As far as the numbers being down: If there are coyotes in the area that's one reason. One area I hunt we could shoot about 12 -15 hogs each outting, last summer we saw a coyote loping off the hill to the field, he systematically checked each hole in the field at a slow lope.The numbers in that field last summer were WAY DOWN! Another reason may be the food supply.
As far as a call< a friend of mine suggested using a mouse squeaker to get them to stand up, I'm a whistle kinda guy and the short whistle works. The short quick squeak of the mouse squeaker works as well(about 80% of the time) to make them stand up, I can't say for sure that a call can make them come out of a hole though.
Chucks and groundhogs are very social/curious creatures and their nose gets them in trouble /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif...BANG/FLOP.
