How many groundhogs for 2009 ?

BRB and I made another foray into the killing fields yesterday evening and we were rewarded for our efforts /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
I missed a gimme shot /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif so we ended up with seven, instead of eight /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
BRB got four, so he gets the hero pic:

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The grass is almost impossibly tall in our new honey hole, and they probably won't cut it because it's pasture. It's time to start focusing on cut hayfields and beanfields....

Fred,
How many more boolits you got loaded /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif Get crankin'!
F1
 
Well, I finally got out Saturday for a few hours and managed to bag 8 more with the 243 using only 7 shots. I saw a total of 12 even though most fields were knee to waist high. The first two came at 108yds on top of a brush pile while supporting my rifle off the top of a gate post. One was the sow and the other was a pup. The pup failed to comply with the TOS rules for pictures so I didn't take one of him. The female fell back in the brush pile where there were still 3 more little dirt devils hiding, so I didn't try to fish her out for a picture either. The 3rd came at 105yds standing on a log, he didn't even get a twitch in. The next 4 came from the same field not 75yds from the third. All 4 were out at the same time. I waited until one of the pups and the sow were lined up and nailed both in 1 shot. Immediately after the shot another pup poked his nose out the hole and got whacked. I started gathering my gear and noticed another head poking out of the exit hole and down went another one. I tried to fish out the last one with my shooting stick but got the warning whistle from one still in the hole. The last one came on the way to the farmers house. I spotted him and jumped out of the road and got a safe angle on him from 200yds on a nearby knoll and tried my new trajectory chart. I dialed him up and put the crosshairs on the point of the shoulder and let him have it. When I walked up to him there was a hole right on the point of aim. The SPS is looking good this year and the new Nikon Gold 1200 rangefinder is working out great as well /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif.
Here's #3,4,5,6. #7 slid back farther than I wanted to reach in the hole /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif.

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Here's #8
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Corey,
Great going!! Eight poodles is a good day around here anymore, especially when you got a twofer!

BRB and I dodged rainstorms this evening and ended up with one each, but not for the lack of trying! We each missed another one apiece....twice each!!! My average for this year is in the toilet! Mine was at 361 yards with the 204...shoulda had 'em easily! BRB's was waaaay closer /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif, no further comment!
The one I killed was prairie dog sized and way to blown up to even pick up, much less take a picture of!
Here's BRB with his fat hog and rifle:
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Notice the Vais brake on his Savage 22-250...now he gets to see the impact and red mist too /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif Just don't shoot it without muffs!
Todays total to date:
25 for me.
18 for BRB.
F1
 
I took another 4 today, and once again I beat my old record. A second shot kill at 786 on a large prairie dog sized rockchuck, with my .243 AI.

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I also shot a rockchuck out of a Juniper tree in my cousins back yard with my .243 AI. There wasn't enough left to gather up for a picture.
 
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I took another 4 today, and once again I beat my old record. A second shot kill at 786 on a large prairie dog sized rockchuck, with my .243 AI.

2009rockchucks014.jpg


I also shot a rockchuck out of a Juniper tree in my cousins back yard with my .243 AI. There wasn't enough left to gather up for a picture.



Ben that is one fine looking rifle and man it sounds like you can shoot it.. Congrats on the 786 yard shot /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif That's awesome .. How about some specs on the gun and bullets your shooting /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif Is that a stock bbl punched out to AI or a custom?? Congrats.. Kerry
 
F1, the funny part was that I only hunted just under 4 hours for those. They were showing up in herds /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif. I guess they thought it was family photo day and I was snapping pictures /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif. You'll notice some conveniently placed grass in my pictures. The 70 gr. Noslers at 3464FPS are not photo friendly /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif. Until they cut hay in a few weeks, it's steel practice for me. I want some of those 300yds+ shots this summer.

BRB are you putting them all in submisssion holds /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowingsmilie.gif? My boss just finished a Savage M10 in 260 with that same stock. Nice looking rifle and I'm really wanting a brake like that. How's it for dust ups? BTW, the bolt handle is on backwards /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif.


Verminator2, that is mighty fine shooting on such a small target.
 
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Kerry, it is a Rem. 700 action pillar bedded into a McM A-5 stock, with a .243 AI Douglas barrel screwed onto it. The scope is a Leupold VX-II 6-18x40 Target. I am shooting 87 Vmaxs with H414, they are going about 3340. I am trying another load this evening with 1.5 grains more that looks very promising. Thanks.
 
Quote:
Kerry, it is a Rem. 700 action pillar bedded into a McM A-5 stock, with a .243 AI Douglas barrel screwed onto it. The scope is a Leupold VX-II 6-18x40 Target. I am shooting 87 Vmaxs with H414, they are going about 3340. I am trying another load this evening with 1.5 grains more that looks very promising. Thanks.



Ben thanks buddy I just had gotchya punch out my SPS to a 243 ackley and im really liking it.. I really like the way you have yours set up.. its really nice..Kerry
 
Thanks Kerry, I really like the cartridge and rifle. You really oughta come out and shoot some coyotes or rockchucks sometime. It is a bit of a drive though /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Ben I would really love to come up and hunt with you guys it sounds like it would be a blast.. Hopefully soon we can make it happen /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
Just found a new honey hole! This is a bean field with the beans just about two inches tall. I checked it out for a few minutes on Thursday evening and shot three in just a few minutes before the storms ran me off. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/angry-smiley-055.gif
BRB came to my place this morning and we headed off around 11:00 am for this new place. BRB had to leave by 2:30 for a graduation party so we only had less than three hours, in the heat of the day, to try to whack some earth doggies /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-006.gif
When we arrived there were already hogs out in the field and BRB got a whack at and adult and it's young right off the bat...two DRT at 150 yds. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif Then we moved into the larger field and I shot one next to a utility pole.
We hauled our gear out onto a little rise in the field, set up and waited all of five minutes before BRB got another one, then I missed one /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif stuff happens!
BRB's turn and another double presents itself at a little over 200 yds and he gets them both /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
This went on until we had eight dead and another one that dragged off missing a large portion of it's anterior anatomy....but I'm not counting that one in my tally.
While we were waiting for more hogs the buzzards started gathering and landing among the dead hogs...but they had company:
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Look real closely at the right side of the picture and you can make out a white head on one of those "buzzards" /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif
The three birds on the upper back left weren't buzzards, either! Notice the dead hog at the base of the utility pole on the left /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
The zoom on my little digital camera doesn't do much at 200 yds, sorry!
I took BRB back to get his truck so he could make his social engagement, and I could get a couple honey do's out of the way....AND, went back to the fields around six this evening. There were groundhogs out, but something even more interesting to me! This time I brought my spotting scope, just in case there were more of those funny looking "buzzards" in the field..... and there were /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
And eating our dead groundhogs!
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Through the spotting scope, but camera lens was too far away.
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There were seven eagles, on the ground, in this field gathered around different groundhogs that we'd shot
earlier!
There were at least six more flying around, too!
This afternoon was a first for me, never before have I had eagles cleaning up my dead groundhogs right before my eyes /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowingsmilie.gif
I just watched the eagles for the next hour, then moved to the other field and shot one more hog around eight o'clock.
Today brings me up to 32, and BRB to 23 for this year.
F1
 
I found a new honey hole this season too. It has not been allowed to be hunted for over 20 years, for anything, deer, turkey, no hunting period. It has beans about three or four inches tall. I killed 14 Thursday and 12 more Friday. That combined with some of my old haunts has my early season total at 47 groundhogs, never done that good by the end of May before in my life.

I pulled down into a bottom that I had hunted the day before and there was one of Flyrod's Eagles eating a day old groundhog. He had a flock of buzzards standing at "Parade Rest" off at about 30 yds watching him.

I will try and get some pictures up next trip.
 
Here is 7 and 8. Grass is high and hard to see them right now but they should be cutting the grass soon. shot with a remington ltr 700 with a little work done to the gun, it shoots a 69 grain hpbt handload.
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Flyrod, I can't hunt that Honely Hole I had told you about during the weekends. The owners don't want any shooting going on when they come to stay on Saturdays and Sundays. I got back there last evening for the first time since Friday. I killed 13 more with the 17 Ackley Hornet in three hours yesterday evening. The little Ackley Hornet was shooting so nice I thought I could have killed em with a mirror looking over my shoulder. That little 20 grain V-Max at 3800fps does alot more damage that I ever expected. I actually took the camera along, then realized it was a waste of time trying to pickup and arrange guts for a photo shoot, especially when most of them are pups. I stopped and set up on a dadgum nursery for groundhog yearlings yesterday afternoon. Eight or nine of that 13 was tadpole sized.

That brought my yearly total to exactly 60 groundhogs.
 
I couldn't hit anything yesterday. I did manage to finally get 1 pup at about 30yds. All my shots were 50yds and under. I think it's easier to hit them at 250yds than 40yds. I should have taken the HMR instead. No pictures, he fell in an old roll of fence wire in an old rock quarry. I hit a larger one with shrapnel, but I saw it out later, so I'll be back after that one. I did get some cool fox pictures though, so all wasn't lost.
Fox pictures post
 
Sonny,
You da man /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif Good shooting!
I was about to go this evening, but we've had just over .6" of rain and hail in the last twenty minutes and lots of LIGHTNING /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif It's going to be too muddy to get anywhere near the beanfields!

Corey,
Great pictures of the foxes! I know what you mean about taking pictures through a riflescope or spotting scope....it ain't that easy with just two hands!
F1
 
Well, I'm finally making some headway this year. I just acquired a SMALL farm in MD (15 acres). I'm guessing no one has killed a groundhog on this farm in as many years. He is overrun with hogs. The owner is a city boy transplant with a wife from France. It's a "Green Acres" situation if ever there was one. The man mowing the farm secured the property for me. Today, I set my personal one-day record of 9. I probably saw a total of 20 today; lots of babies. This brings my year-to-date total to 15.

This particular farm has been a challenge of sorts. It is surrounded by houses so there are very few shooting lanes. Some of the hogs seem to just jump up at the end of my barrel at times. I've only used my .17HMR thus far. I'm still waiting to whack one with my latest Sako (Model 75 Varmint, .204 Ruger with set trigger).
 
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