PA woodchuck hunting

[jxb]

Biggest problem is the coyote these days, not a one to be found back in the 60's and 70's, and I usually shot close to 500 groundhogs a year if I kept at it....
Lucky to see a handful around these days, and I don't shoot them except with a camera...
The coyotes started to appear around here in the early 80's...
They hunt down the young pretty quick, and the old die off, nothing to raise new babies....
View attachment 1508979

Just another reason to keep the coyotes thinned out.

 

[sw282]

Just another reason to keep the coyotes thinned out.

A hunter for 60 years of my life. First 30 l hunted deer. The last 30 seasons its been 95% varmints/prairie dogs. l have shot and will shoot any canine breed chasing the game l'm hunting.

 

[Fuj]

I don't make a huge effort anymore but did get 16 last year and
most of those were right at two of my main ranges I frequent. One
is in Waterford Pa., and still prime for chucks, and the other is over
in Spartansburg. The 500 yard range in Spartansburg is in the middle
of a huge Amish community. The range itself has a large hay field
bordering it, with a mix of alfalfa. Past couple of years, I have not
seen much in the way of rabbit. My thinking tells me that the yotes
cleaned them out, and now going after the chucks.....By the way, a
bonus shoot is crows. I'll dust a chuck and put it out on the 300 yard
range. It does'nt take long for the crows to find it.

 

[JEFFPPC]

It's amazing how fast dead groundhogs get cleaned up if you just let them lay in the fields. I shot one last year a series of hole. Looked back in that direction 15 min later and there was another one beside the dead one, little over 300 yards away. I got them in the scope and found that the second one was a hawk. Mr. Hawk messed around with that dead hog for quite awhile before flying off. I often left several in the open along one good fence row and very seldom would they be there 2 or 3 days later.

 

[Bojo]

I don't make a huge effort anymore but did get 16 last year and
most of those were right at two of my main ranges I frequent. One
is in Waterford Pa., and still prime for chucks, and the other is over
in Spartansburg. The 500 yard range in Spartansburg is in the middle
of a huge Amish community. The range itself has a large hay field
bordering it, with a mix of alfalfa. Past couple of years, I have not
seen much in the way of rabbit. My thinking tells me that the yotes
cleaned them out, and now going after the chucks.....By the way, a
bonus shoot is crows. I'll dust a chuck and put it out on the 300 yard
range. It does'nt take long for the crows to find it.

Shooting at the Sparty is always an adventure. Active shooting on the line and the Amish kids just stroll across between the 200 /400 berms or walk by the pond and fish.

 

[LHSmith]

I know each locale is different, but I am not convinced that coyotes are a big factor in MY area (Pocono region of PA) for the predation of GH's or even deer. At our hunting camp I have several trail cams monitoring a 5 acre food plot. We didn't have GH's until we bulldozed high mounds for backstops at various ranges, and then they moved in -so much so that each berm had it's own resident in short order as well as dens along the fence rows. Our range is used by the local police Tactical team and they occasionally will take one as well as some club members. The cameras are out 24/7 365 and this is the first time in recent years that I have a pic of a coyote leaving the field with a GH. Typically I get pics of coyote and fox about every other night (very rarely in daylight) and the occasional bobcat and fisher. Bears all the time. Only ever had one pack of coyotes on cam, always a single or a pair. And with all this, including hawks who are regular visitors, we still have rabbits.
Down at home, I have farmed fields amongst a few other houses, and see / hear coyotes, regularly at dusk/ dawn. I have always (and still do) had GH's in my fence rows, under outbuildings, and adjacent fallow fields. But I do not feel comfortable to shoot (although not prohibited by twsp. ordinances) in any direction due to proximity of heavily traveled state and township roads and the land is very flat. Deer have found a home in the small (2-3 acre) woodlot/swamp patches and I can observe them almost nightly in the field behind my house. Their only threat is vehicles. In the farmland across the road where I used to do my GH hunting before a few houses were put in, that farmer uses gas to control them and it proves very effective.
Perhaps there are so many roadkills here to satisfy the coyotes as evidenced by the ass end being eaten out overnight, that it is more lucrative than chasing the deer down.

 

[dkhunt14]

Lots of good points on this thread. I feel after the rabbits and other game is gone, they turn to groundhogs. We have had a major decline in rabbits and I don't even see near the squirrels I used to see years ago. Lots of hawks and coyotes. Don't see the coyotes very much in daylight hours but the trailcams prove they are here. Matt

 

[JEFFPPC]

I know each locale is different, but I am not convinced that coyotes are a big factor in MY area (Pocono region of PA) for the predation of GH's or even deer. At our hunting camp I have several trail cams monitoring a 5 acre food plot. We didn't have GH's until we bulldozed high mounds for backstops at various ranges, and then they moved in -so much so that each berm had it's own resident in short order as well as dens along the fence rows. Our range is used by the local police Tactical team and they occasionally will take one as well as some club members. The cameras are out 24/7 365 and this is the first time in recent years that I have a pic of a coyote leaving the field with a GH. Typically I get pics of coyote and fox about every other night (very rarely in daylight) and the occasional bobcat and fisher. Bears all the time. Only ever had one pack of coyotes on cam, always a single or a pair. And with all this, including hawks who are regular visitors, we still have rabbits.
Down at home, I have farmed fields amongst a few other houses, and see / hear coyotes, regularly at dusk/ dawn. I have always (and still do) had GH's in my fence rows, under outbuildings, and adjacent fallow fields. But I do not feel comfortable to shoot (although not prohibited by twsp. ordinances) in any direction due to proximity of heavily traveled state and township roads and the land is very flat. Deer have found a home in the small (2-3 acre) woodlot/swamp patches and I can observe them almost nightly in the field behind my house. Their only threat is vehicles. In the farmland across the road where I used to do my GH hunting before a few houses were put in, that farmer uses gas to control them and it proves very effective.
Perhaps there are so many roadkills here to satisfy the coyotes as evidenced by the ass end being eaten out overnight, that it is more lucrative than chasing the deer down.

I guess the critters are as lazy as the large percentage of coach potatoes in our human population.

 

[wright brothers]

Pretty consistent 18-22 yr from my place the last few decades.
Some of the larger operations are using the poison smoke bombs down the holes.
Bad mouthing or telling them how to manage their stuff will get you kicked off theirs and others farms.
Boots on the ground scouting the edges of soy beans is a good pattern.

Used to be a contest at a gun shop. I entered once.
I get the oldest males in late winter/early spring. Their rut.

 

[Bobbyboy6br]

Thank you all for your comments very helpful.

 

[snert]

While working near a CNY university that did a lot of agricultural and other research, I learned that groundhogs are a near human substitute for hepatitis testing. In the course of learning about such research I learned that Hep kills a colony of chucks like a neutron bomb when one gets it.

I have never seen research on chuck mortality...but then spending research tax dollars on the lowly woodchuck in an alfalfa field is not popular when that same dollar can be spent on such things as the spotted owl. (Yes, sarcasm).
But pointed.
I think we lose more game to disease than predators.

 

[1K6BRA]

While working near a CNY university that did a lot of agricultural and other research, I learned that groundhogs are a near human substitute for hepatitis testing. In the course of learning about such research I learned that Hep kills a colony of chucks like a neutron bomb when one gets it.

I have never seen research on chuck mortality...but then spending research tax dollars on the lowly woodchuck in an alfalfa field is not popular when that same dollar can be spent on such things as the spotted owl. (Yes, sarcasm).
But pointed.
I think we lose more game to disease than predators.

I would agree, and have read the same thing on the hepatitis problem. Animals live a rough and unpleasant life for the most part.

I have to edit this post, I just saw my first groundhog of the season here in north western Pennsylvania in Venango county. About three weeks ahead of schedule. A pretty good sized one I’m guessing a male was out in an old soybean field munching. I purchased a CZ 17 HMR this winter that I am itching to try out!

 

[wright brothers]

First one of the season. Large male,
70 paces, 22 rifle.
Aaaad, their off.
I missed him twice during the last warm spell.