Whistle Pig Tips

[Gary in MD]

Been hunting groundhogs since the 70's. Back then in western MD, there seemed to be a hog on every rock and the fields were pock marked with holes. It was not too hard to get 20 or more shots in a day. Now...... We are lucky to get 6 shots in a day. They are not there like they were. I even went as far as to ask the farmers if they had poisoned them. I think foxes and maybe coyotes are the problem as well as disease. We always tried to leave some "seed" for the next year, didn't want to shoot them all. We purposely don't hunt until a little later in the spring. Why kill a female with 4 or 5 young down in the hole that will starve.....that would have been future targets and breeding stock. Also won't shoot one under 100 yards.
I guess it's time to get the swift out and check the zero.....
Gary

 

[dedogs]

timeout, these are all very good tips on the hunting and shooting of woodchucks. Even the part about the risk of becoming addicting. Maybe it's a good thing that you can't shoot them in Wisconsin--you may save a heck of a lot of money.

To the guys who keep posting that there are not as many Woodchucks in their areas and keep blaming coyotes, foxes and other predators I would say: Have you ever considered that there are a heck of a lot more people in the pursuit of the Woodchuck than there was many years ago? I started hunting Woodchucks 40+ years ago in upstate N.Y. and they were everywhere. So were the coyotes and foxes. Back then I could count on one hand the number of guys who actively pursued Woodchucks. Most of us used .22 Long rifle and thought 100yd shot was a long one (and not guaranteed to kill). Now I read about all kinds of guys shooting 6mm whatever at extremely long ranges and I think to myself that a Woodchuck in the East doesn't stand much of a chance if there are any good shooters in the neighborhood. Even Charles Landis who was a premier Woodchuck hunter was noticing a real decline in Woodchuck numbers anywhere they were being heavily hunted back in the late 30's and throughout the 40's. He believed that the cause was the exploding number of hunters out in the field pursuing the Woodchuck.
I am not denigrating any one who pursues the Woodchuck, just trying to give some food for thought. Gary in MD is on the right track--let the pups get weaned before starting the harvest and maybe let a few of the small ones grow. I realize that this is not always feasible as most farmers who let people shoot on their land want them ALL GONE. When possible, though maybe exercise a little conservation. If the numbers continue to decline in the East I can see the greenies stepping up and forcing them onto the endangered species list and closing all hunting for them. Just my thoughts, not trying to step on anybody's toes. dedogs

 

[ShootDots]

dedogs, you state you hunted woodchucks in Upstate New York. I was born and raised in New York and hunted them in the Southern Tier... Did you hunt them anywhere near there?

 

[Webster]

Go to a store where they sell hunting licenses and pick up the game laws pamphlet or go to the state department of natural resources on internet. I live in Ohio, they are considered a pest and they are on open season year round except on public land during deer season. There may be some other restrictions with other game seasons on public land. 100% open season on private land. Get the literature to get the facts correct. GH are one of the few animals you can hunt in Ohio with a center fire cartridge. Not sure of every animal on the list, crows, coyotes, GH and a few others.

The real problem is it's getting hard to find areas to hunt with a decent GH population. The coyotes seem to be wiping them out.

 

[Webster]

The farm where I hunted for years lost almost all of it's GH population when the farmer got a new young dog that loved to catch GH.

 

[dedogs]

ShootsDots, No, I hunted north of Syracuse in the Liverpool, Cicero area. Farms were crawling with them back in the late 60's and early70's.

 

[ShootDots]

ShootsDots, No, I hunted north of Syracuse in the Liverpool, Cicero area. Farms were crawling with them back in the late 60's and early70's.

Oh Ok... I hunted them in the Delevan, Arcade, Zoar Valley area... There were quite a few back then.. I went back about 10 yrs ago to hunt them and some of the fields were developed! However, the others did not seem to hold the populations as I remembered them back in the late 60's and early 70's.

 

[timeout]

Go to a store where they sell hunting licenses and pick up the game laws pamphlet or go to the state department of natural resources on internet. I live in Ohio, they are considered a pest and they are on open season year round except on public land during deer season. There may be some other restrictions with other game seasons on public land. 100% open season on private land. Get the literature to get the facts correct.

I must have missed something? I got my facts from the WI. DNR website. I live in WI. and I can only hunt/trap them on my property. There is no open groundhog season here.

 

[dedogs]

timeout, I don't think Webster caught the fact that you live in Wisconsin. Or maybe he was encouraging you to try hunting in Ohio.

 

[timeout]

Dedogs, you have made many valid points. I have spent much of my time in the woods hunting and observing since the late 50's. Everything in nature has its' purpose, although I can't figure out about rattlesnakes and mosquitos! Disease and man are usually the deciding factor regarding wildlife populations. I'm not just talking man as in hunting, but changed farming practices and housing developments. These things for the most part can't be helped. I have trapped hard during one period in my life and when a farmer grants you permission, he demands results. Trap a farm hard for two seasons and by season three, you won't catch enough fur there to cover expenses. A good trapper will control animal populations better than any hunter. Many that have not spent enough time in the woods with the brain engaged give fox and coyotes too much credit. The good news being that blaming coyotes for every ill opens up hunting ground.

 

[dedogs]

timeout, I can absolutely relate, I used to trap also. Furs and snakes. Rattlesnakes have their place in the scheme of things and in 1969 they paid for my brand new, bought with cash 1/2 ton Dodge Van. Lots of fond memories of those times in the woods. dedogs

 

[crowsnest2002]

Their holes are usually in high areas, not valleys as they don't want them to fill up with rain water. Soy beans are king. They seem to like that more than anything. Moist green leafs. They don't eat wheat. Some corn when the crops are young..but not mature corn. They don't drink, they get their moisture from the water in the leaves.

Don't forget near trees or u disturbed soil near alfalfa fields. Alfalfa I think is second choice for these little buggers. Also they prefer to dig dens in mounded dirt that has settled and grown up for a few years.

 

[Webster]

In your original post you didn't mention you got the facts from WI DNR. I was replying to your original post. I didn't feel like reading 30 replies to see if you made further comments. I was trying to say get your game laws for WI and read them. Don't believe what people tell you. Sorry if my explanation of Ohio laws was not appropriate. One more Ohio comment. Very few hunters in Ohio know that you need written permission to hunt on private land. No verbal permission. Big fines and jail time even with verbal permission. Whatever state you live in make sure you have written permission if required. Please no pissing match replies.

 

[timeout]

No problem Webster. Many of us guys on here are knuckle dragging Nenderthals that grew up when you could hunt anything, anywhere, anytime. You youngsters never had it so good as we did ;D

 

[Drop Port]

Saw three today, time is getting close.

 

[Ohio Varmint Shooter]

If you can, go scouting now. Do this before the vegetation grows and makes it SO much harder to spot holes. Once spring really kicks in, and the brush grows, it can be impossible to spot holes.

Here in Ohio, I went out yesterday and took a few examples of what to look for. Freshly moved dirt..usually accompanied by rocks. If the hole is still full of dried grass strands, then it's probably not occupied yet. Most often, you'll spot the dirt and rocks before you see the hole.

These pics are pretty exaggerated, not all are this dramatic and easy to spot. It was a very windy two days ago, and yesterday was warm and sunny, so you can't see the difference in old dry dirt, and the freshly dug dirt. (but it's there.)

 

[timeout]

I'll do some scouting yet today or tomorrow. Disappointing that I can only hunt them on my farm. I sure would like to have branched out.

 

[Changeling]

The once-great state of Wisconsin protecting worthless rodents? No surprise there. After all, you did elect the slimy weasel Scott Walker as governor!

The "Rodents" had a better union than the civil servants.

LOLAL, Darn that was funny, Rodents had to be Republicans, Democrats aren't that smart, LOL! 8)

 

[LHSmith]

Been hunting groundhogs since the 70's. Back then in western MD, there seemed to be a hog on every rock and the fields were pock marked with holes. It was not too hard to get 20 or more shots in a day. Now...... We are lucky to get 6 shots in a day. They are not there like they were. I even went as far as to ask the farmers if they had poisoned them. I think foxes and maybe coyotes are the problem as well as disease. We always tried to leave some "seed" for the next year, didn't want to shoot them all. We purposely don't hunt until a little later in the spring. Why kill a female with 4 or 5 young down in the hole that will starve.....that would have been future targets and breeding stock. Also won't shoot one under 100 yards.
I guess it's time to get the swift out and check the zero.....
Gary

I spent much of my youth hunting GH's here in eastern PA. Like Gary above, it didn't take me long to figure out that holding back on shooting until after mid June that I would be pretty much guaranteed targets all season long. (Probably came about when I found my first den with a bunch of young ones and I proceeded to knock them off in quick succession taking all of 5 minutes).
I see the same mentality in deer hunting, where locals take as many as the opportunity presents, then are the first ones to complain about Game Commission mismanagement.
Lack of suitable GH hunting habitat is what brought me to competitive shooting.
IMO the reason for the decline of GH's is 1/ farming practices introduced in the '70's where fence rows were removed to gain the maximum tillable soil per acre, 2/ the use of poison to control GH's eliminating liability concerns over the landowner giving permission to hunt in moderately populated areas, and 3/ drastic increase in predators - coyote, fox, and hawks.......which also have decimated the cottontail and ring neck populations.
I simply adapted and learned to take pleasure putting tiny holes in paper.

 

[DaleS]

LH, I grew up in south central PA in the 50's and 60's... plenty of hogs around back then, but like you said those 3 things made it real tough on hogs... in the last 10 years or so I've started seeing gh's with mange, bad... I'm sure that came from fox denning in unused holes to pup and contaminating them... after that it became a vicious circle...

by mid july the young of the year were big enough to eat and then it was game on...