Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Groundhog rifle

Yes. Headshots with a 22LR. One may need to dope range and wind slightly, but a good 22 with ammo it likes will do the job.

The .17 HMR certainly is not a .223 and will not anchor them every time other than head shot. The rifle I'm using this week is a Savage 93R17 BVSS (heavy barrel). It seems to prefer the 20 grainers over the 17 grainers. I also have a Tikka T1X in .17HMR which is a better rifle in every regard over the Savage 93R17. The Savage magazine setup is poorly designed and needs some tweaking to feed 100%.

The 17HMR should be just the ticket. The 22LR doesn't have the range or performance of the HMR. The 22WMR is a great short range choice, but doesn't have the accuracy of the 17HMR. For me the 17WSM wouldn't be an option due to ammo availability in my area.

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!

17 Ackley Hornet has been my favorite woodchuck rifle for over a decade. They simply fall over as you watch in the scope. 200 yards and under with a 20gr Vmax I have never had one take another step. 17 Hornady Hornet would be the same round in a factory offering.

I don't have any experience with the 17HMR but it seems like it would be close to the Hornet and what you are looking for in a rimfire.

I've shot a lot of woodchucks with rimfire rifles and my experience is that with solid chest hits and expanding bullets the magnum rimfires will keep them topside the vast majority of the time out to 100 yards and a little more. I'd shoot a couple hundred of them every summer back in the 70's and 80's with the 5mm Remington Magnum Rimfire and.22 WMR and still shoot a few every summer with the .22 mag.. I haven't killed near as many with the .17 HMR as I only had one for a couple years but I did kill a few dozen and it too would suck the life right out of them inside 100 yards. Some of you either have the wrong ammo, defective rifles, are not hitting vitals as often as you think or your woodchucks are a lot bigger and tougher than the ones around here.

Key words there are "majority of the time".

"Vast majority". And it's not as if head shots are a 100% sure thing either. A little puff of breeze, a little miscalculation on your wind hold and on a side presentation you've just put one through it's snout, quite possibly taking it's front teeth. Such a shot and that chuck is down it's hole to suffer.

I just bought my son a Bergara BMR carbon barrel in 22LR... It is an amazingly, accurate rifle. With the carbon fiber barrel it's light for easy carry.

The other evening, he took a ground hog at 121 yd and 198 yd.... I'm fairly certain there was some luck on the 2nd shot but since the gun does bugholes groups at 50 yds, I know it's good.

I'm think a 17 HMR might be your best call. You should be able to sight in at 100 and go shoot.

In my youth before the advent of the 17HMR, I started out with a Marlin 25 and a 4X cope and 22lr hollow points. I was not impressed. I then bought a Contender Carbine in .223 and littered the ground with groundhog carcasses. I would love to spend some evenings back in PA testing out the 17 HMR. From what I have seen on Youtube they do not lack in the killing department even with chest shots.

Got a call on Wednesday of a old farm house and barn that was over ran by groundhogs/ they found this out when the cleared 20 + years of brush and trees around it/ he said I could come shoot them if I used a 22LR as he didn't want bullets ricocheting/ told him a 22LR is ricocheting round/ finally talked him into a 223 with 50gr sierra blitz bullets and blue dot loaded to 22 Horent velocity/ i seen sierra blitz blow up on a blade of grass/ he sure did have a infestation with grounds hogs they were like rats in a dump/ there no doubt I could of killed them all with a 22LR but could guarantee no ricochets

Do you turn scope turrents on the 22 Horent on investigations of groundhogs?

I have a Savage MKII TR w 6-18X.
Thought about trying it out for some close ones.
But no backstops at current hot spot.

So will continue to use the .22-250
The 53gr Norma bullets just frag when they hit.
Safer.

But damn loud. LOL

Have a 9422M that needs a scope. Still proly too "skippy".
Liked running it irons years ago along creekbanks.

Savage heavy barrel 17hmr with 20gr does pretty well.

In this situation, 17 HMR would top of my list due to low ricochet hazard, and good ammo availability.

We don't have that many here. But I had a family of them target my garden. I killed 4 with 22 subsonics. Shot them all in the head and they all died instantly.

I had a Ruger American hvy bbl 17 HMR. It was very accurate but it looses power pretty fast.
My buddy had a CZ too. We would fill up beer cans with water and shoot at them at 175 yards.
The bullets would only go thru the front of the can and wouldn’t expand at all.

My set is: Savage 93 22mag 100 yard death stick with Hornady V-max 30gr. Rem 510 22 lr win power point ammo closer shots, near buildings, for inside of barns or near live stock any subsonic ammo that shoots well for you. I use Remington brand which works well when applied correctly. Ruger single six 22 mag cylinder. For close shots that pop up from time to time. My closest shot has been at 2 yards. I always try to stalk closer no matter what I am carrying. It adds a hunting aspect to my shooting.

I misspent a great portion of my younger days killing woodchucks. My experience mirrors most here who seem to have done it a great deal: .22 lr requires headshots at any range and with any bullets, for surefire DRT. When I got a .22 magnum I was in hog heaven. I could be a lot less precise. Shooting the original 40 grain Winchester HP's any good hit, chest or above, anchored them. The two furthest I killed in those days with my .22 WMR Anschutz were 142 and 147 yards with chest shots. I have no experience shooting them with .17 HMR.

I felt the same when I graduated from the .22 LR to the magnum rimfires as a teenager {I got a 5mm mag. first and a .22 WMR shortly after}. They both proved a big step up in effectiveness over the .22 LR. I found the .22 mag. with Win. 40 gr. HP's was a solid killer out to 125 yards with chest shots and the 5mm added another 35-40 yards to that. I killed a bunch at longer ranges with both but found much past 125 with the WMR and 160 with the 5mm the percentage that would stay topside with chest hits started to diminish pretty rapidly.