# What to do in june? Go rock chuck hunting.



## outdoorser

So I was able to get a hold of a landowner and got permission to go deplete a few of the rock chucks in his field. So me and a buddy headed out armed with .22's and .17 HMR's. (the .17 is whats in the picture). Ended up getting 7 in a couple hours. Hit some others that managed to crawl back into their hole. SUPER FUN DAY!!


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## Dunkem

That one is a fatty!


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## Nambaster

Yep that 2nd one the the right sure ate well. I have found that the .17 HMR sometimes manages to just put the rock chucks under the weather to the extent that they can crawl away. Side by side I have seen a .22 WMR authoritatively smack them down, but hunting rock chucks is just fine to do with a .177 pellet gun... :grin:


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## DallanC

Those are some big whistle pigs! Looks like fun, 'chucks are hard to find lately. The only place I reliably see them anymore is down on Boulder Mt. Shot one last summer at 20 yards with my LCP, I was as surprised as anyone when it tumbled off the log LOL!

Hunting them with a 17HMR would be a riot. My dad always used a .22-250 and aimed low, would launch them suckers 20ft at times. Good fun.

-DallanC


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## morvlorv

what do you guys do with the carcasses? 
you eat rock chuck?


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## wyogoob

morvlorv said:


> what do you guys do with the carcasses?
> you eat rock chuck?


It depends. We use the gutless method here so there isn't much left after cleaning a Rock Chuck in the field.

.


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## wyogoob

outdoorser said:


> So I was able to get a hold of a landowner and got permission to go deplete a few of the rock chucks in his field. So me and a buddy headed out armed with .22's and .17 HMR's. (the .17 is whats in the picture). Ended up getting 7 in a couple hours. Hit some others that managed to crawl back into their hole. SUPER FUN DAY!!


Are you sure the one to the far left is pure bred? I think it's a hydrid, has some hamster in it.

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## DallanC

morvlorv said:


> you eat rock chuck?


"Whistle pigs" are popular fare back east in the Appalachian Mts. Lived there for a while. Popular in stews and pot pies.

http://www.cooks.com/recipe/t200c2vy/martys-whistle-pig-delight.html

http://www.foodrepublic.com/2011/04/21/braised-groundhog-recipe

http://www.netplaces.com/wild-game/...aised-woodchuck-stew-with-root-vegetables.htm

We call'em rockchucks out in the west, easterners outside Appalachia call them woodchucks, Appalachian mountain folk call'em Whistle Pigs, but whatever the local name, they are just species of marmots. Its amazing how loud they get when whistling / chirping.

-DallanC


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## outdoorser

wyogoob said:


> Are you sure the one to the far left is pure bred? I think it's a hydrid, has some hamster in it.
> 
> .


Could be, goob.


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## wyogoob

outdoorser said:


> Could be, goob.


Man that one is huge!

.


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## swbuckmaster

Come on goob im sure you have a recipe


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## Springville Shooter

When you use the gutless method, be sure not to forget the tenderloins......that's the best part of the chuck.------SS


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## wyogoob

swbuckmaster said:


> Come on goob im sure you have a recipe


 Not exactly. I've never eaten rockchuck but have had woodchuck many times. Woodchuck was a common entrée at wild game feeds back home. Growing up there were lots of them. Not too many woodchucks back home now though; too much herbicide use.

Last time I was home I seen a huge woodchuck right across the road from the Armalite (AR Rifle) plant.


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## KineKilla

I've seen the TV shows where people sit and pick off groundhogs or pot-guts all day...man it looks like fun!

I didn't realize there were enough around in Utah to do the same. My .204 or the new .223 would be perfect for those little buggers.


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## wyogoob

I use to make an annual black bear hunting trip to Northwest Ontario Canada. One year my buds shot this huge groundhog (woodchuck) with a muzzle loader. We also caught a big snapping turtle that was migrating, walking across the outfitter's camp, from one body of water to another. I was usually the camp cook, dishwasher, and the guy that got stuck getting dead 400-lb bears out of the wilderness into a canoe, uh whole, guts and all. Anyway, we had a big feed one night; turtle soup, baked woodchuck and fried walleye.....and beer, lots of beer.


"whistle pigs"??? Uh, we always called them groundhogs. Shot em with a shotgun off the tractor and then threw em in a ditch. We didn't have the internet so we didn't have a clue what we was doing.


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## DallanC

wyogoob said:


> "whistle pigs"??? Uh, we always called them groundhogs. Shot em with a shotgun off the tractor and then threw em in a ditch. We didn't have the internet so we didn't have a clue what we was doing.


You live back east at all? Amazing populations of them, they are everywhere. Like I said its a popular Appalachia region name for them, but most folk call'em wood chucks or rock chucks.






Fun to shoot no matter whatcha call them. Good places to find them in Utah are near rock slides up in the mid-elevation pines but they can be found nearly anywhere.

-DallanC


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## wyogoob

DallanC said:


> You live back east at all? Amazing populations of them, they are everywhere. Like I said its a popular Appalachia region name for them, but most folk call'em wood chucks or rock chucks.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Fun to shoot no matter whatcha call them. Good places to find them in Utah are near rock slides up in the mid-elevation pines but they can be found nearly anywhere.
> 
> -DallanC


I knew you would come.

.


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## wyogoob

DallanC said:


> You live back east at all? .......................
> 
> -DallanC


I lived in Illinois for 30 years, 18 yrs on a farm. I still get back east to hunt and fish every year.

I work on the road from Nova Scotia to Aruba to California to Prudhoe Bay Alaska. My son and family lives in Massachusetts. I spend more time out east then I care to.

They are not everywhere and they are called groundhogs in many places in the US.

Listen, I got tennis shoes older than you. I recommend you and Mr Google go out east and take a hike.


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## DallanC

wyogoob said:


> I knew you would come.
> .


You keep making comments like this repeatedly in various posts, I dont understand the need honestly. Am I not supposed to comment on things of interest apparently?



wyogoob said:


> They are not everywhere and they are called groundhogs in many places in the US.


Yes they are called groundhogs in many places, just like rock chucks or wood chucks. They are all just names for Marmots.



> Listen, I got tennis shoes older than you. I recommend you and Mr Google go out east and take a hike.


Wtf Goob, you have been making digging comments towards me for quite a while now. Not sure why you feel the need to degrade or be negative, but you seem whats to have a burr under your saddle. You need to get over it though.

This thread is about rockchucks, fun to hunt, fun to shoot. I DID live back in the heart of Appalachia, specifically West Virginia for several years hence my bringing up that regional nick-name name for them as thats just what they were called. Really sorry that for some reason it seems to bother you.

-DallanC


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## outdoorser

Hey wyogoob, what did you cook for breakfast this morning? Seem a little on the grouchy side. :grin: Must have eaten some bad alligator liver or something;-) jk


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## LostLouisianian

outdoorser said:


> Hey wyogoob, what did you cook for breakfast this morning? Seem a little on the grouchy side. :grin: Must have eaten some bad alligator liver or something;-) jk


Mmmmmm alligator. Was back in Loooooziana last week and musta ate about 4 gators just by myself.


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## Mtnbeer

Yep,
I grew up in West Virginia and our local name for groundhogs was whistlepigs. Never thought I would see that term on here. 

I do have to say, there ain't nothing better than a fattened fall whistlepig for a wild game bergoo.

Goob is right as well. My sister in law and brother in law in Massachusetts has never seen or heard of groundhogs, whistlepigs, or whatever you call em. First time they saw one on the side of the road in Pennsylvania, they asked "What the he LL was that?"


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## colorcountrygunner

I love shooting some chucks! 7 in one outing is pretty darn good! I have some good spots for them down here on Cedar Mountain. I've never found the .17 hmr lacking on them. I've found the regular old .22 lr sometimes doesn't have quite enough oomph to put them down hard and fast, but the .17 hmr has always dropped them stone dead. I'm sure the .22 mag with its heavier bullets would kill them even deader!

I've seen the .223, .22-250, and .30-30 do some fabulous work on them as well.


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## outdoorser

Wow I can't remember the last time I had a thread I created go to 3 pages:smile:
Lots of interest in these little fellers, I better keep my lips tight on where I found them or I will have half the UWN out there with me LOL
Finders keepers


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## Kevin D

I used to go to a place in the southeast Idaho lava fields where I could set up a bench and shoot all day. Shots would range from point blank to as far as you could see. This was before laser rangefinders, so estimating range and bullet trajectory became an essential skill. After trying to pick off rock chuck heads at 500+ yards all summer, come fall a deer or elk at the same ranges would look as big as a barn door. Nothing like chuck hunting to hone your shooting skills.


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## colorcountrygunner

For awhile I was thinking about trying out a whistler for table-fare, but then I read this article.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/kyrgyz-teen-dies-from-bubonic-plague-after-eating-marmot/


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## sawsman

Way to go outdoorser. I was going to show a picture of what a .223WSSM does to them, but figured I'd better not.:shock:


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## waspocrew

Those are some great looking chucks!


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