For those of you that aren’t hunters, squirrel season started almost a month ago on August 15th. I have already been out several times in the past month. At the beginning of season it is more of a challenge to bag squirrel because the trees are still full of leaves and there are no leaves on the ground to hear the squirrels wrestling in. It is also still hot and humid making the squirrels not very active. Considering the early season challenges, I have only managed to bag one squirrel so far this season. The one squirrel that I did bag didn’t go down easy either.
At about 6:30 a.m. my hunting buddy and I headed out to my ten acre woods for an early squirrel hunt. We found a good spot a couple hundred yards into the woods, so we sat down and waited for the squirrels to come out. Within fifteen minutes we could hear them chirping and wrestling in the tree tops but the trees were too thick to spot them. After waiting about thirty minutes, I spotted a squirrel on the side of a tree about thirty yards away. Without any hesitation I shouldered my twelve gauge shotgun, aimed, and fired. I watched the squirrel fall about twenty feet to the ground and then thump onto the forest floor. I got up and walked to retrieve my first squirrel of the 2007 season. When I came to the squirrel it still had a little life left, but it wasn’t long before it went limp. After the squirrel was dead, or so I thought, I picked it up and put it in the back of my game vest. We then walked further into the woods to find a different place to spot squirrel. After about ten minutes of walking through the woods I started feeling something scratching at my back. I reached around to feel the squirrel in the pouch on my vest and it was moving! I wasn’t sure which side of my back its head was on and I didn’t want it to bite my hand, so I hollered at my friend to come over and get it out. He reached in my vest, grabbed its tail, and threw it out. After it was out, we used a solid tree limb to make sure it was not going to come alive again.
I have shot many squirrels and I have never had anything like that happen before. Squirrels have tough skin that is hard to penetrate requiring a good shot to get a clean kill. The thing I dislike most about hunting is seeing an animal suffer. A hunter must know the right spot and distance to shoot an animal to get a clean kill. Squirrels are very fun to hunt, but make sure they are really dead before you claim them- just a tip.
At about 6:30 a.m. my hunting buddy and I headed out to my ten acre woods for an early squirrel hunt. We found a good spot a couple hundred yards into the woods, so we sat down and waited for the squirrels to come out. Within fifteen minutes we could hear them chirping and wrestling in the tree tops but the trees were too thick to spot them. After waiting about thirty minutes, I spotted a squirrel on the side of a tree about thirty yards away. Without any hesitation I shouldered my twelve gauge shotgun, aimed, and fired. I watched the squirrel fall about twenty feet to the ground and then thump onto the forest floor. I got up and walked to retrieve my first squirrel of the 2007 season. When I came to the squirrel it still had a little life left, but it wasn’t long before it went limp. After the squirrel was dead, or so I thought, I picked it up and put it in the back of my game vest. We then walked further into the woods to find a different place to spot squirrel. After about ten minutes of walking through the woods I started feeling something scratching at my back. I reached around to feel the squirrel in the pouch on my vest and it was moving! I wasn’t sure which side of my back its head was on and I didn’t want it to bite my hand, so I hollered at my friend to come over and get it out. He reached in my vest, grabbed its tail, and threw it out. After it was out, we used a solid tree limb to make sure it was not going to come alive again.
I have shot many squirrels and I have never had anything like that happen before. Squirrels have tough skin that is hard to penetrate requiring a good shot to get a clean kill. The thing I dislike most about hunting is seeing an animal suffer. A hunter must know the right spot and distance to shoot an animal to get a clean kill. Squirrels are very fun to hunt, but make sure they are really dead before you claim them- just a tip.
1 comment:
So, I'm not entirely sure if you have any desire to get into the morality of hunting, but this post just forces me to question your intentions. And don't get me wrong, I'm pretty supportive of hunting as a sport in general, but I always thought there was a justification for the game one hunts. I've never heard of squirrel hunting before, and I'm just wondering what the point of it is. Deer can usually be made into a pretty good meal, as well as pheasant, etc., but what do you do with a dead squirrel? Can you even skin it or stuff it as a trophy? I suppose there are probably other animals hunted that I'd have the same problem with, but squirrel just seems like a bit of an extreme. I'd really like to hear why it is you hunt squirrel, and I'm hoping there's another reason than "just for kicks."
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