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.

[JJB11B]

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.

make a squirrel pole, put 6 or 7 noose snares on it

[BOWHUNTER45]

Right on ...Squirrel hunting will be always be one of most memorable days spent in the woods as a kid !  I sure miss those days in the eastern woods ! Especially now that the leaves are turning fall colors .  Nothing like squirrel hunting ...I really want to go pop a few ..My favorite is the Fox Squirrel ...They get the heart beating ...Hopefully I can get back there before the end of the year ...GOOD JOB !

[BOWHUNTER45]

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   

nICE ...We done that sometimes too !! But I like them fried like chicken ...Goodness I am getting hungry !

[Fl0und3rz]

Air rifles legal for some squirrels in WA.

http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,53782.msg2416485.html#msg2416485

Another squirrel hunting in WA thread.

http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php?topic=163331.0

[Axle]

Death to the eastern gray squirrel! 
Those tree rats are a  in the west!

[tgomez]

Good shooting. I have never hunted or had any desire to hunt a squirrel, but you sure look like you had a blast. Cool picture and congradulations on your limit.

[ztirffritz]

My opinion on the ultimate squirrel gun is a .22 or .25 cal airgun.  My favorite is the Benjamin Marauder PCP Pistol in .22cal with the carbine stock.  It's lightweight, quiet, and has plenty of power for squirrels.

[BiggLuke]

cool pic bro.   You will definitely remember that hunt

[Wacenturion]

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

So did I.  Last time I had a chance to squirrel hunt was when I was stationed at Charleston A.F.B South Carolina in the 60's.  I used to call it the Big Game Hunting of the Small Game World.  Great eating.  One of my favorite ways was to boil the quarters, then put on a rack in the oven with BQ sauce and the meat would literally fall off the bone.

Was always fun watching a first time squirrel hunter try to pick one up by the tail that was playing dead.

[Wacenturion]

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.

Perhaps, but a .22 rimfire down south where you have spanish moss hanging from every tree is not the way to go, believe me.

[pianoman9701]

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.

Now you can swap the whities in for the squirrels. They're freakishly small deer and I think you can kill something like 4 a day, some ridiculous number.

[lokidog]

They are probably still bigger than the WTs we saw in Costa Rica, honestly, they were lab sized in height and not nearly as heavy.   

[Weresquatch]

That's awesome. I've never tried hunting but I think it'd be fun to take the .22 and go after a few. I understand they're tasty.

[O. hemionus]

Went out for squirrels again about a month and a half ago and got a few, but haven't been back out since. I went hunting for whitetails a couple weeks ago and sat in a tree stand on an open, mature hardwood ridge for 12 hours, didn't see any deer, but saw a TON of enormous bushytails. Of course all I had with me was my deer rifle  But as soon as I return from my visit back to Washington over Christmas, I know where I'll be going to limit out on squirrels. I'll post some more pictures when I go. Hopefully I will be able to get a fox squirrel or two as well.

On a side note, I did eventually shoot my first Alabama whitetail last week. Pianoman they actually aren't too small - a little bit bigger than mainland blacktails probably. And no, can't shoot 4 a day...only one doe a day this year from mid-October through mid-February, and ONLY three bucks/year  . Two years ago you could shoot two does a day for the entirety of the season. It is actually quite amazing - a lot of folks down here think that the state shouldn't be regulating deer harvest at all - many want to be able to harvest 5 bucks/year and to harvest as many does as they want. What is also interesting down here is that your buck harvest record is a regular printed sheet of white paper with three open slots where you record the date you shot your bucks and the number of points each one had . But there is no mandatory harvest reporting...and when some folks down here fill out their three slots, they can just print another blank record off...or make a bunch of photocopies of blank forms before they start hunting...

[jaymark6655]

Shotgun is good, but if you can get a kayak in somewhere and paddle down a creek or river; its the best hunting ever with a shotgun.  For on land I either sneak under and hit them with a 22 short or 22 subsonic or sit beneath a tree and shoot them long range with a scoped .17 (note do not take anything but a head shot with a .17, it makes a mess).  Tried a scoped gun in the kayak once, guaranteed way to get wet.  I always shoot grays; they suck to eat, but they seem to drive away everything else.   Seems like any chicken stew or soup recipe can use a tree rat.