This is what literally happened to this g-hog on the south side of my lawn today. Well he built his nest and then slept in it, permanently.
6:20pm. My son and I arrived home from from a matinee. As I drive past the front of the house I notice a young g-hog on the left/south side of the house not more than a few yards from the back porch. I pull into the driveway on the other side and enter the house through my office/side entrance whispering to my son to be quiet. I go upstairs and contemplate what I should do. I wanted to slow down a little since I got 3 of them already in about a week. Wife says dinner is not ready yet. Shoot, I got some time.. I grab the 36 and load an 8.3gr Superdome. I go out to the porch upstairs and approach the window very slowly. I see the g-hog only about 5-6ft away from the house directly below me. I had opened the window in the morning in anticipation of running into him or a Starling because I had spotted him a couple of times in the last few days but I was interested in the bigger ones. In order to get a shot at him I 'd have to stick the entire gun out and part of my body to aim downwards at that angle. I 'm thinking there 's no way he won't spot me but maybe he 'll run to his hole about 19yds away and pop his head out later. I move back to the window and he 's already running to the hole. He must 've spotted me or heard me since I was only about 15ft away from him with the window open.
I quickly place a pillow on the window sill and get into position with the crosshairs at the entrace of the hole. I know it's not his regular burrow because I 've seen him in the past run towards the neighbor's shed about 20yds further back and never come out again. This one is just for a quick escape with no sleeping or toilet quarters. Not 2min. go by and he pops his head out but he 's looking straight at me. I freeze looking at my crosshairs on his nose. About a minute goes by and I hear my front door close like someone had gone out. The g-hog looks to his right at an angle towards the front of the house. Perfect opportunity. I put the crosshairs on his left eye and squeeze the trigger. I see him jump up almost a foot high and land back down in the hole doing the death dance. I watch him through the scope and can see blood squirting out of both sides of his head. It's over quickly in about 3secs and he stops moving but I can still see blood pouring out of his head. I then see my son with the corner of my eye walking up the street. He had attracted the g-hog's attention and made him turn his head 45deg. to give me a shot. He went out without permission though - he 's busted.. I had the camera right there so I snapped a pic from the porch window. You can see my son in the background with the red shorts cutting through the neighbor's front lawn to get to his friend's house that's next to this one in the pic. To the right is the g-hog's hole with some dirt displaced on my lawn. How nice of them.. I always wanted a pile of dirt on my grass. BTW this next-door neighbor hates it when I shoot anything living, especially on that side of my lawn, and as you can see they are home. Tough..
The next couple of pics is how I found the groundhog.. Sleeping peacefully in his nest.. there was no posing here. What a mess.. The Superdome (860--870fps MV) had entered the left eye and exited out the base of the ear on the other side because of the angle of his head when he turned to watch my son. This young one had a very fat belly and weighed 6lbs. This #12 g-hog this year will probably be the last one for a while. I think I 've thinned the heard dramatically on my property and the surrounding area. I know there 's 1 more big one but he comes from across the street and hangs out 50yds out all the time and is extremely skiddish. I will wait to get my long range shooter back, the 350 .22, before I deal with that one.
