Woodchuck with a .177 pellet rifle???

The ones in my yard were off limits by decree of the wife. That is up until on night they ate her entire batch of broccoli that she was planning to pick the next day. She said I am not saying you can shoot them but if you can make them go away that's OK. 2 of them took a pellet to the melon the next day :) Then I put up a better fence.
 
I shot the chuck in my yard so many times he got pissed and moved to the neighbors yard. The neighbors a land scalper and has a huge fire wood pile. watched the chuck run right into the pile and haven't seen him sense
 
I’ve been working the local squirrels with a .22 cal Benjamin marauder. Which is extreme overkill for round tail ground squirrels. It’s so quiet, the only noise is the hammer striking the valve. I’d wager the .25 cal version would be good medicine for those buggers. You can even hand pump it to the 3,000 psi. Going for the wife excuse of, “I have to work out and get exercise to use it.” Got mine for a song from pyramidair.com
And in the spirit of NES overkill, the Benjamin bulldog is a .38 cal air rifle, or you can go extra silly for the .50.
 
I've captured a woodchuck under a trash barrel in my parents' backyard. They're pretty slow so you just need to catch them on open ground.
 
As my late father in law once said to me, "Damn woodchucks can carry a lot of lead." He was right about that. In spite of that I shoot those bastards all the time in my yard with .177 pellet gun. Kill em dead 20% of the time the rest go back down their holes to croak. I don't much care if wood chucks suffer. The shit I plant suffers with them.
 
You need a siberian husky. I watched mine do an epic takedown on a woodchuck that is something I thought I would only see in a nature documentary. The dog was itching to go outside one morning and crying at the door. I didn't see the woodchuck until the dog took off after it. He caught up to it and threw it up in the air with his mouth. On the way down he bit it right in the neck delivering the death blow. It was basically quivering on the ground when it landed. Naturally he laid on the ground with his quivering mass to show me his skills lol. This dog has some amazing hunting skills. He's caught rabbits, moles, mice and even a couple of birds. If the SHTF tomorrow morning I am pretty certain he would survive.
 
As my late father in law once said to me, "Damn woodchucks can carry a lot of lead." He was right about that. In spite of that I shoot those bastards all the time in my yard with .177 pellet gun. Kill em dead 20% of the time the rest go back down their holes to croak. I don't much care if wood chucks suffer. The shit I plant suffers with them.
A subsonic .22 short or CB cap is a popular choice down south for eliminating vermin in an urban or suburban environment. Why spend a couple hundred extra for a high powered air rifle and scope when the single shot or bolt action .22 rifle that you already own can do the same, or better, for nothing more than the price of a box of lower-powered rimfire ammo
 
A subsonic .22 short or CB cap is a popular choice down south for eliminating vermin in an urban or suburban environment. Why spend a couple hundred extra for a high powered air rifle and scope when the single shot or bolt action .22 rifle that you already own can do the same, or better, for nothing more than the price of a box of lower-powered rimfire ammo

.22 shorts out of the 94/22 sound about as loud as someone clapping. So for others I would agree with that. I don’t have a 94/22 or bolt action .22 though. However, after seeing on “teds holdover” where he was popping starlings at 130 yards with an FX wildcat in .25 cal, I made up my mind I wanted a PCP air rifle for the flexibility. Now that Benjamin (crossman, an American company) was offering the .22 cal marauder with a picatinny rail (rather than an 11mm dovetail) and with a Lothar Walther choked barrel. Made in New York. That sealed the deal for me. Yes, I did buy the more expensive Hill hand pump. But, now my only cost for the thing is just pellets. And if they offer the same barrel in .25 cal, I will buy that as well.

I do know for a fact that my .22 marauder will flop a large Arizona Jackrabbit right there at 50 yards. Found out yesterday. Bugger went over like a steel silhouette. Hit him right in the broadside vitals, like you’d aim on a deer. Pellet was a JSB Diablo exact 14.3 grain. Going 950 FPS.
 
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I'd say it would depend on the rifle. Mine throws pellets nearly as heavy as a standard 22lr bullet at 1300 fps. I would be very surprised if it didn't get the job done at 45 ft. As long as you do your part.
 
You need a siberian husky. I watched mine do an epic takedown on a woodchuck that is something I thought I would only see in a nature documentary. The dog was itching to go outside one morning and crying at the door. I didn't see the woodchuck until the dog took off after it. He caught up to it and threw it up in the air with his mouth. On the way down he bit it right in the neck delivering the death blow. It was basically quivering on the ground when it landed. Naturally he laid on the ground with his quivering mass to show me his skills lol. This dog has some amazing hunting skills. He's caught rabbits, moles, mice and even a couple of birds. If the SHTF tomorrow morning I am pretty certain he would survive.

His breed is about as close as you can get to a wolf.
 
As my late father in law once said to me, "Damn woodchucks can carry a lot of lead." He was right about that. In spite of that I shoot those bastards all the time in my yard with .177 pellet gun. Kill em dead 20% of the time the rest go back down their holes to croak. I don't much care if wood chucks suffer. The shit I plant suffers with them.
When they croak back down in their holes. How long does the smell last? I clipped one on the first shot with a Gamo .177. The other I hit a few times and he went to his whole and it started smelling a day later . Been a few days now, stanks.
 
When I was young we used to visit my grandmother (a robust german woman who lived thru the depression) every Saturday. She had a very nice garden about 50 feet from the house that included an amazing patch of strawberries. One day I showed up and ran in the kitchen door to see her standing over the kitchen sink with a shotgun out the window. Just as I walked in she took a shot and it scared the crap out of me...thought I broke the window in the storm door (happened just as I swung the door open). She calmly leans the shotgun against the refrigerator and heads out to the garden where she picks up a very large woodchuck by one of its legs (that is not mangled) and tosses it into her compost pile. She battled many woodchucks over the years as I recall....they generally lost.
 
I popped one in the ear with one of these from my 10/22 at 25 yards. He didn’t even twitch.
 

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I have a new problem, two large indoor/outdoor cats and a large woodchuck in my backyard. I already paid about $1100.00 this year to repair the damage from a fishercat fight with my 19# 6 year old black cat and I don't want to repeat that. He seems a little cocky and will take most critters on, I said he is big, not smart. The other big guy only keeps other cats off HIS land, he doesn't hunt at all, only fights and chases other cats. My question is will a .177 cal. pellet put a woodchuck down with a head shot? It's supposed to go around 1200 fps, depending on pellet weight. I live on 3/4 of an acre and the people on either side of me don't care if I shoot a pellet gun. I can't use anything else. Does anybody have any experience using .177 pellet rifle at about 30 to 40 yards, max. I can keep 5 shots in about a Quarter sized hole using open sights with a rest. This would be a shot off my deck, sitting using a spring break barrel Gamo. The woodchuck likes to eat windfall small apples by and maybe living under my shed. Thanks in advance - Arlie
I used Crossman 1200 fps spring load .177 pellet.. I used redirect rounds great for taking down squirrels, a hawk, couple mange foxes.. just need the headshot! Hit them from 15 ft to a round 40 maybe 50 ft
 
A clean head shot from my 177 pellet gun at about 1200fps at 20-25 yards has dropped quite a few in my yard over the years.
 
Taking down a woodchuck with a .177 pellet is pretty inhumane. At least go up to a .22 pellet at 800 fps and even still, headshot or wounding shot and then immediately followed by a kill shot at close range. Probably as much punch as a super colibr.


Better bet would be a CCI quiet 22LR.
 
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