Groundhog hunt

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ARW

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This is my first post since joining this forum. After reading several of the posts I am very impressed with the knowledge and helpfulness of all of the members.

My son and I both groundhog hunt locally in S/E Pa. and he usually video tapes our hunts. Below is a link to one of our recent hunts. I hope you like it.

Alan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9e6EXwtnm0
 
Good for you and your son!

Chuck hunting is a favorite of mine.

The weather is good, great scenery and lots of shooting with accurate rifles. :)

Here in Western New England I am not seeing chucks in the fields now like you got.

We say it's the coyotes that have chased them to only under the barn.

And welcome to the forum.
 
Thanks for the welcome Savage.

The farmers around here do not hold high regards for groundhogs, for obvious reasons, so it is not too difficult to get permission to hunt them.

The video my son does is an added bonus, I really enjoy watching them in the dead of winter with snow on the ground.

Alan
 
Bob,

Some people have told me they were good in stew, I personally have not had it though.

I tried eating a young one on the grill once, it was ok but not one of my favorites.
Real hard to skin also.

The hides are usually very thin with bald spots, pretty nasty.
I think I even commented on the video about how nasty looking the one was.

Alan
 
One of the few things I miss since moving to Florida from Pennsylvania. Deer and groundhog hunting in Lancaster Co. I made plenty of friends with the Amish farmers. They detested groundhogs in their fields. There are plenty of groundhogs around, Quarryville. My best shot was 245 yards with a Remington Model 700, 0.223. My worst day, a big silver back was about 50 yards in front of me as I came over a hill. I was shooting a TC 0.223, 14" barrel from a shooting stick rest. Missed him two times. I went back to the shooting range to check the zero. I then found out the amount of pressure on the shooting stick had a profound affect on the zero. I sold the TC and all of the accessories.

While sitting waiting for a groundhog, I would also see plenty of deer. I knew their trails and where they bedded. On opening day, I would have to check my watch for the legal time to shoot. I would dress the deer, walk back to the farm and Jeff would hook his mule to a wagon. We would hang the deer in the barn, so his boys could see the deer when they got out of school. Then off to the Amish butcher for processing. I would give half of the deer to Jeff.

Enjoy yourself......:)
 
Capt.,

I'm just across the river in York county, Quarryville is only 30 mins. from me.

We hunt on several Amish farms here, really good people, I like them a lot.
We actually have Amish as neighbors, their farm butts up to ours. We could not ask for better neighbors.

We turn them down obviously, but we have actually had them try to pay us for shooting groundhogs! We did not turn down their homemade pies and bread though, I do have my weaknesses, lol.

Alan
 
That was a great video! Thanks for posting it. Plus 1 for Amish neighbors. Good folks.

Geno
 
As a kid growing up in Lancaster county,I shot and ate young groundhogs and disposed of the older ones. 21 one summer with a savage .22.
 
ARW, I enjoyed your videos. good shooting!

My dad and I used to hunt groundhogs here with a 700 Rem in .243. It was tons of fun. Once we were hunting in a hayfield for a few hours. I got too many chiggers to count!
The coyotes have taken care of all the groundhogs. Now my son and I hunt coyotes.
 
I hunt just about the same was...except on the other side of the state! I love getting out and taking some groundhogs and the farmers love it as well..

We play with many different flavors of calibers...22-250 the whole way to .338 Lapua! We also bring out the pistols on occasion and try to sneak up on them.
 
When my grandpa was a lil guy in the late 1890s, he used to take the .22 go hunt for food: crow, ground hog, anything that put meat in the pot.

Geno
 
Thanks for the comments, I appreciate it.

I'm glad you like the video.

Alan
 
michigan ground hogs

HI ,
This is my first post, Great bunch of gun folks. Ground hogs are almost gone in Michigan. Rarely see one. 5 years ago you could ride in the pickup and shoot 4 or 5 in 2 hours in the bean fields and hay fields. Coyotes got 90% of them. Because of population I use a 22 hornet, Blaster to 150 yards and a 22.250 is just too dangerous here. Can anyone suggest a farmer in west Pa.
I might contact to come eradicate a few ground hogs?
I farmed for 30 years and remain very respectful of those guys who still do.
I dont drive on crops, bring uninvited shooters or cause issues and have always been invited to return. Mid Ohio is also good too.
Building a shootin platform on top of my ATV trailer 7 x 12. Putting screw jacks on all four corners to stabilize platform. Also great for prairie dogs.
Just learned a great trick. Coyotes are tought o shoot here in S Michiga,
Too much cover. A friend says go get a dead calf from a dairy farmer and set uo 150 to 200 yards away. Leave it out in the open so they cant hide in cover. They will show up mostly in the middle of ther night. Checking Michigan laws about night scopes.
Thanks ,
coyoteassasin
 
Here in Oakland county, you could shoot a woodchuck literally every 15 minutes. Too bad it's city...no shooting them. :(. Up on the family farm, near Mt. P., I haven't seen a woodchuck in a couple of years.

That's why I took-up shooting sparrows. Talk about good practice. If you can nail a sparrow between 100 to 200 yards, you're one Hades of a good shot!

Geno
 
coyoteassasin, from the way you described yourself, you are exactly the type of hunter most farmers would welcome to hunt groundhogs on their property.

My advice would be to simply drive thru the countryside and when you see a promising looking area, stop and ask permission to hunt.

I think you might be surprised how many farmers will gladly grant you permission to hunt.

Good luck!
Alan
 
Dang Geno! Sparrows at 100-200yds.!!

That's pretty awesome, I bet after shooting at them for a while a groundhog in your scope at that distance probably looks like a grizzer bear, lol!

Alan
 
I'm 5 for 5 on groundhogs this spring. 3 with the .22 and 2 with the .223. Fun stuff! :)
 
My advice would be to simply drive thru the countryside and when you see a promising looking area, stop and ask permission to hunt.

I think you might be surprised how many farmers will gladly grant you permission to hunt.
Click to expand...

Yessir.

And farmers are a rather talkative bunch, at least within their circles. Once you've proven you can safely eliminate or minimize their g hog problem, you just may have friends of theirs stopping at your house or calling you asking you to hunt their land .

Added bonus: Many acres may well be opened up for other types of hunting to boot.
Farmers hate those g hogs!
 
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Thanks Alan,
This is Bob Daymon. alias coyoteassasin. Yes I always ask permission and offer written imdemnification . Nobody wants to get sued because you let a careless shooter have access. Just dont know areas that are rich with targets.Lots of Amish in Michigan but dont know where they are in Ohio and Pa.Thats about as far as I want to drive to hunt chucks.Then again we go to Valentine Nebraska to shoot prairie dogs. Plan on going to Bandera Texas to shoots some coyotes this winter.
Thanks,
Bob
 
Went groundhog hunting for my first time this season.
I am used to going in the summer, which in Virginia usually means drought...so the place I go is usually dry, although it is a floodplain by the James River. This past week we have had none stop heavy rain and even a tropical storm...I was not prepared for the mosquitos....

I was getting eaten alive....so I decided to stay in the truck...and the only place I could park the truck and see the edge of the field (where the groundhogs live) was to park it in the sun...it was in the 90s today so I was roasting in the truck with the windows up.

I eventually saw one about 150 yards away, but getting out of the truck, and loading my gun spooked him (these suckers are wary). So I stood in the sun getting eaten by mosquitos for about 15 minutes hoping he would come back out and he never did.

Next time I saw in the seat with the door opposite the side the groundhog was on.

I spotted another about 200 yards away. My usual setup, is to take a dove stool and rest my rifle's bipod on a 2 foot step ladder, it gives a decent rest, but the grass was too high today, so I tried to rest my bipod on the hood of the truck, which was scalding hot, and has a slope. I held a little above his head., and I missed. Not sure if I pulled the shot because of a poor rest, or just held over too high.

Right as I was about to leave for the day I saw another, but my I think my dad coming back to the truck spooked him, but as my dad was putting up his stuff I spotted another, probably the same one I missed the first time, this time I popped him. In 1 shot. I couldn't see his head this time, so I got him at a quartering shot right in his front left underarm. I paced it out at 160-170 yards. This one was pretty big 12-15 pounds. When I picked him up, I could not find any holes, but it felt like his insides were sloshing around...and it took me about 5 minutes to even find a hole. I use 50 gr. Sierra Blitz Kings in a .22-250 39 grains of H380. Last two hogs I shot with it completely and utterly lost their heads, so I was surprised I had such a hard time finding a wound on this one.

So anyway, I saw at least 3 groundhogs today in a 1 hour period...which I am usually lucky to see 1 while sitting out there for 5 hours.
 
We have ground squirrels here in Nevada. The local farmers will actually pay you to come shoot them out of their fields. Last spring my husband and daughter shot about 13,000 of them and even had a pair of hawks that would follow them around for lunch.
 
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