Flatland grizz in northwestern Pa.

[oldfart1956]

Fellers I hope ya'll will allow me to ramble on here a bit with this tale. Each year I head up to northwestern Pa. (Venango Co.) to participate in a groundhog (flat land grizz) hunt with my older brother. It's always in early July when the hay fields are cut and the corn is shoulder high and the area there seems to be awash in chucks. Our 1st. hunt some years ago involved dragging along a bench, sandbags, chairs and long range rifles with powerful scopes. Once was enough. I find it intolerably boring and predictable. It wasn't hunting at all....just killing. As I've advanced in years I find the killing, although needed, an anticlimax....and not why I'm there. So now we hunt. We walk the fields and take the shots as they are presented, standing erect as best we are able closing in on 60 years. We do carry shooting sticks since neither of us could hit our feet without them. I carried the Ruger Blackhawk in .45 colt which I am currently experimenting with and allowed myself a scope due to failing vison. Brother Art carried a S&W with open sights in .357 with some of the Lee 158gr. TL boolits I casted for him. He is quite a talented handgun shooter and has done some remarkable shooting with a Contender G2....which I convinced him not to use as it is little more than a short barreled rifle in my opinion. Upon arriving at Arts home (250 miles away) I had him try some of the loads with the Ruger and beyond 25yds. he shot as poorly as I. That has been corrected to some degree but for this hunt I knew I had, basically, a 25yd. scoped revolver with the possibility of extending that range only for a most unfortunate groundhog. Now before anyone starts crying about ethics these farmers would rather we poison the groundhogs in their holes and just want them erradicated. I would, however make every effort to take shots as close as possible. Now.....on to the hunt. Audie....the Oldfart..

[runfiverun]

awesome.
i believe many groundhogs are hunted this way.
i hunt ground squirells the same way quite often, and get some surprisingly close shots.
and other times i can walk and sit and get 4-5 of them off a rock pile then move along.
ocassionally i get a rock chuck this same way also.
i usually get in a lot of conversation between shots if someone goes along with me.
have fun, it's not alway's about numbers.

[oldfart1956]

After spending the morning shooting at Arts range we dawdled about until 5p.m. at which time we headed to some farm that I don't recall the location or name of. It's several hundreds of acres of rolling fields broken up with thick hedgerows and some woods lots. Some small parcels are planted in beans and corn which provides us some cover as we hobble from one local to the next looking for chucks. Barely exiting the truck on a back-field lane we spied a young chuck bobbing up and down and closed the distance to about 50yds. before he became alarmed and took notice of us. He dropped into the hole and we set up the shooting sticks, Art giving me first shot since....he likes to watch me miss. I eased back the hammer and waited peering alongside the scope....knowing full well this young chuck would get curious as likely he hadn't been shot at yet, and poke his noggin' out'a that hole. Which he did of course. Seven (7) times....before he decided me sending june-bug sized wads of lead (255gr. swc) all around him wasn't fun any more. Actually...it was six shots and one CLICK....followed by a round of laughter from my brother. "Considerable recoil...for a gun that didn't go BANG!"...he said. Dang yankee. So we headed along a bit further on the field edges until we spied another yearling and this time it was big brothers turn to show his metal. He had some small advantage as we had somehow stumbled to within 20yds. of the hole before the young chuck popped up....which he missed....3 times!!! :) "Aye, standing on yer hind legs and shooting is a bit different than sniping away at 200yds. with a target gun....ehhh?"...I mentioned. He took it in good stride and we wandered on to the corner of a particular field where we spotted an old grizzled fellow standing at the edge of his hole at about 75yds. distant. He made no bones about not allowing us to close the distance and spotted us right off. Art insisted I take the shot as his open sights were of little use at such range. I did my best but didn't hear the WHOP of the boolit and just as I recovered from the recoil a second chuck popped up at 25yds......and that time I heared the WHOP! And 3 more chucks heard it too and popped up to take a look see. No more groundhogs was hurt at that time. Gaaaahhh. For the next 2 hours until near sunset we covered a bit of ground and saw 30 groundhogs total.....dug divots all over the farmers fields and lofted a bunch'a galena at them rascals. The longest shot was the afore mentioned 75yd. shot which missed and the closest was 3 yards. Not a typo...3 yards.....and 3 shots...which Art missed!!!! :) At one point we had 5 chucks standing together in the open but out of range. I ran out of boolits at about dusk. (Only had 30 rounds with me....) Art faired worse, not connecting on a single chuck. But it was a day worth remembering spent with my older brother. We don't get to spend much time together and we know we don't have too many years left in us so it was special. The following weekend Art returned with the Contender and shot 10 chucks and never moved the shooting bench he dragged along. The furtherest was 325yds. away. And that's the end of this tale. Audie...the Oldfart...

[725]

A grand day, indeed.

[Dale53]

Savor those days in the field. They end all too soon! I am pretty much too old to hunt any longer but sure had my fun while it was possible. Now, I hunt the elusive "X" ring with my cast bullet handguns!:mrgreen:

I had about as much fun hunting edible small game with a revolver than any other type of hunting I have done (including taking a half dozen nice whitetail deer with handguns). Clipping a wounded grouse's head off when bird hunting can be very satisfying. Rabbits are MUCH tastier when shot with a handgun (and no bird shot to pick from your teeth)...

Great sport!

Dale53