Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Small Game Anyone eat woodchuck.

Just wondering I shot one yesterday that's been burrowing under my porch. I probably should have done something with it besides toss it over the fence. But I didn't have time to try to clean it and didn't want to leave it around in the heat. It was this years and may have had as much meat as a rabbit but I doubt it

Don't know about woodchucks but prairie dogs could carry bubonic plague. Therefor we never even touched them much less ate them.

When I was a kid, we tried it. My grandmother was not much of a game cook.. Pretty tough. However in the previous generation, people often ate chucks. Until left my childhood home, I shot chucks each summer and hauled them home and gave them to my neighbors they ate them all. Eating wild game was much more common when I was a kid than now. Probably the last generation that will do that.

Fine delicacy if cooked right skin it gut it quarter it and throw it in the crock pot about the only way better than beef

The hide makes good banjo strings

I have, but ain’t especially looking to repeat the experience. The hide is very tough, the meat as I recall similar to pork or chicken thighs.

Will re-evaluate if (when) everything goes to Hell.

The OP’s would probably have been as good as they get.

The way this world is going you may find it on your plate sooner than you think

My Grandma told me that during the Great Depression, her father shot raccoons and woodchucks and cooked them. Deer were poached beyond belief during that time and seldom seen

My wife can cook a mean ground hog for “select” people’s I’ve killed and ate for the “select” but have not reached the grand almighty point where it’s been passed to my home plate

Soaked in salt water awhile, par boiled, fried.
It's food. There's better.

Young of the year woodchuck is good. I've eaten a good many. Woodchuck liver is excellent. Much better than calf, beef or deer liver.

I’ve ate several. Hard to find one young enough to fry. Like someone said maybe parboil it. We used to just cook them like a roast. An old hunter friend of mine that done a lot of cooking and eating wild meat would take a big roaster pan and put a ground hog a pound of bacon and some cream of mushroom soup and chicken broth and bake it till tender and that was some fine eating. That bacon have it a great flavor and added some needed fat to the mix.

I've got one tunneling under my barn that I need to ambush. Never tried eating any groundhog. I guess I could try it once. Free cat food if I don't like it.

I have a yard full of rabbits and squirrels I’ve been fattening up with sunflower seeds, corn, and dropped fruit. They think I'm their friend. Come SHTF- 😋

Have heard of using groundhog and cat skins for Banjo heads but not strings. In damp weather you would never keep it in tune.

I've eaten ground woodchuck, an 80/20 mix of 'chuck meat and beef fat. It tasted about like any ground wild game meat that I've eaten after it had been mixed with beef fat and cooked on a grill. It would probably make good chili filler meat too.

Grandparents ate it often and always said it was the younger ones they used - I have yet to try one but do intend to do so when the “right” circumstances arise (i.e. have a way to cool it down and keep it cool once shot)…..can’t imagine they’d be “bad” considering their diet and no bubonic plague to worry about with them.

PennDog

Tried liver too, gave it to some under teenage kids and they all loved it! Can't remember how I cooked it as it was about 55 yrs. ago.

Hip

Around the end of June the young of the year would be just big enough. Used to par boil then BBQ, ground up the bigger ones and use for spagetti sauce. With the small farms dissapearing, and the coyotes moved in don't see many anymore. I would crockpot now. Check under the armpits for little glands that look like a corn kernel and cut them off.

Groundhog makes good BBQ. Several of us killed several groundhogs and took them to my neighbor, who fixed it for the July 4th neighborhood get together. We never told anybody it was groundhog, so they ate it and liked it.