doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Anyone eat Woodchuck?

Thanks for the replies lads,
Now that I've made up my mind to eat one, I prolly won't see one this year, as I only have a small container type garden on the deck, but might just plant a small row of bush bean to Bait them in.
In the past, after shooting them,what put me off skinning was that they just seemed to be crawling with fleas n ticks...any good way to de louse em?...i was thinking a decent singe with a hand held propane torch?...or do the vermin leave the body when it cools?
I suppose I could put a flea n tick dog collar on them for a couple hours after death?,lol.I wonder if you could soak them in vinegar or booze, even a mild bleach mix or something to rid rid ofthe wee vermin?
cheers
franc

Lots of game animals have fleas, ticks, etc. Nobody delouses their deer, do they? I have shot a few deer that had a lot of ticks that dropped off the carcass after it cooled. But that kind of cooling is a problem in the summer. Just gut 'em and skin 'em and the pests will be gone with the entrails and hide. Stick with the young chuck's or you may not go back for seconds.

No. Man, those suckers are tough to skin.

This isn't about eating them, but a friend is a rifleman. Any rifle he acquires is not truly his until it has killed a groundhog. He bought a Remington .416. I asked him if he used solids or soft points. "Soft points," he deadpanned. He said he caught one out in the open at about 20 yards and put a round through the center. The chuck up and took off on a run and collapsed at the entry to its hole some 30 yards away. He said inasmuch as the bullet had not opened up, my comments about their tough skin did not stand up to the facts.

Pound for pound - inch for inch, groundhogs are the toughest animals I know of. They will tear up a much bigger dog in short order.

Whistle Pigs are very good eatting! To prepare gut and remove glands on legs. cool and skin as soon as possible. cut in quarters. place in lidded pot and cover with water.parboil and change water as it clouds up 3 times this is important as to cleaning the meat. you are now able to cook as you perfer,fry as chicken.bake as a roast or grill. done this way it is as goof as fresh chicken. ENJOY. Pilgrim

I have really enjoyed this thread!
Read every entry and giggled a lot.
Good on you all for eating what you shoot, or at least talking about it!
My dad used to cook squirrel (yes, your native grey which was introduced here back in the C19th), tasted fine but has too many bones for my taste.
My mother would never touch it!

Toby,
The front end of the squirrel is bony. The hind quarters of grey and fox squirrels are a meal fit for a king. I usually hunted them with a Remington 552, using .22 shorts, which would save a half hour of rock throwing if you had put a .22 long rifle round through one resting on a branch in the tree, and he died in place. I usually had a least a few that I put the shot into the front, and ended up with some trimmings for the gravy, off the front, and little else. I would pass a shot rather than put the bullet into the hindquarters. Head shots happened here and there, but, the shot into the front end just behind the front legs was most common for me.
I was never big on frying anything except fish, but, prepared as I posted, in a Brunswick stew, wild squirrel is better than good.
I might end up divorced if my Colombian born wife saw me heading up the walk with a fistful of squirrels, so it has been a long time for me.
I will work on fixing that-maybe she can visit her homeland around the time small game season opens, here.

Best,
Ted

Squirrel was always my favorite Fur game to eat. Best piece to me was the back, hindlegs next & front leg last, didn't care for the rib cage. I could tell when I skinned them which way they would cook. Young tender ones went to the Fry Pan, older tougher ones had to made into a stew or Squirrel & Dumplings. A young frying squirrel is Royal Eating as far as I'm concerned.
Hunted them for many years with a Mossberg bolt action I took in on a trade. Couldn't get anything for it so got my money's worth shooting squirrels. It would feed either LR or Shorts. It was a tack driver with LR but "Patterned" rather than grouped with shorts. I shot the standard velocity LR's in it for squirrel hunting to avoid the Super-Sonic crack of the High speed stuff. Easiest way to clear a tree of squirrels I ever found was to fire one of those high speed rounds with the sharp crack.
I have eaten quite a few ground hogs & a couple of coons. My personal preference was for the Coon. I don't think we have "WoodChucks" in the South, least I never heard no animal called that. I would take some good Gator Tail over any of the above though, but don't get any of it except by traveling a Fur Piece to a good Cajun Restaurant. CrawDads are also mighty fine eating, I Like them made into that Etoufee. I like just about any meat I ever tried except Liver of any kind, I'll take a good bait of Chitlins over liver anyday.

I have a particular aversion to shooting any kind of 'chuck'.

regards
Chuck

Good one Chuck! Perhaps we could assuage your aversion to shooting a "chuck" by using the word marmot? To which both the hmmm.... woodchuck and rock chuck are of the genus marmota.