After Work Hunt

[longislandhunter]

After work grabbed the .22 350 Magnum and headed for the duck farm. My plan was to set up in a good sniping location and wait out the fat G-hog I saw the other day. Well, when I got there some of the employees were working near the grassy field the G-hog calls home so I knew he wasn't coming out today, not with the workers out and about anyway, so I decided to take a slow walk around the perimeter of the farm and see if I could find some other targets.

I was working through a small wooded section and suddenly heard something running through the dry underbrush. I looked just in time to catch a glimpse of another healthy G-hog dashing through the brush for his burrow. He was a beautiful specimen, nice size, healthy, and what really struck me was he wasn't really brown in color but more of a burnt cinnamon color,,, a really attractive coat ! Anyway, no shot was possible but at least I now know where 2 G-hogs are calling home ;)

I spent the rest of my time taking some shots at starlings as they landed in a group of trees near my truck, but there was a stiff wind raging across the farm and I cleanly missed every bird I shot at. Had a good time though. The other promising sign I saw besides the G-hog was that the starlings are actively seeking out nesting cavities in all the old growth tree at the farm. Won't be long now till I have resident nesting birds to target. :)

Jeff

JEFF,at least you know that there are som G-hogs waiting for you,I am going out toward Yaphank with my Panther & Tanya,I hope I find something..........Just in case I have a few soda cans that I could kill..LOL!

[longislandhunter]

Go getem Joe :)

I know there are G-hogs in those woods. Just look closely,,,, they blend in rather well. :)

Jeff

[only1harry]

Don't worry Jeff, you 'll get those groundhogs sooner or later.  You 'll definitely find them again in the afternoon on a nice sunny day.  

I have shot a couple of cinammon colored ones with the .22LR before I got the 350.  I know one of them was a female because I had seen her come out with her smaller offspring.  I waited a couple of months until the smaller one was almost her size and could take care of itself  and then I took her with a 40gr Winchester X .22LR.  She was massive.  Easily 13-14lbs, maybe more.  Then last summer another cinnamon one appeared and took that out as well just before I bought the 350 and started using it exclusively on them.  
The cinnamon ones look semi-pretty if a groundhog ever looked good to anyone I guess..  You can see all the fur on them when they move or run more distinctly than the darker brown/gray ones.  They even seem to have a longer-hair fur than the darker colored ones but that could be an illusion.  They sure are a worthy and challenging quarry, not just trying to get a clear shot at them from a reasonable distance, but to bring them down quickly with a single pellet before they run down the hole is also not an easy task.

Funny you should mention the off-color g'hog, Jeff.

The other day, my Dad told me that he'd seen an almost golden tan groundhog while he was taking his daily walk (Dad, not the g'hog) over to a nearby pond. One of the houses along the road where he walks has a "Groundhog Crossing" sign at the edge of the front yard. The whistle-pig was shuffling around in the woods beside the house, and that's where Dad noticed the odd color. Sounds like that home-owner likes to have 'em around.

Bryan

[longislandhunter]

I'm gonna set my sights on this cinnamon G-hog.  I've never bothered to tan out a G-hog hide, but I would if I can bag this guy. The good thing about this hog is that he made his den on the edge of a wooded patch.  There are numerous places for me to position myself just inside the woodline and have a clear shot around his burrow.  This G-hogs days on the duck farm are numbered !!  :)

Jeff  

Jeff,

How do you go about tanning a hide?  I'm interested in tanning a hare hide or 2 next winter....  I've read a bunch of methods, but I'm interested in the specifics you use (so many ways seem rooted in voodoo and tradition, you strike me as a fellow who'd have a simple, minimum fuss method....)

J

[tat2dman]

When I was a kid my Dad use to home tan,he`d just flesh the pelt real well,stretch it hide side out,salt it and leave it in the sun,,seem to work as I remember? :o

[tat2dman]

The piggies are stirrin here to,but a little slow,,,kinda look drunk,the 1`s I`ve saw fairly close

[longislandhunter]

Hey Jason,,,,

I basically do just what Barry said,,,,, I scrape all the meat and flesh off the hide, stretch it out really well, salt it down - rubbing the salt into the hide, and let it cure. I've found if I do this it works our realy well and the hides retain their shape, display well and there's no unpleasant odor. There are also commercial tanning kits you can buy, but I've never used one. Might be interesting to try one one of these days though.......

Jeff

One of the more interesting uses for groundhog hides was/is for the skin head on an Appalachian banjo:

http://www.bobandrosemusic.com/pics/product2.jpg

Traditionally it was either g'hog skin or cats, whichever was the more convenient. I suspect in almost all cases, the hair was removed in the process of tanning it.

Bryan

[only1harry]

with my camera that is :-)  Him and I played cat and mouse for about an hour.  See pic below - zoomed in all the way (20X digital zoom I think).
 
I couldn't get the right angle at him to take a good head/neck shot with my 350 .22 the way I wanted it.  He was either at an extreme angle or showed me his butt most of the time as the picture shows.  His head turning like that didn't last too long and I didn't want to shoot from that angle.  He seemed to have spotted me a couple of times and ran down the hole under my shed which is only about 4-5ft away from where he 's positioned in the pic.  That was another thing that made me wait.  I wanted him at least a good 20ft away from that hole but the grass was green there and was going to town..  
This guy was BIG.  Probably the biggest I 've seen in a couple of years.  I would guess 15-17lbs.  His head was massive and looked very fat for early spring.  This guy was a little intimidating.  Groundhogs never stop to get my adrenalin going and the heart pumping :)  I was starting to have 2nd thoughts if the 350 could take him out with 1 shot especially because I don't have a scope and he was almost 30yds out.  All the previous ones I got with the 350 last year I used a scope before the 350 decided to trash it.  I have taken squirrels out to 30yds with head shots but something was telling me to wait until my Bushy Legend 5x15 arrives and get the gun tuned before I take a crack at this big guy again.  Shot placement is a lot more crucial with these animals than squirrels, rabbits or anything else I have ever shot with an airgun.  I could not see his ear from 30yds out and that bothered me and I didn't want to guess..  
   
I hesitated a couple of times but after about an hour of trying to stay out of sight, he suddenly turned and faced me still eating with head down.  I decided at that moment to go for a frontal head shot since he presented me with a nice 3.5-4" target, from what I could tell - the diameter of his skull.  Then all of a sudden as I was ready to squeeze the trigger he he stood up (very tall I might add) and looked up at me and got spooked.  The main reason he spooked was not me because I was not moving a muscle and he had looked at me before but with their poor vision they probably think it's a window fixture or something as long as you don't move.  It was the kids across the street that had come out to play on the street making a lot of noise with an old skate board.  At that point the jumpy-as-usual G-hog decided it was too hot to hang around even though the kids were 45-50yds away.  He ran at half speed 25-30yds just over the edge of my property to the neighbor's where he disappeared into the ground.  So now I know where his real burrow is.  I don't think his home in on my property.  I think he just moved in to the greenest spot he could find and is familiar with the holes on my property which he uses to escape or hide in case I show my face at a window :)  It's interesting how they check the sky out as well for predatory birds because they 're usually one of their main predators.  Anyway, I 'm patient.  This guy will be around for at least 6 more months and I 'm sure he has friends and family in the area that would be willing to taste my green grass and some lead if I 'm lucky :)

[longislandhunter]

That's a great pic !! Big G-hog for sure. Sounds like you have a cunning quarry to stalk :)

I'll be looking forward to a pic of him lying next to the 350 magnum :)

Jeff

[only1harry]

Well it's over 60deg. today and very quiet in the neighborhood.  Still no groundhog.  I 'm hoping he 'll make his appearance later in the afternoon because I rarely see them out of their hole before 2pm.  The only time I 've seen them out feeding in the morning is when it's 75-80deg and very humid.  

A big house cat walked and stood right where the groundhog was standing just a few min. ago.  He is a big male like my mom's cat and look almost identical - the ones that are red/orange.  Well he looked much smaller than the groundhog standing there on the same spot, although the cat is slightly longer, the G-Hog was much wider and with a bigger head, I 'd say 30-40% larger head on the G-hog.  The cat then was straight to the G-Hog's hole in my backyard and stood over it sniffing it and staring at it.  Now I got an even better picture of how big this groundhog is because he stood there a couple of days ago before he deciding to get in it.  I was amazed how he dwarfs this big cat!

1:30pm.  Time to check the windows again.  They 're all open now - airing out the house :-)  There 's no escape!

Harry, where in N.Y. are you?