I've been after a family of groundhogs for a couple days and actually took a few shots at one while a friend was "on hold" the other day.
Today I got to connect, albeit from a hasty and precarious rest.
I got the sucker from 124 yards(laser measured, paced at 126) with my CZ 452 22lr, Leupold 2-7 Compact and a Remington Subsonic hollow point.
The precarious part was that I was resting on the post of a live electric fence.
The groundhog was moving around for quite a while and not giving me a shot until it poked it's head up under one of our Christmas tree funnels.
He was on the fieldstones we use for ballast and peeking out from under the fiberglass making the shot a little tricky because I didn't want to nick the fiberglass.
I'd previously laser ranged the area they've been frequenting and knew it was around 125 yards.
I set up some plywood(after my previous misses) and shot at the top edge to see what my drop was at that range with my current 50 yard zero.
The drop was approximately 12".
So I held the thick part of the duplex reticle just behind his ear.
Figuring my drop was a hair lower than the junction on the reticle.
This is where the fiberglass tension came into play because I was aiming right at it with the crosshairs.
Since it was subsonic ammo it took a bit for the sound of the whack to get to me and I saw the hog roll off the stones at about the same time.
In the pics above and below you can see the rocks he was perched on, sneaky SOB.
I said to my friend that it was really nice to see what practice, patience, marksmanship and a little luck will get you.
Today I got to connect, albeit from a hasty and precarious rest.
I got the sucker from 124 yards(laser measured, paced at 126) with my CZ 452 22lr, Leupold 2-7 Compact and a Remington Subsonic hollow point.
The precarious part was that I was resting on the post of a live electric fence.
The groundhog was moving around for quite a while and not giving me a shot until it poked it's head up under one of our Christmas tree funnels.
He was on the fieldstones we use for ballast and peeking out from under the fiberglass making the shot a little tricky because I didn't want to nick the fiberglass.
I'd previously laser ranged the area they've been frequenting and knew it was around 125 yards.
I set up some plywood(after my previous misses) and shot at the top edge to see what my drop was at that range with my current 50 yard zero.
The drop was approximately 12".
So I held the thick part of the duplex reticle just behind his ear.
Figuring my drop was a hair lower than the junction on the reticle.
This is where the fiberglass tension came into play because I was aiming right at it with the crosshairs.
Since it was subsonic ammo it took a bit for the sound of the whack to get to me and I saw the hog roll off the stones at about the same time.
In the pics above and below you can see the rocks he was perched on, sneaky SOB.
I said to my friend that it was really nice to see what practice, patience, marksmanship and a little luck will get you.