Groundhog eating varmint!

[SnakeEye]

Groundhogs have been very scarce around here the last few years. It's almost to the point that it isn't cost effective to hunt them! So last Saturday I got a little spare time and called my hunting bud to load up and meet me at a place we only hunt once or twice a year ...so there should be some targets, right?

Well I did a little write up for my web site, thought ya'll might enjoy reading it.

The hunt.
http://www.varmintsforfun.com/groundhog-eating.html

WWW.VARMINTSFORFUN.COM

 

[CatShooter]

The link no workie...

Try here:

http://www.varmintsforfun.com/groundhog-eating.html

There is sure something going on. Chucks have become an endangered species here in Connecticut.

We used to see them all the time. Take a drive on a parkway and you would see 5 or 10 on the side of the road, eating prime, fresh, tax payer cut grass.

You could plop your rifle kit and shootin' stuff up on a hill overlookin' a large field, and not move from there all day.

I didn't see any last year... none this year.

A fellow I spoke with is talking about getting an out of state hunting license for NY and PA, and his family owns 300 acres of planted farm land in Connecticut - he got 3 this year.

Maybe they get the plague like PDs.. I don't know, but it sure is really lean pickin's up here.

 

[Webster]

Same problem in Ohio. The coyotes must be killing them. There's coyotes all over even in the cities with wooded areas. The cops tell me they see them all the time when they patrol at night and I live a a suburb of Cleveland. They don't have to kill the adults, they just have to get the pups every year to get the survival rate way down. I have had people tell me that if an ambulance or police car goes by with the siren on at night the coyotes will start howling. I'm getting tired of driving and burning gas without even seeing a GH or dens in the fields. One farmer in Harrison County told me that coyotes gather on a hill across from his house, they make so much noise he can hardly sleep.

 

[Dave T]

Same deal here in WV. I had fields that I would hunt after first cut and get 6 to 8 chucks in just a couple of hours, then move on to another field. I have actually quit going to some of my old hay fields due to a lack of targets. I just can't bring myself to believing that coyotes have decimated the ground hog population here in my state, but something is going on.
Dave T

 

[SnakeEye]

Thanks for fixn the link catshooter...I didn't pay attention to what I was doing! I tell you it has to be the yotes I never in my 50 + years of hunting pigs have I seen it this bad. I have hunted all day and on several farms and if I see one pig it was a good day. Talked to a farmer 2 weeks ago and he had a trapper in this winter and he carried out 21 yotes! The price of gas, ammo, wear and tear on the varmint mobile and me isn't worth it any more. I just ride my utv around the farm for relaxation...if a target presents it's self ...Pow!
Anyway I guess I'll hunt em till one of us croaks!

 

[Eddie Harren]

What's this world coming to? Imagine, coyotes killing groundhogs. Next thing you know the foxes will be eating the young groundhogs and baby rabbits.

 

[rickiesrevenge]

Can you tell us more about your xp-100 in 20 vartarg?

Aaron

 

[Gary in MD]

Same lack of groundhogs here in the western part of MD. It's been like this for the last few years. I see a lot more foxes and I hear of a few coyotes being around but I think that maybe there is some disease or plague. We always tried to "manage" our hunting to be sure to leave some seed for the next year, but the whistle pigs are mostly gone.....
Gary

 

[CatShooter]

One of the comments I have heard from die-hard chuck shooters over the last two years is...

... a large percentage of number of chucks that they shot, were covered with Mange.

What have you guys noticed??

 

[22turborimfire]

Ive seen some rough looking groundhogs and I hate to say but i think the chemicals being used today has alot to do with this + groundhogs have been known to fight .And I have seen some with nasty scaring . Added: most all the rough looking ones are coming from drilled bean fields .The hogs i'm killing in pasture land are not affected like this and look healthy. I havent seen a decline in numbers as of yet . We killed a couple of coyotes may hear 1 but seldom seen. The ones in the bean fields look like they have some form of skin issues but I dont think its mange.

 

[Gary in MD]

Have seen just a little mange in 30+ years of hunting them. I asked the farmer where I hunt if he had been poisoning them and he said no, and nobody else hunts this farm. I used to get 20 shots per day, now I don't think there are 20 groundhog holes on the 160 acre farm. :'(
Gary

 

[GSPV]

If you have coyotes, you shortly aren't going to have groundhogs. The danged coyotes are just too smart for the 'pigs. In the east, they are nothing short of an invasive species, but it is seldom discussed as such.

Shoot every one of the yotes that you see. It won't scratch their population, but it will make you feel better.

 

[chino1969]

I've never seen a groundhog with mange in southeast PA. I have seen a couple of fox over the years with mange but never groundhogs.

 

[ShaneG.]

A few years ago I never seen a groundhog around here other than the occasional one here or there on the side of the road. Last year I shot 4 in one spot and got another on in the middle of a bean field in December during deer season. This year I have seen even more but the smart little buggers have been in the ditches along the road and into the edges of woods where it's almost impossible to shoot. East central Indiana here, coyotes are everywhere here and get shot at year round.

 

[Rustystud]

It use to be rare to see a ground hog in the piedmont or coastal plane. If you wanted to hunt them you had to go to the mountains. We also did no use to have coyotes. Ground hogs are much fewer in population in the mountains and we are getting lots of groundhogs in the piedmont and coastal plane. The coyotes, red wolves and bears are killing our deer fawns as quick as they are born.
I have been bush hogging for two weeks and seen lots of coyote scat with dear fur in it. Pretty over whelming proof our fawn are falling prey to the coyotes.
Nat Lambeth

 

[potatoe]

I've never seen a groundhog with mange in southeast PA. I have seen a couple of fox over the years with mange but never groundhogs.

+1. We must hunt close to each other

 

[SnakeEye]

Can you tell us more about your xp-100 in 20 vartarg?

Aaron

It's a trued XP 100 in a Mcmillian low profile stock. Barrel is a 15 in. Lilja 9 twist stainless. Sight is a Leupold 4.5x14 rifle scope. Trigger is a low profile Timmeny. I also have a 22 br barrel for it too. That thing is a killn machine..!

 

[rickiesrevenge]

Sounds like a sweet xp! Any pictures of the gun? What bullet do you use and what velocity do you get out of the 15" barrel?

Aaron

 

[SnakeEye]

Right now I'm shooting the 33 gr. Vmax, have no idea what the velocity is as it shot good enough when working up a load I didn't chrono it!

 

[rich44]

One of the comments I have heard from die-hard chuck shooters over the last two years is...

... a large percentage of number of chucks that they shot, were covered with Mange.

What have you guys noticed??

Half ( which ain't many ) of the chucks I've shot this year have had something resembling mange one had very big patches and another almost no hair on its tail, same thing last year and I'm hunting in NE Oh