How many groundhogs for 2008?

I made it out Friday morning for a few hours. The weather was hot and very windy. The wind made shooting a challenge but I did manage to shoot 11 more chucks brining my total up to 163 for the year.

All shots were made with my CZ 204 shooting 40 grain Vmaxes. After missing a few because of the 30 MPH wind we had to deal with I did go 4-6 on some chucks at one spot that ranged from 352-360 yards.

This was likely my last chuck hunt for the year.

Mike.
 
Blueridgeboy and I went out this afternoon in search of pasture piggies. He had his new, virgin Savage low profile varmint 22-250. We got no groundhogs, but we did get some of these:
P7160012.jpg


Blueridgeboy and first blood for a new rifle!

P7160019.jpg


Yours truly with the larger of the two that we recovered.
You never know what you might encounter here in Piedmont VA /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
F1
 
Added two more groundhogs this evening, no pics taken. The one shot by Blueridgeboy was easily the heaviest so far this year! Should have taken a pic and put him on the Hogzilla thread.
No other large piggies taken, but we saw several. Too far for clean kills with the swift and 22-250. I'm going to put a larger rifle in the truck next week /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
F1
 
like a 300wsm? Thats what I'm going to use.

Not really you couldn't pay me enough to use that thing. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/angry-smiley-055.gif
The biggest I'm going to use is a 243wssm. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif

GJ
 
Quote:
like a 300wsm? Thats what I'm going to use.

Not really you couldn't pay me enough to use that thing. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/angry-smiley-055.gif
The biggest I'm going to use is a 243wssm. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif

GJ


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Nah, I think a 243 or 270 will be plenty gun /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
F1
 
We went on another late afternoon groundhog hunt this evening, and here are the little piggies we shot:
P7220008-1.jpg


P7220010.jpg

Blueridge boy poses with today's critters.
We got rained and hailed on, and lightning all around us, but the big pigs never left the field! We waited for the rain to let up enough to whack one. The groundhogs got a little damp prior to the picture being taken /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-006.gif
Not a bad evening for starting at 7:00 pm!
F1
 
I am up to 16 for the year, I only hunt a couple of farms here in eastern Pa.. I get out an hour or two in the afternoons. I fella that works in Cabelas got 50 one day out by Hamburg, Pa.
 
Hi Folks,
New poster. I've been lurking a couple of years, Interesting board, I've shot 24 goundhogs this year all with my 22 hornet. I been hunting goundhogs for about thirty years. I'm really interested I the wild hogs that Flyrod1 shot in spotsylvania. Really did not know there were any in Va. Flyrod1 sent you a pm.

dunkslot
 
dunkslot,
The pigs were not shot in Spotsylvania, but Culpeper county. I'm very guarded of my hunting properties, so this is all the info I'll reveal, as you can see, it's public record.
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2005/122005/12072005/150982
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/012006/01252006/162859
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/012006/01302006/1138619254

These pigs have spread into Orange and Lousia counties as well. We will never be rid of them according to the VADGIF biologists. They are breeding at an alarming rate!
What I have found, contrary to the linked articles, is that getting permission to hunt in most of these areas can be very difficult......pigs or no pigs!
Almost every country boy with a pickup and a gun rack is looking to whack some of these critters, but very few have found success.
You'll have to do lots of leg work and beat on plenty doors.
Good Luck! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
F1
 
Thanks Flyrod1,
I wasn't really interested in hunting up there, just interested in knowing we had hogs in VA. Thanks for the links to FLS, they were very interesting. I was aware that hogs were spreading through out country but somehow just hadn't heard about this area.
Thanks Again,
Dunkslot
 
There are probably lots more articles in the Culpeper/ Orange papers, but I don't know the names of the papers in that area. What I can tell you, is that the numbers quoted in the newspaper articles were grossly underestimated! That was also a couple years ago. Their numbers have skyrocketed!
They seem to be expanding their range much more to the south than to any other direction.
With a 120day gestation period, and reproductive maturity of around six months, and litters of ten or more, just do the math /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif They also heavily compete with deer for mast forage. I gotta think the deer will be the loser when all is said and done. I could be wrong. It would be interesting to hear from folks in other states that have exploding hog populations. Maybe start a new thread........
F1
 
Well I finally got my rifle settled in enough to hunt with reliably and have taken 9 over the last 2 weekends with my 243 SPS varmint. It's going to be hard for me to go back to the .223 after seeing the smackdown that 243 delivers with a 70 gr. Nosler. I switched because of crawloffs, no trouble with that now. Some of the smaller ones aren't able to conform to the graphic pictures rules here /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif. Here's a few of the presentable ones. Most range from 100 yds to one paced off at 305 yds. Believe it or not, some larger hogs had no exits at a range as short as 100 yds. For those familiar with my efforts in getting this gun to shoot, this is the "altered" SPS Varmint stock that I glass bedded the forearm of and floated as well as did a camo job to hide my dremel mistakes.
PICT0198.jpg

PICT0194.jpg

PICT0190.jpg

PICT0187.jpg

Ever hear something breathing down your neck while hunting and turn around to a drooling surprise like this /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif?
PICT0201.jpg
 
"Ever hear something breathing down your neck while hunting and turn around to a drooling surprise like this ?"

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Yup, that happens a lot, especially when calling in some places! Man, I do miss hunting over in the Valley, it's a lot prettier over there!! Corey, refresh my memory, what load did you settle on for the 70 NBT, and what are the current groups like after the bedding job?
I may not get out again this week. We're all wrapped up getting ready for the Steel Challenge match we're putting on this weekend, but I may have a whole lot of time to hunt starting next week, if they don't settle that contract /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif Keep stacking them up, Corey!
F1
 
F1, for the remainder of this season it'll probably stay at 40 gr. of 4064 and a CCI 250 primer. I'm neck sizing now and just broke the 200 round mark with hunting and load development. I have 3 load combinations so far all below 1" with the above one showing a slight edge over the others. I have some good results with BL-C(2) and the 65 gr. V-max and a decent load with 39 gr. of 4064 and the 65 gr. V-max. I still have some retesting to do since my flimsy stock problem ate up many of my test rounds. Now that I have it settled in, I'll re-visit some of those test loads, especially the 75 gr. V-maxes. These got me to the 31 hog mark with plans to go back with a spotter this Saturday, weather permitting. I'll dump my camera and see if I can get some pictures of my last range session. Good luck bangin' the steel /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif.
 
ARCOREY,
...that is some pretty country you live in. I was in Carroll County Va this past weekend, Fancy Gap to be exact, I saw some real good hog hunting spots while riding through.

.243 to me seems heavy on hogs but I know what you mean about crawl offs, I have had it happen to me way too many times. I just had a new stock put on my .243 and then steel bedded it and free floated the barrel. I am ready to get it out and try it out on some hogs here.
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c139/TOROM/Stock002.jpg


How far are you from the NC line?
 
Rocky,
You did all that work restocking/bedding your 243....you could help it some more by getting rid of the wart(ISS lock) and replace the shroud/firing pin assembly with a Piercecision or one from Greg Tannel. Your groups might improve a little if you did, couldn't hurt anyway.
F1
 
I'm right in the middle of Virgina from north to south and to the far western side. It is about 3 hrs from Harrisonburg to the NC border on I-77. After losing numerous hogs at the 250yd+ distances, I felt a 6mm something would be ideal. So far, 305 is my longest 243 shot and it anchored the big hog in the picture instantly. I have some hogs soaking up the 70 gr. bullets with no passthroughs. On these hogs around here, there is no such thing as too big. I got the 243 after shooting a large hog twice in the chest at 200 yds with my AR and 50 gr. v-maxes and watching her still get to the hole. It happened too many times for my liking.
 
Quote:
So far, 305 is my longest 243 shot and it anchored the big hog in the picture instantly.



Now that is a long shot on a hog with the .243, my longest shot to date is 325 yards with my .22-250 using 40 gr Vmax moly coat. My goal is to get the .243 to shoot better,..... it has had the barrel crowned and trigger done among all the recent work, I just need to try different ammo until I find one that's right. I just bought some Hornady light magnum for it in 100 grain cause I mainly want to use it for deer.
 
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