not sure 100 percent what it is but its either a woodchuck or groundhog and its tunnneling underneath my great grandmothers garage. this weekend I'm going all out after it probably setting a dozen or so traps my question is what do you guys and gals use as bait for these kinds of animals?

Put a body gripper ( 160 or 220) in the front of the hole, no bait necessary. If you use cage traps apple slices makes a good bait.

that was the plan along with a few smaller footholds in the area so if it doesnt go in the body grip i still snag him he already collapesed the whole dirt floor underneath a f350 we had to pull it out wityh a tractor this thing has been there for a while and hes huge a 330 would probably work too.

A shady spot, a comfortable seat, a drink and a snack and your 22lr
Put the bait a few feet outside the den entrance, and make sure you have a safe line of fire
Watermelon rine also works for bait

i actuaklly did that for 2 days i slept in the bed of the truck. i picked off 11 with my dog and a over under 20 gauge we dug up the whole burrow. none left but the male must not have been home than because i saw him on my trail cam

Around here a groundhog and a woodchuck are the same animal.

i thought that was the case they look the same to me.

Whistle pigs

AKA grunsau.

Growing up one of my favorite ways to trick them was to whistle them out of the hole
I just now tried making that sound a g/hog makes, I definitely need practice

Banana is the best bait I have found for groundhogs. They are very easy to trap. There's a good chance there is more than 1 groundhogs in the den. Many other animals live in groundhog holes too. I caught a groundhog, raccoon, opossum, mink and a skunk all out of the same hole in 1 season.

Keith

Just a couple thoughts... in my experience, the single most effective way to kill woodchucks is to locate all active den openings and guard them with a 160 size bodygrip. I would be very careful to check your state trapping regs about what is allowable but I'm going to guess that a 330 on dry land is a big no-no in MN. I also think that IF you're allowed to use 160 BGs that setting a pile of footholds is not going to get you the results you're hoping for and is somewhat a waste of effort.
Stake your traps properly and ensure that they are stabilized too. Expect woodchucks to drag some traps into the burrow. If you're not prepared for that, you'll be doing a lot of digging LOL.
Around here, with domestic animals to worry about, I like to build an exclusion barrier out of some sticks to discourage non-targets from sticking their head in the hole. Not needing bait with this method also helps with that.
Good luck

Slice of cantaloupe is great woodchuck bait in a live trap. I hang it from the top grate on a piece of wire to keep the ants away and make it more visual

Drop a smoke bomb down the main entrance. Cover all holes with dirt. Problem solved

Absolutely right. If you set footholds you will regret it if you set in front of a hole. I set positive sets only, no bait .

I agree with the use of body grips. Especially for cage shy ground hogs.
I just caught this one after trying a couple of months with bait. I tried using Williams and the EZ set traps out of Pennsylvania with all of the commercial bait and lure available. I also tried all of the best grocery store items. This hog was just wise to all bait and lure. I set the body grip in the run to the Hiding hole under a shed near our garden.

i would consider what mr Turledale mentioned and use a cage to be safe if there are any domestics around and melon is a dynamite bait you might want to line the bottom of cage with grass clippings cuz chucks have toes on the pads of there feet good luck

thanks i actually completly forgot about the no 330's on land law i hyave now been trapping in a hard minuit

I've been using cabbage this year.Works good. I think there is a stronger smell to cabbage than most of the other baits i've tried..
just