Author Topic: Groundhog Hunting (Read 1497 times)

GeneRector · « **on:** January 16, 2013, 01:10:35 PM »

Howdy! I've been watching a few videos on You Tube on groundhog shooting. Seems like it would be fun. I can sure see the need to eliminate as many as you can on ranch and farm land. I live in Texas and we don't have groundhogs that I know of. Has anyone ever tried to sell the pelts, etc.? Or, are they just shot and left for the buzzards and coyotes? Your views appreciated as always! Gene

Savage_99 · « **Reply #1 on:** January 16, 2013, 04:09:09 PM »

Gene,

I miss woodchuck hunting. We used to have chucks here in New England before the coyotes came here a few years ago. Now there are no chucks in the meadows where the great shooting was.

A few hide out under some shed where the coyotes don't go.

Books were written about woodchuck hunting by Landis, Whelan etc.

Now I just look at my chuck rifles and think at least I got to hunt them when they were here. Now I have the time and means but no chucks.

Here is a picture of my favorite all time chuck rifle. It's a Winchester High Wall chambered in .219 Improved Zipper. I still use my first chuck rifle that I bought new in 1957. A M70 243 that now has a Swift barrel on it.

GeneRector · « **Reply #2 on:** January 16, 2013, 04:45:15 PM »

Howdy! That's one great picture! I bet you have a lot of great memories about woodchuck hunts! Here in Texas we have gophers and armadillos. Gophers don't come to the surface very often, so most people just trap or poison them. Some like armadillos and some don't. Lots of them end up dead on the highways. I thought New England would be great groundhog country, but I guess they are more common in the MidWestern states. Always, Gene

Savage_99 · « **Reply #3 on:** January 16, 2013, 05:00:33 PM »

The woodchuck is native to much of the Northeast I believe. They have or had them in Ohio, Penna. etc.

We need to hear if they are still there.

In the 60's my best day was 22 woodchucks, a fox and a crow in VT one day!

Now just the crows are left and there is a season on them now.

bobg · « **Reply #4 on:** January 17, 2013, 05:55:16 AM »

Here in my little cornor of NY most of the hay fields are now corn. Couple real good places we had are grown up to brush now. Still a lot of chucks around just harder to hunt them. There is a big field about a mile from me but the owner won't let anyone hunt it. Don''t see many coyotes around but it is over run with fox. I have watched fox stalk chucks.

BUGEYE · « **Reply #5 on:** January 17, 2013, 06:19:59 AM »

Groundhogs were my favorite hunting (other than rabbits) in Ill. when I killed a young one, he went in the skillet just like a rabbit. rabbit/groundhog and sage gravy and cathead biscuits.

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #6 on:** January 17, 2013, 06:46:00 AM »

Here in Va. the groundhog is alive and well . Most of the time we try to leave seed if you know what I mean. The sking is not much to look at and I have never heard od selling the pelt. The meat on the other hand sometimes gets used and some will even get a few dollars for one.I have a cook book that has a picture of one roasted laying on its back with it's belly full of yellow corn. Looks tastey

. Around here a 22-250 is the first choice for a GH gun but alot of guys use their deer rifle for pratice. And yes other guns are used also some favor the 243 or 6mm.
Our season is all year long , no Sunday hunting

52bagman · « **Reply #7 on:** January 17, 2013, 07:08:45 AM »

Here's is a trick I came up with when we had ground hogs around here. When the hay is high, keep an eye out for the farmers cutting it down. Be there as soon as it's cut and in an hour or so they will emerge and be dumbfounded. It's like you dropped a nuke on the place and they can't figure it out. Most times they don't even pay any attention to you being there. Makes for some good shooting.

hillbill · « **Reply #8 on:** January 17, 2013, 01:53:12 PM »

when i was a kid i hunted groundhogs with a dog.i killed hundreds of them from the time i was 10 till about 18. my dog was a half collie half aussie mutt that would hunt anything but skunks or deer. my dog and i would roam the hayfields, pastures, abandoned farms, anything within 5 miles was walking distance for us.we would leave the house in the morning with me carrying either my mod 39 marlin that i had saved up to buy or my sears blackpowder 45 kentucky kit i had built. the kentucky was crude but one of the most accurate rifles ive ever shot.

my dog would range out ahead of me anywhere from 100 yrds to a quarter mile, when he found a groundhog he would bay it and kill it or run it up a tree for me to shoot.he once ran one up a telephone pole, they feared him that much.this dog was so fast ive seen him snatch squirrels off a tree and kill them.whats really funny is when he got old and tired he would bay a big groundhog and then look back at me like "hey boss help me out"! i would stun the hog with a stik and he would finish him off. he lived to be about 16.i miss that dog way more than both of my ex wives.

hillbill · « **Reply #9 on:** January 17, 2013, 02:10:35 PM »

we never ate them. well my dog did. and the hides were werthless. they can make good rawhide bootlaces if yu want to go to the trouble. my dad was proud of me for for gettin them out of the alfalfa and the sheds. thats all i needed.

Wyo. Coyote Hunter · « **Reply #10 on:** January 17, 2013, 02:17:42 PM »

$:-\$ When I was still working, I spent the summers shooting varmits in various places..several summers were spent shooting woodchucks..It was some of the finest days of my life..but now many of the farms I used to hunt are not being farmed, and the influx of coyotes has taken its toll I am sure..Now I mostly hunt coyotes in the west, but chuck shooting is still one of my favorite pastimes..

Hellgate · « **Reply #11 on:** January 17, 2013, 06:19:53 PM »

I'm still curious if the coyotes have cleaned out the groundhogs enough to make them not worth hunting in the states where they are common. Out west we have rockchucks that are in pretty open country and have managed to live in the presence of 'yotes for eternity. I also suspect the coyotes have wiped out a lot of the opossums back east & the south. Poor dumb things; the only grace is the possums die in their sleep. But that is another thread.

AtlLaw · « **Reply #12 on:** January 18, 2013, 05:48:04 AM »

Quote from: Savage_99 on January 16, 2013, 05:00:33 PM

They have or had them in Ohio, Penna. etc. ... We need to hear if they are still there.

My wife and I used to drive up to PA, near the Ohio border, twice a year to visit her mother. We always saw a bunch of chucks when we drove around the farmland.

In the last few years chucks have moved down into the north metro Atlanta area. Like coyotes, there weren't any around here 20 years ago. My wife saw one when we were driving along one day near our home. It was climbing in the low branches of a bush. She looked at me in astonishment and said "I just saw a beaver in a tree!"

SHOOTALL · « **Reply #13 on:** January 18, 2013, 07:51:23 AM »

I shot one out of a tree while dove hunting . My lab retrived it

Old Syko · « **Reply #14 on:** January 18, 2013, 09:43:43 AM »

When I was in school my hunting buddy's family owned most of the southern part of the county and what they didn't own we had permission to hunt. 20 or more a day after school was the norm back then and all we used was 22s until we got into high school and were able to move up to longer range stuff. Nowadays if you could find one every 20 days you''d be lucky. This is in southern Indiana. Young ones were good to eat but an old boar couldn't be cooked long enough to become edible. Hides are useless for anything other than bait for predators. The combination of fox, coyotes, and the farmers using poisons and strong fertilizers have all but eliminated the whistle pig population.

zookiezoom · « **Reply #15 on:** January 18, 2013, 03:11:13 PM »

When dad first started taking us groundhog hunting we would walk the railroad and shoot them out of the kudzu. Most of the time we would sit and wait for one to come out of it's hole for what seemed like forever. There wasn't as many then because there were a lot of folks around here that ate them. Now it seems like they are everywhere. I use my .22 hornet Handi rifle on them. My oldest son used to take a lot of them with his compound bow.

grizzlyadams1874 · « **Reply #16 on:** January 25, 2013, 10:04:46 AM »

we still have a lot of them here in western ny, and they are my favorite hunting.

Savage .250 · « **Reply #17 on:** January 25, 2013, 10:54:13 AM »

Had many a great day shooting groundhogs. Me and my Remington 22. As a kid growing up at a time when you ride your bike and carry your 22 rifle was .......way cool.
Farmers would let you shot those buggers, no problem. Seems like you were always welcome to hunt. Looking back on it now is a memory I`ll never forget.

Ladobe · « **Reply #18 on:** February 01, 2013, 11:18:06 AM »

I've hunted varmints and predators everywhere I've lived or traveled to since a small child with most firearm types, long bows and running trap lines. Included ADC for landowners for around 50 years no fee charged. Some for sport, some for pelt/meat, most to help out LO's with crop/livestock loss and to negate poisoning costs that can kill beneficial species. Easily the most enjoyed of all the hunting I did for almost any species I ever hunted, and the one that cost me a fortune in the never ending hoards of firearms and gear for it. Can't do it anymore, so it is missed and always will be whereas as the big game, upland, waterfowl, etc were left behind in turn many years ago and not missed. If you like to shoot and shoot a lot, especially long range, you'll most likely enjoy it.

Bigeasy · « **Reply #19 on:** February 01, 2013, 12:39:52 PM »

A lot of good chuck hunting here in central PA. A lot of the Amish farms, who generally wont let you deer hunt will let you take chucks if you ask nice. I used to use a Remington 700 heavy barrel 22/250, but now It's usually a CZ .204 Ruger - just as accurate, and a lot lighter to carry around. Best time to hunt has been after a fresh hay cut, or before the crops grow to tall to see well. Most guys either dispose of the bodies, or drop them back down their hole. When I was younger, I cooked and ate a couple younger chucks, and they were actually not bad, which makes sense, considering their diet, but hot centerfires do a job on them, so something like a .22 lr might be a better choice for taking table fare.

Larry