Any good places to hunt woodchucks in pa ?

[JEFFPPC]

Here is what I have found out. Us hunters probably blame Coyotes, but any of the wildlife people that I have talked to say that it ISN'T Coyotes. So, I really don't know, but I still blame Coyotes even though "those

I might disagree as I have seen PGC folks say and write coyote. I blame clean farming and chemicals sprayed on everything they eat. Plus hero's going out and cleaning out litters and shooting nursing mothers. They evidently have a big desire to just kill something. Sad.

 

[anschuter2013]

I've heard that Punxsutawney is a good place to find a woodchuck. Might try there...

 

[Webster]

This one is out early this year after last night's ice storm. Fortunate to have soybean fields behind us, but many previous GH areas are now new residential developments.

View attachment 1631367View attachment 1631368

GH mate in Jan & Feb, so the males are out looking for girl friends. Pups are on their own by June.

 

[jghoghunter]

GH mate in Jan & Feb, so the males are out looking for girl friends. Pups are on their own by June.

This is why I never hunted them before the end of May which happens to be my birthday. But so many people were out as soon as they started seeing groundhogs out. All they are doing is killing mom while all them other targets are in the hole dying. When you try to explain it to people it just falls on deaf ears. Trying to get people to understand certain things is like trying to push a rope eventually you get tired and just quit.

 

[anschuter2013]

This is why I never hunted them before the end of May which happens to be my birthday. But so many people were out as soon as they started seeing groundhogs out. All they are doing is killing mom while all them other targets are in the hole dying. When you try to explain it to people it just falls on deaf ears. Trying to get people to understand certain things is like trying to push a rope eventually you get tired and just quit.

Much like Spring Turkey season...TOM'S only, for a reason! Duhr!!!

 

[K22]

I have read the posts in this thread attributing the decline in hog population to coyotes. This may be true but having spent on average, 40 days a year in the field since 1999, hunting hogs in Eastern, PA during this time, I have never seen a coyote attack a live hog in the field.

The only time I encounter a hog / coyote engagement was several years ago. I had shot a hog at about 185 yards on the edge of a tree line. After some time had gone by, the exact amount I can't remember but it was a while, a small coyote seized the dead hog. I promptly dispatch the coyote.

I did encounter another coyote stalking a farmer's cat quite a while ago. I dispatched that fellow also saving the cat who was focused on attacking a bird in the freshly harvested corn field.

I would imagine that if coyotes are really decimating the hog population, I would have seen at least one live attack in the last 25 years, but I haven't.

In this area they are using Round Up to prepare the soil for a crop rotation. I have seen a large increase in tumors in the neck and jaw areas of hogs I have taken. In addition, I have seen some kind of greenish growths in the mouth area of numerous hogs.

Whatever the reason, there are been a significant decline in observed hogs on the farms I hunt albeit, many areas are no longer huntable to due overdevelopment and changes in farming practices.

 

[std7mag]

Lots of good places!

Problem is getting permission.

 

[WyleWD]

I have read the posts in this thread attributing the decline in hog population to coyotes. This may be true but having spent on average, 40 days a year in the field since 1999, hunting hogs in Eastern, PA during this time, I have never seen a coyote attack a live hog in the field.

I've seen it happen twice. Neither time I saw it happen lasted more than 5-10 seconds and the coyotes are gone with their dinner. Both times there were 2 coyotes involved in the ambush.

One other time I shot a huge male coyote coming at an angle towards me along a creek levy carrying a freshly killed female chuck that had not been shot or hit on the road. I didn't see him get the chuck but they were both laying there together and the chuck was still warm and nothing but saliva on her neck.

I'm in no way saying the coyotes are wholly responsible for the decline in numbers here, just that they are just part of the puzzle. JME. WD

 

[Richard308]

I spent 7 years driving around the Western PA countryside, mostly in Allegheny, Washington, and Greene Counties.

I saw more chucks in town around peoples yards and sheds than anywhere else. I’m in Ohio now and I see a lot more of them, but they are usually somewhere that they can’t be shot.

Where in Central Ohio are you ? I'm in Belmont.

 

[LHSmith]

According to Leonard Lee Rue, noted wildlife photographer and animal researcher, the gestation period for the GH is 31- 32 days and most of the young are born in the first 3 weeks of April. This reconciles with what I have been observing in 6 decades of monitoring them in Eastern PA. I doubt coyote put on a major hurt to the population, but I did recently get a pic of one with a GH in it's mouth from our camp's food plot- yet that field has always maintained decent GH numbers.
To answer the OP's question, in the last 30 years eastern PA has become too overpopulated to ever hope to return the good old days of hunting them with a centerfire rifle. I gave it up and began shooting short range Benchrest instead.

 

[JEFFPPC]

GH mate in Jan & Feb, so the males are out looking for girl friends. Pups are on their own by June.

You are correct. Memorial Day has always been our starting point.

 

[JEFFPPC]

Lots of good places!

Problem is getting permission.

Really Ken. You need to reconsider your approach. Since I have gotten back into it the last 3 years I have not been turned down once, actually welcomed with open arms. Maybe it helps to be a little old guy, lol. I did have a farmer's wife ask if I wasn't too old to be hunting. About 100 groundhogs latter she just waves when I drive up the lane now. Great farm, I can shoot to over 700 yards, that is hard to come by in my area.

 

[K22]

Really Ken. You need to reconsider your approach. Since I have gotten back into it the last 3 years I have not been turned down once, actually welcomed with open arms. Maybe it helps to be a little old guy, lol. I did have a farmer's wife ask if I wasn't too old to be hunting. About 100 groundhogs latter she just waves when I drive up the lane now. Great farm, I can shoot to over 700 yards, that is hard to come by in my area.

If you are a veteran, wearing a service-related hat noting you are a Veteran helps even if you never won any metals or seen any combat like me. But I think the real sale is the gray beard effect.

One of my old farmer friends asked me the same question last summer when it was nasty hot, "are you sure you're ok to go roaming the fields". My reply, "Sure, no problem," but I was really thinking, "I can't think of a better place to go than in a freshly cut hay field."

 

[Kimber.204]

Well, I haven't read any of the biologist's reports, but I know that for about 30years prior to the coyotes moving in we would average around 100 ground hogs killed per year on our farm and the surrounding properties - probably about 250 acres mostly fields with plenty of little wood lots. The next year all the same holes had hogs in them.

This continued until the coyotes moved into the area....now if we see 5 woodchucks on the farm the entire year it's impressive. I'm not saying that other factors didn't contribute - just about every other game animal in PA has experienced some sort of plague. Maybe they all moved to Canada to flee the Trump Presidency....again!

Coyotes moving in also coincided with a decline in deer, rabbits, turkeys, barn cats, red fox, grey fox, hold over pheasants, and grouse. I'm sure that wasn't all the fault of the coyotes. But I still miss the smell of freshly baled hay stubble and gun powder on a warm July evening.

Bottom line.....maybe you'd be better off planning a trip out west to shoot prairie dogs.
Good Luck.

 

[hogpatrol]

Here in SE PA, the coyotes have increased and I've watched red fox sit by the holes and when a young one pokes his head out of the hole, he's snatched. Unfortunately, we're handicapped with using rimfires only.

 

[JEFFPPC]

Well, I haven't read any of the biologist's reports, but I know that for about 30years prior to the coyotes moving in we would average around 100 ground hogs killed per year on our farm and the surrounding properties - probably about 250 acres mostly fields with plenty of little wood lots. The next year all the same holes had hogs in them.

This continued until the coyotes moved into the area....now if we see 5 woodchucks on the farm the entire year it's impressive. I'm not saying that other factors didn't contribute - just about every other game animal in PA has experienced some sort of plague. Maybe they all moved to Canada to flee the Trump Presidency....again!

Coyotes moving in also coincided with a decline in deer, rabbits, turkeys, barn cats, red fox, grey fox, hold over pheasants, and grouse. I'm sure that wasn't all the fault of the coyotes. But I still miss the smell of freshly baled hay stubble and gun powder on a warm July evening.

Bottom line.....maybe you'd be better off planning a trip out west to shoot prairie dogs.
Good Luck.

Coyotes came into place right when clean farming accelerated. For the hundreds or maybe thousands of hours I have spent viewing fields, even when the farmer says he has a coyote problem, I have never seen one in a field , not once. I am sure it happens but I don't think they are the main cause. I do see foxes frequently but never saw them doing anything but mousing.

 

[Kimber.204]

I'm sure it's a complex answer.
After I moved off the farm, my dad invited a friend who traps to go after the coyotes. The first year I think he got 5 or 6. The following deer season we saw more coyotes than deer. We keep trapping and shooting the coyote, the deer have come back, maybe the chucks will too.

 

[Jrjones]

Well- im a ny’r and i can guve my 2 cents on this. I am the product son of a 60’,70’s,80’s woodchuck hunter. I grew up watching my father load hundreds and and hundred of 222’s to have on hand at any given time. I grew up in this upstate farm country and i live on a farm today which is my own. My father in law grew up shooting chucks in this era also and was and still is a farmer. They both told me it was nothing to milk the cows and go for a walk and shoot 5,6,8 whatever chucks every time the went out. Today i tell em that they shot em all and didnt leave any for me. They tell me the coyotes showed up and that did change it but… they was a dairy farm every other property back then. Today there may be 1 or 2 still left doing it. Every field they shot chucks in has a house sitting in it now. Most of them are probably wealthy to do dems that come up 3 times a year. THATS why “I” cant do what they did. These old timers around here could dam near shed a tear when they tell me “ ill never see it” what they had. I know they are right. Today i shoot crows, not that many chucks. You can still find em around buildings and gardens and such. Your long range varmint rifles are collecting dust and your 22 has more use. Thats a reality. If you do have a place to do it still you are very very lucky. This is what its like when all the farms are gone and the land is bought up.

 

[Jrjones]

Ill also add this. The chucks i find i feel are very very smart animal. I feel they have adapted. I can find more chucks in the stone wall fences, hedge rows, barn buildings places like this than if you just look for them in fields. This country is very rolling, knowles and knobs. I find chuck hole’s strategically placed in areas where you would never see the chuck unless your within 50 yards of the holes. Could b right under your nose. Just because you cant see em dont mean they aint there. You really do haVe to hunt em! Ive missed or scared a chuck and didnt see it there for over a week! Also, when we cut our hay fields and the grass is short i swear the chucks move into the stone wall fences. Idk. This is what its like for me in todays world in my area. I feel like i have 10x better equipment than my father ever dreamed of having and i dont have many woodchucks to try it on. My dad used a remington 788 222 and he couldnt miss. When i was young and he grabbed that rifle, something died. He was the best shot i ever saw and i always wanted to be like him. To this day id never bet him against his old worn out 788 222. I just know better.

 

[450BM]

Knock on doors and ask but its not near as good here as it use to be. There is either a house of an Amish farm in the middle or end of every field you look at. Try in the northern part of the state first Wellsboro area and around route 6.
Just my .02.

Nothing in the Wellsboro area, if there was, I’d be hunting them as I live here. 45 years ago I was convinced that for every one I shot it would be replaced by 2. Now the only ones I see are next to a house or barn.

I think they cohabitated with the cows. Our cows were in the pastures/hay fields 75% of the year. Now, that doesn’t happen much. Cows stay in the barn yard in between getting milked 2 or 3 times a day. Or most of the cows are just gone so there isn’t any cows at all. When the cows leave, so do the woodchucks. When I was 14 we got rid of most of our cows and that’s when the chucks started to disappear too.

I know everyone says it’s the coyotes…. I only ever saw one coyote on our farm and never heard them howl. There isn’t enough coyotes around to make all the wood chucks disappear like they did.