wood chuck

[Bill]

Shot a wood chuck yesterday, have not seen any around the farm for five years. Coyotes left this one slip by, also caught a skunk in my life trap this AM.
Bill

[Don McCombs]

Get em, Bill.

[tnestell]

Shot a wood chuck yesterday, have not seen any around the farm for five years. Coyotes left this one slip by, also caught a skunk in my life trap this AM.
Bill

What kind of bait were you using in the trap?

[Barnyard]

[SONNY]

It's that time of year again! ----kill them suckers before they multiply!

[v w]

It's that time of year again! ----kill them suckers before they multiply!

Too late. Mother chuck decided to have a litter under my barn. Shot two young ones, shot mama. Got two young ones in "live" trap. Have one young one to go. I don't even close the holes under the barn anymore because the next chuck digs a new one. I don't like killing animals but will not have them living under my barn. I say they committed sucicide. (sp wrong but I'm not going to look up correct) Vern

[Bill]

Shot a wood chuck yesterday, have not seen any around the farm for five years. Coyotes left this one slip by, also caught a skunk in my life trap this AM.
Bill

What kind of bait were you using in the trap?

I buy the cheapest hot dogs and cut them in pieces, skunks like them. For wood chucks a cut up apple, for raccoons we use miniature
marsh mellows. It is a job to keep ahead of them.
Bill

[Don McCombs]

I use cantaloupe for groundhogs. Works fairly well.
Sardines for raccoons. Works very well.

[Bill]

skunk.jpg

I hope that is a stuffed animal, or you have more guts than me.
Bill

[Urbish]

I had a Conibear 220 body trap set up and staked at the entrance to a woodchuck burrow under my wood pile. I had been checking it daily for weeks and one day the trap was GONE. I looked around the area and didn't see any evidence indicating which way it went. A few days went by before I picked up a smell. Searching the wooded hillside 50 yards away, I found a very large woodchuck with the trap clamped it on its head. Not a nice way to go, but I'm glad I finally got it and got my trap back!

[Lt.Mike]

Been battling woodchucks for years. There’s two reasons I don’t tolerate their presence. First you can put weeks of work into a vegetable garden and all you need is for one to get into the garden to clean you out in one day. Second and more serious is I get them digging under my barns concrete slab. Without support the slab will crack. They can ruin a foundation this way.
I use apple myself in my cage traps which works well for me because we have apple trees. It’s what their used to eating and expect it.
I’ve loaned traps out and for some of those I’ve lent them too cantaloupe is the go to bait.
When I trap them they are transported to s forest area at least 5 miles away. If I’m not using my pickup I always put cardboard under the trap because these things stink, they’re nasty.
If they don’t go in the trap I figure they skipped the easy choice so if I can draw a bead on them they go bye byes feet up.

[tnestell]

Woodchucks, I use a 22-250 with a 12 power scope on a bi-pod. Reaches out well over 300 yards. Makes them explode.

[Don McCombs]

I'm quite successful using a Conibear for groundhogs. You do need to place them in their entrance hole, however. I've never had one go farther than the 8 foot chain that's attached to the trap.

[ScottyD'sdad]

I learned a trick from a city slicker oman co worker, years ago. She was cleaning her bathroom, using ammonia and bleach. Darn near kilt her. She was in intensive care for a week. So, I use it to gas woodchuck holes. A piece of garden hose, and a funnel. Push the hose as far into the hole as you can. Block the hole with dirt, and block the exit hole. Pour about a cup full of bleach and ammonia (Separately, don't mix them outside of the hole) Pull the hose and step on the hole it left, to seal it. If the rodent is home, he's done.

Ed

[Peter Person]

Woodchucks, I use a 22-250 with a 12 power scope on a bi-pod. Reaches out well over 300 yards. Makes them explode.

Back in the 1950's my Dad had agreements with several dairy farmers in the Catskills to hunt woodchucks on their hillside pastures. He handloaded 22 Hornet rounds, experimenting with different bullets and powders. Found a notebook that he had used to record date, time, weather, distance, and load info. He was having fun and the farmers didn't have to worry about cows breaking legs as much. Win-Win!

Got my one and only woodchuck at my grandparents with a 22LR with open sights when I was about 10. Critter was cleaning out their vegetable garden and my grandfather was not a happy man. Woodchuck rose up on its hindquarters and went down on its back.