I saw one once in a cedar tree. I figured that it was a radical change in groundhog behaviour and since I didn't think a paradigm shift in groundhog thinking was in order I removed him from the gene pool.
Not exactly sporting, but I figured I have shot them with everything from .22 to .30-06, 20 to 12 gauge and various arrows and multiple different shooting situations that I could think of, I couldn't pass up taking one in a tree. I have shot doubles with one shot, pounded them with shotguns when the grass got too long and they offer only a quick peek in the clover. I have bounced cast lead from a .270 up through them while sunning on a rock. I busted one that persisted in running beside me on a fence line while I walked beside it, stopping, starting, stopping, starting, 6 times without finding cover, he was too stupid to live (.30-06 130HP). My high school biology project was a marmota monax skeleton mounted on a felt covered wooden block (three seperate kills pieced together). I sat down once and seriously tried to estimate how many I have taken and the count is conservatively above 4k. My uncle was in a contest to collect tails one year in the late '70s and I contributed over 800 in a summer (he finished below third place). My dad and I would see who could get the most kills without a miss and his record of 69 still beats my miserable 57. I started young in this, when I was five I would ride on dad's shoulders and spot them in the fields and he shot them with a pre 64 '94 in .30-30 Ackley Imp. with 110 gr HP M1 carbine bullets, bought in bulk from Epps original store (not Orillia). I can see that I have digressed from the original post but this just got me thinking of all the chucks over the years. Pityfull thing is that with all the coyotes in Ontario now, that a good day shooting "back home" with my brother is just a handfull of empties. Here is to the wonderful woodchuck, groudhog, whistle pig, pasture poodle, damn varmint that he is.
270 totheend
