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The Status of Ground Hog in My Area

K22

Was out yesterday, beautiful day weather wise. Went to one of my favorite places, a farm I've been hunting at for over 20 years.

I saw one turkey, one raccoon, two foxes, and 14 deer. Had a nice chat with my farmer buddy. Enjoyed a fine cigar. Took a short snooze. Ate two cans of sardines with crackers - my go to food in the field.

Oh, I almost forgot, I went to the farm to hunt ground hogs. I spooked one into a tree line when I changed fields. Such is the status of hogging in my area. I am glad I don't take this stuff too seriously anymore.

However, the poor vultures didn't get a meal and weren't happy. :rolleyes: One even gave me a dirty look, least I think so. Maybe I have been doing this too long. :oops:
 
I got the annual call from a lady with a ground hog problem. She has horses so she wants them gone. I spent a day and a half with my 17hmr but had to get the 20vt out for 4 that were a little over 300yds. I ended up killing 17. I got a text from her last nite with a picture of an eagle feeding on one. She's happy.
 
K22 said:
Was out yesterday, beautiful day weather wise. Went to one of my favorite places, a farm I've been hunting at for over 20 years.

I saw one turkey, one raccoon, two foxes, and 14 deer. Had a nice chat with my farmer buddy. Enjoyed a fine cigar. Took a short snooze. Ate two cans of sardines with crackers - my go to food in the field.

Oh, I almost forgot, I went to the farm to hunt ground hogs. I spooked one into a tree line when I changed fields. Such is the status of hogging in my area. I am glad I don't take this stuff too seriously anymore.

However, the poor vultures didn't get a meal and weren't happy. :rolleyes: One even gave me a dirty look, least I think so. Maybe I have been doing this too long. :oops:
Click to expand...
Sounds like it's time to hit V&S for a sandwich..........
 
Hardly any here any more, not sure why. Some folks say coyotes, but I've not seen any sign of them digging at g-hog holes. I understand from an old hunting partner that it's the same way near Middlebrook, VA. In times past it was fairly common to shoot 20 a day. He rarely goes any more, and has 'converted' to night hunting for coyotes.
 
Groundhogs are scarce in my part of WV mainly due to me & coyotes. I'm a little over 15,700 with my handguns. I go to ID also for rockchucks. Taken 1500+ the last 5 years hunting 6 days each year with my handguns. Haven't shot a rifle since 1977.
Groundhogs this year ..90+ so far. Used to kill 500+ a spring.
 
When I was a kid. My dad hunted groundhogs with a swift killed several. Now theres none. He blames herbicide. Theres no hay fields anymore all row crop. Thing of the past. Doug
 
Doug Casner said:
When I was a kid. My dad hunted groundhogs with a swift killed several. Now theres none. He blames herbicide. Theres no hay fields anymore all row crop. Thing of the past. Doug
Click to expand...
Similar here, lots a different crop rows, alternating, very few rolling hay fields anymore. Lots of corn fields and wheat.

Hogs have moved into tree lines, but access is often limited due to corn / wheat being planted adjoining the tree line.

Soybean fields are good, but you have a narrow window to hunt them.
 
Where I grew up has a couple thousand yards of rolling hay fields behind the house. Used to be filled with chucks as a kid. Now I never find holes. All gone.
 
In my area quite a number of farmers are gassing them. If you go to the fields where you used to shoot them you now see the burnt black earth at the holes. Really hate to see that.
 
The farmers in my area have resorted to using poison gas since nobody hunts them anymore due to encroaching developments making it unsafe to shoot or even against township ordinances. I don't buy the coyote being a problem as GH's are generally not nocturnal while coyotes are. Through the years I observed the GH's retreat to their dens by sunset, long before coyotes start prowling at dusk.
My excavator uncle used to dig out GH's with a backhoe to get rid of them, so I don't believe the GH offers a large enough meal to warrant expending that much energy to get to them - them dens are extensive. I have noticed the rabbit numbers have declined along with the GH's - less escape routes into GH holes.
 
LHSmith said:
The farmers in my area have resorted to using poison gas since nobody hunts them anymore due to encroaching developments making it unsafe to shoot or even against township ordinances. I don't buy the coyote being a problem as GH's are generally not nocturnal while coyotes are. Through the years I observed the GH's retreat to their dens by sunset, long before coyotes start prowling at dusk.
My excavator uncle used to dig out GH's with a backhoe to get rid of them, so I don't believe the GH offers a large enough meal to warrant expending that much energy to get to them - them dens are extensive. I have noticed the rabbit numbers have declined along with the GH's - less escape routes into GH holes.
Click to expand...
I agree - plus the use of chemical agents used to prepare a field for a different crop. In the few groundhogs I have taken during the past few years I have seen growths round their throats on some. I wonder if this is also a factor in the declining population.

Also, I have spent a lot of time over the past 24 years in the spring and summer at the various farms where I hunt. I have never seen a coyote pursue a live groundhog. In only one instance, several years ago, I had shot a hog along a tree line. While continuing to watch this tree line, in early evening, a coyote emerged, and "attacked" the dead hog then attempted to carry it off but I ruined its day.
 
Ive seen younger coyotes hunt them in the daytime, and I have photos of groundhogs feeding at night. I don't beleive it is coyotes. Farming practices have changed so radically since 1970. Between roundup wiping out acres of weeds and grass to row cropping and rotations replacing hay and alfalfa fields, to earlu spring plowing under grass and groundhogs for corn with not a stitch of weeds in it...welll...take away the house and the food and the tenant moves or dies.
 
Farming practices differ widely. Around here in NE PA no-till rules because PSU Ag has convinced the farmers it is the most cost-efficient and eco-friendly method. I have not seen a bottom plow used around here in 30 years- 50 years ago the fence rows were eliminated. Because of a huge influx of people moving in from NY and NJ who buy small farms to raise horses Alfalfa is in more demand than ever and is planted in much of the remaining undeveloped hillsides.
Yes, I also have seen GH feed at night. However it is usually because daytime human activity forces them to do so.
 
I know, used to be most farmers had a little livestock of some kind. Not anymore. We always had some cows and sometimes hogs , dont miss the hogs, cattle are fed in a feed lot and hogs all raised in a confinement Different world. Doug
 
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