Varmint Hunting

Mown Fields and Whistle Pigs

Varmint hunting is in full swing. In addition to the smell of new-mown-hay, this let’s you know that Summer is definitely here. Especially for woodchucks.

To be sure, groundhogs were with us all winter. They are semi-hibernators, and do come out, from time to time, to forage around. But once the new grass is up, they appear for keeps. Although they do eat other things, new grass is their favorite. So you’ll find them gorging on newly emergent grasses, or picket-pinning as they survey newly-mown fields.

Ah, yes. A whistle pig standing upright in a newly mown hayfield. The rifleman’s---or, rather, the varmint hunters---dream.

Varmint hunting is, indeed, the marksman’s sport. Sure, we hunt other critters with rifles, deer being the most common. But it’s one thing to hit a ten-inch target at 50 yards, quite another to hit a four inch target at ten times that distance.

That’s no exaggeration. Shots of 500 yards, while varmint hunting, are not unusual. And the kill zone on a woodchuck is a scant four inches.

Obviously, this takes specially rigged rifles and equipment. I have several varmint rifles, but my favorite is a Winchester Model 70, chambered in .22-250. The way it’s rigged is typical of varmint guns, and if you’re thinking of getting into varmint hunting you can learn a lot from it.

First, take note of the caliber. Varmint rifles are chambered for small, fast-moving bullets. Varminters talk about their guns’ “legs.” Probably 90% of varmint rifles are centerfire .22s of one type or another. The rest are about evenly divided between quarter calibers (i.e., .25s), the newly popular .17s, and wildcat rounds.

The gun, itself, has a “bull” barrel. Such barrels are much thicker, for their caliber, than usual. All this extra steel adds weight, which helps provide a more stable shooting platform. But thick barrels also heat up less quickly than standard barrels, and act as heat sinks to dissipate heat that does build.

This is, frankly, less important in a woodchuck gun because you don’t get all that many shots at one time. But if you’re out west, hunting prairie dogs or Columbian ground squirrels, you might fire as many as a hundred rounds in a fairly short time frame. And that can really heat up a barrel; in turn affecting accuracy.

Varmint rifles more modern than my Winchester actually have heavy, fluted barrels, to dissipate the heat even more efficiently.

Attached to the front of the stock is a bi-pod. This, again, is used to provide stability. There’s not much room for error when you’re shooting small targets at great distances, and anything you can do to eliminate barrel movement is a plus. Indeed, when not using the bi-pod, I use a sling for the same reason.

Mounted on top is a powerful, high-quality scope. Many varminters will tell you that their scope is more important than the gun itself. That’s getting a little carried away, in my opinion. But once you have a gun capable of this kind of accuracy, there is nothing else you can do as important as the scope.

On the .22-250 I have a 6 x 24 variable, with automatic parallax adjustment. Part of the scope is a sunshield that’s nearly half as long as the scope itself.

If you’re going to get into varmint hunting, it’s important you understand the nature of varmint bullets. Small caliber bullets, especially when shot at high speed at low angles, have a tendency to ricochet. Varmint bullets are designed to avoid that problem. They are what is called “frangible.” That is, they are brittle; so much so that they literally explode on impact. Even a blade of grass will cause that explosion.

Two things to keep in mind, therefore. First, for safety sake, you should always use frangible varmint loads when hunting woodchuck or other varmints. And, second, if you choose to use your varmint rifle as a duel-purpose gun, make sure you do not use varmint rounds when deer hunting. The bullets will just crater on the deer’s skin, wounding, but not killing, it.

Most serious varmint shooters hand-load their own cartridges. On one hand, despite the incredible price run-ups on reloading supplies, it’s still possible to save money by handloading---particularly given the number or rounds typically used in varmint hunting.

But the main reason for handloading is to build a better round. Commercial cartridges are designed to be all things for all guns. But you can design the perfect round for your specific rifle, combining just the right powder type and amount, with the right bullet weight and design, to achieve the ultimate accuracy from your rifle.

Ultimate accuracy! That’s the name of the game.