americanshootingjournal.com 69Sometimes a farmer may have one
or two semitame wild animals about
that they want to keep safe. He or she
may deny their presence to deter the
neighbors from coming after them.
If that is the reason, the farmer will
not tell you but also will not allow
hunting. Men and women with bad
experiences with hunters on their land
see no reason to risk accommodating
any more. Ever. Others simply do not
want their privacy disturbed. The
point I am making is to simply respect
an owner’s decision not to allow
hunting on their land and not take
it personally. Remember that as the
property owner, they have exclusive
rights to the land, and the law backs
them up to the hilt on this.
Also, legal or not, in my county I
know of instances where trespassers
have been shot at just for trespassing.
Other trespassers in my state have
simply disappeared. I also know of
one family who would rob anyone
they caught on their land. Hunting
without permission can get a lot
more serious in some places than you
ever imagined.
ONCE YOU HAVE BAGGED your
whistlepig, don’t waste the hide. I have
always been able to find a use for any
hide, whether tanned with the hair
on or off. The American Rifleman
magazine even ran an article titled
“A Woodchuck Trophy” in the early
1960s describing how to make a bear
skin-style rug out of a woodchuck!
That’s a pretty small rug.
The stiff tail hairs of the woodchuck
are also valued by fly tiers for making
certain fishing flies. Be like the early
settlers and use everything. Their
motto was “Make do or do without.”
For those of you who are gourmet
cooks, the woodchuck can make a
first-class gourmet dinner. You can use
most any of your fancy meat recipes
just substituting woodchuck for the
meat called for.
Personally I would rather shoot
big woodchucks for a gourmet dinner
than little squirrels and rabbits. If the
rest of you disagree, that’s fine with
me because that means there are more
for me to eat.