Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints 5mm Remington Magnum in Action!

I went on a groundhog hunt yesterday and I thought I would share my success with all of you. The location is a farm in the mountains of Virginia and it was a beautiful evening. Here are some pics of some of the fields:





Here is a pic of my Remington 591 chambered in 5mm Remington Magnum:



I removed the original finish to expose the beautiful wood underneath and mounted an older Leupold 3-9x40 with the friction adjustments. I am shooting the Remington 38 grain HP which I posted a thread a few days ago on Saubier.com asking about the B.C. of the bullet. I mainly wanted to see what my drop would be to 200 yards. I didn't have a place where I was shooting to check that far, so I wanted to see what kind of drop I would be expecting.

When I got there the landowner's friend was in the fields training his dog so I had to wait a bit to hunt where I wanted. Anyway as luck would have it I saw a large hole in one field and I though I saw the back of a groundhog's head sticking out of a hole roughly 150 yards away. There was a little bit of grass in front and I just wasn't sure with the 9x. I waited probably 10 minutes thinking the chuck might be spooky because of the dog and the firing the other guy was doing.

I decided to walk to view another field and as I did I saw a groundhog stand up at 132 yards away (laser rangefinder). I got done in the prone position and noted I had a bit of a cross wind quartering from my left to right. The groundhog's head was pointed with his nose to my right. I aimed just below his ear and touched off a shot. I got to see everything through the scope because of the lack of recoil. It immediately dropped and stood up again. It looked wobbly and took it's paws and kept wiping it's face like it was trying to groom itself. I thought that was weird, so I chambered another round. It went down again in the taller grass and reappeared a yard further to the right and stood up again looking in the same direction as before. This time I could see the head and shoulders. I quickly put the cross hairs on the edge of his shoulder in line with his back. The shot dropped it hard and it was noticeably hurt and trying to crawl with limitations. It managed to get in some tall grass and I could no longer see it from my position. I waited a few minutes and then went down to see if I had hit it. I found the groundhog within a couple of feet from its hole:



Upon inspection I noticed my last shot, but wasn't sure what happened on my first shot. After a few minutes I realized the first shot sort of penciled through the front of its face:





Here is a pic of the exit wound where it went through the neck and shoulder:


All in all I am very pleased with the outcome. The rifle is a joy to carry and feels light as a feather compared to my other varmint rifles. I hope to use this some more for groundhogs and fall turkey season. If any of you have experience with this old round please post and let me know your experiences.