Would .223 FMJ be fine for shooting groundhogs?

[Principal Skinr]

I am of the opposite opinion of everyone else here. I don’t know how humane the .223 FMJ is for hunting anything. I would go with the .223 soft point or hollow point. While you will most likely kill the animal with the FMJ, there is the chance you will cause it to have a slow lingering death. The whole reason for using FMJ in war is because it doesn’t cause catastrophic wounds. They cause clean wounds, as wounds go.
In hunting, you want catastrophic wounds to put the animal down as quickly and as humanely as possible. I don’t know if you can find a state that you can lawfully hunt regulated big game with a FMJ. In every case I have seen, they require soft point or hollow tips as FMJ can zip right through allowing the animal to escape and die slowly or suffer a long fight to recover. It’s not unlike archery hunting with field points instead of broadheads. Look at any commercially made hunting round. You will not find a FMJ because it will not put the animal down in every situation. Even a SP or HP won’t do the job every time, but at least you did the best you could.
Keep in mind, you might hit that groundhog, and it may make it back to its hole with you thinking its dead. However, there’s the chance someone else might come up on it days later, in terrible shape but alive. I know because I have been in an identical situation but I also did the shooting. I don’t even want to get into it if the person that finds a wounded animal is a member of PETA. Even if they’re not, they will have a low opinion of the hunter that made the animal suffer needlessly and come the next time when an anti-hunting issue is on the ballot, guess which way they’ll vote. While I hate it, we have to think of that these days
I think as ethical hunters a softpoint or hollow point should be used, even on lowly groundhogs and save the FMJ for tin cans and paper.

Actually, FMJ .223 works well for hogs (real hogs, that is). One shot to the neck and they drop. Barnes TSX are preferred, but FMJ works fine. I doubt the FMJ would have a problem with groundhogs.

 

[rhino]

When I killed mine, I aimed for the center of his body since I had a profile shot. The first shot killed him pretty much right away. The only reaction was that his front legs just sort of relaxed and extended from his body and he didn't move after that. I fired again to make sure, but all that happened was that he slumped a little upward then down into the "I'm incredibly dead" posture he had before.

I think a vmax or something similar would make a more obvious kill, which is good if you're not close enough to see that it's obviously dead right there.

If I were intentionally shooting groundhogs, I'd bring something with vmax bullets or something similar, but if I had a target of opportunity, I'd shoot it with whatever I had in the rifle.

 

[Rammer]

It puts them down just fine. They don't drop like they do for the soft points. But they bleed out quickly.

Rammer

 

[dodgetoyz]

Just curious if FMJ .223 are fine for humanely killing groundhogs. I've got a bunch, but will get some soft points if the FMJ are no good. Anyone shoot groundhogs with them? Thanks.

They "humanely" kill taliban and they tend to weigh about 140lbs. I think they will do just fine!

 

[.356luger]

yeah ive killed ground hogs with .17 .22 .223 and .357 my favorite is the .357 just scare them in their hole and stand behind it for 15 min and they almost always come back out.

 

[irishfan]

The Varmint Grenade looks impressive and I love the video dvd they have.