Went out this afternoon to the same field I hunted yesterday saw three groundhogs took two one at 99 yards and one at 95 yards. Missed one twice the same one as yesterday in the same location. It was the first one I saw and after missing it I took the other two. I guess that hog has my number, I didn't see one of the one's from yesterday so I know there are at least two left in that field. Only shot 4 times today.

Tig,
I wanted to let you know that I think I'm still shooting over the one that is down in that roll in the field. Talked with a buddy of mine and he said with that fall in the field I should be aiming lower then center mast. The worts part is all I can see is the upper half of it's body I guess next time I'll have to aim a few inches below it in the grass or see up in a different place. Have you ever had one that you missed several times before on different days before you finale got him. The other two today I hit were where I was wanting to hit them.

Well maybe you are shooting over the chuck. If you look at the trajectory correction for a 223 50gr bullet at 3,000 fps at a 15* angle the correction for a 100 yard zero is 0.3" at 100 yards impact, 0.9" at 150 yards impact, and 1.8" at 200 yards impact.

So extrapolating that out if you are zeroed at 100 yards and the chuck is at 200 yards the drop of the bullet in a flat plane is 3.6" then add in the trajectory correction for a 15* angle of 1.8" and you need to hold 1.8" high to hit dead on.

In layman terms at 200 yards and a 15* angle either up or down hill with a 100 zero you only need to correct for half the bullet drop to hit dead on. Or at 100 yards there is 1/3 of an inch of correction. That's not much.

I will assume that you are shooting at less than a 15* angle and the shot is under 200 yards so I don't think that you are shooting over the chuck by much if you are.

Did you get a chance to check POI and accuracy with the bi-pods on paper?? Sometimes the bi-pods will open up group size as well as change POI. Also remeber that each time you set up in the field the bi-pod/gun is sitting a little different and that effects the recoil and POI. A soild bench will give more consistant results than field positions. So maybe they are very near misses form a lot of small factors adding up.

Just some randon thoughts and situations that I have delt with over the course of charlie hunting. You are on the right track with trying for exact bullet placemant rather than a soild hit of center mass for a kill. I remeber reading an article from a well know charlie hunter. He alluded to the fact that exact bullet placement should be the ultimate goal, thus a human instant kill would be achieved regardless of center mass as the bullet hits where you wanted and that should be in the vitals/head of the woodchuck.

YES!! I have had a few charlies that have been a real challenge. 2-3 misses before connection. They seem to be the most memorible also. Kind of like a quest, man aginst a worthy adversary. Each time you miss he gets a little more educated and tougher to get. Then after the short euphoria of the conquest it becomes a little sad as that there is no challenge to try for each time you hunt that field.

I had one that I called the 150 yard charlie. He was in the middle of a field that was slightly rounded and so it was only safe to aproach the charlie from 2 angles as the rest of the shots were unsafe with no bullet backstop. You could only get to about 150 yards on any stalk before he busted you and went down. I shot at him and missed twice. I stalked him for about 3 weeks with 5 or 6 blown stalks. The hay then grew up and it was inpossible to get him. A couple weeks later I was hunting in and adjacent field and was headed back to the car so I cut across the field in a little bit of a hurry to beat a rain cloud that was coming in fast. I never even gave the 150 yard charlie a tought. As a walked thru the knee deep hay I catch movement right in front of me. I see a charlie looking at me at 30 yards standing straight up. I slowly raise the XP and shoot him freehand. Then sudden realize just exactly what charlie he was. I was deperessed a little as the quest had ended in a fluke chance encounter.

I went home for supper and was kind of quiet as we ate. My wolf asks is there was something wrong. I told her the story and she just looks at me and mutters someting about being sick in the head. LOL<LOL