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Thread: This garden muncher will munch no more!

  1. #21
    Boolit Buddy
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    That hold over needed is a good example of why to use MPBR sight in. I have only one rifle I shoot cast in, 308. Have it sighted in with an, well don't remember the target size but suspect 4". At 75 yds it's +2 high. At 147yds it' zeroed. At 150yds it's -2. No holdover to 150yds and no holr under.

  2. #22
    Boolit Grand Master


    missionary5155's Avatar
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    Greetings
    Well done ! Good eating ! I grew up in SW Michigan and ground hogs were everywhere. Some grew to near 50 pounders. Could destroy a sweet corn field in no time. 32-20 was a favorite caliber back then. Last one I popped before the "green Machine" got me was with a 32 Win. Special in our 336 Marlin. Never have used an 06. Should be enough gun !
    Mike in Peru
    "Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28
    Male Guanaco out in dry lakebed at 10,800 feet south of Arequipa.

  3. #23
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Was it "The Load"....13 grains of Red Dot ?
    Awesome shot. You get a big ATTABOY !
    Gary
    Certified Cajun
    Proud Member of The Basket of Deplorables
    " Let's Go Brandon !"

  4. #24
    Boolit Master
    Tom W.'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by EMC45 View Post
    The one I plugged through the ear with my sons .22 back in 16 got turned into brunswick stew. I'd love to whack some more. They are everywhere now.
    The last time Lori and I were in Sevierville there was a huge one sitting on the corner of the road in a large intersection... He just smiled and waved at us....
    Tom
    μολὼν λαβέ


    Did I ever mention that I hate to trim brass?

  5. #25
    Boolit Master
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    I whacked a big one on Friday. I was sitting on the porch talking to the neighborhood cat and heard the click of toenails on our wood walkway. Looked up and a big female was just casually strolling across the yard. Of course I didn’t have a gun. It crossed the driveway and ducked under the deck. I retrieved my Glock 19 from the glove box of my car and waited. About three minutes later she started casually creeping toward the high grass in the field beside the deck. A Speer Gold Dot 124 grain +P gave me a solid one shot stop.

    They are digging under the foundation of the garage, so it’s all-out war now.
    NRA Endowment Member

    Armed people don't march into gas chambers.

  6. #26
    Boolit Master trapper9260's Avatar
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    2 years ago I drop one in its track with my 22-250 with a cast boolit of 55gr of Lyman. it did not go anywhere.I sold the skin ate the meat. Good eating. i have one skin I did not sold and use it to make some flies for myself since I am getting into doing some fly fishing and yesterday got my self 2 rainbows with the flies i made from red fox tree rats.That was good eat also and also now it is give me fish now.
    Life Member of NRA,NTA,DAV ,ITA. Also member of FTA,CBA

  7. #27
    Boolit Master

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    The youngest son spotted another one lurking near the garden in heavy brush. 00 buck was called into action. A pellet to the spine and another to the liver at 10 yards resulted in a DRT. Little fellow though, no bigger than a cotton tail. Should eat well. Though, I'll have to get another to go with it.

  8. #28
    Boolit Master
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    Young like that they are good fried like squirrels, be sure and make enough gravey to finish up the biscuits��
    Glad to see you used enough gun...
    “You don’t practice until you get it right. You practice until you can’t get it wrong.” Jason Elam, All-Pro kicker, Denver Broncos

  9. #29
    Boolit Master
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    When I was a kid in SE Indiana, my first groundhog rifle was a .22 RF, but they usually lived long enough to dive in their holes. Disappointing. When old enough to have a job, I upgraded to an M-1917 in .30-06, so my effectiveness went from "irritation" to "vaporization". There are few things as decisive as a Hornady 110gr Spire Point over 60gr of IMR 4064 (assembled on a Lee Loader as befit my very limited funds). IIRC, the book said 3000fps for that load and the results on G-hogs was spectacular. Over the years, a great many fell to the .223 and .357 as well when I hunted them on a couple of farms at the encouragement of the farmers whose outbuildings were being damaged by their tunneling under the piers they stood on as well as risks to livestock from stepping in the holes. We had that problem too, with a barn that became increasingly whopperjawed as the supports went sideways from all the digging. Those always took top priority because that barn was a lot of work to put right again. A fruit grower I knew said any fruit that fell from the trees went to fattening up the prodigious groundhog population, and when they set up housekeeping under his supply room and ate a 6" hole through the floor to get at his grain and feed, he'd had enough. It was a you-pick place and they were tame enough that they didn't spook until you got within 10 feet or so. I didn't have to wait for them to come out - I walked close enough to pot them with .38 Spl wadcutters, and if they jumped in their hole before I got there, I just kept walking to the next den and got that one. I was in groundhog heaven until only the more careful ones were left. These days, the coyotes seem to have taken over groundhog hunting and are very good at it. I still see dens occasionally, but nothing like in years past and I almost never see the groundhog itself. The days of overlapping dens along 80 feet of fencerow and grass like a lawn 30 feet into the hayfield are over. Only the most wary ones survive. In all those years, I never cooked one. Might should have, from what others say.

    For people who dwell where one can't shoot a gun, I did find out that they can successfully be harassed into leaving by jamming large stones or chunks of concrete into their tunnel entrances. Several times a day, they'd struggle and work at getting the stones out of their holes and my mom (totally uninterested in guns) would promptly jam them tightly back in there with a few blows from a big hammer. After a few days or a week of that, they'd pull up stakes and hit the road, but then finding another place on the farm was an easy thing. In town, they might move to your neighbor’s place.

  10. #30
    Boolit Master

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    Good story, Bub!

    I just waxed #3 for the season with a 12 guage loaded with #2 steel shot at 50 yards. A bit farther than I preferred, but he had spotted me and was moving in the opposite direction. He took one pellet to the haunches (recovered), and one pellet high in the shoulder that I believe traveled under the spine and high into the neck (unrecovered). Required a blow from my buttstock to finish him off (no point wasting shells!) Got back to the house and realized I still had my skeet choke in. I swapped it out for the modified for the next one. I might throw in the extra full when the 3" 4 buck I ordered comes in...

  11. #31
    Boolit Buddy
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    A 2 or 3 inch long piece of road flare light and dropped in the holes with a rock on top will clean them out. Not as much fun as taking pot shots at them but if they have to go... The sulfur dioxide from the flare won't poison something that eats the carcass if one gets out then dies. Besides, it will smell so bad I don't think anything would eat it even if starving.

  12. #32
    Boolit Master trapper9260's Avatar
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    Coyote love to eat groundhogs. Years ago there for a apple farm I work on and they had a big problem with them.I had set some 160 body traps for them,at time the coyotes on the farm had ate some of them out of the trap. Not much was left of them. I got 43 that I trap off of there and one of the owners had got 5 more after that.
    Life Member of NRA,NTA,DAV ,ITA. Also member of FTA,CBA

  13. #33
    Boolit Buddy glockfan's Avatar
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    miam.that meal looks good.

    i put them asleep with my trusty remy 521T with lyman peep sights.

    couple years ago me and my buddy got the job of removing some from a farmer cow field. critters were digging up holes faster than the poor guy could fill them ; it's always heartbreaking to see a nice and productive cow with a broken leg.

    i had my savage 243 at that time,and with both of us at work we removed 47 in the afternoon. once done we cleaned them up, and only ripped the meat of their hip-back legs and the upper front legs. that gave us a nice bunch of meat that turned into a very tasty stew. those animals are vegetarians, so the meat is trustable,and honestly, i would eat such stew anytime without even thinking.

  14. #34
    Boolit Master



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    The tales of using "enough gun" remind me fondly of my best friend in childhood whose Dad and Grandad had about 250 acres combined in Northern Indiana. While they no longer used horses for plowing or pastured any livestock their age-old dislike of whistle pigs continued. He got tired of them diving into their holes before he could get close enough with a .22LR for a reliable kill shot, so he upgraded to .22-250 and a 20 power scope. Handloaded them so he could reach nice a flat (relatively speaking) to 600 yards. (Nice having a parcel that big!) He got to where he hated to bother with shots under 400 yards as they weren't enough of a challenge.

    I complained he never let me try, to no avail until my last day home before going away to school. He let me carry it out and we couldn't find a thing so we started talking about the life of 16 year olds at the top of one of the lookout mounds (mounds, N Indiana doesn't really have hills...). As we rose to go, we both spotted a woodchuck casually sitting half in his burrow, 20 feet downslope, looking away from us and totally disinterested in us. I set up the bipod and couldn't hardly get him in view, he was so close. Matt pointed out the rise of the bullet was several inches that close to the muzzle, so I aimed a foot below his head and touched off the .22-250. We walked down and found a 5' long 6" wide furrow made by the bullet, and a completely filled in burrow entrance along with some random bloody bits of splatter. The hot load at that close range killed and buried him all at once!

    Bulldogger

  15. #35
    Boolit Master roverboy's Avatar
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    Talking about using a enough gun. I got a friend that used to kill them with a .300 Win. Magnum. WOAH!
    Mrs. Hogwallop up and R-U-N-N-O-F-T.

  16. #36
    Boolit Master rondog's Avatar
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    I can't believe people eat those things.....

  17. #37
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by rondog View Post
    I can't believe people eat those things.....
    After seeing people eating chocolate coated spiders and cockroaches that meat looks good, I am not going to fly over and eat one any time soon though. Regards Stephen

  18. #38
    Boolit Buddy
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    ground hogs are good eating when young, they only eat the best clover and other vegetation, If you eat chicken they eat about anything they can get their beaks on.

  19. #39
    Boolit Master


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    We have a bunch around here, but none towards my house, yet. I do/did have one at my hunting area, but I just watch him lumber around. I was astonished one day, I spotted movement in a tree on a hill where many deer pass through and could not figure out what it was. I scoped it, and for some reason, until it got down, my brain could not process that it was a woodchuck. I never knew the pudgy things could get up a tree.
    "Freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it."
    ~Pericles~

  20. #40
    Boolit Master



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    Quote Originally Posted by rondog View Post
    I can't believe people eat those things.....
    I guess it may come down to how you were raised and if anyone ever gave it you to try. Where I grew up the quiet opinion was that only hillbillies would eat such, but I've seen plenty of recipes and opinions that woodchuck can be a good meal and I suppose I'd try it if given the chance. As with every new odd food I suppose it helps to be hungry the first time.
    The same can be said for Racoon where I grew up. No one I knew at school that trapped would talk of eating them, but there are some respected folks on this site with some posts about eating them, so maybe it's just relative. I think I'd try woodchuck before Coon but I suspect it's a rhetorical issue for me as I doubt I'll ever be presented with either.

    BDGR

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check