Okay, first disclaimer. I'm a wannabe hunter with little actual experience. I live in a rural area of what is technically a city (a TINY wildlife park butts up off the back of our yard). We own an air rifle b-b/pellet gun and a couple of small hunting knives for skinning small game. Last summer I took down 8 squirrels and made a rather tasty squirrel stew. I also took down one young rabbit and fried it up. I've never taken a gun safety course other than one three hour intro to hand guns and shot guns course up in vermont this past summer (which was awesome but hardly counts).
Here's the deal. We're inundated with woodchucks. They decimated our garden last year. The pellet gun is completely insufficient. We hit one chuck about 7 times (I'm surprised it hasn't died of lead poisoning). This spring we're attempting to trap them using have-a-hearts baited with cabbage. They woke up from hibernation about two weeks ago and are running around in our back yard totally uninterested in the traps (they're mocking me, I swear). One chuck is huge! Probably close to 30 lbs or more. A second looks like a grown pup from last year's litter.
I want them dead! Sadly, I can't use anything more than an air rifle b/c we're in a residential neighborhood (and my husband is too afraid of the police to stake out from our bathroom window with a .22 rifle). If they don't take the bait in the traps, I'm going to try gassing them with sodium nitrate bombs, but I'd rather catch them. Okay, and this is totally heartless, but if I do catch one I am going to kill it and eat it. It's illegal to transport and release pest animals in Massachusetts (so stupid!)
Comments and suggestions (and sympathy) welcome. Also, I can't find any information on how to skin and dress a chuck (do they have scent glands?) Is it much different from a squirrel? Man, squirrels are hard to skin!! Rabbits are a joy to skin; it's like they were made especially for easy skinning
