Groundhowgs have 10 lives

[Bibbyman]

They moved in a couple of years ago and have now infested all our outbuildings and been so cheeky as to come around on our front porch and look in at us while we're setting in our living room.

I've been waging war on them the past several weeks. I set out under the shade tree and wait for them to come out.  I've gotten several.  However, this evening I was humiliated.   Saw 5 and shot at 4 and got none!   

I'm going to have to rethink my "assault weapon".  I'm using a Mossberg 500 12 gauge with 00 buck loads. I have an improved cylinder tube installed.  I finally figured out that the gun shoots ridiculously high and I have to put the middle bead higher than the front bead and then aim under.   I think too,  the pattern is too big at some of the distances I'm shooting. 

Of all the guns I have, the only one with a scope is my 45-70 Marlin.  Overkill but I may have to resort to using a buffalo gun. 

[Jeff]

I would think a .22 lr would be perfect.

[JV]

We have a mama with four little ones coming close to our back patio.  If I even stand in front of the door they run.  I going to sneak around the house and pick them off.  I'd like to use my .243 but my sister's house is in the line of fire.  But, I have my double 12 with No. 2s and they work great, not even a tail wiggle.

[Ljohnsaw]

Could cats take them out?  I have a dog that likes to hunt anything and leaves the harvest by my back door.  Rats, mice, voles, gofers, lizards and snakes.

Last night I was coming back up from my shop under my house.  There is a long narrow deck between my back door (kitchen) and my bedroom.  At the corner by my bedroom is a double spot light that lights up the concrete step up to the kitchen.  Just as I came around I see something big fly down and land next to the door of my bedroom.  The non-hunter dog saw it and ran up after it.  She pounced but it hopped up and I saw it was an owl.  I yelled at her to "leave it" and she paused just long enough that it took off flying along the deck towards the kitchen and then up.

The best thing was it was totally silent flight.  Couldn't hear a wing flap at all!

[Bibbyman]

 

 

Our dowg Puddenhead use to catch and kill them on a regular enough basis to keep the population in check.  She's been gone for a couple of years.

[DelawhereJoe]

I can see if my brother will loan you his husky, groundhogs are his favorite food. I think he is up to 10 or 12 already this year, and thats on a 75' dog run.

[thecfarm]

I had a dog that would hunt them. We keep the fields mowed so they can not live in the tall grass. A wood chunk mound is a great thing to run a sickle mower into.  : The wood chunks live in the stone walls. Dew would bark and bark and I would come with a gun and start to move rocks.First time he did that I did not think he had the courage to kill one. He would flip them upside down and bite the neck. Only took a few seconds. I have no idea where he learned that. The first one he did that to kinda wrapped its body around him. I had a gun,but no way to shot. I thought the wood chunk was going to bite him, than all went limp and PaPa was all smiles. My Father would of loved Dew.
The wife's dog will find them,she found 2 all ready. But she won't really hunt them. She has no couage to do it alone. If I am down there,she will follow me and do some hunting. Dew would go off on his own and hunt for them. He was a good boy.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Have you tried live trapping them? I'd think that would work. Good luck.

[Gearbox]

I don't like to use a 22 on them . They wound and then end up under a floor or like me under a low deck dead . Had to remove deck boards to get it out . 220 swift is what I use now .

[Mooseherder]

We have one hanging around.  I've seen it 3 days in a row.  It ain't scared at all.  I've only seen 1 dugout so far.

[thecfarm]

Them things are pretty smart. They are not to afraid at first. Shoot at them a few times and miss,than when they see ya,they take off running. We had one at the bottom of the field,I would guess 400 feet. We took a few shots at it with a 22. Kinda far,and the field was real wet,we could see the water fly up in front of the wood chunk. Did that 3-4 times and when we opened the front door and stepped out,it would go back into the stone wall. Had the stepson come up with his rifle. The grandson was about 2 years old. He went out the back door and walked around the front of the house,wood chunk took off. He tried to get out of the house again and the same results. Than he came up a few weeks later and tried again. I was doing something and was not paying attention to what he was doing. All at once BANG. Grandson starts to cry. He opened the front door and shot from inside the house!!!!! MaMa was not happy,but I was,he got it.  :D

[coxy]

I never new they are a #1 rabies carrier so I shoot every one I see

[Crusarius]

Had that same problem around here. first thing that was done was cover all the holes then drop a smoke bomb into one hole. That did a good job of taking out most of them. Then the 4 legged death machine showed up. She hates woodchucks. They don't stand a chance.

[trapper]

This year 4 stuck their head in a conibear in my pole barn.  I also shot one with the 22.  They were digging under the woodpile.  Two little ones got caught in the same same trap at the same time. I gave them to a friend to feed his hawk.  He does falconry. 

[Bibbyman]

I switched hardware last evening and got out my Marlin 1894 in 25-20.  The old gun is a tack driver.  I set out for an hour and a half and saw no groundhogs.  Somehow they knew not to show their ugly faces.

[coxy]

I have a 25-20 also nice little gun

[sandhills]

A few weeks ago I happened to look out the shop window one morning and saw one crossing the yard, grabbed the 22 and went running out the door.  Wouldn't you know it my bil was just pulling in, needless to say he stopped and backed out rather quickly  :D, he never saw it.  Dad has them terrible at his place, he uses live catch traps, I use the rifle, we've put a good dent in the population but used to have a dog that hated them more, she did a better job.

[Bibbyman]

http://youtu.be/xCEt_8C9xnM

I picked up my trail cam cards a bit ago.  This one is set across from the sawmill pointing north up the drive.   

[Bibbyman]

 

 

This groundhowg ran out of luck when it was ambushed by 67 year old man with 117 year old Marlin 1894 in 25-20.

[WV Sawmiller]

    'Fess up Bibby! We know you didn't make that shot. Was probably Mary who shot him.

    Now are you going to eat him or not? Been a while but we have cooked them in the past when son would shoot one. Seems like they tasted about like squirrel or coon.

    I went to some Indian village once and they said the groundhog hide was real tough and they used it to make drum heads. I guess now you gonna tell us your drum head is fine.

[Grizzly]

Man and gun make up 184 years of experience. Chuck had no chance!!   ;D

[Bibbyman]

I really did shoot it.  I've learned that if I just leave them there they fall,  they will dissappear in no time. 

The first one I shot, I got busy helping the farmers store their hay and didn't get around to hauling off the caucus.   I went back to take care of it a couple of hours later and it was gone.  The farmers putting up hay said a flock of buzzards were working on something where it had fallen (they didn't know I'd killed a groundhog).  I later found a clean skull.  All that was left.

[TimRB]

Find a 13 year old boy with a .22, offer him five bucks per groundhog, and stand back.

Tim

[sandhills]

And maybe duck a bit too 

[Bibbyman]

And maybe duck a bit too 

I don't think so.  Too many buildings with trucks and equipment to trust to a trigger happy kid.

[WV Sawmiller]

Bibby,

   Around here buzzards know to hang out around hay fields during haying. They get lots of fawns and snakes and such killed by the tractors and equipment.

[gspren]

  When I shoot or trap a groundhog near my buildings I take them out in the open in one of the pastures and the buzzards find them fast.

[sandhills]

I hate seeing them (buzzards) around our calving yards, always tells me I missed something in the trees but so far they haven't circled over me, yet.  :

[Bibbyman]

Another one bites the dust!  I'm thinning them out or they are getting really cautious.  I've only got a glimpse of one in the past 4-5 days.   This evening I had set and watched for an hour then stood to go back to the house.  I caught sight of one crossing from one side of the drive to the other.   For some fatal reason, it stopped and turned to look back.  It gave me a good broadside shot. 

[ToddsPoint]

Ground hog skins make great boot laces.  Really tough.  Gary

[Bibbyman]

 

 

I got another groundhowg last evening and laid it out in front of one of my trail cams.  This hawk came to check it out but I didn't get any pictures of it working on the groundhowg.  In the night, coons fell on the caucus and consumed it totally from what I can tell.

[Savannahdan]

Nice picture.  Reminds me of the time many years ago when I lived in Louisville, KY, and my neighbor came over to my place and told me we needed to shoot a groundhog in another neighbors field. It had been digging wholes in the side of our ponds.  I told him my rifle wasn't scoped in and that any shot I took would only count if I got it between the eyes.  I loaded the rifle (30-06) with one round and lowered it on the groundhog until I felt it time to shoot.  I fired and the groundhog disappeared.  Jack said lets go check it out.  We went down into the field and found the big groundhog with a bullet just "above" between the eyes.  There was a small hole in front and the whole back of her head was gone.  I told Jack that I would have made a more accurate shot if the rifle had been scoped in. 

[DR Buck]

I've used 22 lr but found poison smoke bombs shoved down the holes works too.    I use these :

https://www.amazon.com/Revenge-Rodent-8-pack-Gophers-Woodchucks/dp/B015BSQ7Q6

[thecfarm]

Yes,those smoke bombs work good. I sell them at work and use to buy them there before I worked there. I like use a small stick or limb or a sticker and tie the smoke bomb onto to it. This keeps my hands away from the heat of the fuse and gives me more time to put the bomb where it needs to go. I try to find the exit hole too. Throw the dirt into one hole,smoke bomb in the other. If they dig it out,means it was not in there,try it again. It's best to see it go into the hole,but the way it was when we was mowing the field for hay,grass is 3 feet tall,hard to see when it goes into the hole.
Now that we mow the few every 2 weeks,the woodchucks live in the stone walls.

[GAB]

Many years ago, the owner of a Saab that you had to mix the oil with the gas used his car for woodchuck eradication on his new to him farm.  He put an extra measure of oil in the gas, attached a hose to the exhaust, and went from hole to hole putting the car exhaust to the holes as he piled dirt around the hose then revved the engine a few times then off to the next one.  He thinned them out quite nicely.
Gerald

[Mooseherder]

My groundhog hanging out by the burn pile tonight.  He was eating greenery and weeds.  Not gonna whack him yet.  He's gotta worry about other predators for now.

[coxy]

your just trying to fatten up for a better taste just don't forget to cut the little white glands out from under the front leg arm pits or it will taste horrible  trust me  :D   

[sprucebunny]

The other day I went to a town a few miles away to get t-shirts at a department store that's 'downtown'.
The cement sidewalk met the buildings foundation and as I'm walking towards the door, there is a baby woodchuck hurrying along ahead of me !

I explained to it that it had made a bad choice and it had better turn around and go back to the lawn next door. But it wouldn't turn around. I'd shuffle my feet towards it and it would back up five feet and I'd shuffle some more and it would back up some more. There was cars going by in the street and one woman asked what the creature was.... After about 60 feet of shuffling and backing up 'junior' was back around the corner of the building and that was the best I could do for him.

I don't want them in my garden but don't want to see them mashed in the road in the middle of town !

[upnut]

My favorite woodchuck gun for short range, a scoped Marlin Model 200, a .410 shotgun shooting Remington Sluggers. They don't crawl away!



Scott B.

[coxy]

looks like some good eating if you didn't make chuck burger out of it  :D

[Mooseherder]

My ground hog now has a name.  GH hangs out in the morning and evening.  I think his home is under the greenery by the stump he is on.


  

  

 

[Peter Drouin]

I have some too ,they don't bother none. ;)

[Grizzly]

I wondered if they was the same as woodchucks and when I asked google it found Wikipedia and it said they were the same. So I guess we have them up here too. I don't think we've ever seen one in the yard but the dogs have found a couple out in the field. They didn't last long. Mostly our problem has been muskrats and they can be a tough one to put down.

[DelawhereJoe]

I've also heard them called "whistle pigs" but that was from some very old timers.

[Texas Ranger]

Trust me on this, do not grill them.

[Grizzly]

I'll trust ya alright. But I'm curious.
Porcupine are supposed to be a good meat and their diet is primarily bark and such. Not really grain or grass eaters. Squirrels are mostly grain/seed eaters and are also supposed to be good meat. So what decides if an animal is good eating? Can't be directly related to diet? Our deer are mostly grass and grain eaters and are good, but in BC where I grew up deer were predominantly twig and tree eaters and I really didn't like them. I'm just curious I guess. So what's the main diet of a whistle pig/woodchuck/groundhog?

[Mooseherder]

This guy is eating weed leaves and grass.
He loads up every morning and evening.

[Texas Ranger]

Back in the day a bunch of foresters had a bar b que for a bunch of folks.  Mostly wild game and fish.  Ground hog was one of them.  It was tough, stringy and the only taste was the sauce.  Most folks just tasted it and passed.

[coxy]

I have ate lots of them after my gma told me how to prepare them you have to cut the little white gland out from between the front leg and rib cage they are much more tender if they are parboiled and then browned or cooked on a grill real slooow

[thecfarm]

Peter,my dislike of them wood chunks comes from the haying day. Run into a mound of dirt that the wood chunk has dug out of it's hole with a sickle bar mower and you would not like them either.  ;D  Gives ya something to do. Take the knife out and sharpen it. Oh well,time to be greased anyways.  ;D
The critters can do a number on a garden too. Need more raised beds like you have.
And by the way,you have A LOT more than some too. I kill 3-4 each year. Kinda like grey squirrels or chipmunks. There is a never ending supply.

[Peter Drouin]

Peter,my dislike of them wood chunks comes from the haying day. Run into a mound of dirt that the wood chunk has dug out of it's hole with a sickle bar mower and you would not like them either.  ;D  Gives ya something to do. Take the knife out and sharpen it. Oh well,time to be greased anyways.  ;D
The critters can do a number on a garden too. Need more raised beds like you have.
And by the way,you have A LOT more than some too. I kill 3-4 each year. Kinda like grey squirrels or chipmunks. There is a never ending supply.

I know what you mean on the haying. Dad would send me out with a spade and fill in the holes just before we cut. After that, with no hay they would be easy picking, 22/250    :D :D :D

[sandhills]

The ones around here seem to enjoy digging all their holes under any building foundation they can find  :(.  The hay fields are pretty well left to the badgers digging for the gophers.