Groundhog Hunting Tips???

[luieb45]

I've hunted this property for groundhogs twice now and have yet to see one, but I've seen a den or two. It's got narrow draws around fields with waterways in the fields that have tall grass. What would be a good way to hunt this? I just have problems seeing them because they might be there without me seeing them. Any help will be appreciated :thumbsup:.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Two ways. Either move slowly and try to spot them first, or sit still and glass and try to pick them off from a distance.

Woodchuck aren't supposed to have very good eyesight - but they will bust an upright human a long ways off. Out of m/l range certainly in most conditions. Use whatever cover you can and keep low. Crawl if necessary.

My favorite system was to find a hump with woods beside a field and get in low from the woods and find a comfy spot behind a tree to watch the field. Places tractors can't get because or terrain are great "hides". Dress in earthtomes or camo.

I haven't been seeing anywhere near the chucks I used to hereabouts.

 

[longshot47]

Try going out in the late afternoon when a light rain is falling, or right after the rain stops. Situate yourself in a high spot and shoot an adequate caliber, from a rest.

 

[buttonbuck]

They have a tough hide When you say adequate caliber do you mean that a 32 cal ball with 20-25 is not enough? The Foxfire 1st book on hunting talks about using their hides as shoe leather. How does "ground hog" taste like sausage? :rotf:

 

[paulvallandigham]

Ground hog makes an excellent sausage. The meat tastes very much like pork, assuming that you dress the animals, and get them cooled down after the kill. Anything can taste bad if you don't take care of it properly and let it spoil.

The Reason that the animal gets its common names of "Ground HOG" and Woodchuck", ( and its Western Cousin, the " Whistle PIG[marmot]) is because of the sweat tasting meat that is similar to pork, both in color and taste.

To make Sausage, bone out the meat, and trim away any fat or gristle. Some prefer to leave the fat there. There isn't always enough fat in these- young ones taken in May and June can have the most body fat-- to help bind the meat together, so you may have to add some pork suet you can buy from your butcher. Run the meat through a grinder- twice, to make sure its cut up properly.

I have a sausage recipe on the forum- towards the bottom of the index page-- that lets you make sausage without a sausage press, or fetal pig intestines to hold the meat. Season to preferred taste, and follow the directions in the recipe. The meat is "cooked by the salt and the liquid smoke, BTW. Its formed by baking it in a oven under low heat. Once formed, you can cut the sausage into slices to serve as paddies, heated in a skillet, or serve them cold on a sandwich.

 

[Outdoor Success]

I've made some great woodchuck chili !!! Very good! I like getting along dens and whistling just as high and load as I can. Many time the chucks will sit up to look and then barrel for the den. If you pay attention can offer up some great quick shooting.

 

[silent sniper]

I have had very good success on groundhogs using a few different methods. the one i do most is spot and stalk. the difficulty will be the terrain of the country and how much hunting pressure the groundhogs have. it is easiest with terrain that has woods or rolling hills that you can use in your advantage to sneek up close to them. it might sound crazy but I even make sure to stay downwind as much as possible. if the groundhogs are very spooky then they will flee from smelling you. if you do walk up on a groundhog and it runs in the hole, find a good place to sit about 25 yards away from the hole. many times after 5-10 mins they will peek out the hole to see if you are still there. my second way of getting them, when they are to hard to get close to, is the use of a dedicated long range gun. i use my jukar 45 cal longrifle that is sighted in dead on at 100 yards with 50 grains FFF.so far i have dropped groundhogs out to 82 yards with this rig. either of these methods should be able to get you some land beavers. after you get them skin them out and cook the meat. it is very good. also get yourself a tanning kit and tan the skins. they make good leather or very cool looking wall hangers if left with the hair on. either way they are sure to provide you with hours of enjoyment as they do with me. and if the rifle gets to easy try using a c&b revolver or single shot pistol on them. it brings it to a whole new level of challange. cheers SS

 

[bdhutier]

The Reason... is because of the sweat tasting meat that is similar to pork, both in color and taste.

Yuck... SWEAT tasting meat! :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:

 

[paulvallandigham]

Oops! "Sweat" tastes salty and bitter. You caught a typo. Congrats. :hatsoff: I meant that to read " Sweet-tasting" meat, of course. Spell-check didn't know the difference, to be sure.

Groundhogs, particularly in May and June, are still eating the new tips off new growth plants. Those light green tips have a lot of sugar, and that is high carbohydrate, which the digestive system used to create fat, which it stores, replenishing supplies of fat that kept the groundhog alive during long winters. Its the fat in the meat that carries that sweet flavor, and makes the meat taste much like good pork.

The meat is worth eating, and the hide is worth keeping. It makes great leather and an interesting hunting bag, when you leave the fur on.

 

[luieb45]

Hmmmm, I may just cook one up if I get one. And maybe I'll keep the hide, too. I don't know if I'll be able to use my muzzleloader if I intend on eating the meat and keeping the hide because I'm not going to try for a headshot if I have to shoot past 25 yards. That .50 roundball even though I load lightly will tear stuff up.

 

[Dave K]

I have used both my 36 and 40cal. guns and it is great fun. I am a sit and wait kind of g-hog hunter. I know where some are and just plain take a comfortable position and wait. With the muzzleloaders I will choose a position to conceal me and have some sort of rest to use. Rarely do I want to be closer than 50yds. I head shoot them and both cal. guns leave such a nice surgical ball dia. hole through their heads that I think of many times getting a g-hog mounted. In my area, with the wet spring this year, the soy beans can be a g-hog magnet. Look for semi-circles of chewed off beans near the edges of the soy bean fields. You know that they probably have a hole very near by and are coming out there to feed. So set up and enjoy the weather and wait. Good year for G-hogs here as with this wet year, the beans were late in getting planted and the young or now weaned. I always want to wait until the weaning is done. Just me I guess.

 

[Don]

I am only familiar with the ones in my back yard but I can confirm that they like to nibble clover just after a rain shower. Managed to get a young one with an air rifle a few years back. Skinned him up,careful to get all the fat off, salty water over night then into the pressure cooker. I found the meat to be very much like squirrel though milder and absent the gamey taste of squirrel.

Don

 

[trent/OH]

One of my most memorable groundhogs was one I saw from about 200 yards away, and the soybeans were only about 6" high. I cut a big tall, brushy weed about 4 feet high. I held it right in front of me, and slowly walked directly toward my victim. When I got within range, I took a kneeling position, aimed through the weed, and rolled him.

 

[redwing]

Anyone who has ever tried eating a Rock Chuck that lives at 10,000" and eats Juniper and is sweet meat has a taste problem. The meat is terrible only starving lions eat parts of these things. :barf:

 

[trent/OH]

Not to highjack a thread, but how does High altitude affect meat "on the hoof"? I understand how cooking at high altitude is different, but living at altitude too?

 

[Deadeye]

It's what they eat that makes the different taste
but the Utah rockchucks from 10,000" taste great.
Never eaten one that was sweet or tasted anything like pork but have eaten them that feed on alfalfa
and when you skinned them they smelled like alfalfa and had an alfalfa taste when eaten, not bad but you could definately tell what they'd been eating. The young ones you can fry, the old ones you bake or boil.I use the spot and stalk with PRB in my smoothbore.
DEadeye

 

[paulvallandigham]

Soak those odd-tasting ground hogs in salt water, or water with vinegar to remove much of the blood, and with it, much of the strange taste and odor. Then soak the meat in milk- buttermilk will remove the last of the strong aromas, and tenderize the meat from the old ones-- before baking or frying.

Cut away any bone, gristle, and tendons from the meat, as they contain enzymes that make the meat tough, and sour the meat in storage-even freezing.

This will leave you with edible meat- with the fat in the muscle that will flavor it, and make it tender, just like in good prime beef.

Good Eats await you. :v

 

[Mad Professor]

I used to stalk them with .44 mag M29 SW pistol, and have with various BP rifles: TC 54 and 50, Lyman 58. Great practice for deer.

Be sneaky, you can get 50-30 yds for an easy shot . Stalking then hitting them at 75-100 yds makes deer easy. I use the same loads for deer so practice makes perfect.

It would help if we knew what kind of terrain. A long shot here is 200 yds. Most fields are not too much bigger.

 

[jsn]

What you can do is watch the entry/exit hole and see whitch way they peek up and outta it then come back the next day and sit about 10yrds behind it out of its line of sight, they always look the same way when they leave their den.