I see them pretty much all year round here. Warm weather brings them out. Don’t mess with them much anymore, as permission to hunt farms is pretty tough to come by. I’ve always left the ones in the woods alone, as they’re not doing any damage. Spent a otherwise boring day “deer hunting” watching one plug up the exits of its den with leaves, a very noisy process.
They have always been along the edges for the most part, with their holes in the fence rows, woods. Never were a lot out in the fields. But yes, still more than I can kill. A few tears ago, I killed 38 in 2 months with the .32. longest shot with that rifle was 95 yards. Longest shot last year was 109 yards with the new .32 I built and it is sighted in to 150 yards. Sure a lot of fun!
That's very cool. I always wanted a small caliber traditional rifle, but my eyes are so bad now it would be useless to me. Post a picture of the rifle sometime.
We have very few in Pennsylvania anymore. Many want to blame coyotes but they never seem to have anything to back it up. I think it’s fewer farms only because I grew up on a farm and we had three neighboring farms. Now there are no cows and no wood chucks. It’s like that all over our area. I don’t know, I could be all wet… But when I was growing up, I would hunt woodchucks just about every day and many days twice. I shot a lot of chucks and it always seemed like every one I shot would be replaced by two. Those were the days…
you are not all wet. i see very few in western pa. i own property that is pock marked with holes. most are falling in. i used to kill dozens a year. i thought maybe i was killing them all off but even in areas that i don't hunt, i don't see hardly any. same with road killed ones. i am not sure what is causing it but it coincided with the rapid rise in coyotes around here. i can see that being the case, a hog would be an easy catch for a coyote.
Been seeing them on roadways in my part of NC for a little while now. I was piling some brush yesterday and one ran into the brush pile. First one I’ve seen on my place this year. I guess he has a den in there somewhere.
The bad thing is that he can see me coming 500 yards away but I hope I can get within rifle range before he sees me. Ranged the brush pile at 305 yards from my vantage point today. Should be able to get him if I can catch him outside and if the wind would ever stop blowing.
We are overloaded with eagles here and I am sure they will take their toll on the woodchucks like they do on everything else.
That’s a good thought too… I still think it has something to do with the lack of cows around. We pastured our cows in the hay fields after we took the hay off and woodchucks would be out when the cows were around. I imagine the cows kept the coyotes and birds of prey away. So it could be they just lost their protection. Maybe we could form a committee and get a 10 million (or billion, what does the government care because it’s not their money) dollar grant to study it…
About 12 years ago I shot a small woodchuck that came out of the woods into our back yard. I grabbed him and threw him in the “yard” about 100 yards in front of our house. It was only a couple of hours later 4 turnkey buzzards were on him, which surprised me because he wasn’t ripe yet, but anyways… All of a sudden they all took off and much much larger bird landed on the chuck and carried it off. Took me a bit to realize it was a young bald eagle that didn’t have a white head yet. It was really amazing to see the buzzards scatter so quickly because they won’t move that fast with a truck coming at them.
I’ve seen a few out in SW PA already, despite the snow that we got this weekend. I am looking forward to getting out and shooting some this summer, still have a few rifles to work up loads for, too.
I have been seeing them here in northeast NJ for a while. The males were out looking to breed females a few weeks ago, and probably still are. I had one run out into the road in front of me, then turn around and go back into the tiny patch of woods he came out of. This was 100 yards from a shopping mall.
Woodchuck hunting pretty much gone here. Suburban sprawl, growing corn instead of alfalfa, and coyotes have done the job. I really miss it.
Saw one get hit by a car last Saturday. That was about 40 miles north of Minneapolis.
I don't see many these days, the numbers dropped as fields turned to row crops from pasture, hayfields, and small grains. It didn't help when hedgerows, old machinery, broken down buildings, and odd corners were pulled out and turned into crop land.
Coyotes didn't show up in any numbers until long after woodchucks disappeared. Loss of habitat, changing agricultural practices, and herbicides/pesticides were most likely the cause of their decline, not predators, around here.
The western version (yellow bellied marmots or rock chucks) have been out and about for maybe 3 weeks here in SE Oregon. I was an avid shooter as a kid in Va, but don't bother them here. Activities are pretty well confined to boulder strewn rims as opposed to mid-pasture and fence row digs back east.
The above are a couple of Cookie's images from last spring. She did snap some new pics yesterday, but hasn't done a download yet. Had some tourist come through recently asking about the huge moles they'd seen by a nearby bridge. That's got me wondering if I could find or produce an official looking mole-crossing sign I could put up.
Lots of "we used to kill them by the truckload" comments here. We have a place in south central PA south of State College. The big fields on campus are FULL of them. When I first started going to the property (99 acres owned by my wife's family), I shot quite a lot as well. Then the population crashed, so I instituted a "no kill" moratorium for just two years. They came back in droves, so I now st a "quota" and it seems to work. Granted there is probably a lot with predators/habitat issues, but there's a hint there as well
A good principle to guide me through life: “This is all I have come to expect, standard lackluster performance. Trust nothing, believe no one and realize it will only get worse…”
There are no chucks in Florida. One more reason to dislike it here.
Back in the '60s and '70s they were plentiful on all the farms in the NY Catskills. Permission was readily granted and we had a blast. Then all the farms started a poisoning program and that was the end of that. The 220 Swift Varminter has sat in back of the safe for decades now.
My heart's in the mountains, my heart is not here. My heart's in the mountains, chasing the deer.