Groundhog hunting is very interesting with my Riton 3-12×40 scope and my Howa “Mini Action” 223. It’s excellent practice and helps test my hunting, shooting, range finding and reloading skills. The Riton-Howa combination has proven to be super accurate at 100 and 200 yards. All my targets show groups of a half inch, or less, if I’m doing my best trigger control.

We often see ground hogs from our treestands while bow hunting for deer. On several occasions we’ve seen ground hogs climbing trees, too. I love to watch them with my RITON 10×42 Binoculars.

Scanning the edges of spring and summer fields will produce sightings of all sorts of wildlife, besides the wary woodchuck. Bucks in velvet, fawns, turkeys and turtles, so we always pay attention.

My Pups has been shooting groundhogs since he was 12 years old. He thought they were “Big Game” back then. He wrote an article for “Bowhunter” magazine years ago entitled, “Go Sky High for Hogs”. He explained about hunting these earth-movers from treestands with his recurve bow. The story featured him and my Uncle Ace on the cover. They were low-tech hunters.

Hogs are a nuisance when they’re close to home, too. One industrious pair of hogs dug a huge cavern beneath our neighbor’s long, stone driveway. On Harry’s return home one night the driveway collapsed as his vehicle sped by. Going 25 mph, the front-tire of his new Caddy dropped into the crater. The wheel and axle were completely torn off. Harry permitted hog hunting in his front yard from that day on. I’ll keep watch on this field, they’re sure to be feeding soon.