6:50pm. My old friend the young adult g-hog that lives just off from where my lawn ends, 35yds to the back, makes his appearance again. He is within the 25yd range I have set for myself and my 36, and only a few feet away from my shed which has 4 abandoned g-hog holes that has provided much shelter & protection (or not) to many generations of these critters over the years.
I 've been watching him come out of his burrow for about 3-4 weeks now and know his markings, size, habits, etc. very well. He seems to be the last one that lives on my property and have also observed him get a little bigger every week. The reason I know is, I went to every burrow and hole on my property and put sticks and grass at their entrance or on top of them, and they are still there days later so that tells me they are not active burrows. This is a good thing but also brings me some sadness and strangely enough makes me feel some loneliness (I need to get out more I know..hehe). What am I to do without my g-hogs? :-)
I tried to get a shot at this one a couple of times but I 'm out of WD-40 and the storm window screeches when I put it up to get a crack at him. Other times I just watch him and go about my business mostly because he hangs out 30+yds out.
Well today he got within 22yds or so. Lucky me I had just sprayed the window with some ballistol a couple of hours before in anticipation of the visitor. The wife and son are at my sister-in law's so the moment is right. I figured it was time to say farewell to the last living ground-dwelling critter on my property from the only active burrow (anything I put in front of his hole would be set aside or gone the next day..).
I load the 36 with a 7.9gr CPHP and slowly push the window up while thinking, wow he 's almost full grown now..and has almost doubled in size since I first spotted him coming out of that same burrow a month ago. Half way up, he puts his head up and looks straight at me, turns left and runs down one of the holes under the shed in under a second. Something he 's never done before. He always ran as fast as he can the entire ~16yds back to his hole just beyond the lawn.
Now I knew I had him. He ran to the hole in the middle of the shed which is exactly 20.5yds. That wasn't his home and only a temporary escape situation. He 'd have to come up to take a look around soon, so I rushed and got into position and tried to keep as still as possible. <2min. later his head pops up and is still looking up at me. We stared each other down for a couple of minutes and then he inches out of the hole a little more with his head turned and up against the shed's outter wall. I can see part of his neck and a little shoulder too but his body is almost completely out concealed under the grass with his feet still at the front of the hole and facing the wrong way - the driveway (towards my position). Perfect shot opportunity. I place the crosshairs right behind his eye and squeeze the trigger. I look over there and don't see anything. Look through the scope now, and can see him flat down on his stomach along the shed. A sec later he rolls over with his feet up in the air and he 's kicking with his head up against the shed, and I also notice some blood splatter on the shed. That's a good sign. While reloading I watch him go to his side in slow motion towards the hole - I 'm thinking he 's done, but then he gets on his stomach again with legs down under him while rubbing his face up agains the shed. Now he 's facing the entrance of the hole again and I can't see his head which is below the surface but he looks dead. All of a sudden he starts kicking with his hind legs. This motion makes him inch up slowly back into the hole! I finish cocking and reloading and by the time I acquire him through the scope again he 's more than 1/2 way into the hole! There 's not much kicking now but just some slow breathing, but I quickly aim at the most upper part of his body that I can see, and what looked like his spine, right under the shed, and shoot him again. I heard a loud THUNK and knew I hit hide and hit it hard. He 's no longer moving. Those 7-8 secs after he first got hit had me worried there.. I figured with his feet up in the air and kicking slowly he was done.. and then when he went to his side (slowly again) I thought that was the end.. which it was, but the kicking continued which pushed him back into the hole.
Here are the pics. First one is the way I found him. About 2/3 of the way in! another 2" inches and he would have fallen down 2-3ft! You can see blood pretty much in every picture on the shed and grass. You can also see the spine shot which hit exactly where I was aiming and a hair away from the wood as far in as I could.. He was done with the first shot for sure because by the time I took the 2nd one he wasn't kicking or moving or advancing any further. The 1st shot was slightly lower than I had wished (below the eye but over where I was aiming), because I forgot to aim slightly higher like I usually do. When shooting down at an angle like I did, it's like decreasing the distance to your target so the pellet naturally hits lower. The Superdomes which I also use on g-hogs don't have a much lower POI and naturally shoot a little higher than the CPHP's so they always hit where the crosshairs are at a downward angle. I forgot I had CPHP's so the POI was slightly off/lower but it was all good.
So there goes the last of Harry's "groundhicans" :-) He was a worthy opponent and gave me an excellent adrenaline rush. He was also the smartest of the 15 or so I took this summer and he managed to win a couple of battles.. until today.
Edit: Oops! I had fine-resolution on and the pics are >150Kb so I can't post the rest. I 'll try re-sizing them and re-posting.
