77 Ohio Groundhogs in 2008 - The Old Fashioned Way

B

BuckeyeSpecial

New member
NOT USED were: rangefinders, digital cameras, bipods, shooting sticks, or tripods (I did use a tree once and a fence post twice), ATVs or golf carts, sandbags or shots off a pick-up truck hood, large diameter varmint contour barrels, scopes with ballistic plex reticles, VLD or moly bullets, spotting scopes or binoculars (although I do own both), rifles with “blue-printed” actions, or those goofy elastic cartridge carriers on the comb of the stock (try shooting in the sitting or offhand position with those!).
With the exception of the 3 shots alluded to above, all shots were from the offhand or sitting positions. I typically covered 1-2 miles walking when I went out in temperatures from 95+ to the mid-50s; kills ranged from 20 feet to +250 yds. I made approximately 75-80 % of my shots.
And, as usual, there were several spectacular misses offhand at short range due to chuck fever. My best day was 8 and my worst day was 0 (more than a few times). Most of my hunting is for farmers who want them ALL DEAD and I try to comply, so getting that last one or a previous miss may mean a couple empty evening hunts (or more) until an opportunity for redemption presents itself.
[For those who think my scorched earth approach is akin to market hunting the game population, come visit me and we will find more in the same place next year….]
Rifles used were a Remington Model 7 with a 21” Douglas Featherweight SS barrel in 22/250 (circ.1992) and a Remington 788 in .222 with a 24” CM barrel (circa 1979?). Scopes were a Leupold 3-9X Compact on the 22/250 and a Tasco 3-12X on the .222.
Loads were: 22/250 - 35 gr. of IMR 4064, Speer 52 gr. HP bullet, W-W cases and CCI large rifle primers; for the .222: 22.5 g+/- Exterminator (don’t have the manual handy so check that one), 50 gr. Hornady V-Max bullet, W-W cases, and CCI small rifle primers. No factory ammo was used. The V-Max bullets were used for kicks as I had a box; they don’t kill as well as the cheaper Hornady 50 gr. SX or Sierra Blitz. Likewise, the 52 gr. Speer is a lot less expensive, kills great, and is a true classic in the 22/250 than say Nosler Ballistic Tips (I have pretty much loaded and shot them ALL).
For those nimrods who think early July is the end of the season due to excessive vegetation, my advice is sharpen your hunting tactics with cut hay fields, country lanes, railroad grades (with permission), old building foundations…..keep hunting! I shot my last 4 in harvested soy bean fields a on a bright Sunday afternoon on October 19th.
 
I do kind of the same thing only with prarie dogs. I stalk them in the wide open of a sometimes grassy flat with a 22 LR. I've stalked prarie dogs harder then i've ever stalked a mule deer. I do use a bipod and don't have nearly that many kills though, but I like the challenge of it.
 
Hey Dave:

In all seriousness, my methods ARE the improved way...point of my post is that one typically doesn't have the time on most groundhogs to use all that stuff others lust for typically, only 5-10 seconds on many shots especially 'jump shooting' in taller soybeans and railroad tracks...(all offhand) they often don't stay still for much longer to use a rangefinder or set up shooting bipods, sticks, etc. Sitting and waiting on a short hay field or beans, yes, than a bit longer and a range finder is OK but geez, can't you estimate within 25 yards with your eyesight? Most know little and practice less on stalking, shooting offhand, target acquisition, the whole of hunting. Those gadgets are mostly a waste of other skills which come in far more useful in big game hunting, too.

The incessant effort to perfect the next tactical rifle "build" and $250 dollar Jewell triggers is for the shaved-head, goateed Dodge Ram 4x4 cowboy crowd. More tatoos, anyone?
 
Quote:

The incessant effort to perfect the next tactical rifle "build" and $250 dollar Jewell triggers is for the shaved-head, goateed Dodge Ram 4x4 cowboy crowd. More tatoos, anyone?



With all due respect...
Hitting a hog @ 500yds and beyond is ALOT harder than jump shooting them offhand, even when shooting the newest "tactical" build. I've done enough of both to know this to be fact...

b.t.w...
My bolt triggers are Remmy & Rifle Basix and my truck is a Toyota /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

While I'm at it, I stalked & killed my whitetail buck on the ground @ 24yds with archery tackle last Saturday. Heck, I didn't even have to range him /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif Glad to know that all the "tactical" rifle shooting I've been doing hasn't dulled my senses none too much...

Aren't we all hunters anyway???
Too bad you can't just enjoy our sport without looking down your nose at other fellow hunters who may do it differently than you...

Congrats on your accomplishment /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowingsmilie.gif
 
Congrats on all the pasture poodles! I'll end up with a little over half that many for this year. But, I'd rather shoot one at 500 yds. than 20 at 200 yds! I'll take working smarter over working harder any day...YMMV. We all have our preferred methods of enjoying our sport, and our equipment. 'Tis what makes the world go around.
F1
 
Quote:
Most know little and practice less on stalking, shooting offhand, target acquisition, the whole of hunting. Those gadgets are mostly a waste of other skills which come in far more useful in big game hunting, too.





I agree.
 
Buckeye...Good on ya for killing them the way you wanted too, but the tone just reminds me of an incident that happened to me this spring. Do you flyfish?

I was trout fishing this spring....had the place to myself when another fly fisherman showed up...he was friendly enough at first, I think that he must have mistaken me for one of the die hard catch and release guys (maybe because I had a couple GLoomis fly rod's with me, tie my own flies, and had a nice custom built net strapped to the back of my flyvest, he must have thought the red stains on my vest were from ketchup packets, not trout)....although for some reason his demeanor changed when I started popping gills and putting a few trout in my vest for supper...then all of sudden he wasn't so friendly...his eye's rolled back in his head and his head started spinning like in that exorcist movie. He started sputtering something about trout gods and how "HIS" way was better than mine....I said "but you can't eat them if you let them go"...it didn't help, he didn't see my logic. I asked him if he was OK? He just held up his two index fingers in the shape of a cross and hissed at me (I thought that maybe he had picked and eaten some bad mushrooms while walking to the river and was hallucinating) When I left he was clutching his chest and muttering something about conservation.

As I was eating the freshly fried little Brookies (which were very good by the way) I couldn't help but laugh to myself and how people think "their" way is the "best" way and everyone else is wrong, ignorant, or somehow lesser for not doing what they do....I almost choked on the fish while stifling a laugh, good thing I had a couple cold Sam Adams' handy (None of that cheap redneck Dodge4x4 beer for me). A belly full of Brooktrout, a couple cold beers and I was happy, I still wonder what 'ol catch and release guy had for dinner that night, I know it wasn't trout?

Congrats on your accomplishment though...we don't kill that many each year around here, even with all those "gadgets". /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif Your more than welcome to come up here and hunt them with me, I must warn you though, we use Binoculars and rangefinders. It's a bit like deer hunting though as we very rarely find more than one or two in any given place and spend alot of time glassing for them.
 
Buckeye...Congrats on your style of shooting, but you are not by yourself or not necessarily right. I got all the gadgets but that dosn't stop me from making a good stalk. I have shot them when they have been sniffing the end of my barrel. Spit groundhog out later. Out of trees, from fencepost and when they were mateing. Top one first please.
Stelthed up behind them when they were sleeping and blasted them between the ears. I like them long or point blank, makes no difference. Try an apple orchard some time where you have to duckwalk occasionally. The style of hunting is dictated by the type of terrain you are in. So there you go.
 
i find it more gratifying to smack one at 400yrds plus than i do at 40 yards, i do have hair, a 4x4 dodge 4door truck, i do use rangefinders, bipods, digital cameras, heavy barrelled guns, i do use one of those goofy elastic cartridge holders i dont however have any jewel triggers i like timney or canjars personally. Im glad im not one of those nimrods that quit hunting in july geez /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif i dont care how people hunt or when they hunt it is all a personal opinion i will continue to hunt the way i want i wont say it is the improve way it is my way Ron /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
Quote:
NOT USED were: rangefinders, digital cameras, bipods, shooting sticks, or tripods (I did use a tree once and a fence post twice), ATVs or golf carts, sandbags or shots off a pick-up truck hood, large diameter varmint contour barrels, scopes with ballistic plex reticles, VLD or moly bullets, spotting scopes or binoculars (although I do own both), rifles with “blue-printed” actions, or those goofy elastic cartridge carriers on the comb of the stock (try shooting in the sitting or offhand position with those!).



Why do you need to put down shooters that take ground hogs with a different style than you?

There is room for all styles, techniques, and equipment.


.
 
A super job on that buck; something I have never done although I have a compound and went out with it in the mid-late 80s a few times. Thinking of getting back to it
 
Hey Groundhog 2002:

Your right on groundhogs and apples, I have got em' in old orchards, and yes, the type of terrain is a pre-condition to equipment...in NW OH, its a long walk to cover one 30 acre soy bean field around the fencerows and a heavy barrel varmint rifle is not fun after a long afternoon of that.

Hey Kunas:
And I agree that 400 yard kills are a kick....when they happen...but most posters here and at www.varminthunters.com never mention their percentage i.e. how many they missed! I know I am likely to miss at that range so I have plenty of opportunity to stalk to 200 (try getting a pattern on a chuck once its been missed a couple of times...they don't come out when/where after 2 or 3 misses, they git spooky as to showing themselves, and you might hunt em' for 10 days before a sighting or may have to sit waiting ALL day....

CatShooter:

Not meant as a put down; just think these gadget guys are somewhat wasting their money and don't realize it...maybe they do realize it. laser rangefinders are overpriced and finicky in snow conditions...if they don't work at 800 as advertised do you get your money back 3 months later w/ interest? NO!

And, the Dodge Ram 4x4, young buck, power-junkie cowboy guys are [mostly] all jerks [aroud here] ...but they don't know they are jerks unless/until someone disagrees with them and tells them why they disagree...until that happens, they stay a jerk. I don't expect everyone to agree with me, but I at least have some reasons and results for my positions...

I say let's discuss other hunting styles, and list how many kills people have [have they exceeded 77?] for the time they spent hunting (I was laid off this summer, and I'm single, so I likely had more time to hunt than most others).

Can you tell I enjoy the discourse? Must be an election year...
 
I don't mind the discourse, as long as it stays civil & non-condscending towards anyone's particular hunting style.

There's always new things to be learned by the diverse membership we enjoy here.

Catshooter has a good point about there being enough room for ALL types. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Buckeye,
I killed 103 groundhogs last year, and that would have been much higher had I not shared the second half of the year with a hunting partner. We alternated shots after he started hunting with me, and he was almost always given the first shot of the day.
I have killed lots of groundhogs before laser rangefinders, and with sporter rifles....one of my swifts is a 700 classic, and my 204 is a LV SF.These are two of my primary varmint rifles that I use these days. I've walked them up, stalked them, laid in wait for them, shot them off the roof of the truck(Ford) using sandbags, and from haylofts in barns. I've used rifles, handguns, both rimfire and centerfire, and shotguns too. There were two years in the early 70's when I killed well over 400 groundhogs a year. One of my mentors was a fellow named Grover Larrick, from Winchester, VA. Grover tallied 1029 groundhogs in one year, almost all shot from sandbags, off the truck, with heavy barreled custom wildcat rifles. We had a picture of him kneeling in front of a large(several sheets!) plywood board with 1029 tails tacked to it, framed in the gunshop(Shenandoah Guns, Berryville, VA)....the picture was also published in the Winchester Evening Star.
My point here is none of this made anyone a hero, or proved anyone's accomplishment superior by the methods used. We all had fun, and killed a pile of groundhogs! We just don't have the numbers of poodles that we had back then....and some of us have to work for a living so we enjoy our recreational hunting when we can.
BTW, my average on kills is 90% out to 400 yards /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
F1
 
Quote:
"...

CatShooter:
Not meant as a put down; just think these gadget guys are somewhat wasting their money and don't realize it...maybe they do realize it. laser rangefinders are overpriced and finicky in snow conditions...if they don't work at 800 as advertised do you get your money back 3 months later w/ interest? NO!

And, the Dodge Ram 4x4, young buck, power-junkie cowboy guys are [mostly] all jerks [aroud here] ...but they don't know they are jerks unless/until someone disagrees with them and tells them why they disagree...until that happens, they stay a jerk.



Sounds like just a mouth full more of the same put downs to me.

Maybe you shoot the way you do because you can't hit doodley squat past 250 yds. Any twinky can hit a ground hog at that range with iron sights!

Dang, even a girl can hit at those ranges.

Try reaching out there where the real shooters play... lemme know how you do at 800 yds, if you have the stones and shooting skills to try it!

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

It goes around - it comes around!!


.
 
Hey Flyrod:

Am aware of your 2007 season of 103 as I read it here back then ...that is some good shooting for sure, and your mentor Mr. Larrick has got to be the king of groundhog hunters. I have not viewed even close to a fifth of 1029 opportunities in a season. You are to be commended on a 90% ratio at 400 yards; you were one of the few if only correspondent who noted a percentage last year on this forum as I recall it for its conspicuity.

I presume your 400 yard shots are with a rest or bipod of some kind....if so, one would hope that 9 out of 10 shots will be a hit with a rest, a good rifle, and a 20X scope. The haevy barrel rifles have their place, but walking 2-3 miles and shooting them well without a rest of amy kind is not practical.

And, the money put into the heavy barrel guns seldom justifies the investment...they typically don't shoot 1 hole groups even MOST of the the time, maybe 1/4" A LOT of the time...but for the money spent, a good factory .224 sporter w/ handloads will/should do 1/2" and that's pretty OK with me. If you want to re-barrel an older action with a good Douglas or Shilen that is still way cheaper than buying a Cooper,Kimber, or those $2000.00 tactical customs.

For the hunting I do, shooting off sandbags or other static platforms is not possible, trucks can't drive into standing soy bean fields and you can't carry sandbags and a shooting table...I don't care for the clunkiness of bipods though home-made shooting sticks are cheap and likely useful...I may make some next year.
 
Back
Top