Squirrels

[O. hemionus]

Since it is going to be another year before I can move back to the PNW, I decided to try and make the best of my remaining time here in the South and take up squirrel hunting. Went looking for bushytails in the nation's smallest national forest (literally) and limited out in a few hours. Not the same as hunting for mulies and elk, but it'll do. Congrats to all those of you posting your harvests this season!

[kellama2001]

Congrats on your trophies!  Now you can make a fine stew for supper

[O. hemionus]

Found a great recipe for a white chili with chicken. Just swapped out the chicken with squirrel and it tasted awesome! Now hoping to try my hand at some Alabama whitetails here in a couple months.

[lokidog]

Slow cook them to tender, pull the meat and then do anything with it you want, squirrel is yummy!  Nice shooting. 

We've had more and more squirrels showing up (breeding) here on the island.  I have mixed feelings, it would be nice to have huntable numbers (of course we can't use a .22 rifle, maybe I'll use my 44 mag revolveer, much safer...    ) but they are also destructive little jerks (they ate the foam out of a treestand seat that I left out last year).     One problem with our island squirrels though is that they do not tree when spooked, they just run off into the bushes.   

[quadrafire]

I grew up hunting the bushytails. Miss it. Thanks for sharing, good stuff right there........

[O. hemionus]

Thanks, Lokidog. What type of squirrels are you referring to - eastern grays or Douglas squirrels? From what I can tell from looking at distribution maps, they have the Douglas mapped on Orcas, Blakely, and Whidbey, but not on the other islands. I have seen Douglas squirrels on Blakely. Maybe they hitched a ride on the back of one of the Blakely deer and swam over ha ha. Don't think they will ever open a season on those though. I really doubt they are western grays, unless they somehow made it over from the Ft. Lewis population... If they are eastern grays, then take your shotgun - or your "firearm restricted area-approved .44 magnum revolver" - and remove 'em from the face of the earth...they are introduced to Washington. If they're easterns, you might need to get a dog to tree them for you. Don't know if it would work or not.

[DOUBLELUNG]

I miss squirrel hunting.  Bot fly larvae are still gross though.

[O. hemionus]

Agreed. Gross. Most of 'em had "wolves" to some degree. I should have saved them and used them for bass bait!  Those suckers are tough and locked in there hard. Have to cut them out. As it was, I tossed them in the river where I was gutting the squirrels so hopefully some little fish liked them. I'm not sure at what time of the year they fully emerge from the skin, but I wouldn't mind hunting squirrels when the bot fly larvae are all gone.

[NRA4LIFE]

That's outstanding.  I used to love that back in the Midwest.  It was always the first season to open up and you could really hone your rifle skills on the little buggers.  I loved eating them too.

We have a growing, no make that exploding eastern Gray population around our house.  It really irritates my wife as she has had to give up on Bird Feeders.  I tried everything (except the electric whirlygigs) to keep them out but eventually they got to the food.  And every time I'd shoot one, another would move in.  It was just a constant cycle.

[O. hemionus]

I've had the same issues with squirrels in my bird feeder. There is an effective design that folks around here use to keep squirrels off the feeder, but I haven't built one yet. I'll PM you the design once I find a picture of it. I'd be thinning them out around my feeder too but unfortunately I live within the city limits for now and will just have to keep fighting them.

[NRA4LIFE]

Thanks, I'd like to see that.

[Bill W]

You got the wrong gun for squirrel hunting.  You should have a scoped .22 in that picture but if you did you'd be hooked on squirrels.   My last squirrel season was 1967 when uncle sam messed with my living locations.  If I had to give up all types of hunting but one the one I'd take would be squirrels with a .22.  Just something about sneaking along looking for a head or ear.

[O. hemionus]

I would tend to agree with you there, but for a couple of points. Right now, squirrels here are spending most of their time in the tops of the beech trees munching away on the beech nuts. I don't particularly feel comfortable with shooting a .22 in the air here given the proximity to a nearby town and roadway. Also, I don't actually own a scoped .22. I do have a 1930's Savage .22 with peep sights that I will be taking out for squirrel hunting again when squirrels are spending more time running around on the ground and when the leaves have fallen and I can see them against tree trunks. Maximum effective distance is a lot less, though, given the size of the peep sight when the squirrels are any distance away. Sure is fun hunting, though.

[Trapper John]

I grew up hunting those bushy-tails in Connecticut.  My mom use to make them with polenta and spaghetti sauce ........  yummy.

I remember when I first got married and went hunting with a couple of buddies and brought home my days catch of eight of those little buggers.  I said to my wife; boy we're going to have some good eating.  She said I'm not cooking those "tree rats"    So I cooked them and she enjoyed the meal.
Thanks for sharing.
JC   

[lokidog]

I miss squirrel hunting.  Bot fly larvae are still gross though.

We never had to deal with those.

Thanks, Lokidog. What type of squirrels are you referring to - eastern grays or Douglas squirrels? From what I can tell from looking at distribution maps, they have the Douglas mapped on Orcas, Blakely, and Whidbey, but not on the other islands. I have seen Douglas squirrels on Blakely. Maybe they hitched a ride on the back of one of the Blakely deer and swam over ha ha. Don't think they will ever open a season on those though. I really doubt they are western grays, unless they somehow made it over from the Ft. Lewis population... If they are eastern grays, then take your shotgun - or your "firearm restricted area-approved .44 magnum revolver" - and remove 'em from the face of the earth...they are introduced to Washington. If they're easterns, you might need to get a dog to tree them for you. Don't know if it would work or not.

These are indeed Eastern Grays, we do not yet have the Douglas squirrels here.