Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Groundhog rifle

This right here. I've been shooting groundhogs since 1962 when I slapped one in the face with my BB gun as he stared at me from his burrow. Scared my 9-year old butt into panicked flight as he came snarling out of the hole. Not long after that I was turned loose with "real guns" and the world was no longer a safe place for Marmota monax. One lesson I've learned from shooting thousands of them with everything from .22 RF's to sky-splitting .22 CF's is body hits with rimfires of any type are sketchy as hell. Groundhogs are tough SOB's and can absorb a lot of lead and then make it back underground where they'll die a slow death. That's not fair to any animal, varmint or not. Head shots are the rule, and if that can't be achieved I hold my fire.

My personal limit is 50 yards for such work, under less than ideal rifle resting circumstances. With a rest of some sort and time to assess range and holdover (assuming I've done my homework regarding my equipment) that's extended to around 100 yards, and that goes for anything with "rimfire" in its name. The .17's are wicked snazzy but they still aren't high powered rifles, for instant body hit kills way out there, and are handicapped by wind-induced inaccuracy the same or worse than their larger-bored brethren. The physical laws of the universe can't be controverted, and Bre'r Groundhog remains as tough today as he was 60 years ago.

Nowadays my 'hog shooting is mostly at "targets of opportunity". I don't go afield seeking them out anymore (but I'm getting the itch again - too many varmint rifles in my collection are gathering dust), so the only ones that fall under my .22's at the moment are the ones that regularly venture into the backyard/garden. I have distances pegged out to 100 yards from the back porch and have the trajectory of my load firmly memorized to allow precise hits. Averaging four or five a year for a bunch of years now, and every single one a single shot to the noggin. Current gun of choice for defense of the backyard: BRNO #2, stoked with SK Pistol Match - a standard velocity load. Eley Tenex works very well too, but I'm too cheap to expend nearly $.50/shot on an old groundhog!