The Dirt wrote:
Late-breaking updates:
Dirtman 9, Groundhogs 0.
Hmmmm.......you may be just the man for the job!
Rufus, two things. Bought a tripod for our varmint rifle that mounts on the gun, folds up against the barrel, but also has legs that extend, so you can have the barrel, when prone, at roughly 8" high or some 14". Holds it rock steady, a boon for distance shots.
The bigger difference has been things called 'body traps', square in shape, that have two 'fingers' in the middle that trip it. Set it in the entrance of a hole, and the groundhog has to go through it to get out. It catches them on the neck, and I think it is a way quicker and less painful demise than getting shot. They're made by various manufacturers (got mine at Cabelas), and they all seem to have the same 'sizing' system, and you'll want the "160s". The groundhogs sometimes have 3, 4, even 5 egress holes, so I cover them all.
I put enough dirt in a hole to temporarily block it, to see if it's an active hole, as I don't want to waste time putting traps over an abandoned hole, but I think I'm getting better at judging them by eye, by the fresh scree outside the hole, and the pathways they trample in the vegetation.
Here's a link, for a picture...
http://www.flemingtraps.com/duke-160-bo ... AqCW8P8HAQ
... and you'll want the long-armed tool to help set them, unless you want some serious forearm exercise, and you'll want to be careful to keep your fingers out of harm's way. Lots of youtube videos if you want a look or a tutorial.
I'm mostly done with my upper field, and have started working my way through the lower. A side benefit had been all the avian scavengers who arrive to help with the disposal after I've laid them belly-up in the field. Vultures are no big deal, but I've seen red-tailed, rough-legged, and marsh hawks, (and had a bald eagle last summer), enjoying lunch. From Josey Wales: "Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms". Probably some Great Horned owls at night too- I hear their booming diagnostic hooting in the night. It's the Circle of Life.
I drive a metal fence stake in too, so I can easily find where I've set the traps, and an 8" bolt in the end of the chain so the trap doesn't migrate. Won't be long before the grass growing will make this more difficult.
I have a neighbor kid to hire, who has a small bulldozer who is going to come over and flatten the GD mounds that the groundhogs create that make mowing on a tractor so 'exhilarating'
(and dangerous). After that, I'll sit down and raise a beer to this bucolic Pennsylvania countryside and think to myself "Life is good". BTW, if you a nab a groundhog outside his hole, reset the trap in place. They tend to come in pairs. One hole, I caught three (3!) adults over three days. How about that! The 'Mustang Sallys' of the groundhog world.
