Contributors to this thread:
Who hunts these suckers with a bow during the summer? Not the ones under your porch I mean goes to a farm for the purpose of hunting. Eat them? I miss hunting them, tough little buggers
I try to kill at least one every summer with my recurve. It’s a tough task as they wise up fast after the hay is mowed. My shots range between 20-70 yards. My personal best kill was about 55 yards. They almost always stop right at the edge of their hole before they bail in and that’s usually when I take my shot as that’s the end of my “stalk”.
I usually put the bow away after a couple days and get out the .22 the farmer appreciates me killing as many as I can.
I’ve eaten groundhog at wild game feeds when I was a kid and they were ok from what I remember but I’ve never tried cooking one myself.
Used to hunt them a lot as a kid and teenager with bows and .22s... Good luck shinning them, they are the toughest animal I ever skinned... Was told young ones are edible but the young one I tried to eat was inedible... Later learned they have 11 different glands on her body that must be removed to be edible but didn't know that at the time...
I've managed to kill a few with my bow. They are tough to get a shot on. I have the best success before the soybeans get too tall. When I'm helping out a farmer, I resort to using a .22-250.
My neighbor has 500 acres of soy beans and when they come up I kill some groundhogs. I kill a lot with a handgun. Did kill one last year in my neighbor's garden. I was riding my gator and a ground hog ran across the garden. I had my Baretta 9 MM and killed the running groundhog with the fifth shot. My neighbor said he heard five shots and normally only hears me shoot once. I told him hitting a running ground hog with a hand gun with 3" barrel is tough. Haven't been up to any hunting this summer. Being 82 years old has slowed me down and my wife has been feeling poorly.
Best wishes for you wife Lex... and you too. Had a rough one this winter myself (small intestine blockage).. we don't bounce back like we used to. And you got 5 years on me. Hang in there .
I found them pretty tough to sneak up on with a bow.
Got a big one hanging under my stack of logs... He's a wild one, I'll get a shot someday. Using a .22... he's too damn wary.
The best Bowhunting practice there is… eyes are great they smell ya and react….and great fun too…
Yeah, best wishes to your wife Lex... Take care sir...
"I found them pretty tough to sneak up on with a bow"
I'm like you Doug, sometimes they are aware of you without even seeing you and once you expose your head to locate where they're at, they're gone...
Now I don't know how true it is but one guy told me they can wind you... Don't know how good their sense of smell is (all rodents for that matter) but I kinda agree with that because I've seen tree squirrels smell a nut a few inched away plausibly checking for ripeness... I searched the internet trying to learn if a groundhogs can smell a human upwind, but was unable to confirm that...
Wanted to add, there used to be a biologist (or in that field) that visited here or the LeatherWall that specialized in groundhogs and how I learned about the 11 glands... It's been a few years now so I don't remember his name or handle, I wish I would have saved it to my files...
Shot with a 22 pistol.
Shot with a 22 pistol.
Here is one I shot with a 22 pistol.
When I was a teenager and a young man I hunted them relentlessly with my bow. Growing up there were very few deer around so I honed my stalking skills on groundhogs. I stalked one once across a plowed field and then killed him ina field ofgreens at 10 yards with my longbow. Lots of good times.
