How many hunt as I do ?

[ironglow]

   I guess I would have to call it contrarian..
  I like the challenge of the hunt, so rather than to go "overgunned" I would rather use what is just adequate for humane kills. For instance; summer is the time when I go woodchuck hunting. If i am hunting 75 yards & under, i will likely use one of my .22 long rifle guns.
 After 75 yards, up to 150 yds or so, it will be .22 mag or .17 HMR..then I go centerfire.
   To me, shooting a woodchuck at 65 yards with a 22-250 or a .308 is like swatting flies with a sledge hammer.
   Anyone else hunt that way, or does everybody take out the "big guns" right off ?

[bulletstuffer]

Sorry Can't go down that path

Bulletstuffer

[bilmac]

A buddy and I found out a long time ago that we would founder on rabbits if we shot then with rifles, so we started hunting them with pistols, head shots only. I could still bring home way too many so now I just quit and go home after I have one, or sometimes two if I have a neighbor who will take one. I shot the last one with a J frame S&W 32 with fixed sights.

I have taken to shooting at prairie dogs with my unmodified 357 Blackhawk. Last summer I plinked a couple at over 60 yards.

[Arier Blut]

That's pretty well my outlook as well ironglow. I do not own a centerfire magnum. Big game is with a .308. Small game a rimfire unless stretched out a ways, then a .223. I learned how to use a ballistic reticule and got rid of the 22-250, no telling how much powder has been saved.
I am a farmer so if I see something that will end up creating a problem it is dispatched with whatever I have available at the time. If setting out after something I am generally under gunned by today's standards. But then again it's good to hunt in a minimalistic fashion. It makes me concentrate on shot placement.

[ironglow]

 Bilmac..way to go !

 Arier..You coiuned the term for me "minimalist"..good description ! I don't in any way judge the high power hunter, they do dispatch humanely, but I like minimalist hunting.
   I suppose that is why some choose bow or black powder (esp flintlock) over modern firearms.

[Wyo. Coyote Hunter]

iron, When I hunt woodchucks in Penna., I usually have 3 or 4 rifles in the truck with me. When I stop at a farm, usually, it is one I have hunted before, so I know when I start, what rifle I will take. For chucks, I seldom take a .22 lr, I really only use them on groundsquirrels out west. But if it is a walking hunt with shots less than 125 yards, I carry my little Browning in 22 Hornet. It is a sweet rifle, and I have taken chucks to 150 yards, but stopped shooting that far with it when I drilled a big old chuck, and he dropped like a rock. I looked to see if there were others when I saw him get up and make it to his hole. It looked like a good lung shot, but too far. but the Hornet is a gem. I have used it on tree squirrel and some forest grouse. For many years now, it has been my favorite cottontail rifle if I am getting them for friends around town.    If I want a couple for my use, it works or as someone said one of my pistols.
My second choice is for shots from 125 to say 250 here I love my old custom .222. It has worn various scopes, but is wonderful for this style of shooting. If I know the shots can run from 200 to 500 yards, then I will take a .22-250 or .220 Swift. To me all the styles of hunting sneak hunting with the Hornet or watching big fields with the Swift, are wonderful ways to spend a summer evening. One thing I never got in on was the super long range shooting in northern Pa. I had a friend that got a chuck at 890 yards and his pal got one at over 1200. But this is more shooting than hunting, but still interesting. Not sure if they still do that now or not.

[woodchukhntr]

I prefer to have several rifles with me for woodchuk hunting.  I match the gun to the range I expect to shoot at.  When I go out with friends, we each carry a different rifle.  For instance: .22 or .22 mag. for close, .22 Hornet or .223 for medium, .22-250 for long range.  I mainly hunt alone now, so typically I would have a .17 HRM or .22 Hornet and a .17 Remington or .223.  I explain to other hunters that it is like golfing, different clubs for different shots.  If I take only 1 gun it is either the .17 HRM or the .22 Hornet.

I have had well-hit chucks crawl away with just about everything I have ever used.  You just never know for sure how the animal will respond.  I have seen them just about blown into 2 pieces and still make it to the hole.  I'll use the Hornet up to 175, and the .17HRM to 150.  Actually I have had the most instant kills with the .17 HRM.  With a good hit there is no exit wound.

[Jellyhead]

Maybe it's just me, but I shoot what I can afford, that being the rimfires for now.  .17 HMR & .17 HM2

[castman]

I cant say that Im a contrarian whistle pig hunter. a 22lr does no good when the chuck is 400 meters away. I dont walk, the rifle weighs 25 pounds and the rangefinder 40lbs. I sit overlooking as much land as possible, set up the wilde rangefinder, have a sandwich, range them, dial in and kill them.

Little 55s out to 300 meters and 107s after that

[single action]

When I was younger, I hunted everything with muzzleoaders. With the shortage of ammo (and price when it can be found) I think I will be using my muzzleoaders most of the time. I recently found a old t/c renegade .56 cal smoothbore, and have taken a half dozen squirrels with it using shot during this  springs season. I have been working up a load that seems fairly accurate with a patched round ball out to 50 yards or so, and cant wait to try to bag a deer with it this fall.

[Rock Home Isle]

       Anyone else hunt that way, or does everybody take out the "big guns" right off ?

I don't have many woodchucks here in Colorado...I grewup hunting Prairie dogs with a .22 bolt action. I spent hours crawling down little irrigation ditches and slipping through logs and blowdowns to get just a few yards closer so that my open sights were more effective. That was a hunt, cuzz if you didn't head shoot 'em they got away....and the farmer whose land that I hunted paid me .25 cents for a Prairie Dog Tail (back then...that was real money).

Then one day, when I was ~15 or so, I found a beatiful CVA Mountain Rifle in .50 calibre for $65.00 in a local Pawn shop. It was a kit that some had literally "Slapped Together", but to me she was beatiful. I talked with the man behind the counter and he told that 50 grains of blackpowder with a patched roundy would be plenty, so I did a little math and figured that at that time I could shoot that gun for cheaper than I could a .22...I felt justified in the purchase, so I bought it, reworked the poor assembly job and sighted her in with a 50 grain charge.

One day I had a P. dog at ~100 yards or so. I had never been able to get this P. Dog and I had tried many times before. On this day I'd pop-off a shot and hit short maybe 10 yards, 20 minutes later that P.dog was back and again I hit 20 yards short. again the dog came up 20 minutes later, but this time I had double charged the rifle. When I touched her off all I remember was sky/ground....sky/ground...sky/ground. I jumped up with a bloody nose and saw my P. Dog doin summersualts.  I had finally gotten that P. Dog.

The gun changed everything for me. With one gun, I could change the powder charges and hit those little rascals almost anywhere in that field, I just had a very slow second shot. My hunting became HUNTING. I learned so much about spot and stalk with that gun, I still have it. So I guess that I sorta did back then what you do, but I did it with one gun.