Celebrate Groundhog Day with Groundhog Recipes

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Hunting

Perhaps because they're so widely considered a "pest" animal, woodchucks are fair game throughout the year in most parts of the U.S. Some states do have specific seasons and/or other regulations that apply to hunting the varmints, however, so be sure to check with your fish and game department or local warden before you go afield. And in any case, keep in mind that the little chucklings are totally dependent on their mother for at least six weeks. For that reason, I make it a practice (and I hope you will, too) of waiting until mid- to late summer — after the young have left the natal den and are able to fend for themselves — before hunting the critters.

Groundhogs are fairly easy to trap: Green beans and cut apples are both favored baits that produce good results. I've also successfully used ripe bananas to live-trap chucks during late summer.

A somewhat tougher challenge faces the sharpshooting hunter, who must sneak up on the keen-eyed, sharp-eared quarry. Small-caliber rifles (for instance, a .22 rim-fire loaded with high-speed hollow-point bullets) or any of the more modern flat-trajectory "varmint" calibers — such as a .222 magnum, .22-250, or .225 — are suitable for taking groundhogs. The best times for stalking monax are during the animal's usual feeding periods of early morning and just before sunset, but chucks can also be found sunning themselves at the entrances to their burrows (they seldom roam far from their homes) during almost any daylight hour when the weather's warm and sunny.

While hunting in local hay- and cornfields, often in temperatures of 90 °F or more, I keep a large picnic-style cooler in the bed of my pickup. Immediately upon bagging a chuck, I gut it and place it in the iced box. You wouldn't want to eat a T-bone steak that had been left in a hot hayfield for an hour, and exposed wild game doesn't fare any better. So remember . . . get that meal-to-be on ice right away!

As soon as I get back home, I skin and cut up the chucks into usable pieces, carefully removing any fat and glands. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Woodchucks, as well as most other small food animals such as rabbit, raccoon, and opossum, have scent glands that should be excised as soon as possible to avoid tainting the meat. When gutting or dressing groundhogs,look for-and cautiously extract intact-these small gray or reddish brown kernels of fat located under the forelegs, on top of the shoulder blades, along the spine in the small of the back, and around the anus.] I then wrap and freeze whatever meat we won't consume within the next few days. Chucks taken in August and September and frozen immediately will keep long enough for our annual festivities on February 2. (Incidentally, if I've bagged any old, gristly 'hogs, I reserve them to be used as bait for winter fox-trapping. And since the hide on woodchucks is exceedingly tough, some people also scrape and tan the skin to make a useful, durable leather.)

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