Who hand gun hunts them and what are you using on them. I have an encore 308 pistol im going to try on them this year. Picked up a box of hornaday 125 sst to poke at them.

That experience is one I used to really put all out for! Here in the Colorado Rocky Mountains (clue in to the "Rocky" part) we usually find the marmots above timberline (10,000 feet or so) in the rock slides.




I have used my Contender 14" in .223 (10X Burris) exclusively for these wily varmints with a Hornady 50 gr. SX (super explosive) and had excellent results!

I don't hunt the little pigs or marmots. But, I use the 125gr SST in my :30-3 AI pistol and .308 Win/.30-06 Spr pistols/rifles. An accurate and effective bullet on deer and hogs without question. Should serve you well.

Back in my younger days I hunted them with a .256 Win. Magnum in a 10" Contender topped with a 2.5x scope. The .256 was extremely effective on them but when it was stolen I could not afford to replace it at the time.

I don't think I've ever even seen any of them around here.

.223, 6.5 JDJ, 6.5/.284, .250 sav. AI, 6mm AI, .309 JDJ, .308, .338 JDJ,.3380o6 JDJ, .338 Mag. JDJ, .376 Steyer, .375/.284, .416 Taylor, .45-70, 9mm, .40S&W,.357 Sig,.45ACP,.357,.41 Mag.,.44 Mag., .454, .475 Lin., .500 S&W , .300 Whisper, .22 have accounted for exactly 11,979 groundhogs in WV. I may have left out one or two.

Lol....guess i better get after them if im going to get caught up ... thats alot of lead.

No one has handgunned more ground hogs then Doc Rogers.....

Several years back I set out to try & beat his one day record, I think it was something like 43 or 44, can't remember. Anyway, I shot chucks (rock chucks) all day & ended up with 41 which is still my all time best. His record of almost 12,000 is un touchable I think, simply amazing. I've never kept track but I know even after more than 50 years of shooting them I'm way, way back there. Good going Doc.

Dick

Thanks, Dick. You do have the one day record of 41. Mine was 36.
I started keeping records the year I moved to eastern WV, 41 years ago. The year I did 36, I did a total of over 300 on one farm that hadn't been hunted in 10+ years. I was in paradise. Then the next year I found another farm with no road access (500 year flood) that I had to walk 1+ miles to get to it and did another 300+. Those were the glory days of groundhog hunting- late 1980s. During that time I took over 500 'hogs in 7 of 8 years. Those days are gone thanks to me and an influx of the eastern coyote. My goal now is 200 a year which is very difficult.

Doc, the year I got the 41 in one day a guy had ran an ad in the local paper wanting guys to shoot rock chucks (cousin to your eastern ground hog) & he had quite a few takers of course. When I got there he told me he still had a lot of chucks so I unloaded my 4 wheeler & took off scouting.
In this country you are hunting large lava reefs that run for miles and border hay fields or barley fields, rock chucks love both & will travel a long way to find it.
The first day I didnn't see much & told the farmer I thought most of his "chuck" problem was taken care of but he assured me there were plenty more left so I told him I would come back when it wasn't so windy.
I was carrying my custom XP100 in 223 Imp. that my son had built. I also had a Ruger 30 carbine revolver for close shots & ground squirrels.
I have a small table top from a kitchen sink bolted onto the rear of my 4 wheeler, thats my bench, I also carry sand bags & a stool to set on, plus a cooler because I'm usually gone all day & cover many mile.
On my second trip the chucks were every where & I really hammered them. I took 2 milk crates full of dead rock chucks back to the farmer plus 4-5 hanging off the sides just to show him because he didn't think anyone could do it with a handgun.
I did the same thing the next time, this time he told me he didn't need to see any more chucks, he believed me & to just leave the stinking bloody gut piles in the lava reefs for the hawks & coyotes. A week or so later I got the 41 & finished the season taking 199 off that guys property. The rifle boys had a hard time!
I took friend Ken O'Neil there a few years ago & he just about melted the barrel off his XP100 in one afternoon!

Dick

I don't think this next generation of handgunners will see times like that, definitely not in the east.

6BRX in a savage striker. lots of fun when they are out