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Ever loose an arrow on a groundhog. . . in a tree?

hickslawns

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
39,721
248
Ohio
Got to bed at 1230 last night. Phone rang at 330. Had a 35 min drive to make a repair on one of our parking lot sweeping trucks. Got home, drove around to see if there was much movement in the fields before pulling into the house. Nothing. What the heck, I am already up. Went hunting.

Small buck under my stand right at first light. Couldn't really make out the rack, but the body told me it wasn't one of the ones on the list. Settled in for awhile. Watched several does move about 80yds away. Spit on a raccoon under my stand. Priceless look on his face! Watched 3 turkeys move along the edge of the field to the west. Hoped a big boy was watching them and following them. No such luck. They crossed the creek and moved into a cut corn field to my south. One of them came back into the woods and walked straight at me. Caught it on video on the Riser Cam. Pretty cool.

Waited until just after 1030 and my stomach said it was time to eat. Changed camera cards and decided to scout along the creek a bit more to figure where they were crossing. Saw a groundhog. . . in a tree! First I had personally witnessed it. Heard of it, but have never seen it. So naturally, I had to kill it. And I had to do so on film! Didn't give me much of a shot, but I didn't care, the Muzzy was going to do what I needed it to. Shot it with it's butt facing me. Absolutely ripped it to pieces. Fell out of the tree leaving several feet of intestine hanging from the branch it was on. Plenty more on the ground. Lost an arrow, but got it all on film. It was worth it. Will figure out how to post it eventually and get it linked on here.

Decided to do some scouting as I was looking for my arrow. I had to cross the creek again and it had a high bank. I knew the deer were crossing there somewhere, just not sure where. Found a nice shelf with a couple of stair steps down into a gradual creek crossing. Bingo! Oak flat baby! Don't know how I missed it in all my scouting. It is probably the narrowest part of the creek/woods so i think i will be hanging a fixed stand for all day sits sometime this week. Should be a killer rut stand! Problem is the trees have NO cover. Going to need to hang it 30' or so in order to try to stay hidden. Big trees though, so I think I can break up most of my stand/body with the tree I choose. Will keep you posted on how it turns out.
 

rrr

Senior Member
5,065
0
TOO Funny! Can't wait to see the vid

Sounds like a great morning, lots of critters to see.

Rootin for you Hickie! Get your ass in bed though, that's crazy


Capt
 

hickslawns

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
39,721
248
Ohio
I will try to venture onto Youtube and try to figure out how to upload them today. Nice video footage of the turkeys on a couple occasions as well. I have been sicker than a dog all day. Just now up and moving a bit. Balance is off a bit. I will see what I can do for the video. It isn't "great" footage, but at least there is footage of the hog in a tree. Maybe if we can slow-motion it, we can see the arrow hit!
 

Ohiosam

*Supporting Member*
11,708
191
Mahoning Co.
I have seen 2 groundhog in trees over the years, killed one with a .22. When I saw them in both cases they were by standing corn and climbed up on low limbs where the sun could hit them.
 

cotty16

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
I never lost an arrow to one in a tree, but I had one take my arrow down their hole. I ran over and tried getting my arrow back, but that fugger was growling at me and was strong as hell. We played tug o war for a couple seconds... he won.