Maggie's Farm

My parents had a woodchuck infestation in their garden; the furry little vermin ate the garden literally to the ground. They asked me if I could do anything about it...

They were outside the city limits, and the highway had an enormous berm providing an excellent backstop. I set up my shooting table the night before, and came out before dawn with a scoped and zeroed Ruger 10/22 and a couple of 25-round magazines loaded with copper plated HP.

The little b@$stards crawled out of the culvert and marched in a line to the garden, then scaled the fence one after another and spread out eating. I popped the first one, and the rest had no idea what had happened. By the time I nailed the fourth, they had started to panic and run around in circles, with some of them climbing the fence. They were slow and easy to pick off the fence, but one out of the eight of them made it away. All head shots, and it only cost me 10 rounds of .22 ammo.

I put six of the carcasses in a heavy-duty garbage bag to haul to the landfill, but tossed the seventh one into the farm field right on the other side of the culvert inlet. "Por encourageur les autres", and the stench of decay over there kept any other 'chucks from coming in. My parents never had one in the garden again.

I've heard of people eating them, but I'd never touch overgrown rats unless I was starving. If you've never had to deal with them before, you have at least a slight excuse for being "happy" to see them, but take some good advice and get rid of them before they're a major problem.