Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Back east G/hog shooters

Grew up in west PA.......Indiana County

Shooting G/hogs was ......well rather slow.......boring

1-2 shots in an hour....maybe 3.....

Maybe get a shot at a crow or stray feral cat..

Do you drink coffee or take No Doze......just to keep you alert ?

Get your shooting in before the hay fields are too tall

Real question ? Have you ever eaten a G/Hog on purpose ?

I shoot P/dogs......never eaten one or wanted to

Crows....Eagles.....Magpies clean 'em up...

These make extra targets too.....except the Eagles

P/dogs are fun targets.......rifle...Salvage 20-223

Our alfalfa field Beldings Ground Squirrels make for an entertaining day. About 1 1/2 inches wide and maybe 10 inches tall and one can do 500 rds on a good day.

A bit more challenging though when the youngsters emerge as they are only a little larger than a house mouse.



Gunfire does not typically put them down either.

A Basque sheepherder recipe for our western rock chucks is fairly simple. Gut the chuck, put some carrots and celery in the cavity and stitch it up. Toss into a hot bed of coals hair on for about 1/2-hour, strip off the outer rind, and have at it.

Came of age for real trucks & rifles in '74.

A 700 ADL in 22-250 rode in my 70 Chevy K10 from March to Sept. Shot out the barrel & got another. Not nearly as fast paced a PD shooting, but no laser range finders then, not even a Ranging 1000 double image thing that I still have. Ground hogs helped me become a better rifleman than the once a year deer hunter. Learned a lot without the net or JBM.

When we made out first trip west, & I finally set my fat ass on a stool behind a bench & looking over a big PD town it was so damn easy, even though the PD's were a 1/4 the size. We were afraid we were going to put them on the endangered species list so we left a day early.

And yep!! when we got back home we were bored as schit. Nothing to kill.

Most fun Iv'e had with my clothes on:

Older folks in NW North Carolina are known to really like them. I know an ok boy that will take every ground hog that you take him.

Buddy of mine used to claim he had a recipe for 'chucks and they weren't too bad. Never asked him for the recipe, though. Once heard an antelope guide in Wyoming say that he didn't worry too much about his clients marksmanship skills if he found out they were 'chuck hunters. I haven't shot one in years because they are getting like an endangered species around here. Got some 120 yds. out back but I can't discharge a firearm here. They're so scarce I'd almost feel bad about shooting one anyway.

Got 4 chuck rifles.
Aint shot a dirt piggy for a while.
Beans early is good.

Used to rotate crops beans n corn. Corn yrs we didn't hunt so survivors repopulated. Nowadays farmers dont rotate every other yr.

This before coyotes and fence lines ripped out. Dunno what farming practices also affected chuck numbers.

Aint like it used to be.

All my old spots got built up or changed ownership.
Last time i blasted em was on a dairy farm, whittled em down good in 2 yrs and then not enough to warrant the long drive.

Coyotes abound there.

Some farmers wantsd a young chuck to eat. Those were head shot rimfire kills. Using frangible bullets on body shots.....messes em up plus risk of metal i reckon

We just tossed em in the weeds. Some old farmers wanted em hung on fence. Man oh man did that stink up a place.

Pops and I killed 70 one summer along a stretch of RR track. 50 in a small bean field by the river not far from home.

My record was 10 in about 4 hrs. Creek and alfalfa field w cattle.

Before the groundhog population collapsed, I shot many each summer. Never shot any until the pups were weaned. After that shot until fall. Haven't shot one in years. The only ones I see are on highway cut banks. And yes I have eaten groundhog. They make good BBQ. In the spring a few of us would begin killing and dressing them and freeze them until the big neighborhood cookout on July 4th. My neighbor prepared them as BBQ and served them to the crowd.

Coworker bought a weed patch farm.
Blasted 30 off that place in a couple weeks
Think 6 first day. And all big uns

Get off work, grab the .243 and park in shade w rifle across hood of CJ5.

Edit: we also waited til pups weaned.

Never tasted one. Would have, just never got around to it. But catfish like their livers. A tough gutting job when the temp is 88*

50 - 75 kills a year wasn't a bad number for somebody with a full time job. Walking on a big farm with a lot of hay pastures the most productive. Totally understand the term, walking varmint rifle.

Alfalfa fields......and chiggers.


🤣

My olmlady still talks about the cows comin up to say hi when we were in the shade on other side of fence to blast other pasture.

Hunted that place for ages. They were like big puppy dogs. I like cattle

That old farmer passed away. All my old farmers are gone Hunted some spots for 20 yrs or so.

I got six one evening last summer. I live in Armstrong county. What part of indiana county were you from?

Used to shoot 100-150 a summer back in the 70's and 80's. In recent years it's more like 30-50 but I don't spend as much time at it as I used to either. I have eaten them fried, BBQ'd and in a stew. The young of the year are good eating. I get bored quickly just sitting on my ass waiting for a shot and the farms I hunt these days, being broken up and hilly, with several smaller fields separated by hedgerows, wood lines and wooded creek beds lend themselves better to walking anyway.

Tikkanut: Oh... NO...!
You were doing so well until you said "savage".
Well enjoy it as best you can.
Great picture though.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy
P.S.: And yes I have eaten Rock Chuck (cousin of the "G/hog").

Don't hunt them anymore, it's gotten much harder considering
land changes and where we reside.

Was never a long distance spot and shooter.
Too boring.

Was a walking sneak and peaker.


She them some.
Mom would parboil and fry them.
A cousin barbeques them.

Not great, not bad. Edible.

I've not killed a groundhog in a long time. I don't see many anymore. I used to kill several every year with my Savage 110E, in .223, shooting handloads with Sierra 55 gr. Spitzers. . I have ate some. It's a dark meat, and can be tough. But, if you boil it some and then bake, it's not bad.

I shot a lot in Western PA (Crawford Co.) in the late 80s/early 90s. M700 25-06 bull barrel and 6-24X Japan made Tasco with 100 gr NBTs. Inside 300 yds was 8/10. Over 500 yds was 1/10. Everything was shot based on eyeballed range estimates, Kentucky windage, and dope charts.

I killed a fair share with a M94 30-30 that I packed along while moving the dead out of the pastures and into the fence rows.

Never ate one. They made good buzzard bait for the next 2-3 days.

They were big game for a kid back in the day. Last one I shot was for crop damage, and that’s the only reason I’d hunt them now. I suspect the decline is related to the increase in coyote numbers. Lots are to be found along highways where yotes probably fear to tread in the daylight hours chucks are active (they ain't early risers).

If I was looking for volume shooting, I’d bait starlings in the winter. No shortage of that invasive feathered rat. Might pick up a few crows or pigeons that way too.

I kill at least 10 here around the property yearly. Those are just ones that decide to make burrows on the edge of the "yard" or raid the fruit trees or garden, as I dont actually hunt them just shoot ones I see or set traps at burrows. Most are shot from the back porch at 100yds or less with a 22 mag or 22 hornet.

Dont see them in the wide open farm fields around here much anymore, they seem to be in woods or right along the edges. Because of that I dont even ask permission from landowners to hunt them anymore and even on the properties I have hunting and trapping permissions on for other species I only hunt or trap them if they specifically ask me to.

I belong to the Ate a Woodchuck Club. Their hides are like heavy inner tubes, but once off there’s a lot of meat that IIRC reminds me of dark chicken. Supposed to remove anything that looks like fat, including glands under the forelegs. Can’t recall that operation as it was 40 years ago. On reflection, I think I’ll keep them in reserve for the coming famine, after the Mountain House runs out……..