Working on groundhogs here in Central Virginia

wahoowad

wahoowad

Member
Hi folks. Thought I'd share a few pics of my garden preservation activities in Albemarle and Greene counties. I have a number of landowners who have given me shooting access to their lands in return for thinning out their groundhog populations. I'm finding most of the groundhogs around their personal gardens rather than out in their hay fields and cow pastures.

edit - Whooops, just saw the graphic picture policy so I had to remove the good stuff. Well...hope you enjoy the pretty views and that nobody finds them offensive.

edit2 - OK, after seeing some pictures posted the last few days I think mine are in line with what others are posting so I'm adding them back in.

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Wahoowad,

Welcome! Wonderful pictures and scenery. Can you share with us about your rifle , caliber and what ammo you're using? It looks like an air rifle? It looks like all head shots as well!
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Nice shooting and thanks for posting.

Eric
 
Hey,

Welcome to the forums. Nice going on the groundhogs. Tell us about your groundhog-whopping equipment.
 
Welcome! Id like to hear about the tools of your trade also. Virginia looks alot like the mountians of western Arkansas where Im from. I wish they would lets us hunt chucks here. We can't, they are no season for them here so they are protected. But we got plenty of armadillo though!!!! I guess they are kinda like a hard shelled ground hog!
 
Congrats and welcome to the site, I'm up near Richmond we went out today and took 7 out of the 9 we saw today at a new farm I picked up in Louisa County. Keep after them they can really do some damage to a garden.
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Hi guys, thanks for the warm welcome! Just got home from an early evening scouting trip. No shots but learned my landowner lost a goat to a coyote...hmmm...

Equipment wise I have been whopping them with airguns this year. I'm currently shooting a FX Whisper that I charge from a scuba tank. Most of my shooting territory offers shots from 20 to 100 yards, most have been around 50. So my airgun has done great on them. I try to take well placed headshots and have killed around 12 the past 6 weeks. A lot of pups, not as many big fat adults.

Marco - I wish we had armadillo! Do you shoot them?
 
wahoowad, I shoot them all the time my .243 and with a 60HP they make a nice red mist!! Pop some wth my 22mag and HMR too. They are nasty critters.
 
Originally Posted By: wayneghhunterCongrats and welcome to the site, I'm up near Richmond we went out today and took 7 out of the 9 we saw today at a new farm I picked up in Louisa County. Keep after them they can really do some damage to a garden.
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Wayne,

7 out of 9 sounds great! My best day this year was 6. Where did you find them? Out in open fields? Close to fence rows? Open pasture or in some crops?

I don't have a lot of crop land near me, pretty much all the farms are cow/horse pasture or hayfields.
 
Wahoowad,

Where in Virginia are you located?

I'm with you, 7 out of 9 sounds great. The numbers are down back my way and I'll be lucky to see 4 or 5 in an evening.
 
The ones we took on Monday were in a soybean fields planted a week or two ago. I also find them in pastures,alfalfa fields,hay fields and along fence lines devideing these fields. Look along hedge rows and wood lines that devide fields also. I hunt around Hanover,Louisa and Gouchland counties are you East or West of
Charlottesville. Right now the beans I'm hunting are the ones planted in the last month once there too tall all you can do is hunt the edges hopeing to catch them makeing their way into the field. I would like to find more pastures so when the beans are too tall I could still get some shooting in. I tend to find more holes along the hedgerows,wood lines and along fences around here not as many holes in the fields as there use to be.
 
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Good to see some more Virginian's here! I'm in Spotsylavia and hunt mostly down south in Northumberland County. I need to find a few farmer in my area that could use a hand to cut down on the commute.

Eric
 
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