New to the Area. Looking to hunt ground hogs.

[Judd944]

I move to Lexington from PA a year ago. I have not met anyone who has enough land that I can hunt groundhogs on. Is there public land for that? should I just go ask farmers? I have a remington M700 .222 that I have been dying to use! I live in Scott county.

[GSP]

I move to Lexington from PA a year ago. I have not met anyone who has enough land that I can hunt groundhogs on. Is there public land for that? should I just go ask farmers? I have a remington M700 .222 that I have been dying to use! I live in Scott county.
Hard order to fill around here. Whistle pig numbers are down, most large farms are for horses, most small farms are sub-divisions.:(

Try knocking on some doors, you may find a farmer in "need".
Good luck with it.

[Judd944]

yeah, I am part of the problem. I just built a house in what used to be a field. :o

[Hammer]

The only ground hogs I see now are in subdivisions in town. They are thriving in these areas now that border small woods or wild areas. I think the 'yotes have really cut down on the ones out in the countryside.

[Rob]

We have a farm in far western KY & I can remember when you could see a dozen ground hogsin the evening just driving across the place. Yotes moved in about 20 years ago & you hardly ever see a whistle pig these days.

[Valley Station]

Want to shoot varmints.
It's a whole lot easier in Kentucky, to find a farmer who needs help "thinning" the coyotes. Open year round.

[Blevins Gap Outdoors]

I use to hunt ground hogs a lot years ago. Then the coyotes came to KY. Very few hogs left to hunt other than around houses. Kill some coyotes, got way to many.

[MS. HANDGUNNER]

The only "hogs" that I've seen in a while are off Man O'War between Nicholasville Road and Waterford subdivision. Unfortunately, you can't hunt them. Good Luck.

[Feedman]

Remember when you used to just drive down the road and see a ground hog out in a field. You killed the ground hog and hung it on the fence.

You don't see this happening anymore.;)

[trust me]

All the anecdotal evidence says the coyotes have put the groundhog shooters out of business. The only place I've been able to find groundhogs is in kudzu patches. I haven't gotten the Hornet out in 6 or 8 years; just no hogs.:( The last one I shot was a youngster for the pot, and I had to give him up because he fell down in a hole guarded by a copperhead.:eek:

Judd, that 222 is a sweet deal, kinda like my Hornet but with more pop on the other end. It should do fine on coyotes inside 150 yards.

Good luck, and good shooting.

[bigredexpress]

hey trust me do you load your hornet rounds or buy them?

[trust me]

Big Red,
Yeah I load the Hornet, but there isn't much point. My loads go around 2 inches, and Remington 45 gr factory loads make neat little groups at about 3/4 inch. I've never found a good consistent load. I've used W296, IMR 4227 and H4227. Sierra bullets, nosler bullets. Can't beat the factory rounds, so now I just use my components up for offhand practice. When I want to make something bleed and scream, I use factory. Blowing up milk jugs, I shoot reloads. I loaded up 50 this past weekend just for the boy to explode milk jugs at close range.

[bigredexpress]

Try the 35gr. hornady vmax with the imr. It works for me.

[trust me]

Which rifle you shooting?

[bigredexpress]

Cheap little New England Arms single shot.

[trust me]

Big Red,

Cheap doesn't matter; i hear good things about the New England rifles, getting ready to look at them seriously. I like single shots too; mine is the TCR 87. Don't make them any more.

[bigredexpress]

I don't mean the gun is cheap, in fact it's great shooting little gun I just said cheap because I only gave $125 for it.

[gotopless]

223 wssm. i killed 2 hogs this summer that were wrecking a buddy of mines barn.

[Mepperson]

I've wanted to take one with a bow, but since coming to Western KY I haven't seen many. I guess the yotes keep the population trimmed thin as well as the other factors mentioned. There seems to be more in Eastern KY where I am originally from. Anyone on here bowhunt them?