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Rock Chuck!! - glane5910 - 08-23-2011
I saw some of these up by the college. I 1st thought they were damn ground squirrels on steroids. I was told they are rock chucks. Seems like the yellow Belly marmouts live at higher elevations than 4000 ft but I certainly could be wrong.
Rock Chuck!! - bwaites - 08-23-2011
glane5910 Wrote:I saw some of these up by the college. I 1st thought they were damn ground squirrels on steroids. I was told they are rock chucks. Seems like the yellow Belly marmouts live at higher elevations than 4000 ft but I certainly could be wrong.
They live just fine all the way down to sea level, as long as there is rocky cover and something to eat!
Rock Chuck!! - glane5910 - 08-23-2011
Cool..Id never seen any outside of the mtns
Rock Chuck!! - WillD - 08-23-2011
Whistle pigs were the first animal I ever saw slain when my non-hunting stepdad had enough of them ravaging his flower gardens and purchased a .22LR. I used to like shooting them in Wyoming with various calibers, the most sporting was my Ruger Mk1. I'd lay at the top of a canyon and let the whistle pigs emerge from the rocks below me. I never got hungry enough to eat one but I imagine they would be quite edible.
I miss the variety of rodents; whistle pigs, squeakies (ground squirrels), prairie dogs, rabbits, etc that we'd keep our shooting skills honed with in Wyoming!
Cheers, Will
Rock Chuck!! - MrMajestic - 09-02-2011
WillD Wrote:I never got hungry enough to eat one but I imagine they would be quite edible.
Dad shot and Mom prepared(par-boiled, fried in lard) Groundhogs when we were young. They helped Dad survive the "Great Depression" and I can still hear him say "You gotta get the young ones, they aren't so bad". That's not how I like my food explained and after I got older I told him when I get a job I am not eating another! I kept my promise however still kill them frequently and leave them for predators and buzzards. He probably rolls over in his grave when I toss a "young one" into a cornfield!
Rock Chuck!! - Texas Sheepdawg - 11-08-2011
Back in my younger days, a buddy of mine and myself were fishing on Lake Bistineau, (Webster Parish I think), and he caught a Nutria with a Heddon Torpedo, dragged it to the boat, where I finally shot it with my 22LR pistol. It was quite a Ruckus! He got his lure back and the Nutria.... Well. Gar Bait.
Rock Chuck!! - txgunner00 - 11-08-2011
While stationed in GTMO I would eat Hutia or what the "locals" called Banana Rat. They look almost identical to a rock chuck and are quite tasty. We couldn't shoot them so we resorted to running them down with Humvees and hunting them with spear whenever we could get away with it. There was one guy on base whose job was "animal control" and he had an integrally suppressed Ruger 77/22 that was Hollywood quiet. I would volunteer for escort duty when he needed to go into restricted areas. We could easily shoot 30 in a few hours. Good times in GTMO.
Rock Chuck!! - Traxx - 11-08-2011
What ever you do don't shoot anything in the city limits of Ft Worth.
If you want a semi auto pellet rifle you can check out the FX Monsoon. 12 pellet mag and 36shots per charge. You will hear more noise at impact than the rifle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrXcGNTBzSs
Rock Chuck!! - lijaco - 05-30-2012
I never saw whistle pigs in their natural surrounding but I would love to see one once. I also now the problem of ravaged flower beds in my garden. I have wonderful flower beds with lots of different flowers and I constantly plant new ones because I often order flowers by post next day delivery from serenata flowers. So I was really shocked when I discovered one morning that wild hogs ravaged my flower beds. This was really sad for me and so I actually thought the first time about starting hunting.
Rock Chuck!! - Grimmy - 05-30-2012
Looks like a smaller PA Ground Hog (woodchuck). I have eaten the smaller ones born in the spring if you get the in mid to late summer they are pretty good eating.
Rock Chuck!! - Deezil - 05-30-2012
wish we had whistle pigs and rockchucks over here to shoot at, all we have it crows and coyotes
Rock Chuck!! - hobbesgunner - 05-30-2012
Looks like a chuck to me....mom said they used to eat them when she was a kid..along with coon and possum....meat was kinda stinky though..anything they shot got ate..poor West Virginia coal miner thing I guess..... farmers around here (central southern NY / northern Pa.) are happy as hell to let u shoot their woodchucks off, coyotes too...just don't ask to hunt deer.turns into a family only situation ...We'll take what we can get though and be happy about it..
Rock Chuck!! - saiga12 - 05-30-2012
We have rock chucks here that are bigger than the ones in your pics. They do have the yellow bellies and live up in the mountains in shale piles. I've massacred lots of them with .22s and a Browning Hipower. They're not that bright of a critter, and curiosity kills lots of them.
Rock Chuck!! - bwaites - 05-30-2012
The one in the pic is relatively small. Some are easily twice that big. I shot 3 this morning on the way to work, all off the same pile. Still have to use my air rifle, but since its private property, I just roll up in my car, shoot out the window, and drive on.
Rock Chuck!! - LightningII - 05-30-2012
I've seen colonies of them in rock formations in Wyoming. It was a like a rodent condo.
As soon as they saw horese, the sentire would start that whistling, and the rest would run for cover.
We used to shoot them in PA, when i was a kid. The farmers hated them for the crop damage and the big holes they leave for livestock to break legs in.
the PA woodchucks/groundhogs were big enough that I've dropped those big green 1 gallon wine bottles right down the hole.
Rock Chuck!! - Longshot_34 - 06-01-2012
bwaites Wrote:The one in the pic is relatively small. Some are easily twice that big. I shot 3 this morning on the way to work, all off the same pile. Still have to use my air rifle, but since its private property, I just roll up in my car, shoot out the window, and drive on.
We used to shoot at the neighbors rock pile down the road from where our new house is being built. Rock pit was in a U shape. We'd set up at the mouth of the U. It was 212 yards to the end. One day three of us went out and in a little over an hour we shot 100+ rockchucks. We counted 100 carcases but saw evidence of others that fell back into their holes after being shot. Those we didn't count. It was a great outing. Google maps used to show the acre+ of alfalfa they'd eaten of my inlaws field. Damage was a little worse when they started planting corn. We did what we could to keep them at bay.
Rock Chuck!! - bwaites - 06-01-2012
In the last 4 days, I've harvested 11 off the pile where I got that one. I really need a .22 or .25 repeater airgun, though!
Rock Chuck!! - Longshot_34 - 06-01-2012
Then theirs only one thing left to do, Bill.
Rock Chuck!! - WHISLPIG - 06-10-2012
notice my sign on... love to chuck em... so to speak. and yes, happiness is a fine red mist. use a variety of weapons... 22-250- 243 winchester- and soon my grendel... if i do my part, i'm sure i'll be "painting the town red" if you know what i mean. i have also shot them with my bow, that however can get expensive... lost an arrow in the hole. to many houses around for a firearm. skipped the arrow in to the whistlepig, and down the hole with my arrow it went.
Rock Chuck!! - DirectDrive - 06-10-2012
We had woodchucks in Western MA.
Big, probably twice the size of the one in the pic.
They like to burrow in pastures with sandy soil. Their big pile of excavation spoils would betray them.
I never saw so many as in Ohio. I saw a field that was crawling with them, where we would have one or two in the same size field.
The rockchucks that I've seen in Oregon have been around 4000 feet elevation.
The mist is one thing, but then there's the rainbow....need some velocity for that.