This is a writeup that I posted last summer on a varmint hunting site. It gives an account of what a few hours in the field can be like. This spot is just a few minutes from my home
You could say that it was an easy shot. About 110 yards at a slightly upward angle, hardly any wind and the light was just right. I rested my cheek lightly on the stock started to apply pressure on the trigger and before I knew it my custom .243 win barked loudly. The groundhog, which was in my crosshairs, disappeared from view. I have confidence in my shooting abilities and my equipment; therefore I was quite certain that I would find one very dead groundhog near the opening of the burrow.
I picked up my rifle and shooting sticks, walked over to the burrow and found the hog laying in the opening like a drain plug.
Reaching down and grabbing it by the scruff I knew immediately that this was a large hog. As I pulled it out I was happy to see that this one weighed in close to 15 pounds. They tend to average around 10 pounds in my province of Quebec.
I had made a big mistake before getting this shot off. I’m lucky enough to have access to over a thousand acres of farmland to hunt within 15 min drive from my home. Consequently, I can decide on a whim that I will go hunt hogs even if only for a few hours. This was the case on this day and I wanted to be home around lunchtime so that I could spend the rest of the day with my family. The area I decided to hunt was on part of some 600 acres of farmland that has some great networks of burrows. I sometimes walk the fields spotting and stalking but on this day I wanted to set up and snipe at them from a fixed position. No matter how long we have been at the game we all make rookie mistakes from time to time. As I neared my chosen area I saw a nice hog out in the open field. At this time of the year the fields are not seeded yet and all it had to offer for cover was corn stubble from last years harvest. I estimated the distance at approximately 300 to 350 yards. Here’s where I made my mistake. Since I was going to set up within 150 yards of the burrows I didn’t feel like changing the elevation on my scope. I held over on the hog squeezed the trigger and after the shot hit the dirt some 15 feet behind it I watched as it sprinted the 30 odd yards to the nearest cover. I had just announced to every groundhog in the vicinity that I had arrived. In my haste I never thought that I had to just go set up and patiently wait for a hog to decide that it was time to get some sun outside the burrow. For those of you that live out west and have the opportunity to hunt prairie dogs, groundhog hunting is different in many ways. One of the main differences is that we eastern hunters do not have the opportunity to shoot at hundreds of varmints in a day. Five to seven in a full day is great, a dozen is fantastic. Shoot one and none will come out of their burrows for quite some time, sometimes for up to an hour!
I now had a decision to make, I could either keep walking and spot and stalk or set up anyways in my intended area and wait the hogs out. I guess I was feeling a little lazy so I decided to stay. I checked the direction of the wind and found that my best chances would be if I set up exactly on the opposite side of the burrows that I was on. I have noticed in the past that sometimes, when walking near burrows, that the more curious hogs would poke their heads up out of their holes to see what was walking by. Therefore I walked right through the middle of this network of burrows! They all heard me they may as well see me also.
I wanted to set up in a pile of branches that the farmer had convienently stockpiled near the end of his land. Once I made it to my intended spot I was happy to see that there were some much larger logs that would make a good seat. Actually I found myself in a very nice blind with a good field of fire.
This picture is from it’s burrow out to where I was set up
After about an hour I spotted a nice hog walking around at about 200 yards. The shot was uphill with no backstop so I passed on that one. A good 15 minutes after I spot another half out of his burrow taking a look around. I centered the crosshairs on his shoulder and thats the moment that the .243 sent 80 grs of lead out to find fur.
