[WheelMan]

While searching around I found a thread that asked the opposite question. "What's the smallest round you've used on the biggest game," And I thought this might be an interesting question as well (and maybe even a bit more legal :) ). I saw a webpage once detailing a gentleman's exploits hunting groundhogs with a .44mag (claimed .357 didn't give reliable one shot stops). So fess up... who's shot a woodchuck with a .300 magnum... I know somebody has.

BTW if somebody is familar with the site I mentioned I'd like to find the link again. I believe the guy called himself "the terminator" or some clever groundhog related version of that.

[EchoSixMike]

I've shot prairie dogs with 7mm Rem Mag. S/F...Ken M

[Edward429451]

I once shot a rabbit with a 30/06-180

Its what I had in my hand. So close I held above his head and still hit him in the neck. No meat damage though. Yum.:p

[gun-fucious]

i one shot stopped a chipmunk with a tumbling, 45 caliber, 230 grain slug at 25 yards with a wrist rocket.

[Leadbutt]

I shot a groundhog this year with my Ruger No-1 converted to 450 3 1/4" Nitro express:D

[Len_in_Phoenix]

Long ago, when the Flagstaff Trap and Skeet Club still existed, we had a big prairie dog problem. It was SOP that if a dog popped up and a safe shot was available anyone who was able would remove that dog from the population. One day I was on one of the skeet fields by myself when a big prairie dog stood up right in front of me. I grabbed a shell out of my vest, popped it into the 12 gauge Superposed, and gave him 1 1/8 ounces of #8 shot at a range of about 5 feet.

I spent the next couple of hours cleaning prairie dog parts off of my vest, hat, gun, glasses, etc. Quite nasty. :barf:


Len in Phoenix

[griz]

I used to use a Savage O/U in 22 rimfire and 20 gauge to hunt squirrels and deer. The 22 was for squirrels and a 20 gauge slug was for deer should one pop up.

Well the barrel selector can not read my mind. A squirrel head shot with a 20 gauge slug does not go anywhere.
:o

[H&Hhunter]

Jackrabbit with a .458 Lott. By this weekend i hope to have shot a Jackrabbit with a .470NE. I take no chances with fuzzy buggsy death.:evil:

[Al Thompson]

Duck with a .375 H&H. Used a solid - tasted great. This was overseas, so quite legal. Killed several small animals for the pot with that load. Nailed several raccoons with a 12 ga and #1 buck.

[stevelyn]

Spruce grouse on the ground with a .45ACP.

[Smoke]

45/70 & 300WinMag on prairie dogs.

"Where did they go?!"

[Lennyjoe]

Grey Squirrel with a 30-30. Darn thing was driving me nuts. Darn near crawled on me while on stand. He got pissed and ran up the tree and kept barking and dropping acorns down on my head. About 3 hours later he was down on the base of an oak next to me. I was ready to leave anyway so I sent him to the Squirrel gods. Only time I ever shot anything out of anger.

[Jeremae]

West Texas Jack with Barrett m82 in 50 BMG at 600 yards

waited till I could see the whites of his eyes

[NRA4LIFE]

#1) Snowshoe Hare with my pa's 30-06 from approximately 10 feet. Took his head clean off.

#2) Rough Grouse with Mini-14, 55 gr. SP. Big mistake.

#3) Annoying squirrel jumps up on a limb barking at me about 2 minutes before the close of muzzloader deer hunting for the day. Bad timing. Must empty .50 caliber Hawken for the night. Scored direct hit, cut Mr. squirrel in two.

[GinSlinger]

Cottontail at dusk during deer season. .270 in hand, think, why not? Range, 50 yds. Hit bunny on the hop, perfectly tucking shot right behind shoulder. My buddy hears the shot and walks towards my stand from the truck. He and I get to the rabbit at about the same time. He can't see the entry wound, but I knew I had hit it. He asks if I had grazed to which I reply with some good-hearted profanity and flip the bunny over. All the hide had been removed from the far side, as well as a lot of bone. Kinda looked like a high school disection. Now everytime we go out to hunt he asks "Didya bring enuff gun?"

GinSlinger

[Sunray]

Ground hog with a .30-06 220 grain Slivertip out of my Garand. Caught the bottom of it's head from the side. Gone, but lots of shaking. Put another one in from about 10 feet.(no bayonet) All movement ceased. Opposite side was completely blown out.

[natedog]

.50 BMG at 150 yards downrange at a shooting range. Not much left.

[Shooter973]

I shot a squrrial out of a tree with a 45 -70 while deer hunting. Had a hillside as backstop. Shot a magpie out of the air with a Tommy Gun. 45acp. :uhoh:

[Grayrock]

Way back when- a meadowlark fell to my .30-06 one morning that there were no deer around. I found a leg.

[444]

Chipmunk(s): .44 Mag handgun
Coyote: .338 Win Mag
Jackrabbit: .338 Win Mag
Lizzard: .45 ACP
Chipmunk: .50 ML

[Wildalaska]

Ant with a Tactical Nuke...

WildwowAlaska

[Preacherman]

Dassie (a sort of groundhog-like rodent, in South Africa) with a .375 solid, at 15 yards. Found the rear feet (not legs - feet...): the rest disappeared somewhere or other.

[cooch]

Rabbit with 240grain HP out of .444. @~2500fps
One leg here, another there, two more further over and head eight feet up a small tree.

Fox with same load,,, nothing left of his head that wasn't loose and flapping.

More rabbits with .300WM.

Cooch

[Bigjake]

Woodchuck with .300 WM

annoying squirrell with a 1911 in .45

cat with a ruger vaquero in .44 mag

[mtnbkr]

During turkey season, a buddy of mine got a grouse with a 3 1/2" turkey load on the way back to camp. He was a bit twitchy after a run-in with a rattlesnake. All he found was a couple feathers.

Same guy got a chipmunk with a 2 3/4" 12g load of #6. He was trying to get a squirrel that ran beind a rock with the sun behind it. Saw the a critter jump on top of the rock and fired. Turned out to be a chipmunk instead of the squirrel. Running joke that weekend was that the squirrel made the poor chipmunk climb the rock to see if he was still out there.

Chris

[JShirley]

Jeremae,

Very nice. Welcome to THR.

[r_p_bayly]

Lennyjoe

were You with me?
Grey Squirrel with a 30-30.

Sounds like an instant replay of mine.

[Neal Bloom]

12 gauge on a kangaroo rat.

[Booran]

270 wby mag shooting gophers at the extream range of 15 feet. i think it went higher than the shot was long.:D

[4v50 Gary]

OO buck on 8" trout. I think there was 2 1/2" left to eat.

My brother used a .375 H&H against a squirrel. He didn't shoot it directly but shot 3" below it against the rock it was perched upon. His spotter said it vaporized into a red mist. :D

[bernie]

I hit a squirrel in the neck with a .308. It literally popped it's little eyes out of his sockets. It was really strange.

[Dr.Rob]

sssshhhhh never shot a fish, no sir not me.

If I were to shoot a fish I'd use a 12 ga with #4's and the fish would be a gar.

[Art Eatman]

Back in the dawn of time, aka the 1950s, my only centerfire rifle was an '06. Texas A&M released a report stating that seven jackrabbits eat as much grass as a cow. Now, this was during the drouth of the 1950s, and all manner of folks headed out to their pastures to slay the thieving jackrabbits.

I had taken up handloading, and my uncle gave me some 80-grain .32-20 bullets, swaged down to .308. I dumped in around 54 grains of 3031...

Got any idea what a flat-nosed bullet does to a jackrabbit, starting out at around 3,900 ft/sec or maybe better? I can tell you, Dearly Beloved, that it redefines the word "ruination".

:D, Art

[Jeremae]

JShirley

Thanx for the welcome but as you can see I registered in Dec when The Firing Line shut down.... I read alot.... but with people like Art posting answers to questions, I don't normally have much to add

[Art Eatman]

Gosh, Jeremae, that implies you agree with me, which means you're witty and bright and all that good stuff!

:D, Art

PS: But if you don't agree, for Heaven's sake, chime in. :)

[St. Gunner]

Once upon a time, in deep dark South Texas a young man was fooling around loading for a remington varmit in .22/250. He had loaded some 40 gr ballistic tips in front of H380 and they where chronographing right at 3,950fps. Late that evening while contemplating just what they would be capable of, his mother screamed from the back porch. He went to see what was the matter and a huge opposum was eating cat food and scampered off to a tree. Young man had a brilliant idea, and ran to grab the .22/250, the critter was straight up a tree, about five feet from the edge of the house. I found him in the lowest setting on the scope 6x and pulled the trigger. I thought it strange that he didn't fall out of the tree and started looking, when it began to sound like rain falling. Pretty soon a fragment of critter landed on my shoulder. I ducked into the house and blood and meat began to rain down all over the house and sidewalk. I did find a portion of the skull and a few bone fragments, but most of him seemed to turn into rain drops with hair in them.

Then their was the time I used a 405gr .45/70 load on a 5lb wild pig at about 10', it wasn't nearly as impressive as raining opposum, but it did flip him through the air for a good ways.:D

[Art Eatman]

Now, St. Gunner, the first liar doesn't stand a chance! :D

You know how a buzzard will glide into the wind, and sorta pause momentarily before peeling off downwind?

I had one do that right above me, about 50 or 75 feet up. I had my '06, loaded with those flat-nose bullets.

Yup. Center-punch.

It rained; I ran.

I will never, ever, do that again!!!

:), Art

[ietrash]

were walking back to the truck, after an unsuccessful morning of deer hunting. We were both carrying Browning BARs in 30.06 Deer hunting with dogs is legal here, but I choose to hunt without them. We were walking down a pipeline, through a section of woods. All of a sudden we hear what sounds like a couple of Walker hounds running a deer. My buddy and me get 10 feet or so apart, and start looking in the woods for the deer headed our way. I can hear something moving in the leaves, but can't see anything. My buddy raises his rifle and fires. He triumphantly (sp?) says " I got him" and starts heading into the woods with me in tow. We walk about 75 yards in and my buddy stops. I look around and there's blood and guts hanging off of all the limbs 5 and 6 feet of the ground. :what:
Then I notice the EMPTY shell of what once was an armadillo laying on the ground.:p

[cooch]

Not quite as smelly but....

I join the ranks of those quoting "never again" following a little experiment with a turtle and a .25/06.

We've not long left a drought behind, and as droughts go it was just a but more tedious than most.
During such events our dams tend to dry up and the local turtles migrate to the remaining dams. Not being very clean critturs, in numbers they tend to stink up the little remaining water.

So I practice on them.

But in this case I found one of my dams down to the sloppy-mud stage but still inhavbited by a couple of shellies that'd look more at home in a goldfish bowl than in this wide-brown (and increasingly dusty) land.
So at a range measuring five-eighths of stuff-all, I allowed for the height of the scope above the barrell and let go.

Not only is that mud black and odiferous ..... but surprisingly difficult to remove.

They tell me it's a wise man who knows when to Back Off.
I do.............. now!

Cooch

[Jeremae]

Art

Other than prefering the 308 to the aught six (which we all know is purely a matter of taste) I can't remember a single post you've made that I would disagree with on any point.

But rest asured, if it ever happens I won't hesitate to speak up.;)

[Mike Irwin]

I've shot squirrels with .30-06 and .300 Savage, both loaded with lead bullets and about 10 grains of Red Dot. Very accurate, VERY dirty.

I pegged a ground hog at 337 paced yards with a .300 Weatherby many years ago. Looked like it had been hit by a Mack truck.

I also pegged another ground hog at about 45 yards with a hot loaded .45-70 out of a Ruger No. 1. Not as spectacular, but just as effective.

[Newt]

Annoying armadillo got a .165 gr 30-06 touched off in it's hind parts about 5 years ago. Range: approximately 25 yds. Nasty!

Another time I offed a friend's pup who wasn't going to make it. Remington .260 ballistic tip at about 20 yds. Little bit of an overkill.

And there's always the annoying squirrel with the 30-30 bit. :D

Newt

[Detachment Charlie]

OK, a water buffalo isn't exactly a small animal, but when hit with a 40mm, there ain't much left.

[Ol' Badger]

that kept comming on my deck to eat from the Cats dish. I used a 148 gr. .38 spl at about 2 1/2 feet. I propted the Cat door open with a wooden spoon and laided there with my chin on a pillow waiting. The Chipmunk hopped up and started to munch down. I took careful aim and fired and the Chipmiunk disappered! Well, it was in 5 pices scattered around the deck!

[C.R.Sam]

Vulture "rain" could inhibit appetite.

Mouse in basement, .357 Mag.....dead.
Cottentail in garden with .405 Win....dead.

Sam.....eh ?

[Pumpkinheaver]

I busted a groundhog with my 45-70 once!

[waynzwld]

How about a mouse with a 12 ga. at 3 feet? All I found was a foot.

[shooter]

ok .357 mag at maybe?? 4 feet poor mouse never felt a thing
young and dumb.at the time.

[kidcoltoutlaw]

i killed a spider with a 12 GA.

[Brian Dale]

Once Upon a Time in the (mid)West, my cousins and I used to go frog-huntin' at night. We'd spear them with trident-shaped frog gigs, kill and clean them, and soak the legs in salted water overnight. Our parents would cook them up for us at breakfast. We were also enthusiastic daytime plinkers, with any of the various weapons that we and our older relatives had around at family gatherings.

One day at the water's edge, I happened to be carrying an older cousin's .357 (Smith? Ruger? there were so many... ). As I stepped clear of the tall grass encircling the pond, I spied a plump frog on the bank. I froze. He froze. We looked at each other (can't'cha just feel the tension? :D ).

I prepared for the head shot; I knew that a one-shot kill would be better than our usual routine of spearing, grabbing and killing frogs. I eased my revolver up into position, thumbed back the hammer sloooowly, and squeezed.

:eek:

You can't eat vapor.

"Use enough gun," Mr. Ruark?

[RWK]

We have a substantial problem with rabid raccoons in a large wooded area -- with a good-sized creek running through it -- that is adjacent to my home. A couple years ago, I large ‘coon came up on my lower deck in broad daylight, walking strangely and acting aggressively; I am quite sure he was rabid. I had my trusty, fine-tuned, Ruger KGP-141 (four-inch barrel, full lug, stainless, GP-100) revolver on the computer desk where I was working; it was loaded with Federal 158 grain HydraShoks. The raccoon was dispatched, the police did not appear, and I buried the carcass in the deep woods with care not to touch the raccoon.

Observations: (1) 1200 FPS is not required to instantaneously stop a raccoon; (2) HydraShoks expand, even when going through less than 10 - 12 inches of tissue; and (3) replacing a pressurized lumber decking board is a LOT more work than shooting a raccoon at close range (<5 yards).

Best to all -- Roy

[AUTIGER04]

Cut loose on a Cottontail rabbit with a preban Tec-9 9mm. Yep I got him.:D

[Zorro]

Blew up a Crow with a Claymore Mine one time!

Saw a F-16 Drop a 2000 Pound Iron Bomb on a Jack Rabbit in New Mexico!

:D

[Chuck Dye]

Ground squirrels with .30-06 AP (@ $0.01 per round (back when a gallon of regular was about $0.23, or the same for '06 as what I was paying for .22 LR) WHY did I not buy every round in the store???)

[sm]

"misty", sure nice Art added that term to my vocabulary...Thanks Art !

run the gamut myself using various calibers on various game.

Zorro , kinda took care of bunny and bunny trail huh ? ;)

[JeepDriver]

grey squirrel with 12ga rifled slug at 7 yards.

It was deer season, and that little SOB just wouldn't shut up (it's nest was in the tree right next to mine)

It had to die!

[Hauptmann6]

a 30-30 on a mouse. I was target shooting in our yard when I was younger and a mouse was swimming across the pond... Never found any of him...

[280PLUS]

on a volkswagen beetle, about 12 miles out,,,

not much left,,,

sorry couldn't resist,,,

:rolleyes:

[Coltdriver]

I went rabbit hunting with my best friend and his dads group of buddies when I was about 12.

His dad gave us an Army 10 guage pump to try out.

I massacreed a chickadee with it from about 10 feet. Just a few feathers came floating down.

The spooky part to me was that the gun kicked so hard that I pumped another round into it and had it resting on my shoulder, pointed straight up, with my finger on the trigger. I am sure it would have buried me into the ground if it had gone off again:D

[lycanthrope]

.460 Weatherby Mag ........on bowling pins.

[Lancel]

While relaxing on a log ...
Referring to my .22 lr revolver, a friend said "You ever kill anything with that?"
Me: "Squirrel"
Him: "Anything else?"
Me: Firing at a weed in front of me, "a fly".

:D
Larry

[WonderNine]

Grasshoppers with the 9mm.

[smokemaker]

I know it's a real late entry, but cottontail at about 135 paces with a .300 WinMag. Clipped the little guy into two, neat, stewable pieces (and gutted him to boot!)

[Moparmike]

Evil rabbit with sharp pointy teeth. Killed with the Holy Handgrenade of Antioch.:D

[LeonCarr]

Armadillo at 6 feet with 12 gauge 3-inch magnum 000 buckshot...chunks

Prairie dog at 150 yards with .257 Weatherby Magnum handloaded with 75 grain hollow points chronographing 3900 fps...red mist

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

[lycanthrope]

Moparmike,

Thank God you got him because he "nipped me in the bum".

[Pheonix]

Many years ago at Ft. Knox... 105mm armor piercing SABOT ... downrange, two halves of a deer. Messy!

Just today I was shooting at moths and chipmonks with 12 guage #4 Winchester Supreme High Velocity field load.

Oh ya, I always use a .308 for groundhogs and sometimes cats and birds or whatever puts itself in the safe to shoot catagory.

[Sisco]

Once shot a flea off a coyotes butt at 75 yards with a .270.
At least that's what I told everyone who asked why I missed the coyote!

[Moparmike]

Once shot a flea off a coyotes butt at 75 yards with a .270.That reminds me of "Back To The Future 3" and a quote from Doc:...I can shoot a flea off a dog's back at 600yds Tannen! And its aimed at your head!!My response: My Lord!!! That is one accurate rifle!

[kentucky bucky]

700 Nitro on a chipmunk. :evil: just kidding.................it was a shrew.

[Moparmike]

Kentucky, if that would have had exploding rounds, I would have paid $5 to see that.:evil: :evil: :evil:

[rbrowning]

I shot a chipmunk in two with a 50 cal muzzle loader.

My older brother shot a bat at night with his muzzle loader (50 grains of powder, some patches and a hand full of rice were enough).

My son shot a wasp with my 22-250 at the 100 yard range. He still has the target with bug mist and my $1 bet taped to his bedroom door.

[kentucky bucky]

I wouldn't go around telling people I shot a bat, you could catch a federal case if the right person heard it, some of those spooky critters are protected............plus you can't mount it or eat it.:D

[45crittergitter]

"Saw a F-16 Drop a 2000 Pound Iron Bomb on a Jack Rabbit in New Mexico!"

OK, I declare Zorro the winner.

As for me:

mouse with .45 ACP
ant with .45 ACP
mosquito with .445 SuperMag 300 gr
armadigger with .30-06 & .300 Win Mag

Man, we are some sick puppies....

[Byron Quick]

I know I've shot a flea with a .35 Whelen. It was by accident...the flea just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time on the deer.

Does that count?:D

What about the skin microbes killed with the same bullet?

[Rebel Gunman HK]

I shot a ant with my .45 before. :evil: 1 shot 1 kill

[Bigjake]

little white moth thing with 12 ga while dove hunting

[mod12]

shot a groundhog with a 20 ga. slug once.