Warming up a little so I decided to head out with my Jack Kempf T/D and do some roving/stump shooting and hopefully run into a few woodchucks.

Good luck. I came up on one while on the quad the other day. I swear that thing stood 2 feet tall, one of the biggest wood chucks I think I've ever seen.

I killed one with my Chevy on the way home from work today.

In our area they're very rare these days the coyotes have reaked havoc on their population.

How are they to eat?

The young ones are good to eat, much like squirrel. The older ones take a bit more work.

i love hunting them. They are good practice

I hunted them a lot when I was living and working in Pike County Ohio.

Places in the Scioto.River bottoms were loaded with them then.

My dog is doing better than me this year

He has gotten 3 so far me0

They're pretty good eating, depending how long it's been since the car hit them. Nothing to rival a raccoon, of course, but still pretty good.

Riverwolf,

I believe we went through this a year ago.

You deny coyotes having impacted groundhog population when it is clearly so. The farm I hunt has not sprayed, cut, cleared, poisoned, or done anything detrimental to the groundhog. As far as other critters killing them off, I highly doubt it. Maybe foxes but not enough to make a difference. I witnessed an epic battle where I thought the hog would kill the fox.

Several years ago we went from hearing an occasional howl to a regular nighttime serenade. Every hunter and outdoors person around here noticed the influx of coyotes.

I saw it in groundhogs. Dens that were productive for 30 years were dormant. Road kills were far fewer. I went from killing a dozen a year to a few or even zero. No doubt about it, the coyote is the reason for hog numbers declining in my area.

Good eating is of course a subjective term. :) We ate them when I was a youngun, food was food then and not to be turned down lest you get really hungry. Fact here is we have a lot more squirrels than we do groundhogs and they are better eating too. Whistlepigs are relatively scarce around here because the farmers keep them thinned; dairy and beef men don't care for having to put down a cow with a broken leg, so they keep the hogs thinned and the holes filled. We have small farms around here in this small valley so they need all the usable land they can get to eke out a living, much less prosper. If you eat it or wear it, you need to thank a farmer, especially the family farms.

Firstly, nature would be even more precarious if one carnivore could completely wipe out its prey. It really doesn't happen that way since nature understands balance better than anyone or anything. It will balance itself. The trouble comes when reasoning humans stick their superior brains and giant egos into the situation and screw things up.

I'm no expert but can tell you we have a lot more Coyotes and a lot less Ground Hogs.

Over the years you notice populations of various species rise and fall, it's nature achieving balance as George said. Currently where I am there are a lot of coyotes, and not as many groundhogs as some years. Fewer squirrels now, too, of all the 3 species that we have. But a few years ago there were squirrels everywhere. So far, in close to 40 years, nothing has disappeared, populations just go up and down. But it's very undeveloped by humans where I am, knock on wood.

I ate a lot of them over the years. My dad head shot them with a model 70 220 swift, and my mom new how to cook wild game. I bought a 40x rem 22-250, with a 20 power unertle scope from Hornick's in Johnstown,PA, and 4 of brothers had the same kind of rigs. We killed many a hog over the years, but never hunted them with a bow which would be fun. We enjoyed long distance shooting for the challenge.

I use to hunt them in the summer on a horse farm across the road from me with a 220 swift as well. One summer I shot 243. I was nothing to kill 3-4 each evening. I haven’t done it in years. May have to get back at it.

There are many billions of us on this planet. As a broad generalization it has become a giant farm.

Back when I had private farms to hunt and the farmers wanted the groundhogs gone I used to hunt them with hand guns...in those days Illinois didn't let you hunt very much with a handgun. I used to sit and wait near holes...I used to shoot them a long way off across open fields and I stalked them along hay field edges.

I wasn't bow hunting at the time. If I had access to a huntable populations now I'd get after them with the bow.

A few years ago we had a bunch. I was trapping them at work and I had to trap one at home after they dug all the dirt out from under my garage...I don't know what's holding it up. LOL

I haven't seen any activity at home or work in several years.

Fly larvae, minks, and buzzards killing groundhogs!?

We mere humans don't stand a chance!

I can't remember any time in my life that I have been hungry enough to share the cuisine of fly larvae. I'm spoiled, I guess.

Why do humans get blamed for everything that happens?

I've hunted ground hogs my entire life.

I grew up on a farm and hunted hogs and now hunt the farm right behind my house for hogs. The farmers always appreciate it.

They are a lot smarter than people give them credit for.

Here is a youngster I walked right up to and could've picked up if I were brave enough or stupid enough.

Ground hogs will rip you a new o ring if you fool with them.

ROFLMAO!

I grew up eating all kinds of critters. My Italian mom made everything we brought home, including woodchucks and racoons. Cooked properly they are great eating.

Some here blaming yotes. My theory is that yotes and possums will walk on our graves.

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