Hi everyone,
I've been shooting and hunting for 15 years now and believe it or not, never had a rimfire rifle. Bows, shotguns, centerfires, blackpowder I've all done but I am brand new to this and have a question or two.
I recently moved to a farm house and there are groundhogs all over the area. The farmer gave me permission to hunt these critters anytime I want. I do have a .243 but I'm 10 minutes away from the county border where rifle hunting is allowed and of course I'm on the wrong side. Also, it'd be fun to get my hands on a plinker too since I can go right out my backdoor to shoot. Here's the question, most shots will be around 100yds give or take a few. My main concern is that I'd like to see the groundhogs drop before the get back to their whole. I really don't like the idea of wounding one and having it crawl down its whole and wondering if its dead/suffering. Thats just the deer hunter in me and even though its a groundhog, I'd rather put it down fast. I heard that a .22LR most likely wasn't enough unless there was a perfect head shot but some suggested a 22Mag rifle. Then I started reading about the .17HMR and the round sounded pretty devistating. Any input on which caliber would do the best job would be a HUGE help as I'm pretty confused. Also if anyone could recommend a round/rifle combo that they use as I see there are a ton of options. I really would prefer to spend no more than $300 for the rifle. Thanks for any help/opinions that you can offer!
Rich
I've been shooting and hunting for 15 years now and believe it or not, never had a rimfire rifle. Bows, shotguns, centerfires, blackpowder I've all done but I am brand new to this and have a question or two.
I recently moved to a farm house and there are groundhogs all over the area. The farmer gave me permission to hunt these critters anytime I want. I do have a .243 but I'm 10 minutes away from the county border where rifle hunting is allowed and of course I'm on the wrong side. Also, it'd be fun to get my hands on a plinker too since I can go right out my backdoor to shoot. Here's the question, most shots will be around 100yds give or take a few. My main concern is that I'd like to see the groundhogs drop before the get back to their whole. I really don't like the idea of wounding one and having it crawl down its whole and wondering if its dead/suffering. Thats just the deer hunter in me and even though its a groundhog, I'd rather put it down fast. I heard that a .22LR most likely wasn't enough unless there was a perfect head shot but some suggested a 22Mag rifle. Then I started reading about the .17HMR and the round sounded pretty devistating. Any input on which caliber would do the best job would be a HUGE help as I'm pretty confused. Also if anyone could recommend a round/rifle combo that they use as I see there are a ton of options. I really would prefer to spend no more than $300 for the rifle. Thanks for any help/opinions that you can offer!
Rich