I spotted a young g-hog this afternoon. I ignored him at first and walked away. A burning desire kept pulling me back to the window every 10min. to check if he was still there. I was completely helpless and could not control myself :-)
He hung around my property for a good 30-40min. and was now much closer near my shed possibly celebrating the discovery of a new abondoned burrow like many had done before him. However he seemed like he had been around the block for a young, not yet full size g-hog. He immediately ran to a hole on the opposite side of the shed as soon as I put the window up. I cannot see that side of the shed from any of the house windows. Only if they are completely out of the hole closest to my driveway, can I spot them. He came out a couple of feet but as soon as I returned to the window he was back down again before I could raise the 36. I decided to go downstairs while he 's in the hole and position myself behind my cars in the driveway as I 've done before and wait for him to pop his head out. They might not know it but running down one of the holes under my shed is like signing their death warrant. For me it's the perfect trap. I know they won't come out and make a run for it to the trees almost 20yds away unless it's perfectly safe, but for them to check, they 'll have to come up and take a peak every few min. They seem to be impatient when it's not their regular burrow and will come up to check the area every few minutes exposing ther head.
Sure enough I wasn't into position behind the trunk of my car with the Diana 36 for more than 5min., when he popped his head out to see if the coast is clear. Of course he 's eyeballing me but with his head forward, presenting me with a good broadside shot of the right side of his skull. Only part of his head was exposed. I could only see maybe 1/2" behind the eye and the rest of it was blocked by the wood at the corner of the shed. That was enough for me. I put the crosshairs next to his eye and squeezed the trigger. In my haste I forgot the distance was only about 12yds and that the scope was zeroed for 25. I saw nothing after I took the shot and I was thinking, there 's no way I could have missed unless the pellet hit too low which was possible since the pellet did not get a chance to rise much like it does at 25yds and beyond. After those 2secs of thought, I see some movement in the grass in front of the hole and I knew he was hit. I then see the groundhog propel himself out of the hole about 3-4" off the ground and starts flapping like a fish out of water splattering blood everywhere about a foot or 2 away from the shed. I reload as quickly as I can and wait for him to slow down a little so I can take another shot. 3-4 secs later he stops but I can't see his head. It seems to be down and left towards his body with obvious mobility damage from the shot. He 's spazing out every couple of secs and it looks like he 's going in circles still not more than 3ft from the shed. I decide to walk over so I can finish what I started. As soon as I 'm about 8ft away he starts growling! It seems his head is turned to the left and he can't move it much at all. As I get closer to about 3-4ft his growl becomes much louder like that of an angry cat! I can now see his head but he 's going around in circles when I get too close so I can't shoot him point blank. He would stop every 1-2secs so I tried to take another shot but the scope is completely out of focus. The Bushy Legend will only focus down to about 9-10yds! I take a few steps back and now he 's not moving at all but still looking at me. I aim at his eye and squeeze another CPHP off. He 's down for good.
Upon closer examination, my assumptions proved factual and the CPHP had struck about 3/4" lower than where I was aiming right behind the eye, and with the slight downward angle since I was positioned a little higher than it, the pellet probably missed the brain or most of it, but was enough to disable some of the g-hog's motor functions including running and/or turning or picking its head up. It was a fatal shot with a lot of bleeding and would probably had not been long had I not taken the 2nd shot which hit the front corner of its eye and put it down immediately. It was my obligation to end it quickly. It seems both pellets went all the way through but the other side was pretty messy with the addition of extra blood from it jumping around and rolling over so I didn't even bother analyzing it. What mattered was g-hog #11 this year was removed from my property.
