Groundhogs in yard

cdahl383

cdahl383

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Joined
Jun 2, 2020
Messages
257
Location
Michigan
We’ve got a few groundhogs in our yard and they’re starting to get a little closer to our garden. Don’t want them eating up out stuff.

I’ve never been hunting before. Only killed a couple raccoons that I trapped by our chicken pen. My neighbor said those groundhogs will get into our garden, so I want to get rid of them.

I have a .22 rifle, a 9mm carbine, and 12 gauge shotgun. What would work best?

Was thinking .22 with CCI Velacitors would work. The angle I’m shooting at is down and towards a bunch of trees and brush with no people or homes behind that within a mile or so.

Appreciate any suggestions. I’m used to just shooting targets that don’t move haha!
 
Just be careful with this.

I grew up hunting woodchucks with a .22LR. Killed a a lot, but also wounded quite a few. They'd normally make it back into their hole and I'd find them a day or two later at the mouth.

Fast FWD to a couple years ago. A woodchuck showed up here and was burrowing into the space next to my retaining wall. We have large rock retaining walls on 2 sides of our house. So I broke out the .22LR, snuck up and shot him in the head. He flopped around a bit, but then made it back into my retaining wall, where he promptly died. I could not get the %$^^ thing out without digging up 1000's of pounds of rock. So there he lay stinking that entire summer.

Hindsight being 20-20, I should have waited and caught him out further from the rock wall. IF it happens again, I'm going for overkill. Shotgun or .223, but I'm killing him dead on the spot.
 
I had them at my old residence in a neighborhood with the houses close together , but I didn’t have any houses behind me . They dug a hole under my fence to eat my weeds . I never saw them in the yards of the neighbors on each side of me . They made a home under my shed and had babies there . I started shooting them out of my bedroom window with my .22 rifle . I only aimed at the head and the shots were probably 25 yards . I never had any of them move another step and I killed other 20 in 2 years . I started trapping them at first and releasing them , but I realized that I was probably giving someone else my problem , so I started shooting them . I pretty much had them under control before I moved . I lived at that house for 35 years and never saw one until about my last 4 years there.
 
We have rock chucks (close cousins to groundhogs) out here in Idaho, and I kill the pesky ones in the yard and garden with a .22LR rifle. Unlike our next-door neighbors though, I usually leave the rock chucks alone unless I actually see them feasting in our vegetable garden - they love young pea plants. :uhoh:
Not that I blame our neighbors for hating rock chucks. Our neighbors take a lot of pride in their flowers, and from what they tell us, rock chucks love flower bulbs, as well as some flowers - just like they love young pea plants. Besides that, I guess rock chucks tunnel under our neighbor’s garden shed, and that drives our neighbor, Bill nuts. So, Bill shoots every rock chuck that comes around, and like me, he uses a .22LR rifle. :thumbup:
 
jmorris said:
We have gophers and moles, so we don’t get a lot of shot opportunities.

I built a plow that makes a round tunnel under the ground and drops a thimble full of poison seeds every ~3ft. I haven’t found anything more effective for very large areas.

View attachment 1157589

View attachment 1157590
Click to expand...
That’s awesome. We have pocket gophers. Can’t get rid of them.
 
Buy a trap. I used the live catch traps intended for medium sized varmints like raccoons when I had a rental house that was infested. They were under a shed and under the deck there and they made a serious mess of the foundation. Ripe tomatoes were the best bait I tried don’t try to turn them loose if you catch them though, they seem to hold a grudge and they came at me twice and got 9mm perforations up close and personal. After that they got shot inside the cage with a 22 or a break barrel pellet gun.

The trap works when you’re not looking. When they see you looking they are going to gopher cover (terrible pun intended). The trap also makes humane kill shots easy.
 
Groundhogs will climb a fence and even a tree. My dog treed one and I shot it with a .45.
Trap works better than shooting sometimes. Apple slices are good bait. Easier to shoot in the head with a .22 after it’s in a live trap. They can soak up a lot of body shots with .22 rimfire because they typically have a lot of fat and tough hide.
I’m always fighting the darn things. I shoot them with a .223 or a .243.
 
Unless it’s a head shot, I’ve found that my 22 lr isn’t sufficient to anchor the bigger/fatter ground hogs. Same for raccoons, which in my area run quite large.

For those dudes, I use a 5.56/.223.
 
S.Crockett said:
Unless it’s a head shot, I’ve found that my 22 lr isn’t sufficient to anchor the bigger/fatter ground hogs.
Click to expand...
As I stated in my first post in this thread, we have rock chucks (yellow-bellied marmots) instead of ground hogs around here. Nevertheless, they can get pretty big, and I agree with you - a .22LR "isn't sufficient to anchor" the bigger/fatter ones unless it's a head shot. That's why our neighbor, Bill and I get real close, within 20 yards of the chucks in our yards and gardens before we shoot them.
It's not hard to sneak up on rock chucks or get them to pop up out of their holes. If you give a short, high-pitched whistle, they'll often pop their heads up and look around. Then, you can easily shoot them in the head, walk over and use your shovel to push them farther back down into their hole, and cover them up. :thumbup:
I also have a .22-250 that I used to hunt rock chucks with. Like I said though, I don't actually "hunt" rock chucks anymore. I've become sort of a "live and let live" type of guy in my old age, and unless the chucks are in our or the neighbor's garden, I just leave them alone. And while my .22-250 would darn sure work for killing rock chucks in our gardens, it seems like a lot of noise and fuss for something I can easily accomplish with a 40gr Winchester Power-Point to the head. ;)
 
I see a lot of responses stating that a .22 will be a good choice for his need but, gentlemen, we are missing this poor soul’s quiet cry for help. He obviously is asking us for permission in the form of a recommendation of another gun to add to his collection that will be the exact medicine for his ailment.
I cannot stand by and watch so any of you let him down in his time of need.

Sir, you need a new gun. A .223/5.56 will suffice but if you intend to switch it up to include any other pesky North American animal made from tastier meat, a .308 will be the better choice. Head shots will no longer be necessary with a .308 as hitting the dirt within 3-4” will murder those whistle pigs just fine. Protect your garden with pride and excessive volume with your new purchase and know that you, too, can’t have venison for Xmas dinner.

Seriously speaking, though, if you hit them in the dome with the .22, that will do what you need to do, as l long as you can make the shot.
 
Hookeye said:
Sounds like somebody "needs" a new rifle, maybe a 17HMR.

;)
Click to expand...
Already have one - a .17HMR makes more noise than a .22LR too, and it doesn't kill rock chucks any deader. ;)

Enfielder said:
I see a lot of responses stating that a .22 will be a good choice for his need but, gentlemen, we are missing this poor soul’s quiet cry for help. He obviously is asking us for permission in the form of a recommendation of another gun to add to his collection that will be the exact medicine for his ailment.
I cannot stand by and watch so any of you let him down in his time of need.
Click to expand...
:rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
1KPerDay said:
That’s awesome. We have pocket gophers. Can’t get rid of them.
Click to expand...

Here, they push up rocks and they knock out widows cutting hay and no one makes Lexan factory replacements (maybe I should start and retire). Anyhow, I can eradicate about 12 acres and hour with that contraption.

It’s kind of like weeds though, once you get them under control, “spot” control is really all you need…unless you have other stuff to do with that time.
 
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