I have a .25 pcp (hatSan vectis) and I’m wondering what is the best ammo to use for groundhogs? It groups well with both slugs and pellets. I have polymags and h/n slugs that both group nearly equal. Thoughts and opinions welcome
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Best Groundhog ammo?
- Thread starter kingston73
- Start date
I consistently take them with my D48 and 15 gr pellets out To 50+ yds. I think anything in .25 is going to be fine for head shots or body shots. Shot placement is king.
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I used to use H&N Barracuda Hunter Extreme with my .25 Royale but use Hades almost exclusively now. Reason being that I RARELY get a pass-through with the Hades so I know they're dumping all their energy in those cranium. Devastating! The Hunter Extremes passed through too often. YMMV
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All great and credible advice from the above. Accuracy is more critical than projectile style in the .25, but if you are getting good accuracy from slugs, my experience is that slugs beat pellets in terminal kill results on animals like coons and groundhogs every time.
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For a .25cal, I'd go with JSB Knockouts or similar NSA slug to the brain. In my opinion. .25cal is not sufficient for bodyshots on groundhogs.
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Why is .25 insufficient? Not a big enough wound channel? Or not enough penetration?
Very curious because there are ground hogs just waiting to be "removed" on my property and all I have is a .25.
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I'm jealous. Lol I've killed many gh. Mostly head shots all .25. That have a big head..lol, hard to miss. Also big raccoons I've taken with body shots as well as head
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Well, let me clear up my statement.
It's always bad form to specify only caliber with airguns without specifying the energy, and that's exactly what I did. The caliber isn't in control of the energy, the airgun is. With that said, I have put a few rounds similar to this shot with a 45fpe .25cal airgun to a groundhog, and they didn't seal the deal:
This was not quite a bodyshot, but a neck shot, and it did not get the job done, and the groundhog ran off. I am quite certain I took this shot with an NSA 25.4gr slug at 25 yards, which was enough to stun him temporarily, but not enough to put him down in his tracks. In all honesty, he probably perished some time later, but that is not out goal with pest removal if we can help it. With that said, if you would have placed that round on the head with even a .22cal, it's game over.
Now doing headshots on something that is constantly eating or is quite skittish is much more difficult, and that's also the reason why I have moved over to bodyshots with my .30cal and .357s. The Benjamin Bulldog .357 pushing 160-170 fpe was definitely overkill, but very effective using 81gr. Predator Polymags and JSB Exacts, but not so well using NSA 110gr and 142gr slugs. The pellets were the king in this case and there was significantly less overpenetration.
My favorite groundhog airgun setup to date is the FX Maverick .30cal pushing FX Hybrid Slugs 930fps for 85fpe. This setup consistently put groundhogs dead in the dirt with bodyshots.
This is a combination of the larger wound channel, deeper penetration and amazing expansion from the .30cal FX Hybrids.
Left to Right: FX Hybrid Slug .30cal, Recovered FX Hybrid Slug .30cal, FX Hybrid Slug .357cal for size comparison.
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Just another opinion, from shots taken, in .25 I like the terminal performance of the 34gr JSB MKII much better than the 25gr Kings. Weight matters. I have taken body shots on big woodchucks with a 58fpe gun using the MKIIs and at 35 yards the pellet went through so easily it ricocheted off the stone wall loudly. The 25gr Kings don't do this. I normally take headshots and the 34gr MKIIs work better here too, but any brain hit is death. I still won't use the Kings for anything bigger than a squirrel anymore, but that's just me. The important thing to do if you use a lighter projectile like the polymag or your H&N slugs is take a headshot and don't miss. I limit my distance in .25 caliber to where ever 35fpe on target happpens and have never had a problem with an accurate shot. Accuracy always beats every other consideration handily.
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@ N2 Shooter - Thanks for the clarification.
When the time comes I will make sure I have a good head shot or I won't take the shot.
When the time comes I will make sure I have a good head shot or I won't take the shot.
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