SmallCaliberCentral

502 yards lazered with the lecia on a Pa groundhog, Howa 204 ruger, vx3 8.5x25 25.1 rl 10x 39 blitzking. It was a calm evening when i made the shot, I have missed many more by inches fighting the wind.

349yds with a 39gr BK. 10MPH dead crosswind. 1 shot in the neck & fell over backwards.

HMMMMM.....Not sure whether to say a few folks might be exaggerating or that they are full of shot.....

I shot a prairie dog at 486 lasered last fall in a decent crosswind. I wasn't counting but it was close to the 10th or 11th shot at that mound before I finally connected. Gotta love being the first one to shoot a town in a year.

Hmmm....Well lets see.....I live in New York and I shot with an elevation of 42.7 degrees and held 4 mildots left ....Hit that Chuck square in the head out in California...Had to take a plane, a bus and then a cab to verify that I had indeed connected with that varmint.....LOL....LOL

Pmoper wrote:Hmmm....Well lets see.....I live in New York .....

Sir.....by your response are you saying you have very limited experience with LR varminting because you live in NY, or are you doubting the ranges that our posters have logged while answering the posed question?

I know that the question asked was based on a woodchuck kill, but many of us have routinely launched both prairie dogs and ground squirrels in excess of 500 yards (woodchucks and rock chucks included), and those critters are substantially smaller than the eastern woodchuck/groundhog. You may want to clarify your post above and enlighten us.

Rick in Oregon wrote:

Pmoper wrote:Hmmm....Well lets see.....I live in New York .....

Sir.....by your response are you saying you have very limited experience with LR varminting because you live in NY, or are you doubting the ranges that our posters have logged while answering the posed question?

I know that the question asked was based on a woodchuck kill, but many of us have routinely launched both prairie dogs and ground squirrels in excess of 500 yards (woodchucks and rock chucks included), and those critters are substantially smaller than the eastern woodchuck/groundhog. You may want to clarify your post above and enlighten us.

#1 Please do not call me "Sir"..I was a non-com in the Army and worked for a living...#2 as a former sniper I doubt a "few" of these claims...not ALL... If these are all true without a wee bit of exaggeration then we need to encourage some of these fine shooters to look toward the military to put their skills to work or better yet toward Camp Perry to represent the fine US Shooting Team....Yes, I am from NY...Upstate and we do get 300-400 yard shots at Chucks and even longer at coyotes which can more than test the skills of any marksman with the angles and cross winds you might encounter.....Not from Missouri...but like the show me motto.......

The topic (I strayed a little) is longest 204 chuck kill. Now, if it was longest one shot 204 kill, then my answer would be a lot less than 486. I kept clicking the POI up and right until I finally hit the little rodent. I don't have the opportunity to shoot that kind of distance or windy conditions here in Kentucky. My handy-dandy drop charts from the JBM site were in the ballpark when I shot in South Dakota but off enough that I had to add clicks for elevation. Do I consider myself a sniper or even great rifleman? Nope. But I carry enough ammo that a varmint stupid enough to keep listening to bullets splat close to him is going to eventually get to see one up close and personal.

Now that I'm pretty much done with load development I'll be spending more time shooting it at aluminum beer cans and bottle up 400 yards. I'm skeptical too but I have no doubt that people here have made those shots.

Pmoper wrote:

Rick in Oregon wrote:

Pmoper wrote:Hmmm....Well lets see.....I live in New York .....

Sir.....by your response are you saying you have very limited experience with LR varminting because you live in NY, or are you doubting the ranges that our posters have logged while answering the posed question?

I know that the question asked was based on a woodchuck kill, but many of us have routinely launched both prairie dogs and ground squirrels in excess of 500 yards (woodchucks and rock chucks included), and those critters are substantially smaller than the eastern woodchuck/groundhog. You may want to clarify your post above and enlighten us.

#1 Please do not call me "Sir"..I was a non-com in the Army and worked for a living...#2 as a former sniper I doubt a "few" of these claims...not ALL... If these are all true without a wee bit of exaggeration then we need to encourage some of these fine shooters to look toward the military to put their skills to work or better yet toward Camp Perry to represent the fine US Shooting Team....Yes, I am from NY...Upstate and we do get 300-400 yard shots at Chucks and even longer at coyotes which can more than test the skills of any marksman with the angles and cross winds you might encounter.....Not from Missouri...but like the show me motto.......

I've seen plenty of b.s. on the Internet (like the guy on another forum who claims to have killed several thousand groundhogs out to 300 yards with only a .22 l.r); but can say most of the posters here seem to be straight-up types. The long-kill claims made here really don't seem out of line to anyone with a decent-quality .204 rifle and scope and some knowledge of ballistics. A lot of Ohio farm kids grew up making long groundhog shots before they reached puberty. I didn't take one of my .204s out this evening, but still managed to shoot a 'hog DRT, 1 shot at 260 yard with a little .221 Fireball. (Did have the rare "luxury" of shooting off a bag; usually use shooting sticks and at longer ranges.)
I'll bet I'm not the only one here, Pmoper who'd like to see proof of your military sniper experience. Shouldn't be too hard to post some documents here...

Want some picture proof that a lot of shooters are making long varmint shots? Check this out; click on the Wall Of Fame galleries: http://www.ncovarmintexpress.com/frameset.htm

Well I have not documented distances, but I do live in a part of our great country that allows one to take shots as far away as they would like to attempt, just not at chucks. I watched this site for some time before joining to ensure it was chalked full of positive, helpful members. That is what I observed and I proudly joined. Now I'm not going to not be on here becuase of this, but there is a member that has made several off color remarks and been called out on several occasions. No matter who you are, how much experience you have, equipment quality you use, or knowledge you posses, look at your text and do the right thing before using that Submit button.

WY-NEvarmints wrote:Well I have not documented distances, but I do live in a part of our great country that allows one to take shots as far away as they would like to attempt, just not at chucks. I watched this site for some time before joining to ensure it was chalked full of positive, helpful members. That is what I observed and I proudly joined. Now I'm not going to not be on here becuase of this, but there is a member that has made several off color remarks and been called out on several occasions. No matter who you are, how much experience you have, equipment quality you use, or knowledge you posses, look at your text and do the right thing before using that Submit button.

+1. Glad i'm not the only one that noticed these thing!

There's even a preview button so you can see how silly those smileys look at the end of each sentence
Wish I had this option in real life - would combat foot in mouth very well

I dont doubt anyone who is an experienced shooter who says they can kill a groundhog around 500 yards with a 204. I haven't myself but I have shot enough paper at 500 with the 204 to know that it can be done quite easily if the conditions are right. No wind....etc....Guys like RIO and some of the others that are experienced handloaders and shoot skippy regularly are able to make these type of shots.

There's also the option to just not bother with these types of posts & they will go away.