Soybean damage

[Nomad47]

Is Ohio a Shotgun deer state ? If so, do they regulate depredation or nuisance takes and limit it also ? Every summer when I see my father in Ohio I see soybeans everywhere there.

Deer gun season is shotgun, muzzle loader, and certain handguns. To the best of my knowledge, deer depredation has no limits on what firearms can be used.
I'm not up on all the rules concerning getting deer kill permits for crop damage. For one thing, I have too many friends that would throw a hissy fit if I shot any deer for crop damage. Ohio has a LOT of deer and farmers do get kill permits for crop damage. But, once again, the farmers around here are mostly concerned with groundhogs eating their beans.

 

[Quickoz]

Nomad47,

Nice to see ya here mate. Glad to see your out shooting hogs. Still running your 6SLR and 6x47L?

Im going to build a 22-250AI for farm work here in australia. 223 no fun anymore. Haha.

 

[Gary Wiant]

I've been told by a farmer an adult groundhog can eat 1/10 acre / year he has it figured out in Pa that each ground hog costs him $64.xx I'm not saying the OP numbers are wrong but 1 acre a year is a lot. that ground hog would be huge. Plus a den of groundhogs could completely destroy a complete field & I've never seen that happen.

 

[msinc]

That is great shooting...I have never killed two with one shot, in fact, I'm sometimes lucky to make it one for one!!!
Many moons ago, shooting the very first rifle I ever barreled I was at a friends farm in West Virginia. 440 yards out a woodchuck stood up. I lined up and fired and down he went, only to pop back up a few seconds later. I lined up and shot again...down he went again. 440 is a long ways out there to hit a hog so when he popped up a third time I fired and this time I saw a definite hit with "parts" flying.
The next day we rode down there to have a look at him and there lay three dead woodchucks. There was a hole nearby, but they all appeared to be about average sized adults. I always thought they lived one to a hole but apparently this boss hog was shacked up with his two gals.

 

[varmintshooter]

Nomad47, Good going on your year so far. I don't know all the facts as to the #'s of acre's or dollars a ghog will eat in a year but I do know that my farmers all have a smile on their face when I show up. Over the years I have killed about 3000 ghogs and that = $$$ to a farmer. I am at 123 so far this year but have not been going as much. Seems to me that more corn is being planted this year in my area.

 

[hogpatrol]

Perfect conditions last evening, overcast, no wind. Fresh baled field I see one feeding. lasered him at 213 yards. Just have the Annie pistol but shot a couple the same conditions over 200 so get set up, aim on the reticle third line, wife says way over top, windage good. Crap used the wrong line. Check the chart, am ready. waiting for him to stand up.
Clock is ticking, finally, a shot. Thwack!
Flopping around, tail going crazy. Goes for the hole, never made it. These new CCI VNTs seem to have more killing power and accuracy than the regular Vmax. This is the record for me with the pistol.

 

[Nomad47]

Nomad47,

Nice to see ya here mate. Glad to see your out shooting hogs. Still running your 6SLR and 6x47L?

Im going to build a 22-250AI for farm work here in australia. 223 no fun anymore. Haha.

Thanks, oz. I'm down to just one long range rig - the 6SLR. Longest kill this year is 809. Longest miss - 1144 yards. And we don't talk about shortest misses.

Let me know how the 22-250AI build goes. I think you will like it just fine. What will be the barrel twist?

 

[Nomad47]

I've been told by a farmer an adult groundhog can eat 1/10 acre / year he has it figured out in Pa that each ground hog costs him $64.xx I'm not saying the OP numbers are wrong but 1 acre a year is a lot. that ground hog would be huge. Plus a den of groundhogs could completely destroy a complete field & I've never seen that happen.

I don't estimate how much damage groundhogs do to bean fields - the farmers tell me what their estimates are. And they all say groundhog bean damage hits them hard in the wallet.
And I can tell you this. When mommy groundhog brings her 4 pups into the middle of a bean field and sets up housekeeping, there is a HUGE "crop circle" created. And that is done in just a couple weeks.

 

[Nomad47]

https://www.terrierman.com/lifehabitatgh.htm

This article states that an adult groundhog can eat 3/4 pound of beans per day. The equivalent of a 175 pound man eating 15 pounds of salad per day
Sheesh. I like salad, but not that well.

 

[msinc]

I do know this..they can thoroughly eat!!! The best day I've ever had hunting woodchucks was a few years back. I was shooting a 204 700 with a Pac-Nor barrel. The farmer took me to a field that was probably 40 acres and it had 100 ft {estimate, but very close} circles of almost completely bare ground through out the entire field. There was just about no place left untouched. When I first saw it I didn't realize what was going on because the bare spots were so perfectly round. It looked like he sprayed something because the shapes were so neat and concentric. Then I saw the holes in the middle of every circle and it hit me. Then I started seeing the chucks......killed 22 woodchucks that day, not all of them in the first field. He was happy, but it was too late, for all intents he had already lost that crop. I remember saying to him, "you need what the Indians used to call "big medicine"...a Gatling gun!!!

 

[Quickoz]

Nomad,

Will do mate. Going for an 8T so I can from 55gr Blitzkings to 90gr SMKs for a bit of PRS shooting when I feel like it. Should be good fun

Have fun with your 6SLR. I sold my 6x47L. Got a 7mm08AI for F-Class and then sold that when I got my new F/TR rifle. But still need a good farm rifle