OT what is this strange animal in our backyard

I think that he lives under a porch. It is furry and the size of a big cat.

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i

Reply to
Ignoramus13320
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I'd have to skin it to be sure but it looks like a woodchuck, or a baby windigo.

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rec.garden won't have me.

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Groundhog (woodchuck).

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I have a recipe for woodchuck in sour cream, from the old Gourmet magazine, should you need it.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

...

Aka ground hog. If you have a vegetable garden, you'd better have, or get, a fence. Or a dog. Or a gun.

Bob

Reply to
Bob Engelhardt

Yep, it is a woodchuck. Thanks to all. Is that generally a bad animal or not?

i
Reply to
Ignoramus13320

I tried eating squirrel, it was disgusting. I prefer chicken.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus13320

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.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

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

Reply to
Karl Townsend

--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?

Reply to
steamer

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

Reply to
stans4

They have a huge wet-food-filled gut that absorbs a .22 bullet. When they run away from you that's the only target.

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bought the small + medium set last year to trap a similar-sized possum. That is a decent price and they were made well enough to work without binding, after a little tweaking of the release. The wire handles need padding, my hand hurt after marching it a few miles out into the woods to release it. It didn't come back.

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

I cannot use anything bigger (louder) than .22.

Sounds like havahart is the way to go.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus13320

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

Reply to
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.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

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.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

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.

Reply to
William Wixon

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

Reply to
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.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus13320

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bought the small + medium set last year to trap a similar-sized possum. That is a decent price and they were made well enough to work without binding, after a little tweaking of the release. The wire handles need padding, my hand hurt after marching it a few miles out into the woods to release it. It didn't come back.

jsw

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.

Reply to
Buerste

A reminder about live traps - rig a remote release in case it traps something you don't want ... like a skunk. :-)

Wayne

Reply to
wmbjkREMOVE

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