Scouting today - amusing pictures
 

Went out today to glass some fields at one of my hunting spots. Saw a few deer, nothing great - found two fawns that got mowed when he took the hay off and saw 2 scrub bucks working along a wood edge.I also caught3 longbeards about 1000 yards away on the next ridge working across a hayfield.

Took a Maxim magazine and spent the day walking the fields, shooting some groundhogs and generally relaxing.

I wound up going 8 for 10 on hogs, missed one at 350 twice. Everything else was sub-200 yarders. Chipshots for the Savage.

Some pictures:

Hog Heaven.




Here's a little "Before" shot. Not gonna lie - this was not an easy picture to take. Probably 5-10 attempts before I got it right. He's just laying outside his hole, soaking up some shade - dialed in at 32x. Not sure why, but the digital image makes my crosshairs look weird.




...and every good "Before" picture needs an "after" shot.

RE: Scouting today - amusing pictures
 

Thats pretty sweet i like the before and after pics

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thats awesome

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Thats a sweet before pic. Thats one powerful scope.

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Thats pretty cool Fran. Maxim mag, groundhogs and guns.....yep, that sounds likeyou covered all the bases.:D

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What forum am I in, oh yea, bowhunting:D. Non the less looks like a stress free day.

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Nice shot!

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Nice pics! Poor poor whistle-pig.

RE: Scouting today - amusing pictures
 

Fran

Sounds like a fun day. Congrats on the hogs!!

Have you ever tried stalking them with bow. We don't have ground hogs here but we do have a few gophers up in dad's old cow pasture. That makes for a fun day with bow !!

Tim

RE: Scouting today - amusing pictures
 

Man I love hunting groundhogs. I would have to say after bowhunting whitetails and spring birds, that groundhogs while deer scouting is my next favorite. I have a few spots near my place in PA that I go to a few times a year and can really clean house in about 3-4 hours. What scope is that on your Savage? What caliber and model?

I gotta say I love my savage and I use it a lot when scouting for deer, just a great rifle to carry and zoom in on things to scout out, and awesome for yotes and groundhogs out to ridiculous distances. I have one of the very few 10FP's that have the 20" bull barrel in .223, and on it I have a bipod and one of the new 07' 4.5-14x44 Swift's w/ mildots. I don't have a lot of guns, but this one is my favorite to plink and carry in the woods, it shoots way under MOA with Black Hills red box 50 grain v-max's.

RE: Scouting today - amusing pictures
 

Tim - I've got a few of them in the yard with the bow, but never really take the bow out "hog hunting" per se. Dang price of arrows and heads these days, I can't afford to huntthe stinkin things with anything other than a rifle. If you hunt the same spots every year, they seem to get pretty smart too.

Rick - You're definitely right, glassing deer and shooting hogs is my #3 PA activity too. I'd swear those whistlepigs know whena buck is out in the field. Seems like you'll sit there all day waiting to see a hog, then a buck steps out - then it's like that Whack-a-Mole game at Chuck-E-Cheese's - hogs popping up everywhere b/c they know you won't crank it loose with that buck standing there. LOL

By the way, that's a Savage 12vss 22-250 with sharpshooter custom trigger (15 oz - bought it justbefore the new accu-trigger [>:]) and a Swift 8-32x 50mm scope. No mil-dots, just a plain jain crosshair reticle (wish I had the mil-dots). Gun came block/pillar bedded in that choate stock, and it really shoots. Weird, the way that gun ismounted to the stock and the way the barrel is floated, it rings like a tuning fork after the shot. That scope really is a great piece of optics - just as good as any inexpensive spotting scope. When I scout for deer, this gun is my wingman.

RE: Scouting today - amusing pictures
 

groundhog shooting is taking away my archery practice time!!! its killing me!! i just bought a new remington 700 SPS Varmint in 22-250. put a 13-23" harris bipod on it...still looking for a good scope...i cant decide...still using the junk 4-12 that remington put on it...

heres my rifle..


should neveeeer bought it...or bought it years ago..groundhog hunting has always been up there with deer and turkey chasin...but now im having a ball. upto 18 confirmed kills now and only hunted 2 weeks off and on...really havent sat down and really hunted too long yet...

all the farmers got fields being cut at different times this year...i shouldnt have problems with no shooting because the hay is too high...i'll just have to start making time to pick up the bow..

that scope shot is awesome...i tried it 100x before and cant get it...

i rarely see deer...once in a while i will...but not too often...i do see lotsss of other critters...turkeys, pheasants, hawks, all kinds of stuff that isnt scarred of the 250:D

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Hahah thats awesome...i cant believe you got that picture to work!

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nice shot

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Sounds like a great afternoon. Nice shooting.

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Nice shooting and cool pic. It was very nice of him to pose for you like that.

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Sweet Pics!!

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lucky you went out on Saturday and not today, way to hot in the burgh today to be chasing groundhogs

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Nice pics. with that first pic it looks like you have some real nice property too.

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those are some pretty sweet pics man.. keep it up.. andnice hog