Where are the Groundhogs

[Gaoler]

Hunting in the US?

Of course....
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[Fox]

Of course....
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Nice, I just saw a guy from Burlington talking about hunting with pistols and ARs, not something anyone in Ontario is allowed to do.

[GrouseWhisperer]

I've seen that photo before Gaoler..envy factor of 11/10. I'm a traveling varmint-shooter too, and maybe I need to expand my horizons a little... but I honestly can't think of anywhere I'd rather be, or anything I'd rather be doing. About as much fun as a guy can have with a rifle. At least as far as I'm concerned.

Fighting the urge to hand-load a whack of .223 and ship my centerfire rig out there. Truth is, just too many gophers to make that a smart financial move. lol Good problem to have. Required for prairie dogs though, bigger critters. A US trip would be a blast...one day... With an AR? Can't even wrap my mind around that.

[Gaoler]

hunting with pistols and ARs, not something anyone in Ontario is allowed to do.

Not these days anyway...

[Gaoler]

I've seen that photo before Gaoler..envy factor of 11/10. I'm a traveling varmint-shooter too, and maybe I need to expand my horizons a little... but I honestly can't think of anywhere I'd rather be, or anything I'd rather be doing. About as much fun as a guy can have with a rifle. At least as far as I'm concerned.

Fighting the urge to hand-load a whack of .223 and ship my centerfire rig out there. Truth is, just too many gophers to make that a smart financial move. lol Good problem to have. Required for prairie dogs though, bigger critters. A US trip would be a blast...one day... With an AR? Can't even wrap my mind around that.

Thing is... Where I shoot in Colorado is 1000km CLOSER to SW ontario than anywhere in Southern Sask.
The only down side is the exchange rate on the $, but factor in cheaper gas in the US and you might be breaking even on cost.
And don't fret over taking your guns into the US... The permit is free and really, it's no big deal crossing. 'Done it dozens of times.
It is novel hunting with the AR and next to impossible to get hits using a pistol, but... What the hell.

[GrouseWhisperer]

Thing is... Where I shoot in Colorado is 1000km CLOSER to SW ontario than anywhere in Southern Sask.
The only down side is the exchange rate on the $, but factor in cheaper gas in the US and you might be breaking even on cost.
And don't fret over taking your guns into the US... The permit is free and really, it's no big deal crossing. 'Done it dozens of times.
It is novel hunting with the AR and next to impossible to get hits using a pistol, but... What the hell.

Sounds awesome. My shooting is all in S. Alberta, and 95% of it is done with a .22LR. Not because it's the most entertaining...but because it's effective, and inexpensive. Were we shooting 30-50 a day, I'd be down for .223. Cranking over 300 before lunch time (2 guys gunning) happened several times, and we were back out for another 4-5 hours of shooting! It was nothing to put 500-700 rounds down the pipe a day. 22LR is the only caliber that makes sense to me with those numbers. I love 22LR anyway...just a huge bonus to be able to varmint shoot so effectively with it.

[Lightspeed41]

I know this is an old post but the subject question is still valid. Coyotes seem to be the villain by previous postings. This may certainly be true and, if so, they certainly are proficient. The reason I looked this up is that My wife and I just travelled south through the Beaver valley to Ancaster and didn't see a single groundhog burrow roadside the whole way down. I didn't see much pasture land either. I hunted groundhogs on several dairy farms out Copetown way quite a few years ago. Plentiful 30 years ago; not a trace now. Thinking disease??

[trimmer21]

I know this is an old post but the subject question is still valid. Coyotes seem to be the villain by previous postings. This may certainly be true and, if so, they certainly are proficient. The reason I looked this up is that My wife and I just travelled south through the Beaver valley to Ancaster and didn't see a single groundhog burrow roadside the whole way down. I didn't see much pasture land either. I hunted groundhogs on several dairy farms out Copetown way quite a few years ago. Plentiful 30 years ago; not a trace now. Thinking disease??

Great first post. Welcome aboard. Being a dedicated varmint/predator hunter from a l-o-n-g way back,all the fields where I took a ton of g'hogs now all have houses on them. I doubt a specific disease wiped them out or we'd have heard all about it long ago. Like everything else that seems to be disappearing,habitat (no such thing as a fallow field anymore) is at the top of the list. Predation from an over abundance of Coyotes and Bears in the southern range comes in a close second. I like to hunt Coyotes in the "off season",too,but,it's been a few years since I've even seen a g'hog.

[rodmcd]

I grew up in Ancaster and hunted them in the sixties while in high school. There were so many you could go after them with a .22. I go up there now and all those fields are full of houses. However even when you go out a little further to open fields I rarely see one. Hard to believe coyotes were responsible for the almost total wipe out. My guess is some disease.
rodmcd

[jlmorgan]

Same disease that cleaned out the jackrabbits, and right now the deer population around northern 82A and 84 "coyote" disease