Posted: 4/22/2009 6:05:49 PM EDT
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Well I just got done building a mount for a digital video recorder to sit on the scope of my 17HMR, going to try to get some groundhogs tomorrow. I went down to the field to scout yesterday and saw the biggest groundhog I have ever seen. I had no idea they could get this big! I took one last year that was probably close to 25-30 pounds, this one I saw yesterday dwarfs the one from last year. I have always wanted to hunt groundhogs but wasn't an option when I lived in the peoples republic of kali, Virginia definitely has an abundance of wildlife. I will try to get some video and pictures of the take tomorrow and post them up. Wish me luck!
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Ground hog hunting is a great spring, summer, fall past time around here. I love it. I already got one a few weeks ago from my deck, weighed in about 30 lbs or so. I have two more I have been keeping an eye on waiting to make the wrong move at the wrong time.
The bad thing around here though is, they spook real easy, If they hear as much as the safety click from 50-75 yrds away there gone. Smart little critters when they want to be. Have fun. |
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I enjoy groundhog hunting, just don't have time to do much of it these days.
If you are trying to eliminate all of them, now is a good time to shoot them. If you are just sport hunting you might wait until the pups are big enough to take care of themselves. If you wait until the first part of June or so, they'll be good to go. You'll have a place to hunt next year too. 
I was mainly interested in hunting them at the longer ranges and, to that end, I wrote a ballistic calculator; something I could take with me in the field. It currently runs on the PalmOS devices and probably needs to be ported to something more mainstream (iPhone or iTouch, perhaps) but I still have a couple of working Palms. If that is of any interest, you are welcome to download and use it. It is on my web site under the Miscellaneous menu then PBX. Nothing really fancy but it beats the heck out of a printed drop table. Randy |
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Well good luck on your hunt, can't wait to see the video.
I did a good/bad thing last year. Had a place to groundhog hunt, killed a couple. The land owners daughters wanted to learn how to hunt them. I took them out, with me. Both shot a ground hog. One thought it was a lot of fun, the other doesn't want to kill anymore of them. The one that thought it was fun has pretty much eradicated the ground hogs from their property. So I did a good thing by introducing a new hunter to the sport. Did a bad thing by losing a place to hunt. There still are plenty of deer on the property though. |
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You're gonna shoot a cute, furry little prairie dog? You're gonna gun down an adorable little tail wagging, unsuspecting critter? You know that ground hogs are not prairie dogs, right? yeah, my bad. I'm from CO originally. We have prairie dogs out there, that's what I've hunted. In Boulder, the tree-huggers actually buy land and protect it for the little bastards to live on. It was great until there got to be so many of them that the roads surrounding the property started looking like civil war battle fields with little dead bodies all over the place.
The ground-hogs out here do get huge. |
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I've been hoping to see some across the Potomac in MD but no dice yet. Over the last two years I hunted them pretty hard and now don't seem to have any of them left. But we also have a lot of foxes that have taken up residence in the groundhog burrows and I think they contributed to their demise.
G-hogs are lots of fun, though and quite enjoyable. Look forward to seeing the videos. |
Well it was windy and a little too cold so we didn't see anything moving today. I went up to the field i hunted in last year, found a hole that is fresh on the edge, and some old holes. No pictures or video's today but I will try to get some on Saturday. But in the time being here is the pictures of a decent sized one I got last year.
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I'm actually heading to Culpeper tomorrow to do my first Ground hog hunt with my Uncle. Do I need to obtain a hunting license for this on his personal property?
Also when I was searching online there was no mention of magazine limit or use of semi automatics. What are the laws on Semi autos? I have heard by mouth that you cannot have more than 5 round magazine, but cannot find it in writing. I was planning on using a 10/22 which uses a 10 round magazine. Is that legal? Thanks! |
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That hog was shot at about 140 yards on a run back to his hole. I use a Marlin 917V in a 17HMR. This round is nasty on them, the small ones the exit wound was 2-3 inches. The 2 fields are near the north Carolina boarder in Chesapeake, down by the navy and coast guard base of off ballahack.
As far as the license thing I do not know, for me I do not think I have to have one since the farm is owned by family and you do not need one for your own property, but since it is not in my name and they actually lease the land I believe there are stipulations that you have to own the land. I buy a license anyways, 18.00 for all of Virginia or 11.00 for just the locality. Now with that said, I believe also since they are classified as a nuisance animal they can be taken at anytime on private lands by state law if I am not mistaken, but I believe that you would have to have a hunting license for public land. It is funny, these things can cost a farmer a lot of money, especially of they sink the header bar of the combine during harvest, could be out 25-60k. But they are so fun to hunt, we always leave a couple that have holes on the edge of the field so we will have some next year. |
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I'm actually heading to Culpeper tomorrow to do my first Ground hog hunt with my Uncle. Do I need to obtain a hunting license for this on his personal property? Also when I was searching online there was no mention of magazine limit or use of semi automatics. What are the laws on Semi autos? I have heard by mouth that you cannot have more than 5 round magazine, but cannot find it in writing. I was planning on using a 10/22 which uses a 10 round magazine. Is that legal? Thanks! "Nuisance species" means blackbirds, crows, cowbirds, grackles, English sparrows, starlings, or those species designated as such by regulations of the Board, and those species found committing or about to commit depredation upon ornamental or shade trees, agricultural crops, wildlife, livestock or other property or when concentrated in numbers and manners as to constitute a health hazard or other nuisance. However, the term nuisance does not include (i) animals designated as endangered or threatened pursuant to §§ 29.1-563, 29.1-564, and 29.1-566, (ii) animals classified as game or fur-bearing animals, and (iii) those species protected by state or federal law. As long as it falls under this catagory they can be harvested or dispatched witout a collectors license. You should be GTG. So you couldnt use this definition on public land, you would have to spring 18.00 and some ammo to have a bunch of fun! On a nuisance thing I wouldnt worry about the mags, I am sure that you would be fine, hell they recently changed the rules saying you can take the plug out of the shotgun, so I am sure it is no problem. |
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I'm actually heading to Culpeper tomorrow to do my first Ground hog hunt with my Uncle. Do I need to obtain a hunting license for this on his personal property? Also when I was searching online there was no mention of magazine limit or use of semi automatics. What are the laws on Semi autos? I have heard by mouth that you cannot have more than 5 round magazine, but cannot find it in writing. I was planning on using a 10/22 which uses a 10 round magazine. Is that legal? Thanks! no restrictions on semi auto's, you could use a beta mag if so inclined, |
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I used to use .22LR for the burrowing beasts. One day I shot one in the throat and it managed to crawl 20 yards back to it's hole, leaving a foot wide trail of blood the whole way. Needless to say, I felt awful. I tried to end it's life by shooting it eleven (11!) more times in the head. It was still crawling to the hole.
That's the day I gave up on using .22LR on any living creature. I now have a 22-250 bolt action Savage that is the dedicated varmint rifle. It does the job very well, and with great ballistics. Or on skunk runs I used to use the 7.62 AK. Every now and then the skunk population out here gets out of control and you can easily shoot 25 of them in one night. That's happened twice now. |
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i lost my hunting grounds last year, the family that owns the property fell out and the guys that hunt there were pushed out. i need to find a new place. (near harrisonburg  )
i've shot the lil bastards with everything from .22lr to .308 and i can say that the .22lr is NOT the best choice. for now i've decided to use my Recce build and 20 round PMags with Black Hills 60gr v-max. one particular hog soaked up several rounds of 62gr wolf with ease. we were just target shooting and he pops out about 10yds to the left of the targets. he was at 220yds and after the first round (with an EOTech) he started running in our direction. my wife put several rounds on him but he kept on going. i quickly dug into my shooting bag and got her a mag of the v-max and she shut him down, severed head tends to do that. final kill shot was around 50yds out. it was amazing, lil bastard was full of holes and still running. i carry my 300winmag from time to time but i've yet to get a ground hog with it. it's like they can smell death in the air and don't come out. sooner or later i'll get a 22-250 for this kind of stuff but plinking them with the AR is just too much fun. |
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I have access to a number of properties through a hunting club (the price continues to climb every year though).
A lot of the farmers are more than glad to have the groundhogs removed. One problem has been the fear that they have gotten of anyone even near them. I have moved to longer range, with a .22-250 AI out to about 300 yards, and a 6mm Rem AI past that. The ones near a decent field get pretty darn fat, but still manage to waddle pretty quickly at the site of a person within a couple hundred yards. The fox and coyote population seems to have done some damage to the groundhog population. |
| I hunt on a huge farm and rarely see any ground hogs. (By the time I see them they've already seen me and are beating feat towards the nearest hole.) Lots of crows however... and they have gotten smart after suffering heavy losses. I know this will sound odd but it appears that they draw straws, and the loser has to fly down and land. If no one shoots him then some others come and land... It's crazy. |
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Not crazy at all, they are a very smart bird and act as a pack. I hunted them growing up on our farm. They post sentries round a feed spot, and take turns coming in to land and eat. They defintely have a language. I've witnessed my dad shoot one down, give a "I'm wounded" call and shoot two more who came back to help.
IIRC, they don't like to come back if thier dead are hung up. They learn what fields are "hot" and avoid them for a while. After hunting them for a while, I remember walking past a "guard bird" about 100 yds away. He stayed put for a minute. I stood there thinking, then I picked up a stick and held it like a gun and he took off. Back to the GH's, a very good friend has a "vacation home" near the river. As they aren't there much (~30% of summer days) the GH's moved in. I went last summer and removed 6 in a day, all around thier house. Shot on foot and ambushed them from the house (thru windows). They are totally oblivious to humans. I shot my first one, Grabbed my shotgun and went to go check it out. Another popped up from where I stood not 15 feet from me. He retreated, I walked past his hole and waited, and he popped back up ~60 seconds later. Dispatched him with a 12ga, DRT. In fact, all but one were dead before they layed down, One distant shot (70 yds) with a grazing shot allowed the pest to crawl from the edge of thier yard 5 yds into the brush before expiring. I had to hurry that shot a bit because he was heading out of sight. Anyways, I know these were close shots, but I wasn't impressed by toughness. I was using 55gn FMJ out of my AR, topped with a 1-4x scope. I don't know if they fragmented or not, but they literally were instant deaths. I was contemplating just using a shotgun/turkey loads (#4 shot) ... don't know how much distance I'd get that way. I'm pretty paranoid about what's beyond my target and passed up numerous shots because of that. |
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(By the time I see them they've already seen me and are beating feat towards the nearest hole.) They do seem to have gotten very skittish. I have a nice spot that I can set up looking down a small hill to a large field. It is rather relaxed since the ground hogs are at least 300 yards away near a tree line at the edge of the field. I use a portable varmint bench, a large spotting scope and start searching. I do not have to range them any more since I know the distance to the edge of the field. Varmint rifle on a front rest and sandbag, check the drop table, let one fly. The farmer was watching through the spotting scope the first time I nailed on at ~300 yards and he started whooping it up. He asked a bunch of questions about the setup, and said I should come back. He even called a few times when he thought there would be good shooting. Under the club rules we are supposed to retrieve the dead, but he said to leave them since "It might scare off some others." |
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Not crazy at all, they are a very smart bird and act as a pack. I hunted them growing up on our farm. They post sentries round a feed spot, and take turns coming in to land and eat. They defintely have a language. I've witnessed my dad shoot one down, give a "I'm wounded" call and shoot two more who came back to help. IIRC, they don't like to come back if thier dead are hung up. They learn what fields are "hot" and avoid them for a while. After hunting them for a while, I remember walking past a "guard bird" about 100 yds away. He stayed put for a minute. I stood there thinking, then I picked up a stick and held it like a gun and he took off. Back to the GH's, a very good friend has a "vacation home" near the river. As they aren't there much (~30% of summer days) the GH's moved in. I went last summer and removed 6 in a day, all around thier house. Shot on foot and ambushed them from the house (thru windows). They are totally oblivious to humans. I shot my first one, Grabbed my shotgun and went to go check it out. Another popped up from where I stood not 15 feet from me. He retreated, I walked past his hole and waited, and he popped back up ~60 seconds later. Dispatched him with a 12ga, DRT. In fact, all but one were dead before they layed down, One distant shot (70 yds) with a grazing shot allowed the pest to crawl from the edge of thier yard 5 yds into the brush before expiring. I had to hurry that shot a bit because he was heading out of sight. Anyways, I know these were close shots, but I wasn't impressed by toughness. I was using 55gn FMJ out of my AR, topped with a 1-4x scope. I don't know if they fragmented or not, but they literally were instant deaths. I was contemplating just using a shotgun/turkey loads (#4 shot) ... don't know how much distance I'd get that way. I'm pretty paranoid about what's beyond my target and passed up numerous shots because of that. Barnes Bullets has begun manufacture of the .224" Varmint Grenade bullet. According to a very reliable friend of mine out west, the damn things 'vaporize' prairie dogs on impact. All you get is a red cloud. Nothing to pick up afterwards. Squeegee maybe, but pick up, no. I think he told me they were 36 grains, and when he was timing them, they were putting out somewhere near 3800 fps...those might be worth a try for anyone rolling their own right now... |
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Damn man...that used to be the best thing about spring and summer....wackin' Whistle Pigs. Wish I had the time/place to go.
Nothing like hittin' one in the back of the head with 180gr's of 30-06 goodness. ( I was actually out for deer and the little bugger went waddling by in the field...I had to ) |
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I haven't shot a ground hog in a long time, but my sweet and innocent black lab has killed two in the last year, right in front of me. Show off!! That is bad when the dog scores more points than you do, but I bet you were proud! Going to try my luck in the morning, see what happens. |
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Going to try my luck in the morning, see what happens.
Did you have any luck? I also had another question. I am interested in Using my Bushmaster "izzy" carbine. It is the permanent flash suppressor on a 14.5 inch barrel to make it 16. If i throw a scope on it, what kind of accuracy would I have at longer ranges like 200-300 yards? Or should I just discard that thought? Thanks again! |
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you're fine. it's not ideal but it'll work. i bust'em with a 16" chrome lined 1/9 with a 4x ACOG. find the round that shoots the best in your weapon and go to it. i've found that the Burris 2-7x35 w/BDC works well for your kind of set up. it's not too big, so as not to look out of place. it gives you enough magnification to bust hogs out past 3-400. it's not bad as a tactical scope and it don't clean out your wallet like some others. |
| No luck, you know since the day I was unprepared I have not seen them! I am wondering if they are giving birth at this time, I know it is not the Ideal time to hunt them. The grass in the field has also shot up from knee to waist high making it hard to spot them, making it necessary to sneak up to around 50 yards in hopes of catching one. I might just wait until they disc the field, then I can just sit up on one of the tractors at 150 yards and watch all 5 dens, giving me a range from 75-250 yards. I would like some long shots on some of them, I have proven the marlin with 1 inch groups at 200 with a slight breeze, the fun thing with this field is it always has a cross breeze so wind adjustments past 100 will be a must. It just would not be fun if it want challenging, there is one hole at the other end of the filed about 350 out, I wouldn't mind taking some shots at that distance, but with a 1/8 MOA scope that is a lot of clicks! |
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Busted 3 already this year....22-250 with 55 gr v-max moly....vaporized their heads.....i've shot quite a few over the last 5 years with shotgun while squirrel hunting...how many of you knew that groundhogs can climb trees? shot one out of a small maple Sat in friends kitchen and watched one climb his apple tree. Friend just about s**t himself. Loaned him a .38 special revolver. Took care of the groundhog in a few days. |
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Any good sites for tips on hunting these bastards? My folks just bought an old farm in Callao. They lease out the field but I noticed groundhogs have dug tunnels under the out buildings. I had a treestand disassembed in one and it took some of the nuts and bolts and whatnot into it's tunnel. Now I want to kill 'em all. I got traps but I'd just as soon hit 'em with a rifle.
I saw one at a distance. It looked as big as my dog and she's 50 pounds. |
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Any good sites for tips on hunting these bastards? My folks just bought an old farm in Callao. They lease out the field but I noticed groundhogs have dug tunnels under the out buildings. I had a treestand disassembed in one and it took some of the nuts and bolts and whatnot into it's tunnel. Now I want to kill 'em all. I got traps but I'd just as soon hit 'em with a rifle. I saw one at a distance. It looked as big as my dog and she's 50 pounds. Morning or evening. They like to get out and have a nice meal. Just use enough gun to anchor them with a single good shot. If they have not been hunted and are not skittish you might get away with a handgun. |
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Any good sites for tips on hunting these bastards? My folks just bought an old farm in Callao. They lease out the field but I noticed groundhogs have dug tunnels under the out buildings. I had a treestand disassembed in one and it took some of the nuts and bolts and whatnot into it's tunnel. Now I want to kill 'em all. I got traps but I'd just as soon hit 'em with a rifle. I saw one at a distance. It looked as big as my dog and she's 50 pounds. Morning or evening. They like to get out and have a nice meal. Just use enough gun to anchor them with a single good shot. If they have not been hunted and are not skittish you might get away with a handgun. Can you stalk them or is it best to find a good spot and ambush? Also, what would be a good thing to bait a trap for them with (I also have traps). Please note, I'm not doing this for sport - they are causing damage and I want them wiped out. |
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Any good sites for tips on hunting these bastards? My folks just bought an old farm in Callao. They lease out the field but I noticed groundhogs have dug tunnels under the out buildings. I had a treestand disassembed in one and it took some of the nuts and bolts and whatnot into it's tunnel. Now I want to kill 'em all. I got traps but I'd just as soon hit 'em with a rifle. I saw one at a distance. It looked as big as my dog and she's 50 pounds. Morning or evening. They like to get out and have a nice meal. Just use enough gun to anchor them with a single good shot. If they have not been hunted and are not skittish you might get away with a handgun. Can you stalk them or is it best to find a good spot and ambush? Also, what would be a good thing to bait a trap for them with (I also have traps). Please note, I'm not doing this for sport - they are causing damage and I want them wiped out. Stalking depends on how acclimated they are to people around and how far away you are going to shoot at them from. Apples make good bait for a trap. Cut them into quarters so the smell will spread around. |
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My friends have reported that they seem pretty oblivious to them when they are on thier riding mower. If you find them skittish with you on foot, you might try something mechanical?
Reminds me of deer on my dad's place in GA. Ride around on a tractor and they'll ignore you .... step off and they run for the hills! NO WAY. I'd have bet a lot of money against ground hogs climbing trees!!!!! I didn't know about the apples either. |