Well, its not really a job, more of a favor. My uncle owns this house you see and this groundhog has been living under his tenants house for two years! I have a large raccoon sized live trap, pretty sure I could get a gray fox in there, and some Marsyada's Digger Bait. If I set the live trap by the hole with some bait smeared carrots or something leading into the trap, do you think I'll connect. Haven't been out there yet, just trying to make a game plan.

I like apples over carrots for groundhog.

Okay, just slice 'em up and put half or so in back?

If you are good, you do not need bait.

Comstock traps are the way to go!!!

Don't think I'm that good
Would that method work with a single door trap, or do you need a double door?

Cut one in half and throw it in the back of the cage. Use some of your bait also. That's what I would do with what you have to work with.
I set comstocks when possible as first choice. When baiting I use apples and woodchuck crap that I save as lure. But, I also use Jamesons woodchuck paste and woodchuck gland lure. When baiting for woodchucks you will catch a lot of non target animals. An unbaited, positive set directly over the woodchuck den will eliminate most non-targets.

If you are a great trapper, use a single door. Otherwise, you better stick to double door.

Positive sets are my preferred method for woodchucks. If not possible I like brocolli and cantelope for bait.

Double door or single door shouldn't matter. Woodchucks are pretty easy to catch.

Cover the wire on the bottom of the cage with dirt from the hole preferably (has chuck scent on it). I find they do not like walking on wire. Clean traps work better than dirty traps, Trap that recently held a woodchuck works best.

Wisconsin Woodchucks must like going for truck rides. I have never put dirt on the bottom of a woodchuck trap and have never washed a woodchuck trap even if they held a raccoon or opossum.

Nate must have those dumb southern Wisconsin woodchucks. The ones I have been chasing aren't exactly college graduates either but they keep moving and moving and then moving some more. The holes look fresh as a daisy, you positve set them, and nothing. You didn't scare them because they had already moved on before you got there.

Please explain " positive set" . My nieces neighbor has a chuck under her front porch that needs to go! Have single door cage traps that I use for coon, that I can put to use. How would I set these single door traps. I utubed Jim comstocks woodchuck system, man if I had one more chuck to deal with I'd pull the trigger! Thanks in advance gents!

Miley, a positive set is where you give the animal no choice but to go in your cage. If you screened every part of your niece's neighbor's front porch, except where the cage was, that would be a positive set. And yes, they should really be called a "sometimes positive" set.

Miley use some hardware cloth a clean cage and make a positive set I do it all the time no big deal no secrets no special cage its a rodent not a magician.

Ya, you can use a single door trap with bait and wait, or a single door trap at a den if you want to have half a chance, not knowing if the rodent is in or out, so why not go to a baitless double door at the den and catch the critter going out or coming back in less than a day, sometimes minutes? Chucks migrate from hole to hole, so good holes don't always catch because they might be 50 yards away in the next hole, but will return to your set at some point no doubt. At least with a positive set you know you have the right bait, and you know if he's there, because he's in the trap.

One guy just called the other day, had been using bait and single door traps for a chuck, no "luck." Guess he changed baits, moved the traps, added traps, nothing. He finally got a double door cage, set the den, what a surprise, a few hours later he had the chuck. Only later did he divulge that he had been using 4 baited single days traps for 16 days!

The concept can be used for skunks, squirrels, fox, badger, possum, coon, armadillo, anything that has a den, comes through a fence, has a path or follows structure. No re-baiting, client calls when you make the catch so it saves you time to go set more places and saves the client money, they like that.

Good advise Jim but dont rule out single door cages I picked up 6 today all baited with my own bait so lets not rule out bait all cages were set yesterday and two reset today that I had to go back and collect.Same as trappin anything else you gotta know there weakness and habits.

Trapster, sounds like you're in really good woodchuck country. I kinda got hung up on the Comstocks myself. They've certainly changed the way I trap chucks. Set a Comstock for a skunk yesterday and she was waiting for me this morning. UPS delivered 2 more Comstocks around noon and they're both set up at customer's homes already.

In anything, there is good, better and best. I guess I would be a type, A, never satisfied, always striving to improve, no matter what I have been doing, no matter how good it was. No question that baits run a good percentage. I used baits for years too and caught a pile of chucks like everyone else and then I missed some here and there, like the fellow who told me the 16 day story, which is not all that rare. When you hear the utter excitement in their voice when a positive set has ended a long stalemate with bait, very rewarding. I simply wanted better, more on my side for chucks, a set that would attract virtually no non targets, a set that did not depend on me attracting the chuck to what I had for bait, a set that would be maintenance free, a set that would have no additional expense, and that would be the blind or positive set that would keep on working for days on end, justing waiting for a critter to move. After experiencing 100 plus 'cat seasons in the chaparral in the 80's without a drop of bait or lure, no flags, nothing but a well made set in the right place, I thought why not everything else? We simply applied the same logic to chucks, much easier, more profitable. I quit with the bait years ago on chucks, never looked back and have found it to be far superior to anything I have tried to date. Very nice to know definitively that if the animal is not in your trap, it is because he is simply not there, rather than an unknown variable that exists in the fact that he may not be interested in what you have. Baiting a chuck in a garden, that's a real tough one. So easy to catch him coming or going in or out at a choke point. Judy just said, "what if you can't find a positive or blind set." If you can't, he's not there. LOL. Look at it this way, if you were positive setting and it didn't work, you would be less apt to revert to a bait set, but instead when the bait does not produce you can go to the positive sets, which usually wrap up the project quickly. I simply circumvent the inevitable, chucks that don't want to come in to bait from the git go, and bring out the big guns first to end pretty much all the jobs in a hurry. The only chuck that's trouble is the one that leaves. Really can't think of any off hand that stayed and were not caught.

Beaver, that's a different gig. "Brown Gold" is hard to beat.

Jim - I am going to print off that info...great talking points for my techs.