Strategies, tactics, techniques for getting Groundhogs?

I have same problem with the hogs.Like you said, have a rifle handy all the time.

Do groundhogs whistle? We don't have groundhogs around here. We have their cousins - rockchucks (yellow bellied marmots). When we used to hunt rockchucks, I could often get them to pop there heads up out of their holes by emitting a short, high-pitched whistle.
It works for ground squirrels too. As I mentioned in another thread, we've been shooting a lot of ground squirrels in the last few weeks.

Yep, they whistle. Ive killed many that way. I see them run into a hole and then give a short loud whistle. Then be ready for a shot

Carl’s your man.

My dad in MI has spent a lifetime trying to rid the world of woodchucks by the see shoot method.

Recently, he says he stumbled upon a great way to get woodchucks while watching TV in his chair at the house.

He saw a connibear trap at the farm store in town and realized he had been doing this thing wrong for years. He bought 4 traps and had 7 chucks in a week just by setting them up just outside their holes. He rigged up something to hold the trap in place but that shouldn’t be too hard for you from the posts I’ve seen of your contraptions.

So the question becomes, do you want to get rid of chucks quick and easy or do you want to eradicate them a little slower but have a little more fun by hunting and shooting them?

Smoke bombs down their holes work great for flushing them out and then shooting them with your weapon of choice as they run off.

When I was young I worked on a golf course. We couldn't shoot them. My dog Sarge would take out any he could find. We used smoke bombs to eradicate them. One down the hole. Fill it in. And then fill in any holes with smoke coming out of them. Seemed to work. I guess trapping also works as mentioned above. Hard to leave a trap out sometimes depending on where it is. We have one in the yard that is eating my wife flowers. Daughter is upset that I want him gone. Wife wants her flowers. He will get his just reward, just wait for my daughter to head back to school. Rifle at the ready.

We sit and wait for them to come out to feed. Generally early morning and a few hours before dark are the best times. They often dont stray far from a hole either. If around buildings and such I would get a good 22lr and a good, fast round for it and aim for the head. I hit one with a CCI standard from 45yards away in the body and he made it to his hole. Stunk for weeks.

I vote connibear trap. Just be sure a dog can't get to it.
5 gallons of water mixed with one of gas and a match have been known to work well.

Back in the 80's & 90's I helped a friend out who had a serious woodchuck problem. Small open meadows rarely more than 100 yds. across surrounded by woods. Rarely used anything bigger than a 22 Hornet, or most times a 22LR out to about 50 yds. worked well but had to be a head shot. Axis II already mentioned that body shots with a 22LR won't stop them right there and they will often make it down their hole and die a slow death. We discovered that also, so head shots and about a 50 yd. max.range with 22LR became our rule just to be ethical. They really do love digging next to foundations and I'm not sure why unless it's easier for them to dig along the side of one.

I've seen conibear put to good use in low traffic areas by just laying them over the hole more or less. You want to check them fairly often because it doesn't always kill a big ground hog right away. I was working summer maintenance at a county fairground and my boss was setting them around dirt piles, and along buildings that don't get used outside of the fair, basically places that shouldn't have people or dogs etc. around while the traps were set. If you buy some traps and aren't familiar with them make sure you buy or make a set of tongs to set them, trying to do it by hand is down right scary.

At the horse farm I use live traps to catch raccoon and skunks that cause problems and I have inadvertently caught a couple ground hogs in traps I set near sheds. Surprisingly they seem to have a taste for chunky peanut butter on wheat bread, never would have guessed that one. I was trying to use bait that would interest the skunks and coons but not interest the barn cats and did not expect to end up with 25 lbs ground hogs, but its happened twice now.

We don’t have groundhogs but moles are a problem, in our hay meadows. The mounds they make and the rocks they put in them almost instantaneously ruin the blades of the cutters.

I had a left over 3 point attachment from another miniX project that served as a good base for this contraption.



The hopper contains maize that is poisoned. The stainless steel shaft has a thimble sized blind hole drilled into it so it picks up 6-8 pieces per turn.



When it rotates 180 degrees, they fall down the 3/4” box tube into the round hole formed by the barstock on the bottom.



The rear wheel, sprocket and chain makes it so they are placed around 3 ft apart as you drive across the field, in the locations activity is present.



The 3/4” bolt allows a precise depth to be set so it doesn’t require much skill to be effective,



No idea if something like this would work for groundhogs but it doesn’t get much easier for other subterranean critters.

If a meadow is badly infested, it can take awhile to put it out, about 1/4-1/3 the time it takes to mow it once but once you have things under control “touch ups” don’t take long at all.

Rembrandt said:

Looks like I'll need to pick up some connibear traps. Usually keep a .22 around for vermin, but the distances I've been seeing them make that a bit of a stretch for a rim fire. Will be taking my precision prairie dog rifle next time....will surgically remove warts at 300 yards.

Curious about the whistle technique......what kind whistle do you use? Would an electronic distress call work?

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Just an ordinary mouth whistle

I live in a small NY City can't shoot live rounds. I do use a pellet rifle to good effect mostly spot and shoot. I have done spot and stalk though, out the front door and around the rear of house, or across the street using cars and dumpsters for cover. Most of the time I shoot from my second floor bedroom window at a steep angle. I can hear the impact and see the Chuck topple, occasionally they don't die right away and rot in their holes.

I've even baited to with bird seed with a high nut content. They come to eat the seed and pay more attention to eating than saftey.

I've seen folks use green apples soaked in fresh antifreeze, tossed down the opening to their burrow and then the burrow is sealed.
The problem is other wildlife will also eat the poisoned fruit, and you don't have control over what finds the stuff in some cases....

I prefer the "stakeout" method where one sits within range and sight of the hole, and then a whistle and a a good red-dot on a .22 Magnum rifle. Now I might put out some apples near the hole (not poisoned) to encourage them to venture to the surface.

IF you have the ca$h... you could always get hold of a Rodenator!



LD

Bfh_auto said:

I vote connibear trap. Just be sure a dog can't get to it.
5 gallons of water mixed with one of gas and a match have been known to work well.

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Be real careful with this.^
We had a new priest locally that moved into the parsonage house. Resident groundhog was eating his garden. Immigrant priest was unfamiliar with said pest and sought advice. A parishioner recommended gasoline and a match but didn't give him many details regarding quantity etc.
He poured the gas down the hole and tossed the match. There was a secondary hole under the garage. Garage was blown off its footings.
I prefer shooting them when the opportunity presents. I keep the grass short around the buildings and apple orchard so I can see them better.

Kingcreek said:

Be real careful with this.^
We had a new priest locally that moved into the parsonage house. Resident groundhog was eating his garden. Immigrant priest was unfamiliar with said pest and sought advice. A parishioner recommended gasoline and a match but didn't give him many details regarding quantity etc.
He poured the gas down the hole and tossed the match. There was a secondary hole under the garage. Garage was blown off its footings.
I prefer shooting them when the opportunity presents. I keep the grass short around the buildings and apple orchard so I can see them better.

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My dad told me stories about things like that.
My uncle mixed up the ratio and blew a rock pile up.

Kingcreek said:

Be real careful with this.^
We had a new priest locally that moved into the parsonage house. Resident groundhog was eating his garden. Immigrant priest was unfamiliar with said pest and sought advice. A parishioner recommended gasoline and a match but didn't give him many details regarding quantity etc.
He poured the gas down the hole and tossed the match. There was a secondary hole under the garage. Garage was blown off its footings.
I prefer shooting them when the opportunity presents. I keep the grass short around the buildings and apple orchard so I can see them better.

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I've seen a YouTube video where someone tried to do this with a cockroach colony in his backyard.... He dig small deep holes and just pour pure gasoline down them and lit a match... Entire backyard was turned completely over by the explosion. And didn't even work as we can see a few the insects scurrying away....

They are easiest to bag on February 2nd ...

What does groundhogs taste like? Are they good eating?

whm1974 said:

I've seen a YouTube video where someone tried to do this with a cockroach colony in his backyard.... He dig small deep holes and just pour pure gasoline down them and lit a match... Entire backyard was turned completely over by the explosion. And didn't even work as we can see a few the insects scurrying away....

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You reminded me of this one.

jmorris said:

You reminded me of this one.

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Yeah that is the one...