So, every year I seem to shoot 1-2 dozen groundhogs and have always just thrown them back down the hole, but this year decided I wanted to try using them for bait for fox and coyotes. I killed 5 over the weekend, and so far have only removed the guts. My plan is to remove and discard the head, then chop up and send through the grinder to try and make a paste type bait rather than chunk. Plan to let it age slightly, then add preservative and antifreeze, but still undecided as to whether I want to add anything "extra" as far as different smells, or just keep it natural. My question is, for chunking and grinding then aging, would it be better to let the hide and hair on, or skin them and only use the meat/flesh. Right now I have them frozen until I fully decide what process I want to go with. Thanks for any help you guys can provide!

Take the skin off before grinding, use a course grinding plate if you have one. Consider purchasing a Bait solution and follow their directions!!! Go Easy on the antifreeze, sometimes you can get bye with fish oil etc. as a antifreeze.

Ground hog hide is tough , if you can get it to go through the grinder I would definitely use it. I just deboned one and cut up a small one with bones in tact . I have not decided if I will use it as is ( I’ve done this with good results ) or grind it and add some of my favorite ingredients. I’ve ground it before and added a little of this and that but the sodium benzoate I used did not stop the meat from rotting . I made this stuff over 3 years ago and it’s probably still gassing . Without a doubt I will not age this for any amount of time before it goes in a dirt hole.

I’m like Golf ball... g-hog is good bait but I make it even easier...I’ll freeze them whole. Then around September I will take them out and chop them up whole into fist sized pieces, put them into a 5 gallon bucket and put it back in the freezer. I like them fresh with the hide on and use them in dirt holes.

I don't want to age this stuff too much, just enough for a little extra smell, although I did consider keeping it fresh and natural. They're extremely prevalent in our area on the farms we trap, so it just made sense to me that it should make a decent bait as it is probably high on the diet for predators in our area

Might want to experiment a bit say fresh vs slightly tainted vs almost rotten

I have had pretty good luck just gutting, remove tail and feet, chunk it up with a hatchet (include hair, hide, head, along with liver and heart), I let it taint slightly, and preserve with sodium benzoate. I read about this method in an old trapping book somewhere, i want to say a Dobbins book.

I gut them, chop off the head feet and tail. whack into smaller pieces with a hatchet. grind up hair hide bones and meat. i spice it up some. bout all i use anymore with a shot of pee

What do you think is the base for G H II ?

Back many years ago I used ground hog chunks with Grawe's bait solution and the finished product performed as well if not better than the commercial baits that I had. I highly recommend it.