Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Small Game Maddog's 2014 limb chicken thread........

It's good to get the deer hunting out of the way early.



Got 4 of these out of one tree. They just kept forgetting I was there.

Ella, neat pic. Keep em coming. I hope to get out, toward the weekend.


maddog

Went midday, yesterday. Saw about 6-7 squirrels, all too far away to shoot at, and flighty as hell. I'll see what the weather does today. If I don't get out, later on today, it will be after Christmas before I'll get another chance.


maddog

Well, I decided to go for a couple hrs., late morning and took ole Dex with me. Dex site ran this dude down a deer path, and up a tree. I red headed him, and he fell in some briars. Dex didn't bark on the tree, but stayed there til I shot. then he came to see what I was up to. We both went to look for the squirrel, and he found it for me under some briars. The lil butthead won't ever make a real squirrel dog, but man I was proud of the little schit!




Ole Dex lickin' the blood off his nose.




limb chicken #40 for the season, and still have til the end of January.




Another pic of ole Dex with the squirrel.


maddog

Got two late yesterday afternoon over at the inlaws property. Could have got more if I had carried the Kimber 22. Last weekend I went on the land behind the inlaws house, this weekend I decided to go across the road over to the brother in laws property. The land behind the inlaws is thick and brushy, and the squirrels I spotted last weekend were running all over the place, never stopping and never offering a shot I could possibly make with a rifle, so I decided to take the shotgun yesterday. Then, I walked over to the bro in laws, where the land is a big open descending gulley, with little brush, hedges and vines and taller trees spread further apart. Wrong gun again, this time the squirrels would be sitting still at 45 yards to further than I could see down across the gulley. I would have been much better off this time with rifle and binoculars. Nearly four decades hunting squirrels and still messing up! Oh well, smarter next trip. It was getting very dark by the time I got back over to the wife's parents house, and there I learned another lesson, finally: game shears are the only way to go when skinning and gutting these little tree rodents. I love knives and have quite a few and have tried dozens of different styles and shapes over the years, still finding nothing that works nearly as well as the plain old pair of game shears. MUCH faster, easier and little chance of cutting yourself trying to dress out and cut up critters in poor light.

I use game shears to snip off the feet and head then after they are field dressed I use the shears to separate the pieces (back legs, back and then front legs). Not using my knife on all those bones saves the edge tremendously.

What brand of game shears do you guys recommend? After viewing this thread I'm looking to get back into squirrel hunting. These sound ideal for cleaning squirrels.

I used a pair from Gerber for years, finally breaking the plastic handles off as they were injection molded over stubs; bought a newer and they were made in China, the proverbial screaming junk. I've gotten two since, one from Outdoor Edge and one from Kershaw. Both are very good and metal all of the way through the grips.

Mine are Gerbers...

I've been using fiskars. You can get them at Walmart for about $10.


maddog

Hunted some this afternoon down behind the inlaws house. Made three great shots with the Kimber 22 killing three squirrels, then had a very hard time locating them. Too much hedgebush, wild grapevines and sawbriars, my legs are ate up even with tough Carhartt hunting pants on.

Good job... Very pretty rifle. What knife is laying over there?

It's a Queen #74 Rabbit Hunter, in the old white carved stag bone, D2. Thin bladed and extremely sharp! The blade's a tad long though. About like a trapper folder, not too bad really. I used it to make the initial slit through the tail where it joins the body and then the Kershaw shears for the rest, seemed to work very well. I can't decide whether I like the Kershaw or Outdoor Edge shears best, they're very differently shaped and constructed, but both seem fine, with maybe both being a little bit too long bladed, not enough leverage to snip through the tailbone with the blade tips. The bone notches work well on both pairs, and the blades of each seem to work well slipping beneath the leg skin to make the flap for pulling off the hide and then snipping through the body cavity from neck to anus without cutting the guts.

Phillip, hadn't tried to use the shears to do the saddle cut down the back legs, I always used the knife, after I cut thru the tail. Gonna give that a shot, on the next outing.


maddog

Queen carbon steel? Or D2? Either way it looks like a dandy. I usually use a small folder but really like a small fixed blade best. I've used a Dozier Canoe Knife for years for squirrels and it is just about perfect in size. Easy to clean up too. My shears don't come into play until the hide is pulled.

It's D2, and ground more thinly than many Queens in D2 usually are. I've always thought the Dozier Canoe was a dandy small gamer; he makes two more very interesting knives, a Small Game Skinner and a Squirrel Skinner. I used to scoff at smaller knives with shorter blades, but in the last few years have decided that blades longer than 3" are just too much for good handling when you're trying to cut up squirrels.

I blew too much money over the years looking for the "perfect" knife, should have gotten something simple like a Buck Woodsman or AG Russell Woodswalker and kept the $$$$$.

Yeah, I have a strong preference for a small game knife of a blade somewhere around 2 3/4" give or take a smidge. I've used Dozier's Sweetwater and Semi-Skinner on squirrels also. I like the Canoe model the best of those three. Menefee makes a small fixed blade "Bird & Squirrel" that looks like an excellent choice also.

Haven't been on in a couple of days. Been tied up with Christmas, grand daughter birthday, and traveling. In Jafrica yesterday and stopped by Academy Sports. Saw a Yildiz .410 double that was begging to come home with me. Skwerls beware. Only shot with AA8s so far but handles like a dream. Will pattern with 6s today. Has screw in chokes..

schoolmarm, how about a pic of that shotgun, sounds cool.


maddog

Well, too blasted cold to do anything outside, so I spent the morning making a huge batch of limb chicken chowder. Just ate two bowls full. Mmmmmmmmm


maddog