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GH & SOYBEAN HARVEST

I have always hunted hay fields in Ohio. The soybean harvesting season is approaching. GH hunters say SB fields are great after the harvest. From what I see the soybeans turn yellow then brown then die. They are harvested as dead dry plants. Why would a GH be in such a field. What am I missing?
 
Webster said:
I have always hunted hay fields in Ohio. The soybean harvesting season is approaching. GH hunters say SB fields are great after the harvest. From what I see the soybeans turn yellow then brown then die. They are harvested as dead dry plants. Why would a GH be in such a field. What am I missing?

When bean fields are harvested, the combine will shatter some of the bean pods ahead of the combine, and some beans will go all the way through the combine and deposited on the ground. These ripe soybeans are extremely high in feed value and will REALLY lay the fat on a chuck and they LOVE EM ..... and just in time for to fatten ém up for their winter nap. Their body temp is starting to drop and they becomeing lethargic as well.

Their holes are very easy to spot at this time due to the combine head riding up and over the mound, and the real bonus is when a high speed Vmax or NBT hits a really fat chuck..... it makes a most unique and satisfying sound....... one you'll never forget. ;) :D WD
 
WyleWD couldn't have said it better; got the fall groundhog experience down perfectly. Don't spread it around: that's the best time to shoot g-hogs, for the reasons above, plus the weather is cooler and less humid (less scope fogging from sweat and wet air, and to my eyes sharper focusing), fewer ticks, mosquitoes, etc., and the hungry 'hogs are out more often and longer than they are at the hot summer's peak. Used to be, when Ohio summers were cooler and drier, one could shoot beanfield groundhogs well into July; now thanks to genetics and warmer, wetter summers those bean plants are belly button high by mid-June and any open areas created by browsing and holes are no longer visible. This old farm kid still has a soft spot for a sunny summer evening wandering the land in search of groundhogs, but those days are, sadly, coming to an end.
 
I'll be out for sure. Doing something different this year, foregoing early bow season until the pre-rut in November.


Those rascally g'hogs don't stand a chance once the beans get picked!!! ;D
 
From my experience, you can bet that their holes are not far from the soybean patches. Problem here in PA is that when they start harvesting soybeans Archery Deer Season has started. I don't hunt with a bow but I don't want to disrupt a bow hunter by hunting ground hogs. I'll wait to the spring to get them. :)
 
The gunfire doesn't bother the deer. I have observed enough deer while groundhog hunting. But tell that to the bow hunters. :(
 
Nomad47 said:
The gunfire doesn't bother the deer. I have observed enough deer while groundhog hunting. But tell that to the bow hunters. :(

A few years back I got cussed out by a bow hunter who called me all manner of names for disrupting his bow hunt. :( I took the high road and apologized even though I was legally hunting g-hogs with permission of the land owner. I decided to give the ghogs a rest and let them re-seed for next year so I stand down once Deer Archery starts here in PA. :) Besides, the thought of an irate bow hunter sticking me with one of those wicked looking arrows kind of turned me off. :-[
 
Nomad47 said:
The gunfire doesn't bother the deer. I have observed enough deer while groundhog hunting. But tell that to the bow hunters. :(

Nomad is correct in his observation. When securing permission I always ask about deer hunters that have been given permission. And always do chuck hunting between 9am and 3 or 4pm when the bow hunters are on break, or where none are supposed to be.

It makes a lot of farmers very unhappy to see a FAT chuck in a cut bean field as they have gotten that way off their $13 a bushel beans. It also makes them VERY happy to see buzzards feasting on a fat one's carcass. And the farmers are the ones that give permission for us to hunt.... so I'm all for making them happy. ;) If I told a few farmers that I'd just wait til spring..... someone else will be shooting or trapping that farm next year most likely. :-[ WD
 
WyleWD said:
Nomad47 said:
The gunfire doesn't bother the deer. I have observed enough deer while groundhog hunting. But tell that to the bow hunters. :(

Nomad is correct in his observation. When securing permission I always ask about deer hunters that have been given permission. And always do chuck hunting between 9am and 3 or 4pm when the bow hunters are on break, or where none are supposed to be.

It makes a lot of farmers very unhappy to see a FAT chuck in a cut bean field as they have gotten that way off their $13 a bushel beans. It also makes them VERY happy to see buzzards feasting on a fat one's carcass. And the farmers are the ones that give permission for us to hunt.... so I'm all for making them happy. ;) If I told a few farmers that I'd just wait til spring..... someone else will be shooting or trapping that farm next year most likely. :-[ WD


+1
 
I spoke with 7 of the 12 farmers I groundhog hunt on . ...


That are all planning to harvest the 1st week of October. All welcome the fact that
I will be killing their unwanted pests.

The bowhunters who hunt, including myself know that hunting does not get good until the end of October.


It will be my 1st time groundhog hunting in October in about 20 years....that one summer I killed over 500 from April to October.

'Course I was single, no committments and hunted about every chance I could!
 
I hunt groundhogs on 17 farms, but I need more. They're getting few and far between on the farms I hunt. Last year I shot 427 and this year my total is only 255 and I only have about one more week of hunting. :(
 
That infamous year I recorded over 500 kills, almost 200 were within 40 - 50 yards just inside the woods along creek bottoms and waterways.....mostly 22LR and 22Mag kills. Killed several that were 6 feet up in the trees!!
 

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