I think that he lives under a porch. It is furry and the size of a big cat.
- posted
13 years ago
I think that he lives under a porch. It is furry and the size of a big cat.
I'd have to skin it to be sure but it looks like a woodchuck, or a baby windigo.
jsw
Groundhog (woodchuck).
...
Aka ground hog. If you have a vegetable garden, you'd better have, or get, a fence. Or a dog. Or a gun.
Bob
Yep, it is a woodchuck. Thanks to all. Is that generally a bad animal or not?
i
I tried eating squirrel, it was disgusting. I prefer chicken.
i
I remember that you said that. You just need better recipes. d8-)
As for whether it's a "bad animal," the biggest problem they cause is that they dig some God-awful holes and tunnels. If he's living under your porch (is that what I read?), expect his main hole to be somewhere under there. Look for a little hill of dirt alongside the hole. Then there may be another hole into the tunnel, if he's had enough time to dig it.
I have a lot of them; they dig up into the dirt floor of my garage. I also have a huge, single-ended Havahart trap that I use to catch them. Bait with a slice of apple. Then I haul them to a county park where the local animal-control people told me to take them. There must be a 'chuck every 10 feet in that park.
If you're thinking about shooting them with your air rifle, I'd advise against it. They are remarkably tough and difficult to kill. A .22 Long Rifle is considered inadequate, except with a head shot.
I've killed well over 200 of them, with centerfire .22-caliber varmint rifles. In fact, woodchucks are the target which many of those wildcat cartridges were designed for.
They like to do a LOT of burrowing. Terrible if they get under a concrete slab. And they multiply like rabbits.
I got a whole bunch started in my barn once. My local Cenex dealer loaned me the anhydrous ammonia nurse tank. One shot of that in the hole, and I had no life in the whole barn. I had to run out with my eyes closed and not breath, its so toxic.
Karl
--Where's home? This reminds me of an episode of a TV show called "Late Night with Dave Attell" where he works the night shift with a guy who shoots these critters from the back of a pickup truck in a town that's overrun with them. Seen any more of 'em about?
AKA "varmint". One pretty much cleared an acre of soybeans by himself in a couple of days. Nothing left, right down to the ground. Also burrows into dikes, levies, stream banks and chews up drainage tile. Those with pastures hate them because they leave holes that the animals break legs in. Only good thing they do is be food for coyotes, they don't tend to snack on household pets so much with a diet of groundhog. One of the in-laws found that with proper timing, all that's needed is a size 14 steel-toed boot. Also see "Rodenator". They also carry all the diseases and fleas that other rodents have, including plague.
Stan
They have a huge wet-food-filled gut that absorbs a .22 bullet. When they run away from you that's the only target.
jsw
I cannot use anything bigger (louder) than .22.
Sounds like havahart is the way to go.
i
Yeah, if you break their bladder (urine or gall), it'll taint the meat. The urinary bladder on a rabbit is extremely thin. I think swamp rabbits and cottontails eat fine. And if it isn't a "blue boy", just fry it. Old rabbits with well used muscle tissue are a dark purple color (hence blue boy), and just about require pressure cooking or long cooking times. Same for most other critters, the young ones taste better. I've eaten raccoon and armadillo, never possum. Too greasy. And I won't eat armadillo any more since a certain percentage carry leprosy.
Pete Keillor
If you trap and release a young one, and his mother is still around, she will whistle him back -- sometimes from a couple of miles away.
You really have to move them out.
Make sure it's a BIG one. They don't like to be crowded. I have a 1079, which also is good for trapping stray cats and raccoons. You can get away with one that's slightly smaller.
Or, if you have a tablesaw, find a plan for a wooden box trap online and make it a project with your son. My son was about 9 or 10 when we made one. He loved it. He caught four or five squirrels with it and was the big man of the neighborhood.
Unfortunately, chucks don't seem to like wooden traps with solid sides. I made ours with slatted sides, having been through that before. It worked fine on chucks but it was a lot of ripping with the tablesaw. I screwed it together with deck screws and it held up for years. Then someone gave me the Havahart and that's what I use now.
a few weeks ago i came across a dead rabbit on the road. he was still warm. i brought him home and did a google search on how to gut and skin a rabbit. i was afraid i'd be too disgusted to do it but i did do it, wasn't as bad as i feared (was afraid i'd be so disgusted i'd vomit and not be able to finish). somehow it reminded me of processing a mango. well, so, i followed the directions i found on-line. the guy said to boil it for an hour or two. did. i found the meat to have a disgusting aroma. i couldn't get myself to even put a tiny bit in my mouth to taste it. my hands (and all the utensils, pots, etc.) were INFUSED with that same disgusting aroma (from the fat/oil of the rabbit) it took HOURS for that smell to fade from my hands. i was afraid "what, if i've got this disgusting smell INFUSED into my skin just touching it i can't imagine what it'll be like to put it inside me". was a shame to let that meat (and effort) to go to waste but i buried the meat in my garden. i wondered if perhaps it might've been due to some internal organ being crushed and it's fluids expelled into the rabbit. i wonder if ordinarily rabbit meat is as palatable "as chicken".
i'd like to see ed's woodchuck recipe. i've got lots of woodchucks. (and yes, i put a fence around my garden after one of the early years having a woodchuck DEVASTATE my young brussels sprouts and broccoli plants. that's when i learned crucifers are EXCELLENT woodchuck bait for my havahart trap.
b.w.
Actually... you can if you only shoot (1) time.
Seldom is a single gunshot reported, or even noted.
Go out and lift your hood on your vehicle, then get out the ordinance, aim well and fire a single shot.
Anyone who is interested enough will see the hood up on your vehicle and think it was a back fire..
Unless someone actually sees you with a weapon...most places its the last thing they think of when they hear a Bang.
I worked an investigation many years ago, where a guy sucked on the end of his Garand, while sitting in his backyard. The only way it was noticed was the string of vultures that were landing and taking off from the wood fenced back yard , in a well built up housing tract.
That was a rather grim scene, made a few of the duputies barf really good. Buzzards have rather unseemly dining habits.....shrug. And the guy had been dead about 5 days in the California heat.....
On the other hand...."sound deadning devices" can be fabricated quickly and easily from a host of disposable consumer items and used for a couple shots.
The 2 liter bottle taped to the end of a 22lr is one of the most common.
Gunner
One could not be a successful Leftwinger without realizing that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of Leftwingers, a goodly number of Leftwingers are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid. Gunner Asch
All of my guns are far louder than really is sensible for the situation. Plus the ricochet issue in a suburb. I do not own a .22.
I visited a gun dealer recently and saw no .22 rifles cheaper than $200, WTF?
Anyway, I have a 1000 fps air rifle, which works great against squirrels (really great!), but it looks like it is not enough for this woodchuck.
ijsw
The last time I trapped a raccoon in the shop and took him for a ride it took him two busses and a taxi to get back three days later.
A reminder about live traps - rig a remote release in case it traps something you don't want ... like a skunk. :-)
Wayne
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.