Funny Story

[rickhem]

Woke up the other day and made myself coffee, then got ready to take a shower. When just about ready to hop in the shower, I looked out a window and saw a really big groundhog out by my garage. OK, shower can wait now. Got my .22 and a couple rounds of the Yellow Jacket ammo I found in a box of old stuff, snuck out on the front porch, and let him have it. Far enough away to hear the round hit and it made quite the thud. When he stopped moving around, I hit him again, then put the rifle away. When I went out to move it down to a lower area where the vultures could spot it, it wasn't there. After a minute of searching, I saw it under my car, still not done. That's one tough old whistle pig. So back inside, grab a Model 10 I have and some wadcutters. Drove my car up a bit so he wasn't under it anymore, then positioned myself so the pass-thru would go down towards the fields below the house. One wadcutter was all that was needed. As soon as I shot, I was walking back towards my car, and I hear our driveway alarm from inside the house, and turned to see our mail lady driving down the driveway. Now mind you, I'm only wearing boxer briefs through all this, and I know she had to watch me take that last shot. I quick ran inside and put on some sweats and a tee shirt, then came back out. She was walking right past the deceased groundhog, carrying some packages, and commented something like "one less of those to worry about". She never batted an eye, or said anything else about what she saw though.
I'm sure that made for a good story later that day back at the post office.

And as an addition, I ended up with four bald eagles and a golden eagle all out on the grass behind the house eating it later. The bald eagles all kept their distance while the golden ate, it was a much bigger bird than the bald eagles. Just like the vultures keep distance while the bald eagles eat.

[Ernie]

Living out of sight of the neighbors allows some liberties. I locked myself out of the house once while in my boxers. Fortunately I had a window cracked open and got back in and only had to repair a screen.

[daytime dave]

Those groundhogs are tough. Good story.

[The Wiz]

Are groundhogs a nuisance? A city boy asking.

[rickhem]

Are groundhogs a nuisance? A city boy asking.

For me, they tunnel their burrows under one of my garages, (that I know of) and I have had them tunneling under both my front and back porch. Then we get skunks and possums and who knows what using those borrows. One old gray face one was coming up onto the front porch and gnawing on the posts for the porch, and on the wooden rocking chairs that we have out there. I left a trail camera on the deck boards and got him doing it repeatedly on the videos. That really got my GF pissed, since her family is who gave us those rockers when we first bought the place. He chewed up the legs and rockers on a few of them. She wanted me to take every one I trapped, and drop the trap in the pond. And that one that we caught on camera doing the chewing looked amazingly like one that I did trap and took down into the woods to release. I still have box traps out, but if I see them out roaming around, I take other action.
I have a culvert going under the driveway, it's about 75-80 yards away from the house. As long as they're on the other side of that, they get a pass. Same if they're down past where I cut the grass. But up near the garages, or by the house or the garden, and they're persona non grata. Possums eat mice and bugs, which is OK by me, and the skunks really aren't all that prevalent, but they get shooed away whenever possible. The groundhog is like a giant mouse or rat, in that they can eat a lot of things that you don't want them eating. I also don't want subterranean places next to my foundation collecting water, especially with the cold winters we get here.
So in general, yeah, they're considered a pest or a nuisance.

[cooperhawk]

When I was a lad on the farm something was killing our domestic ducks. It bit their head off and drank the blook. Turned out it was woodchucks, or ground hogs. I shot them and that ended it.
When varmint hunting was my sport in Virginia I have seen 100 acre dairy pastures eaten down to the roots and the farmer had not let his cattle in there all year. The ground hogs were eating all the grass. We shot ground hogs in there all Summer. There were hundreds.
When we lived there we had horses. Groundhogs will dig a large deep den in the pasture for the horses to step in and break a leg.

Yup, they're a problem.

Here in our woods there are a couple. I leave them alone and they leave me alone. Otherwise..............

[GFK]

Yes, an interesting story. I haven't walked outside with boxers yet. I guess the neighbors are not too close. Must be nice. Oh, good shooting!