when do ground hogs reproduce?

[french]

i was woundering what time of the year groundhogs reproduce.

[coopershooter]

i,m sure they mate soon after waking up from hibernation. but i dont know if they mate again or just once a year.

[VSSF]

I've heard thats were Groundhog day started,thats when the males start comeing up to dig up the females and breed them.Should have em now ussually safe to start hunting them around memorial day.Don't wanna kill next years targets.

[Catfish]

They breed in Feb. and the youn will start comming out in May. I shot my first one of this year on March 17th. There are several starting to come out here in Ohio, but the weather hasn`t been the best lastly. AND I live on a farm and we never worry about next years targets, we just shoot all we can, and if we get a female early we just figure we got 5 with 1 shot.

[farmuse]

Catfish said,

and if we get a female early we just figure we got 5 with 1 shot.

That sure is better than "one shot, one kill".  

I guess that outlines the difference between those that shot groundhogs on someone elses land and those that do it one there own.  If its your fields, livestock and equipment that are getting damaged by the little mining crews, you tend to worry less about if there will be more next year.

[hummer]

Each pair produce about 4-5 youngins..so really you don't have to worry about shortages.   They will migrate to other field if theirs is crowded.  You may get spill over from your neighbors fields.  
I have no worry that there will be any shortages.  The fields I have hunted always seems to be topped up every year.   There even seems to be more coyotes this year than last.  That is a bonus.
Good hunting!

[ratgunner]

Jan and Feb. round here,counted three in the feilds yesterday 3-26-05.time to get out the .223 :grin: