# Squirrel hunting these days.



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Wasn't many squirrels to hunt where I grew up except those nasty distruve red squirrels. My brother and I would travel away from home and try to still hunt them thru mature hard wood forest. Latter in life I bought a chunk of property in Michigans UP. Lots of hard woods cedar and cramberry swamps on the place. sitting in a pop up deer blind in the hard woods had squirrels all over the place. One evening I counted 6 squirrels going into to one knot hole in a huge old oak tree.
I returned after deer season and sat up againest a oak tree and collected the limit for one days hunting. I have done that many times since. We have had exllant weather here these last few days. Temps are about 10 degrees above the normal day time high of 66F. Great time to ease back in the woods with the 22 and sit by a oak tree not far from the corn field. The squirrels this year are in 7th heaven with all the hickory nuts a bumper crop along with a bumper crop of acorns and the corn near by. I could sit and get a limit from one spot if I desired. But a nice nap just feels right.


 Al


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## Snowfan (Nov 6, 2011)

:goodjob:


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## arbutus (Jun 8, 2006)

If you don't mind me asking what general location were you hunting? I'm in the EUP and have located a promising stand of oaks on public land, but would always like to hear of more potential hunting areas on public land if you are willing to share.

Squirrels offer great hunting and good eating!

Thanks!
J


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Take a look at Federal land near Escanaba, Gladstone & north of there.

 Al


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## arcticow (Oct 8, 2006)

Most public land has been way over hunted for deer and turkey, seems like, but plenty of small game left, and maybe hogs depending on where ya are.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

There is so much public land in the UPPER that the deer numbers and turkey are about the same all over except the farmed areas.

 Al


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## arcticow (Oct 8, 2006)

Maybe I need to spend Fall in the North Woods again... Maybe next year.


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## Snowfan (Nov 6, 2011)

I've thought it would be fun to have something like a traveling deer camp, only for squirrel and rabbit. Park a camper or pitch a tent in a different state or national forest (where legal) and spend a few days hunting and spend the evenings around a camp fire enjoying friends. I even suggested this to a couple of friends. One of them told me that hunting squirrel is no fun because it's too easy, it's no challenge. I must be doing something wrong.


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## arcticow (Oct 8, 2006)

Squirrel hunting is easier than sitting in a blind or tree stand waiting for deer... What?!?


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Some people don't just sit in a blind and wait for a buck. But doing a squirrel camp out hunt shouldn't be about easy or hard.

It is about very good friends spending time together. learning different methods of skinning and cooking the game. Sitting around the camp fire and telling of the days adventure. 

I once shot a squirrel about mid way up in a 30' oak tree. That crazy squirrel I bet took almost a half hour to finally hit the ground.

From a tree stand deer huinting I arrowed a squirrel sinking the arrow in the ground good enough the squirrel kept running around the arrow. I got down and clubed it behind the head and laid it in the crotch of a tree so I could find it when I left the area. squirrel came back to life but was stuck in the crotch of that tree and making a racket *YET.* Once again I got down clubed the squirrel and cut it's head off this time. I had just finished when my brother and a friend walked up and asked me what I was doing making so much noise every deer in the area had left for the next county over.
I've lived with that great squirrel killer tag for almost 40 years now. Every year the day before archery deer season arrives I get a phone call from my brother asking if I got my any sex squirrel tag.
Of course I get even when I ask if he is going to remember to take his rifle to the deer blind on opening day of firearm deer season.

Bone any one.





Read another squirrel hunting story here.
http://thunderbucks.com/tbforum/index.php/topic,599.0.html

I have many more short stories of hunting and fishing.
http://thunderbucks.com/tbforum/index.php/board,34.0.html

 Al


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## arcticow (Oct 8, 2006)

Any hunt is better when it's shared with friends or family.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

But a hunt alone isn't bad either.

 Al


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## AndrewOSpencer (Jun 18, 2013)

Deer hunting is slow at my family land, and there's tons of squirrels. I'm always wishing I was squirrel hunting..


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

There are not the number of squirrels that there used to be in my part of the world. In the 60s and 70s bag limits were mostly a suggestion on farms. Not a single ear of corn may be found until a dozen rows in if the field was next to a woods. A cousin and I combined for 40 in one day in 1961 and never left a 240-acre farm. 27 of those were mine and I had a weekend total of 45. Same woods and same farming conditions still exist but one now has to work to get a daily limit of 5. What changed was the introduction of wild turkeys and the booming deer population. Not many acorns or hickory nuts left for the squirrels now. 

Martin


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

What with all the soy beans and corn growing around here the acorns hickory and walnuts are pretty safe from the deer and turkeys. In fact the squirrels them selves are clearing the corn rows on the edges. Scares a squirrel just yesterday sitting on a fallen log with a big fresh ear of corn. The pup decided to take the corn to play with.

The 16 turkeys in a flock were roosted in several big old oak trees on the edge of the corn field and scared the be jabbers out of the dog when they flew.


 Al


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

There has been corn and beans around me for ever and we NEVER have white oak last thru oct. The deer,turkey and squirrel make sure of that! Our bow season comes in Oct 1 and if we have acorns we are dressing deer that day period. I think it's the most reliable food source to hunt over,at least around here.I wouldn't dream of hunting anywhere else at that time of year as long as acorns are there.After the white oak are finished they go right to black oak and read oak. After that they are feeding pin oaks.Funny how their food preferences are different from place to place!

Wade


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## HappyYooper (Jan 26, 2005)

Last year's hunt neither hubby or I saw any squirrels except the reds...first time that has happened. Even at my feeders at home I haven't seen any...I never hunted squirrel but was wondering if the reds are any good eating?


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

If what you are calling "reds" is actually fox squirrel then the answer is yes. If they are "pineys then it will depend on their food source. After eating pine the meat becomes bitter. I'm sure there is a way to get that out of them but we don't have them around here so I've never learned it.The fox squirrel is larger than the gray squirrel and the "pinny's are smaller.Hope this helps. 


Wade


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## arcticow (Oct 8, 2006)

HappyYooper said:


> Last year's hunt neither hubby or I saw any squirrels except the reds...first time that has happened. Even at my feeders at home I haven't seen any...I never hunted squirrel but was wondering if the reds are any good eating?


The reds in Alaska are good eating, but it takes 3 to equal 1 gray squirrel. They eat everything from spruce cones to mushrooms and birch buds, but it doesn't affect the taste that much.


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

The little reds are not affected by deer or turkeys. They can survive quite well on pine seeds which the other wildlife doesn't eat. We don't have them in the hardwood forests of Wisconsin but they are in the piney northern mixed forests.

Martin


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## HappyYooper (Jan 26, 2005)

1shotwade said:


> If what you are calling "reds" is actually fox squirrel then the answer is yes. If they are "pineys then it will depend on their food source. After eating pine the meat becomes bitter. I'm sure there is a way to get that out of them but we don't have them around here so I've never learned it.The fox squirrel is larger than the gray squirrel and the "pinny's are smaller.Hope this helps.
> 
> 
> Wade


It would be those Pinny's...we have so many of them here & they fill up on my sunflower seeds:hrm:


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

those tiny red squirrels takes a lot to make a good stew but are editable. I usually soak them in salt water for 24 hours and can't really say they taste bitter. I really only shoot them if they are anywhere near any of my buildings. They are destructive little pest.
I think squirrels go thru a cycle like rabbits and other small game does. Last fall we were still in a drought mode in my area so there just were not any acorns or hickory nuts. They had planted soy beans next door too. There just were not many squirrels to be found in the area. This year they are back very heave but we had a bumper crop of acorns and hickory nuts and the field is corn.

 Al


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## HappyYooper (Jan 26, 2005)

Same here..lots of acorns, nuts, berries..a bumper crop of everything this year. I don't think it'll take much to twist hubby's arm to go out hunting after deer season for some squirrel and rabbit!


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