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LOTS of groundhogs in the area, but normally shooting was discouraged on horse farms for obvious reasons, the main one being a slipup around a $250,000 yearling would be disastrous. I did work on one farm where I did shoot a bunch of them, but we only had three broodmares and knew where they were at all times.

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A farmer-friend called me two years ago and asked me to eradicate groundhogs from his pastures and hay fields. He had previously broken an axel on his bailing machine, and on the day he called me he had just destroyed a horse. Both were related to groundhog holes.

That first year I lost count of the number of groundhogs I killed, and started counting them in bushels. They were all very small. Last year I only killed about one third as many, and they were all large. The first year I was able to stalk to within 50 yards and wait; the ground hog would come back out of its hole, and seemed to know I was there but wasn't convinced of the danger. The second year I had to take somewhat longer shots.

There were horses and cattle present at all times, but the owner knew me to be a careful hunter and a good shot. The greater danger was from the groundhogs. The gun was a Ruger #1 in 223 Rem.

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