I was adding some extra cattails to a blind at the marsh this afternoon
Not my blind , no one wanted it
Not the best location , also it is on a dike and stands out
But when there is a East wind , it is great
So I was was done and killing time hoping for some morning doves to come close
When I saw a ground hog maybe 50 yards down the dike
It was standing up looking away from me
So I grabbed my 870 and a hand full of shells out of a box in the back of my Escape
I loaded 3 shells as the 870 had a plug in it
I got to about 20 yards away from the groundhog when it looked at me
So I shot ...... the groundhog rolled and started running
I quickly shot the darn ground hog with the the other 2 shells in the gun
Again it rolled and slowed way down
Butttt it kept going
So I ran up to 10 feet , loaded a shell and fired
That time it worked and I killed the ground hog
I got a glove and pitched the ground hog in the tall weeds on the side of the dike
As I walked back to the Escape I picked up the empty hulls
When I looked at the box of shells I had used
I realized what happened
I had 2 boxes of shells sitting in the Escape
1 box was 1 1/8 oz of home made #8 to shoot doves
The other box was 1 1/2 oz of home made #2 for ground hogs
But I had both loads in MTM plastic shell boxes
Both loads were loaded in Federal High Power hulls
Only thing different between the boxes was was a note with the shot size in the lid
But in my haste I had not looked
So YES you can hunt ground hods with #8 shot LOL
John