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

Talking of eating Crow...I have shot a couple of Woodchucks up here in NH, (with my trusty Greener HammerGun)...Id see the tops of my Bush Beans quivering, n Id put the sneak on him...though a 22 through the kitchen window is more efficient, but less fun.
Im a huge fan of Rabbit as table fare...never had the guts to dress one up for the oven...perhaps this year....anyone ever eaten a Groundhog??, its in the same family, rodent,right
cheers Franc

He's a big squirrel that eats only clean, green, vegetation. You could do worse. Squirrel is, "the other dark meat". I rate it with beef.
I've done it, but not recently (I make more money now, than I did then). I prefer it prepared as Brunswick stew, and use actual beef gravy. Google Brunswick stew, and skin him, then, have at it.

Best,
Ted

I remember trying it years ago at a game dinner and I think it was prepared primarily like a stew. As I remember it was ok.
Jim

I used to shoot them growing up (their holes and our horses were not a good mix), and my father would take them to work for some of the plant workers. It never occurred to me to keep them.

Shot a bunch of them years ago in NY. Use to just stuff them back in their holes. We may have been missing out. Like Ted said they're greenies.

I've tried grilling and stewing. Stewing worked much better. It's boney, but perfectly good tasting. Grilling produced pretty tough meat. A pair of woodchucks can eat 1/2 ton of Alfalfa in a summer, so in that light, eating them tastes pretty good.

Thanks folks,
I can make a pretty good stew, will try it with Woodchunks ...with Dumplings too...will report back
I believe the Beverly HillBilly's thought highly of it
cheers
franc

My father can tell you....in the early 60's he would drive his Chrysler into the 'farm country' outside of Buffalo and shoot woodchucks with his .222 Remington. The farmers would welcome anyone who would shoot them.

He'd load the trunk of the Chrysler with them when he was done and drive into the...more racially segregated ..... area of Buffalo. He remembers it well even now at the ripe age of 88... the folks there came to recognize his red car coming down the street. By the time he came to a stop they'd be lined up. He'd pop the trunk and the woodchucks would be parceled out in no time.

I ate then a couple of times when I shot them as a kid. My mother, who grew up in Idaho, would cook woodchuck for the family but she refused to even let me bring a rabbit into the house. Harking back to her childhood in Idaho, she considered rabbit to be vermin.

Steve

They also spoke highly of opossum innards, particularly as left-overs served the next day.

Steve