Autumn is the upon us and there are a multitude of squirrels out there just waiting for you to shoot them. Don�t think you have to make it complicated to enjoy an afternoon chasing these furry denizens of the forest. Here are ten tremendous tips to help you come home loaded down with delicious white meat.

1. Hunt the yellow. Like any game animal, hunt the food source. In the early fall, yellow leafs are a dinner bell for limb chickens. Black walnuts in Minnesota, hickory in Wisconsin, and pecans down in Illinois. Find a yellow tree and find your squirrels.

2. At sunrise, don�t shoot the first one. Letting more than one squirrel make its appearance before shooting works well at day break, and results in a some fast action shooting.

3. Wear camo. You don�t have to step into the woods dressed like Rambo, but it�ll help you see more squirrels. For some reason, a slow creeping camoflage blob just pisses a lot of squirrels off. They come bark at you, and you shoot them in the face. Good times had by all.

4. Stay on the move. I like to put a time limit on my ambush locations. Usually, in 20 minutes squirrels will appear if they are active and in the area. When I change locations, I do it slowly and normally don�t travel more than 100 yards if I�m in good hardwood forest.

5. Bring a friend. Squirrels naturally circle to the other side of the tree as danger approaches. Having a friend along will keep them moving to the other side presenting a shot to one of you.

6. Choose your gun wisely. If you fancy yourself the sniper type, try using a 22 or a powerful airgun. But if like me you�re only an average or poor shot I highly suggest you go with your shotgun. Many of my shots come at fleeing squirrels when they are moving from tree to tree (timbering). I can go through .22 bullets pretty fast chasing a cat squirrel. Plus, that whole notion of a 22 bullet travelling a mile. So I use a 12 gauge shotgun with a modified choke, size 4-6 shells.

7. Follow your shot. Unless you see the squirrel lying there dead, go to it. Otherwise, they can cover a lot of ground and their instinct is to crawl into a hole. DO NOT STICK YOUR HAND IN A SQUIRREL HOLE.

8. Float a squirrel. I love hunting from canoes and learned early in life a squirrel will float�for a while. However, they don�t take the best photos when wet.

9. Use Blanket Pins to carry your take. Upland game bird bags were my go to choice for years. But now I don�t like them for squirrels because they leave the squirrel in a curled position once rigor mortis sets in. This makes skinning a chore. Second, in warm weather they can get too hot. These gigantic safety pins are the answer. Clip them to a backpack; or even better a belt loop, and proudly show off your bloody pants leg to all your friends.

10. Bring some high-quality game shears. Take a look at this video about how to clean a squirrel. Simple, effective, and much better than the traditional casing method. Art in its highest form.


Do you have any tips for a better squirrel hunt? I�d like to hear them.

Also, I have some pictures over at my blog: http://wp.me/p3bCKM-sd if you'd like to check them out.

Excellent!

Good infor Andy. NOt disagreeing with you on the floating squirrels but in 60 years of hunting squirrels, I've killed a few who fell into a creek, pond, or river I've never seen one float.

Maybe they were all weighted down with too many #5s.

Great post, Andy!

You're correct about the not floating thing. When we hunted from a canoe, we carried a long handled dip net. Saved many for the skillet that way.

Excellent post.

Yea, they can sink. But I'm usually quick on the retrieve! I'm glad you liked it gents.

Great post Andy, if you dont mind my asking, what would you do if there was more softwood (think pine, fir, cedar) with a small mix of madrone and occasionally an oak tree.

How would you hunt this type of woods?

I use to do this in Minnesota all the time......

walk with a friend...and carry on a conversation..... when you see or hear a squirrel one of you proceed and keep talking... and making as much rustling in the leaves as you can....

The other guy hangs back, kneels and stays quiet...

after the other guy has gone ahead a little ways, the squirrel thinks you have passed and will come out of hiding...

Me and my buddies use to bag them all over the place like that there....

its even better when you have three guys, the other two keep walking and talking... soon as squirrel thinks it's safe... out in comes and hiding the dirt is the next thing it does...

Something I learned pretty early and put to good use. Like hunting big game, hunt into the wind. The olfactory capabilities of squirrels are phenomenal. While still hunting I invariably saw and killed 50% more when I hunted into the wind.

First, look for cuttings from the pine. They may be hammering the pine cones.

Also, I'd make sure I sat at the rare oak tree as well. Sometimes the evergreens can be like deserts with no food for the squirrels so a good producing oak might be a heavily used feeding tree.

I'm not familiar with madrone, but if they have something edible key on them as well. I think you should have some interesting species there in Oregon. Good luck!