,tree limbs and leaves...he dug out and ate another row of beans! Motor oil and mothballs did nothing. I live in the city, so shooting was out, so I made a pipe bomb. I pushed the bomb as deeply into his hole as possible using an electric match and a timer. I covered the hole and shouted "fire in the hole", started the timer as i retreated to a safe location and the hillside erupted. The garden prospered for about 1.5 months, then the thing was back and over 5-6 years, I lost. Farmers in the area were sympathetic but told me of the serious harm ghogs did to their fields and suggested I take my anger out on their varmints. I got a 223 and started reloading and under the guidance of my gunsmith I started hunting ghogs. Word spread and I was invited to hunt other farms. I joined a Varmint Hunters Association and got serious. The club had a monthly contest for ghogs...we weighed 3 ghogs each month and the hunter with largest wt would win that month. Contest was for 7 months and Hunter with most months won a plaque with his name on it and it was a big deal. A new gun, or two, each year with handshaking was fun and challenging. I could hardly wait till I went afield looking for that 14#. About this time I realized even when I saw no ghog I still enjoyed the day as did a friend who was a novice...We sat for hours, in shade, light breeze and the smell of freshly mowed hay...a short nap was ok. Meeting the people that work the land is humbling. Learning to think like a ghog allowed me to be very successful and seeing them when others could not gave me a sense of accomplishment. I have won more club ghog contest than anybody else and have 5 of the top ten longest shots. Developing loads with a variety of bullets and learning to shoot is rewarding. I'm in my 70s now and hope to continue this therapeutic endevor as long as I can.

 

[bloc]

lpreddick: You're clearly enjoying quite an adventure. Loved your telling of it.

Alas, I have but one Rockchuck to my credit, and I got him just last year (~225 yards). Sometimes we see jack rabbits, and I have a few of them, too.

Where I live, ground squirrels are by far the most numerous varmint and I've seen fields in which, if you focus beyond the field, the field's surface seems alive because of all the squirrel activity. It's almost like popcorn.

The squirrels we shoot are much smaller than GHs or RCs: from tip of nose to base of take, most have been 7" or smaller. For me, they pose quite a challenge beyond 200 yards especially with wind blowing.

I've gotten a few 2-fers, and my shooting partner actually has a 4-fer.

Can there be more fun than varmint shooting? I think not.

 

[Webster]

I live in the city, so shooting was out, so I made a pipe bomb. I pushed the bomb as deeply into his hole as possible using an electric match and a timer. .

Reminds me of 40 years ago when I had a 1# can of FFFF blackpowder to get rid of. Three foot doubled fuse, shoved it deep in the hole and put a lot of dirt on top of it. About a 5 foot circle of dirt jumped up about 6 ". Lucky I wasn't killed. One static spark would have finished me off.

 

[Nomad47]

lpreddick: You're clearly enjoying quite an adventure. Loved your telling of it.

Alas, I have but one Rockchuck to my credit, and I got him just last year (~225 yards). Sometimes we see jack rabbits, and I have a few of them, too.

Where I live, ground squirrels are by far the most numerous varmint and I've seen fields in which, if you focus beyond the field, the field's surface seems alive because of all the squirrel activity. It's almost like popcorn.

The squirrels we shoot are much smaller than GHs or RCs: from tip of nose to base of take, most have been 7" or smaller. For me, they pose quite a challenge beyond 200 yards especially with wind blowing.

I've gotten a few 2-fers, and my shooting partner actually has a 4-fer.

Can there be more fun than varmint shooting? I think not.

Agreed. I have gotten two 2-fers on groundhog pups. The opportunity doesn't present itself very often.

After reading your post, I thought you might be from Oregon. I see from your profile that I was correct - Grants Pass, Actually. I've lost track of how many times I have driven a satellite truck from LA to Eugene, Corvalis, Portland or Seattle - and back. That was 10 years ago - before retirement.

 

[Huntschool]

My ground hog experience started back in about 1955 in very NE New Jersey. Family lived on a nursery and we had GH's. Dad was a hunter and I guess like many back then felt GH's were a good place to start a kid. He would take me out in the evening after work and we would walk and stalk. 22's were legal for GH's so I got to shoot an old Winchester single shot. Actually did pretty good after more target time.

Fast forward to to the early 60's and I was shooting a pretty nice 222. I killed a good bunch with that gun both around home and out in the dairy belt in NJ. Ended up in college in Illinois (this was when crop fields were still small here) and hooked up with some guys in school with me, and continued shooting. They were mostly farm kids at college so I was fortunate to have lots of places to shoot. Stupidly traded the 222 for a Remington 700 Varmint gun in 22-250. This was a fun time. My then girlfriend/now wife family farmed 1000 ac in Johnson Co and it had deer, GH's and coyotes so I was fixed.......

Fast forward again...... Out of school and staying in Southernmost Illinois. Managed to find lots of places to shoot but the GH populations were on the down swing. We had bigger fields, less pasture, well, you know the story. One of the new things was the initial encroachment of a new predator which seemed to be having an impact on GH populations.... Coyotes.

We started seeing more and more of them and folks were shooting them. Friends in the DNR were talking about their population growing because of our deer heard. Truth.

Anyway, I was teaching and doing well financially so I started buying my all time favorite gun, Ruger #1. (the good part here was/is that my wife liked them also) I had been enamored with this rifle since its introduction and single shot rifles in general.

As I write this I have a bunch of them. My Varmint stuff is #1 re-barreled (Lilja 1:9) 17 Fireball that shoots magic clover leaf groups at 100, a 6mm BR Norma (1:12 twist) which I just brought home yesterday. I believe it is a re-chambered 6mm PPC as Ruger never made a 6mm BR, a #1 6.5 CM and a Browning 1885 in 270. These pretty well cover the kind of shooting I do on varmints and chucks.

Our long shots here in the hills on both chucks and coyotes are generally under 300. However if I go south about 30+ minutes I am in the Ohio/Mississippi flood plains and you can find some very long shots. I do cross the river into KY and shoot some on the East side of the river and they do still have some chucks to go after.

Like others have said, I wish my Dad was still here to see all this...........

Thanks for reading..........

Bruce A. Hering
Program Coordinator/Lead Instructor (retired)
Shotgun Team Coach
Southeastern Illinois College
SCTP Collegiate Coaches Chairman
NSCA Level III