The Upper Hand in Defending My Lettuce

I put a garden in on the slope at my house and I thought to myself, 'What a great place to watch for woodchucks and kill them.' After finishing a fence around the garden, I went to make lunch and from the corner of my eye through a window, I see something approaching the garden.

'A woodchuck!?!?'

I grab a powerful rifle scope and sure enough, this dumb thing is walking around near my garden and taking his sweet old time.

I mistakenly refer to it as a hedgehog, 'Jim, want to have some fun and shoot a hedgehog?'

He yells angrily from his room, 'Are you stupid? Why would you kill a hedge hog?'

Oh boy.

I call my uncle, no answer. I could swear that he kills woodchucks on sight.

So I decide to take one shot with my .22 rifle. I lift a window in the alcove and flit about, thinking. Both of my cats jump into the open window and threaten to fly 15 feet *splat* to the ground. I move them out and toss them to the floor.

I kneel at the window. 'One shot, I think. One shot.'

I line up the iron sights on the bugger.

Crack.

The thing sort of balls up, cringes, and then starts walking towards the brush.

I hit him, but didn't drop him.

So I bounce around more and I notice that my uncle is home. I walk over there, bursting through the door. 'I shot a woodchuck!'

He replies, 'Only one? You should have shot two.'

Later we go and look at the thing as it lays curled up, dead. I buried it.

So as far as I know, my garden is safe from at least one woodchuck and I have a great vantage point to crack any others if they start attacking my lettuce.