All hunters know what buck fever is. For those that don’t know, it’s the racing heart and the uncontrolled tremor of the hands that occurs when, while out hunting deer, the HUGE one of a hunter’s dreams steps into view. While in the state of buck fever, one forgets the most basics of shooting such as the rock steady hold and the gentle, gradual squeezing of the trigger. I’m now going to explain groundhog fever to you.

I have a front porch that, for some reason, seems to attract groundhogs each year. I thought I shot them all last year but, in early May or June, started to see mild signs of digging under the porch. It was unclear to me exactly what animal was causing the problem until in July, wiring for the outside porch lighting my wife was so proud of was found neatly bitten in two in several places. There was no indigenous species I could think of other than a groundhog or a beaver capable of such a neat wire cutting job. Since there is no near standing water, a groundhog was the obvious culprit. I had not, however, seen a groundhog anywhere near the house since the previous fall.

I patched the wires but covered them in hardware cloth where the holes were and left the holes under the porch open hoping the rodent wouldn’t feel obligated to sever them again. I bought traps and placed them at the bottom of the burrows but apparently not cleverly enough. Then my wife and I took a trip to New York. We returned late one night and, on arising the next day my wife was very peeved to find that numerous cushions on our porch furniture had holes chewed in them. In fact, my wife was really, REALLY peeved. The groundhog was referred to in various unkind terms and I was made to feel in large part responsible for its actions. I should have set more traps. I should have stayed up all night waiting for it. I should have gotten up early in the morning and looked for it, etc., etc.

Not long after the initial discovery of the groundhog vandalism, I walked out on the porch, without a gun of course, and when I looked down at the end of the porch there was a BIG ground hog. I went back for a gun and of course, when I returned, the groundhog was gone. I should have learned from that NEVER to go outside without a gun. The next day, I went out on the porch and the groundhog was on the lawn. When I came back with a gun, it was gone. I felt like an idiot.

I brought out two live traps, “Have-A-Heart†or something like that implying that I should have kind feelings towards God’s creatures. I had no kind feeling at the time toward groundhogs. I baited two traps with marsh mallows and, lo and behold caught a fair sized groundhog, which I executed with a 22 LR handgun and dumped its carcass in front of my house where, the next day, vultures cleaned up every visible fragment of flesh and bone. I covered up its holes and thought my groundhog troubles were over.

Several days later, actually yesterday, I was talking on the phone. I hung up, turned around, looked in my back yards and there was a BIG groundhog. I had thought the one I caught in the trap looked a bit smaller than the one I had seen but had convinced myself it was probably the one. The one in the back yard looked as big as what I remembered. This is where the groundhog fever started.

In order to regain my honor with my wife and not have to repair any more wires, I really wanted to shoot that ground hog just about as much as a deer hunter wants a big deer. My adrenal glands started to secrete adrenaline as I made a dash for the gun safe, which I had to open. It’s not easy to open a safe when your hands are trembling.

Which gun to choose? Should I use a controlled feed weapon? Handgun or rifle? Solids or softs? Lead or copper? What about twist rate? Since I respected this animal, I wanted to use a bullet that cost at least 50 cents each. If I’d had anything loaded with Barnes MRX bullets in the front of the safe, I probably would have chosen those since they’re about a dollar each.

I settled on the Thompson/Center Encore in 30/06 Springfield at the front of the safe with its 1:10 twist barrel and a Tasco 3-9X Mil Dot scope in Kwik Site integral base/rings. This setup has accounted for several groundhogs including one on the run. It is controlled feed; you take a cartridge, put it in the breech, close the gun, shoot, open the gun and then take the cartridge out with your fingers; how much more controlled can you get than that? My cartridge wallet was full of loads with 165 grain Barnes TSX bullets and banded solids over Varget. Both types of bullets hit about the same place and do less than an inch (actually about 0.6 inches for the solids) off the bench at 100 yards. Since the TSXes are more expensive, I chose those though a solid may have been better.

I opened the “man door†to the garage and poked the gun out. My wife was in the shower, which was about 10 feet away from the muzzle of the gun. I let one fly. A clean miss but I think I got close and did bring down a stalk of corn. The ground hog looked a little surprised as if asking, “Were you saying something to me? Did I do something to offend you?†My wife wanted to know what happened, I didn’t bother to tell her and reloaded. I fired again. Another clean miss and I was out of cartridges. In my conceit, I had brought only two cartridges.

I rushed back into the house for a fresh supply of ammo. When I said groundhog, my wife understood what the commotion was about. I went back to the door and the stupid groundhog was still in the yard. I managed to get my groundhog fever under control and blasted it with a TSX behind the front leg. As has happened with all small pests I’ve shot with this load, the groundhog didn’t move an inch. I have no good alibi for using 3 bullets to get the groundhog from 60 yards except groundhog fever.

I’ve seen debates on the effectiveness of Barnes bullets with some claiming they don’t expand. I’m here to tell you they do expand. If these bullets can leave an exit hole on a 9 inch wide animal like a groundhog like this, they’re certainly going to expand on anything else. They’ll also take the belly off of a rabbit and do a real number on a feral cat. I have seen photos of Barnes bullets with petals broken off and even bent into a U shape. The best explanation I’ve heard about this is that barn bullets tumble and sometimes come out base first. This could bend petals back so they didn’t look like they had expanded or even break petals off but I digress.

There has to be a moral to all this. In fact there are several. Take enough ammo. If you think you’ll need 1 cartridge, take about 20. Any animal you really want to take can cause “buck fever.†And if you’re a groundhog, STAY OUT FROM UNDER MY FRONT PORCH. Vultures ate the one I trapped. I put yesterday’s trophy, out of respect, on my front lawn about where the other one had been. When I got up this morning, a gray fox was out there finishing breakfast.

Good story, and I hope you got rid of the problem?? LDK

I like to groundhog hunt. Alot. Been shooting them with a 338 lapua here lately. seems to tear and push out things more than explode, like a car running them over at speed.

Thus far, I haven't seen any more groundhogs or damage that could be blamed on them.

In the past, if the groundhogs were way out on the back 40 (actually it's the back 50), I would leave them alone. After all, I thought the coyotes and foxes needed something to eat. Not any more; it's war against any groundhog I see on my property.

my 16 yo son got his 1st groundhog this year on the 2nd shot atb 120 yds with my thompson center tcr in 22-250 boy was he happy brian