Groundhog hunting caliber help

When it comes to these things I use whatever I have in my hands at the time from 22LR to shotgun.

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.223 for the following reasons:

1) It works very well on hogs
2) Ammo is relatively cheap
3) Noise & recoil are not too bad
4) Very accurate out to 200+ yds
 
Some posters on here are talking about gophers , not the 12 lb. eastern groundhog. When I was younger we shot hundreds of groundhogs(not in one day) with everything from .22 LR. to .45/70's and the like. Some places, noise wasn't a concern and ranges could be long, so we used 6mm's and a .240 Weatherby, other wise the .22/250 was king. The .22 and shotgun tended to wound them and they would make it back down the hole, and in some instances I believe the .22 LR., .22 Mag., and .17HMR would do they same, they'll die quickly from these but down their hole. Some can be very long range so I'll take the 22/250, the Swift, or a .243/6mm.IMHO
 
ben hunchak said:
Some posters on here are talking about gophers , not the 12 lb. eastern groundhog. When I was younger we shot hundreds of groundhogs(not in one day) with everything from .22 LR. to .45/70's and the like. Some places, noise wasn't a concern and ranges could be long, so we used 6mm's and a .240 Weatherby, other wise the .22/250 was king. The .22 and shotgun tended to wound them and they would make it back down the hole, and in some instances I believe the .22 LR., .22 Mag., and .17HMR would do they same, they'll die quickly from these but down their hole. Some can be very long range so I'll take the 22/250, the Swift, or a .243/6mm.IMHO
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We used to see lots of "groundhogs" in southern Ontairo when I was younger. You'd see them dead on the sides of the highway all the time. The Kitchern/Waterloo area (St. Clements actually) where my cousins lived was full of them back in the 70's.

Now that you've got me thinking about it Ben, I haven't seen one in probably 10 years....even road kill. Anybody else notice this ?
 
blacksmithden said:
We used to see lots of "groundhogs" in southern Ontairo when I was younger. You'd see them dead on the sides of the highway all the time. The Kitchern/Waterloo area (St. Clements actually) where my cousins lived was full of them back in the 70's.

Now that you've got me thinking about it Ben, I haven't seen one in probably 10 years....even road kill. Anybody else notice this ?
Click to expand...

Absolutely! I blame lack of pasture land. There was a time when we had a significant amount more pasture than we currently do, those properties now have corn, beans or houses.

Got to go an hour or two north..
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