New 22 Hornet vs groundhog

Great little round how are you loading it?

They won't have a prayer!

Years ago while I was still in college (1973) I purchased a Remington Model 660 in 222 calibers just specifically for groundhog hunting. I never got around to going to the farmers and asking permission to hunt on their land. I did know an owner of about 40 acres at a public recreational and swimming resort that allowed me to shoot the muskrats that were tunneling in a dam/roadway between two different lakes. The upper lake was smaller and at a higher elevation and the roadway was the dam that keeps the upper lake from flowing into the lower larger lake where people swam during the daylight hours. The gun came with a terrible trigger. I didn't know any better back then as I was inexperienced with guns and just a kid wet behind the ears still. I went shooting with Mark Reiter up at a gun club near Purdue University. Mark was into shooting back then and was a NRA member and studying Wildlife Biology. We had a wild biology class and a historical geology class together and would get together and watch TV, drink a beer or two and do some studying before the tests. We would both study solo and then get together and quiz each other to see what we knew and what we needed to study more on. It worked as I make the deans list that year. Mark later went onto work at the Indian DNR in the Fish and Wildlife Division. Mark was a straight shooter in more ways that one. When he first shot my rifle he exclaimed. This trigger Sucks. LOL He was right. Remington did a recall on this dangerous trigger which would go off at times without pulling the trigger. And it would not allow you to eject a bullet if the gun was in safe mode or something to that effect. I got the trigger to replaced at Gander Mountain in Evansville, IN when they had a gun smith there. They since closed the store in Evansville, IN. The Gander Mountain Gun Smith also glass bedded the barrel to the stock. I'm hoping that this helps with accuracy and precision. I'm hoping that when Mark Retires from IDNR F&W this month (May 2019) and moves down South of Indianapolis, IN and the I-69 is finished though Martin County, IN that he and I can get together to do some shooting. He told me that he is building a rifle range on his property there. He even said he might drive down to Sugar Ridge and shoot some with me in the future. I need to get someone to take care of my elderly mom while I got on that trip. I Wanted to gear up to do some Coyote Hunting at night but a heart attack put a stop to that. Then I got cancer and that made it worse. I'm recovering from cancer and hoping to regain some strength back so that I can lug some hunting equipment out into the field again. I had to stop fishing due to other health problems that are inoperable but not getting worse at this time. A tumor on my L1 nerve root on the left side that innervates my left leg muscles. And now I found out with another MRI that I have a lipoma on the right lower back that is causing me pain at times. I still want to get out and do some groundhog hunting. I may have to buy a 4x4 just to carry me and the gear to the hunting area.

I still have a little Lea Loader that I used to hand load my 222 bullets. But it was slow and tedious to do one bullet at a time. And I had no way to size and trim my casing to length and reform them to proper roundness. All I did was take out the old spent primer and put in a new primer and fill it with some power. I didn't even know what kind of power I was using or how much to put in the casing but did some reading and found a power to use at the local gun shop and found the proper amount to use so as not to blow myself up while shooting the reloads. I had a scale that measured power in grains and 1/10 of grains that were said to be pretty accurate. Although it was probably not as accurate as of the laboratory scales that we used in the Chemistry Laboratory that I used at work. But it got the job done. I didn't need to measure the gun power in micrograms as we did in the Chemistry lab. I don't remember what type of bullets I used or how much pressure I use to seat the bullet. All that was done with the hand loader. But they shot from the gun as far as I knew. I didn't shoot too many reload and I preferred to shoot the Remington Accu-tip 55 grain bullets from the store. The gave me good groups at the 100-yard range at Sugar Ridge Shooting Range.

I did meet a guy up at Sugar Ridge that loaded his own bullets and kept a record of every shot he took with each type of bullet using a chronograph that measures the speed of the bullets as they pass through the arms of the chronograph. That was a pretty sweet deal. I did buy a set of shooting bags for the front and rear of the gun and then a Caldwell Shooting Rest that's fully adjustable and can hold three 25 lb. bags of lead shot to steady the shooting rest. It's great for sighting in the rifle and prevents the recoil from kicking your butt too much. That with a laser bore sighting device that looks like a bullet and shines the laser beam down the inside of the barrel to the target at 25 yards away. This helps me get on paper at the 100-yard ranges after getting the scope and rifle sighted in with the laser bore sighting devise. Now I can get on paper in just a couple of shots. I use this equipment on my Remington Model 660 and my Ruger 10/22 Rifle. I also use it on my Daniel Defense AR15 in 5.56 cal. I did a lot of shooting for a couple of years and didn't take the boat out fishing for that time. But I had to hang up the shooting as my Truck was acting up. Turns out that Raben Tire in Newburgh IN failed to fix the alternator belt tight enough and even stripped the threads on one of the bolts that held the lower alternator bracket on my truck. Part was not available anymore though the dealer so I had to do an internet search to find an old part at a junk yard in Madisonville, KY. Then Raben still failed to get it on tight enough so that my alternator belt would not slip and squeal like a stuck pig. I finally had to take my truck to the Raben Tire Shop on the West Side of Evansville out there off Boehne Camp road and they figure out the probem and fixed the belt. I suffered with a damaged truck for about a year before I could locate the part and get the truck fixed. All I did was go to the grocery store ever few weeks and then to the doctor's office for me or my elderly mohter and hoped that the truck would not break down on me. It's fixed now and runs much better so I can go back to Sugar Ridge If I can get someone to take care of mom for a few hours. She is not well and losing weight and last Jan fell down for about the 4th time. And the last time she fell and could not get back up she broke her left ankle in two places and had to be in a cast and go though rehab so that she could walk again. I don't trust leaving her by herself these days. The nex time she falls may be the last time if she hits her head or breaks a bone. She is getting frail now. Two years ago she was still driving and going to the grocery store by herself and out cutting grass with the lawn more. She is going on 94 now.

Hey Omegahunter u need a reloading press .

I'm using 35gr vmax and 12.2 gr lilgun.
Deadly round.
Billy.