ethical groundhog hunting

[carterbeauford]

I disclaim I am not an expert marksman. Actually I'm not even that great of a shot. Still, no matter what I am hunting, I do not want to make it suffer any more than needed.

That said, what does it take to kill a groundhog with one shot? My two groundhog guns are a Remington 870 Express supermag for close range and an iron sighted Yugoslavian SKS for anything over 25 yards. I have shot numerous groundhogs with these two guns and can't recall any that died a quick death.

A head shot would be lucky with the SKS, I shoot for the shoulder out to 100 yards. Past that I don't take the shot because they are a small target. Last one I shot, 154GR soft point right through the shoulder. Blood all over the ground behind him. Still thrashing around. Another hit. Still struggling. Took 3 hits of 7.62x39 to subdue him.

If that wasn't amazing enough, another one managed to live through 3 rounds of 00 buck at 10 yards. All direct hits. Finall walked up and drilled him in the head point blank with a 4th round.

Hit one at 350 yards with a 146 grain .30-06 and watched him drag himself back to his hole through the spotting scope.

Do you guys typically make one-shot kills on groundhogs? What am I doing wrong?

 

[jklinstein]

While I don't have experience shooting groundhogs, they have a reputation for being very tough. A lot of times they'll be shot to hell and still drag themselves back into the hole - according to my sources....

 

[dragongoddess]

Funny you should mention this very subject. I was listening to a lawyer who was harking back to his better days in upstate NY. He would use .17 to hunt woodchuck/ groundhog.

 

[dan20703]

I grew up hunting them in NY and my primary weapon was a .22 rifle. They are fairly smart and hunting them taught me to stalk, be patient and then take a clean head shot. Also hunted them with a bow. Tried a .308 one time and it was too easy. I liked the hunt much more than the kill.

 

[.45Guy]

I always used a .22, usually a Glenfield 25. My father paid a nice bounty on them. Kept my old F-150 in gas when I was in high school.

 

[22-rimfire]

Carterbeauford: You might want to check you PA regs; hunting with an SKS is ILLEGAL for anything in Pennsylvania. That includes groundhogs. If caught you will pay a fine and perhaps loose your hunting privileges.

I have shot quite a few groundhogs with 22LR with head shots. You might try aiming for the head or upper body with a centerfire. They don't hardly move.

 

[DWARREN123]

For hunting such as this you need a very thin jacketed bullet that will almost detonate on impact with the animal, that is how you get quick kills.

 

[Kingcreek]

I live on a farm with buildings, and groundhogs that like to dig under and around my buildings.
I shoot 'em with whatever is handy. 12g with 3" #2 works great (old lead duck and goose loads)
.44mag is good. .22 rimfire in the ear also puts them right down. .243, etc

 

[Oldnamvet]

I sometimes wonder about shots where the animal just thrashes around. Is it really alive or is it just a nerve response. As a kid on my Uncle's farm I used to watch him harvest a chicken for dinner sometimes. He would grab it and whack the head off with a large heavy knife. He would toss the chicken in a barrel and wait. After a couple of seconds the chicken would jump around and thrash all over for a bit. Was it dead or alive? Dead of course since the brain was separated from the body. But it sure looked like it was alive to this little city kid.

 

[el44vaquero]

Ethical, how about a blindfold and a smoke?

 

[Blue Line]

I always shoot for the head, at least above the front legs if the whistle pig was standing up. Almost anything will run off if its not hit properly with a good bullet.
Almost any gun from 22 - 458 will work if there hit right. Good practice for deer season.

 

[Z_Infidel]

I've had good luck on woodchucks with my Marlin 1894C in .357 Magnum. I've also used .223 soft points at longer distances. All the kills were pretty darn quick.

 

[Art Eatman]

The popularity of the .22 Hornet and the .218 Bee was due to their usage on groundhogs. Not a lot of muzzle blast, in built-up, small-farm country, and effective at the common distances.

Seems to me that these new rimfire .17s are the modern equivalent.

Art

 

[Grumulkin]

Any shot from just behind the shoulder forward with anything from a 17 HMR on up will kill a groundhog promptly in my experience. Shots from the side or above won't kill them promptly even with a 30/06 if they just hit the abdomen. Shots from the rear work just fine if your bullet has proper penetration (like a 222 Rem. loaded with 70 grain Speer Semi-Spitzers) and can angle forward into the chest.

I used to think that if a groundhog was on the "back forty" I would leave it alone because it wasn't hurting anything. My new policy, since having to evict them from under my front porch, is that if I see them within shooting range I will kill them. They have surprisingly good eyesight and can be very alert and shy.

 

[Geno]

A similar post last year

Someone else had a very similar post last year. In my experience, any rifle can do the job, so long as it is accurate. Those who use the deer rifle are probably the wisest for off-season practice. The only round I have seen that I truly did not like is the old "accelerator", the 30-30, 308, 30-06 with a sabot .22. Never seen one that was accurate.

Re: one-shot kills, yes. That is about all one gets. They are fast. There is a strategy. Buy a steel swinging target. Place it about 30 to 50 feet from their hole. Then, using a Ruger 10-22 HB, a T/C .22 Classic or HB model or some other extremely accurate .22LR, pop it a couple of times. GHs are curious and basically dumb. When the come out and stand up to see what's up, put them down with one shot to the head or neck. I have never had to shoot twice with that technique out to and including 225 paces. I try to limit the distances to 150 to 200 paces, and use Remington Blue Box solid target bullets. I think they are 40 grains.

You must have a good scope, not expensive, just good. I used a fixed 4X with target knobs and adjustable objective. Of late, I am thinking of the Shepard scope.

22 LR

Shepherd's site lists these as the "Drop Figures are in Inches (the center of the circles are in yards)" [ http://www.shepherdscopes.com/product.asp ]

Yards & Drop

50: -0-

100: -5.4

150: -19.5

200: -43.6

250: -79.2

300: -128

350: -191

400: -271

450: -369

500: -488

Shepherd's Home Page:

http://www.shepherdscopes.com/index.asp

Doc2005

 

[Hawken50]

what kind of bullets are you using? if fmj they could be just zipping right through. as said before thin jacketed bullets, usually called "varmiters" or some such, at relativly short ranges/high velocities will pretty much explode on contact and ensure a quick kill. at longer ranges/lower velocities, most will easily mushroom also killing quickly. it takes more flesh and bone than a chuck has to mushroom a fmj.

not that a fmj won't do the job, just takes a bit longer, which you're trying to avoid.

 

[trickyasafox]

i have used a 22lr pistol if they are under 25. over that i like a 223 just in case i dont get a clean head hit.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

My groundhog, crow and coyote rifle is a Kimber M82 in .22 Hornet. With a case full of Hodgdon's Li'l Gun, it will drive a 35-grain Hornady V-Max a little over 3,000 fps. Up to 200 yards and a bit more, it will kill very quickly.

If you are hunting them, or stuck with a .22 or shotgun, one technique is to approach the den directly. Naturally they'll dive under ground. Go on past the den and then stop and wait quietly from ten yards or so behind it.

When the groundhog comes back up, he'll usually look for you in the last place he saw you -- in other words, he'll have his back to you.

 

[Sunray]

"...hunting with an SKS is ILLEGAL for anything in Pennsylvania..." It's not that it's an SKS it because its a semi-auto. Hunting with any semi-auto is illegal in PA.
I've killed ground hogs with everything from a .22LR up to and including a 220 grain Silvertip out of my M-1(No, they didn't bother my rifle). Groundhogs aren't difficult to kill, but it depends on the cartridge, the bullet and shot placement just like any other game animal.
A .22lr will drop 'em if you hit them in the right place with the right .22 bullet. Head shots, of course, but heart/lung shots with high velocity .22HP's are better. Bird shot out of a 12 ga in the heart/lungs at close range, that depends on the choke, about 10 yards with a modified choke, when I did it in early Spring, will kill them quickly, but a poorly placed shot is a poorly placed shot.
Carterbeauford, with all due respect, I'd suggest you leave the SKS at home before you get arrested and spend some time on a range learning to shoot. Ground hogs aren't big and while shooting them is good practice, you need to be able to hit what you're shooting at. Go buy a .223 rifle, scope it and hit a range to sight it in with the ammo you intend to hunt with, think varmint bullets, then go hunting.
You do have a hunting licence? The consequences of getting caught hunting with a semi-auto will be light compared to getting caught hunting with no licence. Go here. http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/cwp/browse.asp?a=460&bc=0&c=69880&pgcNav=|

 

[MattB]

I shot a few groundhogs when I was younger. I took them with a 22 lr, a .44 mag (pistol), .30-30 and a .220 swift. I will have to say the .22 LR took about 4 shots to down the hog. The .44 mag went in through the eye and out the ear...one shot drop. The .30-30 blew the side out of a hog at about 50 yards. However, the .220 swift was the most devastating even out past 100 yards. The hogs would pretty much explode and open up and be killed instantly. I would rather have a .223 , .22-250 or a .220 swift for varmints.

 

[The Drew]

Actually a yugo SKS can be either manual or semi... Technically it is legal for hunting if the gas tube is turned off... Since it then becomes a straight pull bolt rifle...

Although I don't know how accomodating any game warden will be...

 

[dfaugh]

Groundhogs (or woodchucks as we call 'am arounf here) are surpisingly hard to kill...but many go over 20 lbs and some are closer to 30. When I was a kid, We hnted them with .22s, but had severl that were shot at fairly close range, right through the chest w/ high-velocity hollowpoints, and they still managed to run into their burrows. We would then throw a smoke boms down the hole, and come back a few minutes later to finish them off.. I remember one in particular where th bullet entered ath the ribs and exited under the opposite forearm, sot at about 40 feet, and he still kept trucking.

So I went and bought a .270 (I was just a poor teenager, and wanted an "all around rifle", plus I'd read way too much Jack O'Connor by then). THAT pretty much assured their demise (actually it pretty much cut 'em in half), as well as allowed me to talk longer shots (Although I didn't necessarily HIT them).

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I remember one in particular where th bullet entered ath the ribs and exited under the opposite forearm, sot at about 40 feet, and he still kept trucking.

That's why the .22 Hornet was developed. Craftsmen at Springfield Armory bought M1922 Springfields (basically an M1903 Springfield in .22 LR with a half stock and rear peep.) These rifles were made for marksmanship practice and were sold to civilians as well as issued to troops.

So they had a fine rifle, but the cartridge was lacking. Some one dredged up the old black-powder .22 Winchester Center Fire, developed a smokeless powder load for it, and began modifying the extractor and firing pins of the M1922s, and rechambering them.

They showed the resulting rifle to the Armory commander, Colonel Townsend Whelen, and he shot it -- "Boy! That's a hornet!"

And the rest is history.

 

[JohnBT]

My uncle bought a .222 Rem back when I was little in the '50s and he always shot for the head, but nobody is perfect. We hunted cow pastures and corn fields and the usual shots were in the 100-150 yard range. The few gut shot ones were all torn up and it was my job to finish them off with a .22. That ugly job motivated me to learn to make the head shots.

John

 

[kjaniak]

"The popularity of the .22 Hornet and the .218 Bee was due to their usage on groundhogs. Not a lot of muzzle blast, in built-up, small-farm country, and effective at the common distances."

I'm with Art on this. I use a .22 Hornet (Ruger 77/.22 Hornet in matte stainless topped with a Leupold 3-9 x 40) for groundhogs. I am in small farm country and the muzzle blast is perfect for keeping the noise down. I use factory Winchester hollow points and have shot over a 100 of them in 5-6 years. Anything hit with a good high chest/neck/head shot is going down in a hurry. Love that rig and would never use anything else for the type of area I am in. My shots are all in the 30-110 yard range and in a semi rural area I wouldn't want to go with a bigger caliber due to noise and lack of long range clear shooting lanes.