Groundhogs

[Hunter 257W]

Anybody here remember when we had Groundhogs? Surely there are a few serious groundhog hunters from the past here? I sure do miss those little miniature grizzlies as I used to call them. They look like a grizzly bear when standing up looking for danger. I grew up on a cattle farm with several alfalfa hay fields and all our pastures had clover mixed with the grass so groundhogs were everywhere. Surrounding farms always had soybeans too. I used to drive the tractor with one hand so I could carry a rifle. Never left the house without a rifle for years. I started out stalking with a 22Lr then graduated to centerfires. Both light weight "walking varminters" and heavy barrel guns for sitting in a fencerow watching huge fields.

Sadly I don't think those days will ever come back. Coyotes most of the hogs. Coyotes aren't going away and as such, I don't shoot the few groundhogs we have anymore. I could hunt coyotes but it's just not the same for a rifle shooter.

 

[1 good shot]

we still have quite a few in hardeman county

 

[Benelli 4 Life]

We still have several around here too but they all moved to the sides of the roads

 

[Hunter 257W]

I have one in my yard that has dug out a hole under a big hickory tree beside my imperial clover patch. Another hickory fell right beside it into the clover and I don't cut it up because I figure it gives the groundhog something to retreat into if a predator is after him. I had my 17 Remington at the house one day last year and I was extremely tempted to take him but just couldn't do it. Up on the farm we have a few but they usually don't stay around long.

 

[pressfit]

Back in the day (1960's)my dad was a "professional" groundhog hunter..LOL.. he had a old mauser that had been re barreled to 22-250.. there is no telling how many hogs he killed that that rifle.. it had a fixed 10 power weaver scope..man it was the cats meow back then.. one time my dad shot one with his last bullet of the day.. but it grazed its head and it was only stunned.. dad went to get it and the groundhog started coming to its senses and tried to run back to its den.. dad took his rifle and clobbered it over the head with the barrel..LOL..at one time my uncle had probably 500 acres of row crops.. the hogs would eat a half acre circle of beans around their den.. my uncle put a $5 bounty on them and I went into the trapping business... my peterbilt would not hold the hogs I trapped... when the yotes showed up the hogs disappeared.. we have a few now but they are mainly in town or real close to someones house..

 

[Tn_River_Ratt]

Watch for the kudzu to start growing. They love it. +1 in Hardeman county.

 

[trealtree]

We always have several in the garden. I take them out with a .22 cal marauder airgun.

 

[Crosshairy]

I can honestly say that I've never seen one in the wild, and I've lived in TN my whole life (I'm 31).

Granted, I don't hunt fields all that much, nor do I live on a farm, so that obviously limits my opportunity.

My dad talked about shooting a few back in the 60's. I always wondered why they weren't around, but it makes sense that the coyotes were the ones that did them in.

 

[turk870]

hard to beat bbq groundhog.havent had any in years.but growing up that was one of my favorite meals

 

[RUGER]

Definately don't see them like I used to.

I always wanted to hunt them but just didn't have the patience to lay or sit there till they popped up.

 

[Hunter 257W]

Back in the day (1960's)my dad was a "professional" groundhog hunter..LOL.. he had a old mauser that had been re barreled to 22-250.. there is no telling how many hogs he killed that that rifle.. it had a fixed 10 power weaver scope..man it was the cats meow back then.. one time my dad shot one with his last bullet of the day.. but it grazed its head and it was only stunned.. dad went to get it and the groundhog started coming to its senses and tried to run back to its den.. dad took his rifle and clobbered it over the head with the barrel..LOL..at one time my uncle had probably 500 acres of row crops.. the hogs would eat a half acre circle of beans around their den.. my uncle put a $5 bounty on them and I went into the trapping business... my peterbilt would not hold the hogs I trapped... when the yotes showed up the hogs disappeared.. we have a few now but they are mainly in town or real close to someones house..

I remember those big half circle bare spots all along the edge of every bean field. And you can't get more classic varmint rifle than an old Mauser rebarreld to a hot 22 such as the 22-250 and a fixed scope. It makes me cringe to think of your Dad beating a wounded hog with it but I guess that's what gives rifles character, huh? I never got a bounty but I got the next best thing for a farm kid. I got to go hunt ground hogs as my "work" sometimes and that sure beat digging post holes or something else. Speaking of old Mausers, I have a custom Mauser 98 single shot receiver with a heavy 6mm Remington barrel on it. Too bad I got it after the groundhog population got so low. I now have a 22 Hornet, 218 Bee, 221 Fireball, 22-250, 220 Swift, 22 Cheetah MkI, the 6mm Rem and a 17 Remington that were all bought specifically for groundhogs but nothing to shoot them at. Cruel that I was born a bit too late - 1960 - by the time I got grown and able to afford my toys, all the target disappeared. haha Oh well, I still got my steel gong to whang away at.

I have noticed the same thing you have about hogs staying close to houses now. I think they know that coyotes avoid people at least to some degree.

Man, it is tempting though to set up and wait on that one hole I found out in my field during deer season this year. It's waaay out there and would be a real challenge to hit a head poking up over the rim.

 

[Hunter 257W]

I can honestly say that I've never seen one in the wild, and I've lived in TN my whole life (I'm 31).

Granted, I don't hunt fields all that much, nor do I live on a farm, so that obviously limits my opportunity.

My dad talked about shooting a few back in the 60's. I always wondered why they weren't around, but it makes sense that the coyotes were the ones that did them in.

Yeah, at 31 I'm not surprised that you haven't seen one. You probably didn't pay much attention to such things the 1st 10 years of your life so you really are talking about the past 20 or so years. They dropped really fast through the 1990's. I remember a lot of days when I started work in 1984, I would see how many I could count in the afternoon driving home from work. I would see several every day. Sometimes 5 or 6 or on a real good day 8 or 10. Now I almost stop my truck I get so excited when I see one.

 

[Hunter 257W]

Definately don't see them like I used to.

I always wanted to hunt them but just didn't have the patience to lay or sit there till they popped up.

It is definitely a different kind of hunting if you can call it hunting. It's more pure shooting really. I used to sit in the truck overlooking a field while drinking gatoraide and reading gun magazines. I'd look up every now and then and check out the field edges with binoculars. When I saw one, I'd get the rifle out and go to the sandbags already set up on the hood of the truck.

The other way to hunt them is more sporting and that is to stalk along field edges. I remember one in particular I stalked. We were coming home from church and drove by a bean field where a trophy hog was stealing beans. I got home and in my old clothes as fast as I could, grabbed my 22 Hornet and took off on foot. It was about 3/4 mile along the woods/field edge and I had some weeds for cover close to the hogs mound. I was almost too close by the time I could see him as he was staring straight ahead motionless obviously aware I was there. Just before he bolted I popped him with a 35 grain V-Max.

 

[Redfred16]

I seen a couple in a field in Hendersonville, across from the Blue Grass golf course, just the other day.

There's plenty of them in WI, never hunted them, but you'd see them on the side of the road alot.

 

[hunter0925]

I see them all the time and have chances to shoot them almost every year. I have killed several with a bow and 22 pistol a few years back. I usually just don't want to shoot them now.

 

[stik]

no shortage of them around here

 

[EastTNHunter]

We still have several around here too but they all moved to the sides of the roads

Yeah, if you wanna see something funny, drive up hwy 27 past Soddy Daisy, about a few hundred yards past the 111 split, there is a place where the hwy passes a bank just before Highwater Rd. This place looks like a groundhog hotel, with holes and little trails all over the place in the kudzu. It looks like several dozen live in this one spot.

I usually have a few take up residence in my yard every year and have to take them out. Let's just say that they can be very tough little critters.

 

[BowGuy84]

Went on a bachelor party 2 weeks ago to shoot skeet. It was a skeet range/vineyard. I spotted a hog out in this field, talked to one of the hands and he went and got permission for me to shoot it with a 22. Being the kind chap I am I gave the shot to the bachelor. He cocked the gun and went to trying to freehand it. He got appropriately scolded by me and then went to walking with the cocked gun. The hand promptly took the gun and that was the end of the hunt. I should have taken the reigns but I was trying to be nice.

 

[ROUGH COUNTRY HUNTER]

a lot around here

 

[Locksley]

Anybody here remember when we had Groundhogs? Surely there are a few serious groundhog hunters from the past here? I sure do miss those little miniature grizzlies as I used to call them. They look like a grizzly bear when standing up looking for danger. I grew up on a cattle farm with several alfalfa hay fields and all our pastures had clover mixed with the grass so groundhogs were everywhere. Surrounding farms always had soybeans too. I used to drive the tractor with one hand so I could carry a rifle. Never left the house without a rifle for years. I started out stalking with a 22Lr then graduated to centerfires. Both light weight "walking varminters" and heavy barrel guns for sitting in a fencerow watching huge fields.

Sadly I don't think those days will ever come back. Coyotes most of the hogs. Coyotes aren't going away and as such, I don't shoot the few groundhogs we have anymore. I could hunt coyotes but it's just not the same for a rifle shooter.

Coyotes ate all the groundhogs years ago.

 

[Locksley]

Coyotes ate all the Rabbits too.

 

[Bucks & Beards]

Quite a few in my section of Fayette Co.
Has anyone eaten one? I heard Grant Woods say the other day that they were delicious.

 

[woodchuckc]

I've got three of them in my front yard, digging burrows under the trees near my creek bank. I need to sit out in the yard with my 17HMR and take care of them, but dang they are wary! They can see me 100 yards away and off they go running full speed to their holes.

 

[Wobblyshot1]

Back in the 60s when I was a teen I bought a Savage model 65m 22 magnum from Ted's in Columbia for the specific purpose of hunting groundhogs. They were everywhere back then in Maury County and farmers nearly always gave use permission to hunt them....Man, those were shining times.

 

[woodswise]

I know I became a much better hunter when groundhogs were plentiful. I trained my eyes to scan the edges of fields trying to spot them and they were very good rifle practice when it came to estimating yardage in big bean fields where I hunted them most often. I had farmers that would often help pay for reloading supplies when I came to hunt because they would eat more beans than the shells cost easily. I had a circuit I would travel most evenings I had time that provided a great time outdoors. I took some time last summer and traveled some of those same routes and never spotted a single whistle pig. I guess the coyote invasion took them out. You'd be surprised how good they were barbecued!

 

[TNPredator]

Ok, lets open this forum and get some chatter going.

I propose that we put our heads together and find where we all can find predators to hunt in the area that you live in and share/pair up on hunts.

I'm in N.E. TN, Carter Co, around Johnson City, Elizabethton, Kingsport - all within 20 miles of me. I hunt Ground Hogs, Coyotes, Bobcat, Skunks, Oppossum, Raccoon and that's ALL I hunt.
I have a .17HMR rifle that I use from 50-300 yds with a kill ratio of 4 out of 5 kills.
WHERE do i find critters (in season) to hunt. I'm retired and have all the time in the world to setup near a site and hunt different areas for weeks.
Oh, I need a partner for some coyote hunts to switch off 'spotting' and shooting.

Now, you know where I live, what I'm looking for. Lets hear from the rest of you where you live and
what you want to hunt for. Do you have any sites available, know someone that might want some predators taken out...