So it’s that time of year.
My folks live in Twisp Wa. And their neighbor is a (retired )cattle rancher.
He lets my dad and I shoot the marmots on his property
We can only use .22. So my dad and I shoot our Ruger 10/22’s. I did not take a lot of photos. Average shot is 100 yards.
Here is one of my lucky shots. 200 yards. The red circle is where we were shooting from.


I’ll be here a few more days. So I’ll get more shooting in. Maybe more photos.

How do they taste?

HaHa you know we have never tried eating them. I’ve told my dad if he cleans one I’ll cook it. But it’s never happened.
And to be honest, there is no reason why a person could not eat them. The are living off of alfalfa.

So they're vegetarians...I bet they taste great. DO IT!

like duck

We called them woodchucks in NH. The question of eating them piqued my curiosity so looked it up. Apparently people do eat them. Some say tastes like pork, some say rabbit. Guess they're a bitch to skin.

Popular dish in Mongolia apparently.

No thanks though.

We called them hedgehogs or badgers in Indiana.

That's nice shooting with a .22!

It is very difficult to get a solid kill shot at beyond 100 yards. The morning hunt we were walking around the property taking any shot of opportunity. For glass I’m using a Nikon Buckmaster 4x12 scope. When I shoot I lay prone. Did I mention this is a cow pasture? We were out there from 9am to 10am. Then invited my old timer friend back home for some of my moms home made biscuits and gravy. Then back out for more shooting. As it gets warmer the marmots are less active. My dad and I found a spot in the shade and just sat and glassed the property. At 150 yards. On the edge of the field was a small little pile of rock. The marmots would climb up and look around. Taking turns. We would shoot. My dads eyes are not the best and he has never been a patent man. I do my best to “walk in “ his shots. But once I myself got dialed in. I easily got four good clean kills.
I’m looking forward to getting out there tomorrow.

I was doing some prairie doggin' last week. We normally use .223 for this, but for a couple of hours I took out a bolt-action .22. Granted I didn't do shit as far as sighting it in with the ammo I was using . . . but man, it sure was hard to hit consistently, and it didn't hit anywhere near as hard as the .223.

So yeah, much respect for doing that with the .22.

It is pretty normal to take three shots to walk my rounds onto my target. And then if they were not scared off by then. I could usually connect.

hedgehogs, badgers, and woodchucks are actually three somewhat different animals, with the badger not really being very similar at all. The marmots we have here are different than those three as well (often called rockchucks), although they're similar to woodchucks but usually smaller. Of course there are ground squirrels too and sometimes people throw those in the mix as well, but really they are different animal too and are much smaller.

Whistle Pigs!

Got at it again this morning. We had rain last night. And about 51 degrees this morning. A lot cooler than it was yesterday. So not as much activity. My first shot of the morning was around 70 yards.

From there we moved out into the field. There is a big dead tree and an old cut road. That is where we were seeing most of the action. The tree (red arrow) was about 150 yards out. I got four confirmed kills. Then we had two pinned down at 100 yards (white arrow). I Was spotting for my dad on those. He shoots sitting with a tall Harris bipod. The marmots had just enough big rocks to take cover behind. He would shoot either way high or way low. I’d hit just close enough to scare them off. Never got them two.

Here are the four I got that were under the tree.

I did attempt some longer shots way up on the hillside but no luck. Here is my dad and I sit at that big dead tree.

I've never eaten one, but have been told the meat is a little tough, but good if you stew it in the crockpot.