Huntin' grounhogs

[reddogge]

I'm excited as all get out. Groundhogs are out and about now. One thing I've alway loved is hunting them and have been doing it since the 60s. It's never a slam dunk for me though, especially on my own property.

Let's hear some stories of how you guys hunt them, big farms, small farms, neighhood hogs, etc. Just like to hear some stories and maybe some pictures.

[kill shot]

OH BOY, I used to live to hunt chucks. One year a friend and myself killed 160+ chucks. They were all gun kills. The thought of hunting them with trad gear sounds like fun. With a gun we just shot chucks. Not much of the hunting part was involved. Maybe this would be a great thing to do as a get together for the Michigan Traditional Bowhunters. The weather is pleasant and there is always action. This is a great thread and the timing is perfect as this is the beginning of the woodchuck showups. I'm pumped.

[b.glass]

We have a huge one out in our barn. Atleast I saw it a couple of times last fall. It's tough because they can see us come out the back door before we see them and they are out of there!

One of my best shots was on a smallish one at 26 yds. But I could get into position without being seen and wait for them. They were living in a brush pile about 100 or so yds from the barn. I play the wind too. Don't know if it's necessary but it can't hurt.

[DennyK]

Hunting Turkeys, Morels and Woodchucks,coming up on a fun time of the year.

[RunninWild77]

Love chuckin' def gonna try with the bow this year. They're kinda dumb this time of year to from being under ground for so long. I plan on hunting them in small wood lots and hedge rows where I can locate active holes and wait them out.

[reddogge]

I'm mainly talking about hunting them with bows. My wife makes me take a few out each year with the .22 but I save a few for bow targets which she thinks is ridiculous since I'm always outwitted.

Just last year I spied one from the kitchen window, grabbed the bow and quiver and snuck out the front door. Made a great stalk on him and I had him at 7 yards looking 90 degrees to my right but I'd have to step out from behind a tree to shoot. I stepped out, drew and let loose and WHAM! The arrow jumped to the left and stuck into a log at a crazy 45 degree angle. His head was superimposed on top of an old dirty discarded cinder block which I mistook for his body and center punched the cinder block. Oh well. Another defeat.

Another one I caught looking away from the house on a downslope in the field. I used the slope of the ground to get within 35 yards and a muhlberry tree to close the gap to 30 yards but the last 10 yards I had to skitter on my side using a large tuft of field grass. I couldn't believe this perfect set up. Everything was set and the hog was dozing looking away so I came up on one knee and let fly. Arrow looked good but at the last minute it bounced off of the top of his head. Drat.

[b.glass]

"bounced off the top of his head". Cool visual there, and kinda funny.

[RunninWild77]

"Bounced of his head" lol haha boy there's a way to wake up lol

[T Lail]

we have a lot around the barn.....smart and wiley.....miss one a time or two and that one is rifle bait.....I have saw them stop and spot me from 75 yards away....but loads of fun to try and put an arrow through....

[hawkeye n pa]

Have been bowhunting whistle pigs for quite sometime.  A couple of other stickbow hunters and me usually have a competition every year. On a good year I'll shoot between 20 and 25.

They get very educated in a hurry.  I find sneakers to make a huge difference in keeping them from "feeling" my foot steps.  And once they learn danger is lurking they will use their nose quite well.

Hunting them in a gentle rain works really good for the educated ones.

Goodluck!, Jeff

[Restless Spirit]

I too love to hunt groundhogs. I enjoy it just as much as deer hunting. Here in Pa. it is still to cold and snowing all the time for them to be out much. I hunt a few local farms and I walk about 3 to 4 miles a night when I hunting. I like to stump shoot between holes and when I get close to a hole I try to stalk in on them. I average about 10 a year.I should have alot more a year but they jump the string quicker than a whitetail.

[Red Beastmaster]

Hawkeye n PA and I do have a competition each year, and he regularly kicks my butt!

I hunted with the champ one time on his G-hog ranch and soon learned how he racks up the carcasses. I don't want to say his hogs are tame but the term "park squirrels" comes to mind. Hmmmmmmm.

Now my groundhogs are the true Russian strain from the old country. Their senses are sharp, they're meaner than my mother-in-law, and they'd rather eat you than run! Scary, nasty, beasts they are! I'm lucky to get half a dozen per year and live to tell about it.

I fondly remember the one year I beat ole Hawkeye. Seems the poor guy was burdened with lots of overtime while lucky me was laid off from June to mid August. I killed 36 that year with my Hummingbird recurve. I refer to that time as "The Summer Of Love". Ahhhhh, sweet victory.

[2nocks]

anyone bait them? They're in my the shrubs and flower beds which are dense, so I'm thinking with  bait it may get them out into a better shooting lane.

[Ryan Rothhaar]

Oh man, groundhogs...that brings back GOOD memories!  I used to be a big-time woodchuck hunter growing up in Ohio.  My senior year in high school (1992) I killed an even 50 groundhogs with my recurve in an area where a good hand with a 22-250 would be hard pressed to get 100 in a year.  I killed 5 in one day that summer.  Dad always said if he was King of the World you'd have to bring him 20 groundhog tails you killed with your bow before you could buy a deer license.  I learned more about how to hunt from bowhunting groundhogs in my formative years than any other animal.  

Nowadays, where I live in Westcentral Indiana we don't have very many 'chucks.  I suppose too many coyotes?  I don't shoot them here, and have even been known to transplant a few that were caught in livetraps in local barns.  

If you meet my wife ask her about the full grown 'chuck that ate his way out of the cardboard box in her car on the way home from the farmer.  Let us just say that "hi-jinks ensued" on that one!

Love the 'chucks!

Ryan

[Wiley Coyote]

I use to hunt a groundhogs a lot but like Ryan I think the coyotes and foxes have thinned them out. Usually average getting one a year now!  

[UrbanDeerSlayer]

Got a big old fat one I've been trying to get for 2 years.  He's smart and roams from yard to yard in my suburban neighborhood, I can see him from the second floor of my home in my neighbors yards, eating apples that have fallen or a patch of clover. He is not easy to get close too. So last year I was patterning him pretty well and found he was passing under my tree stand out back, and hanging out under my shed. Well one morning I got out early and got in that stand and sure enough after a couple of hours he comes out from under the shed. He's maybe 10 yards away but a branch is in my way. So I wait and wait because he's just sitting real still and not moving, it must have been 20 minutes. Then he finally moves a little and stands straight up. I pull to full draw and release...... And I missed!!! I was certain I centerpunched him but no blood or hair on the arrow..... Nothing. And I haven't seen him since. Spooked him off, we are still real cold up north so I suspect I'll see them moving in the next few weeks. Can't wait....

[reddogge]

I'm waiting for the muhlberrys to start falling. I call it groundhog cocaine.

[89redtruck]

I was in an alfalfa field sneaking up on groundhog when he saw me and ducked down into his hole.  I had hunted them enough to know that he would come back out and look for me where he saw me last so I moved to the other side of his hole about 15 yards away and waited.  I was hunting in cloth deck shoes and no socks and while standing there waiting for him to come out I was subconsciously annoyed by something when it dawned on me that something was bothering my foot.  I looked down and realized that I was standing on the middle of a small black snake and he was wrapping and unwrapping around my ankle.  I’m not afraid of snakes but…I must have jumped 3 feet vertically and my heart was running wide open.  On top of that the groundhog had just come back out of his hole and all my commotion gave me away.  Needless to say, the groundhog wasn’t hurt any more than I was but he also wasn’t nearly as shook up over the whole thing either!

[blackpenny]

I hunt them on a "pick your own" apple farm. Every year 3 or 4 fall to the bow while most are killed with a rifle. They're faster and a lot more agile than they look. I've seen them climb trees and jump over logs! An easy way to tell if a den is active is to look for flies buzzing around the opening. They urinate and defecate in their dens ....the filthy bastards! You can set up a blind near feeding areas. They are easiest to kill from above as I've never been "made" by a groundhog while in a stand.

[heydeerman]

My first trad kill was a ground grizz. I asked this farmer if I could hunt ghogs one summer, he said "kill em all". I pulled a Howatt Hunter outta my truck and he says "Where's your rifle?". I told him I was a bow hunter and I hunt everything with the bow and arrow. He told me I would never kill a ground hog with that thing. About an hour later I showed up on his porch with a dead one that was nearly decapitated by a Zwicky. I have had exclusive hunting on that property for about 12 years because of that.