A Gift From A Groundhog

[Red Beastmaster]

I'm not much of a collector.

I do have a drawer where I toss my pins when I return from a trad rendezvous. And I have around 10 groundhog teeth I found over the years. Other than that I really don't care much for saving things.

One thing I do save are arrows that were from a special hunt or event. I hang them on my bow rack. I have a couple I made for my cousin before he passed away. One from my Texas javalina kill. And one that I used to kill my 100th groundhog. It's a chundoo with a big wide Magnus head.

I shot my 200th dirtpig last summer but the beast took the arrow down the hole. I really wanted it but I wasn't going to rent a backhoe to dig it up. Oh well. So much for my collection.

I was hunting today and had just shot number 210. I actually grabbed the fletch end and yanked the hog back out of the hole. You can't let a good 1916 and a Muzzy go down a hole! I cleaned up the arrow and stepped back on the path and noticed one of my old broken cedars with a MA-3 still attached. Cool! A hog must have been cleaning house and pushed it out of its' den. There are lots of groundhog bones laying about my stomping grounds too.    I broke off the head and stuck it in my pouch.

I eventually hunted near the hole where I killed #200 and I thought of the cedar I had found earlier. I stepped up to the hole to look around and right there on top of the freshly excavated earth was my arrow! Way cool! It was an aluminum shaft with a Bodkin 3 blade, the feathers were rotted off but the rest of the arrow looked good. I did a smell check and stuck it in my back quiver. I got my arrow back for my collection!

Pretty neat.

[frank bullitt]

David, that is sweet!
Should have called, I would have brought the Shovel!  :thumbsu

200, I'm still looking for #1.

[Mudd]

Awesome story!! Don't you just love it when you get gifts?

Thanks for sharing!

God bless,Mudd

[BCWV]

Very cool!

[pdk25]

Nice story and nice shooting.  That's alot less holes for livestock to break their legs in.

[K. Mogensen]

Way cool. I've had my eye on some groundhawgs around here but they live in a big pile of concrete.   :eek:  Would be a costly miss.

[Killdeer]

Great story! Thanks for teaching me something about groundhog behavior. Never really thought about burrow upkeep, beyond simple digging.

Killdeer

[Stone Knife]

Nice  

[Throop]

Very cool stuff.

[Shedrock]

Neat story

[Chris Shelton]

we should pronounce you groundhog king!!!  We aint got that many around here.  About 50 as season is doin pretty good!

[Red Beastmaster]

Hardly the king. I believe that honor should go to my buddies Hawkeye in PA and his dad Harry. They each routinely shoot over 2 dozen per year. I'm usually good for around 10 or so.