Got out groundhoggin' yesterday

[Skinny Shooter]

Still recovering from a hit of the flu last week and had to get out of doors yesterday. Figured that shooting a groundhog or two may just cure what ails me. Have been holding off doing any hunting so far this year but being cooped for a week clinched it.
It took awhile to walk into the farm with vertigo that comes and goes, but when I got to the shooting spot it was worth the effort.
Nailed a scraggly buck that reared its head up to me at 168yds in a stubbly corn field and missed 3 at 359, 368 and 487yds. Did I mention it was windy...
The 22-250 sure shoots nice with some left-over Starke 55gr hp's.
Saw a total of 15 chucks at this farm that I haven't hunted in about 4 years. Also saw some more holes that appear to be active.
Looking forward to Summer...

[skeeter@ccia.com]

I myself think it is too early for hoggin since the young are probably not old enough to come out on their own..at least where I go ...I have a problem keeping a use to be hunting buddy out of the farms I took him to till the young (targets) get out on their own....I tell him ..get one big one now and kill off 5 more targets...I think it is time to have a chat with the farmers..even they believe in the leave seed theory..

[Cobra]

My farmers have the "kill them all, ASAP" belief, and have no trouble doing the best I can to accommodate them. Been hitting some of these farms fairly hard for around 25 years, virtually impossible to get close to taking them all out, others just replace them.

[Skinny Shooter]

Skeeter, email me your locale. If your farmers go for managing their groundhog population, I'd like to hunt those farms.
We're trying the conservation route on certain farms we hit hard last year but we'd never tell the farmer/landowner that. That's a good way to lose your hunting area to someone else that "will do the job" in the farmer's eyes.
The farm I was at on Saturday may be sold off for development. Which means no more hunting. So with that in mind, we're going to exterminate their presence. Plus being on the edge of town doesn't help so we're gettin' some while we can.
More groundhogs die of old age in our thick fencerows than someone could ever shoot in the fields around here so I don't get worked up about a few young ones dying. I'm gonna remove their heads anyways once they stick 'em out of their holes.
Or you could just shoot the bucks and leave the does for later. Sorta like a reverse AR.

[skeeter@ccia.com]

skinny, here on the other side of the grassy knoll, it is much the same with loosing land for shootin the pigs...a new house put a stop to a few good acres of these farms (neighbors)..but the farmers do understand my seed theory..I just keep them out of the main fields where they cause problems.(they know this keeps me around)..and wish you were here when I had to remove them from their barns,outbuildings,man house,gardens...like 125 in the first summer on the farm their son bought adjoining theirs..they had foundations falling in everywhere..I don't much care what others do where they hunt but is just something I put up with here on the 5 farms I tend to...along with the now and then field adjoining farmers need cleaned out..

the lesson I learned came from a guy I had 'help' me..(he is an X hunting friend for many reasons)..the least reason is as I took him to many a hunt spot of mine, I found out he goes to his private for him only farms on the other side of the knoll and won't even tell me where they are..so after bitchin at him for shooting his 338 around here (he says it digs into the ground and don't fly off)..right..and skyline, toward barns,buildings and even toward me, I told him to go to his private farms and clean them out..he said ' there are none to shoot and is a waste of time sitting there all day and not seeing any' .. this was food for thought to me and I did think...so, the seed thing only seems the way to go for me..I just have to keep him out....as he turned out to be a pee poor sportsman..his way of thinking is you will never kill them all but after sitting all day without a shot fired it only makes one think of the days when a box of ammo wasn't enough..I just have to leave seed..so far, even the young hunters can have fun there..and the farmers are happy.....I even been asked to remove them from the crators of the moon field the horses roam in on neighboring farms..now these ones, I eliminate as many as can because it is as you stated one of those places you just don't get to see very often......happy hunting...+ marks the spot....me, I 'm waiting for the seed to sprout.