Groundhogs: Underated, Overlooked Small Game

Am Shooting Journal ^ | J Dickson

[w1n1]

Call them whistlepigs, woodchucks or whatnot, these eastern burrowers can provide good hunting – and meatier meals than rabbits, squirrels.
The groundhog is the most underrated small game animal in the country. We call them whistlepigs in northern Georgia, a reference to their calls and their food value. Groundhogs are good eating and there is a lot more meat on them than on squirrels and rabbits. Some folks boil an older one until tender and then put it in the oven.
I simply cover it with barbecue sauce and put them in the oven. Whatever way you prepare them, they taste good and a 10-pound whistlepig makes a good meal. These are fastidiously clean animals, as much as a burrowing animal can be. They live on a vegetarian diet and weigh between 41/2 to 13 pounds normally. They are everything you would want in a food source.

GROUNDHOGS ARE ACTIVE AT night, so early mornings and late afternoons are the best times to hunt them. They will sleep in their burrows during the heat of the day. These burrows are found at the edge of the wood line, against trees, barns and buildings, and in the sides of slopes where the entrance hole lets in less rain to flood into the burrow. They often are in the sides of drainage ditches.

Wherever they are, they come out to feed and to soak up the sun while surveying their domain. They often remain near the safety of their hole when sunbathing. Some people report that active burrows can be identified by the gnats at the entrance, but that is not true in my part of Georgia, where the holes are gnat-free. Scouting is the best way to find these holes, as undergrowth can easily hide them. The whistlepig's habit of standing beside his hole makes watching them productive. They leave the holes to feed on grasses, alfalfa (a favorite food), apples, and anything tasty a farmer is growing. Read the rest of groundhog hunting.

[Tennessee Conservative]

An elderly man I used to work with said that during the depression and even after, when he was a kid, his family ate them and they are excellent. He said there were times when all of the local squirrels were gone and all they had to eat (meat) was groundhogs but they were better than squirrels and rabbits to eat.

[Tennessee Conservative]

An elderly man I used to work with said that during the depression and even after, when he was a kid, his family ate them and they are excellent. He said there were times when all of the local squirrels were gone and all they had to eat (meat) was groundhogs but they were better than squirrels and rabbits to eat.

[mountainlion]

People could eat rats also but really?

[Scooter100]

6am and you know what that means.....It’s Grrrroundhog Daaaaaaaaaay!

[Chickensoup]

early Joy of Cooking books had receipes for ground hog and squirrel . It had come out during the depression, and many people ate small game.

[Tennessee Conservative]

And I didn’t double post. I don’t know how that happened.

[real saxophonist]

What the hell, Jon?

[Lurker]

“People could eat rats also but really?”

I can see that you’ve never gone 3 days without food. Do that and you’ll eat damned near anything put in front of you.

L

[yldstrk]

Fasting. People go many days without food, just drink water and fruit and vegetable juice.

[real saxophonist]

I’ve gone 5 days. I love sqirrel, breaded and fried. But I can’t get past the notion that groundhog = prairie dog = plague.

[real saxophonist]

I also love squirrel, in addition to sqirrel...

[Vaquero]

“Oh Groundhog”

Doc Watson

https://youtu.be/RU2IDXXbl7k

[unread]

"People could eat rats also but really?"

Sure..! The marmot is good tucker.. We ate lot of them when I was a kid.. My Mom would cook them up in the oven. The young ones you could get in the spring were fine but the old ones were stringy and sometimes taste like dirt.. :)

[Lurker]

Sure some people do. But not most folks. People say “I’m starving” after just a few hours. Now toss in physical exertion, mental stress, and the looks on your kids faces when they haven’t had a bite or a juice box in 3 or 4 days.

You’ll eat groundhog and thank God you have it.

L

[Vaquero]

I’ve shot squirrel, I’ve ‘et squirrel. Meh.

[mountainlion]

I can see that you’ve never gone 3 days ...

I have deer in my yard.

No wonder demonicrat cities have a rat problem, welfare keeps the voters fat and happy and lazy so they don't even clean up after themselves.

[real saxophonist]

Well, you didn’t have it the way my mom cooked it. 8~)

[mountainlion]

Sure..! The marmot is good tucker..

I would rather eat carp

[Vaquero]

Farm boy from Virginia I used to work with said his dad would put all kind of meat in front of him and say “meat’s meat, boy”