Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Good luck to the VA fellers

Regular archery opens there this AM.

Good luck, ol' Virginny boys!

Average daytime highs have been around what they historically are for the month of June, just like last year. Heat index supposed to be near 90 again this week in a lot of the state. Sucks.

Shorts and gaiter weather.

I'll be out tomorrow hunting squirrels, dodging spiderwebs, and scouting deep inside my local WMA.

Nice. Which part of the state? I have tomorrow afternoon off and am gonna try to run out and find a masting oak

Thanks Pappy, i wont start deer hunting till late October, im still enjoying my squirrel hunting right now......I hope you have a great season 👍......Hb

I spent my first day squirrel hunting here in SE Va. Pretty much a rotten day for squirrel hunting. It rained early this morning so everything was slopping wet. It was in the mid to high 70s and humidity made it like a sauna. All the leaves here are still green and the trees are full. There was heavy overcast so the woods were dark. The mosquitoes were relentless. I walked through exactly 10,798 spiderwebs, most of them with a big red orb weaver in the middle, and most a face level. Only saw four squirrels and only got a shot at one of them, which I got, which had a nasty warble on it. I heard several calling in the tree tops but you can't see up into the trees since the foliage is so thick. So, not an ideal day for squirrel hunting. Yet, somehow, infinitely better than work.

The warbles are just a distraction the meat is good

. Lmao! Good post!.....and your right the worst day huntin is still better than the best day at work 👍......Hb

I just skin them, the warble stays with the hide. They have finished cutting the shagbarks and a lot of the tightbark hickory here mostly in the walnut, butternut and white oak now.

I had my cur dog out last trip, we killed a few but mostly both of us were frustrated with all the leaves still on.

As for deer, I had my son out on youth weekend and he killed a little 6 point which he is super proud of. Doubt I'll hunt deer again until muzzleloader season comes in. I'm waiting on shoulder surgery and don't crossbow so I'm out of the arrow game for the time being.

The White Oaks around here aren't dropping anything to speak of. The acorns in the Red Oaks are still mostly up on the trees and it looks like the squirrels are cutting the bunches down and eating them on the grounds. The black walnuts and hickory are dropping. Lots of hickory nut shells on the ground.

The whites on my property are sporadic, but none are what I'd call loaded[like last year when the bear were breaking the limbs out of them].
Won't hit the woods until 10/30's mz opener.

Was out on my WMA yesterday. There are acorns to be found here and there, but it’s clear the deer have been working them over pretty hard. In isolated pockets, they’m missed them for now. No signs of turkeys, the alleged reason for my stroll in the woods. Did find what I took to be a big ol’ pile of bear poop, but the bare ground is too hard for tracks. No deer poop either, which seems odd.

Need a hard hat there right now, between the acorns, mockernuts and even walnuts dropping. Even one of those white oak acorns falling from way up would leave a mark….

Went out again today. The overcast was supposed to break up.today but it stayed heavily cloudy all day. It rained overnight so everything was slopping wet. Touching anything made water rain down. The woods were really dark due to heavy overcast and everything being wet.. The spider webs were thicker than they were day before yesterday. The woods were silent except for the water falling and hickory nuts and red oaks branches being cut down by squirrels. I only saw a few on the ground and only got one today. It's still super thick and any squirrel on the ground only offers a brief glimpse. They were feeding in the tree tops and with the full foliage they're put near impossible to see. Saw one fork horn buck. Didn't see any turkey. The only truck I saw on the whole WMA today was at the sight in range. I pretty much had the whole 5500 acres to myself.

I did have an extraordinary encounter. I watched a Black Rat snake probe a rotted log and pull out a mouse. A second mouse came out and tried to fight the snake, but gave up, picked up a hickory nut, and hopped like a kangaroo towards me and went between the small of my back and the tree I was leaning against. I got up and walked over to the snake which was just finishing it meal and which took great interest in its own reflection in the glass over my phone camera.lens. Here's a video.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/fLsWbh2kpbYmTnCRA

What our woods still look like.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/a69jpgJvzG4Kf6CQ8

I think that snake was sizin' ya' up to see if you'd go down as smooth as the mouse.

I love it when that happens, which is pretty often where I hunt. Only a square mile, more or less, but plenty for me.

Woods here are the same. No color to speak of.

I had a snake come out right beside me once, after he had bitten a vole or shrew. He waited for it to stiffen up before he came out. Only copperhead I’ve ever run into, and him so close to my tender afterparts gave me quite a thrill. I didn’t let him finish his lunch.

Those black rat snakes are probably the most common ones here. They are very aggressive at first and rattle their tails like rattlers, but settle down when you pick them up. Their scales are very sharp when they “raise” them for climbing; like a rasp almost. Biggest one I ever found was a solid five-footer, but I’ve read that in the South they can double that.

They can get huge. I found this girl year after year in the same spot. By the last time I found her, she was nearly as big around as my forearm. She was well over 6 feet, probably closer to 7. And the friendliest reptile I ever picked up.



Back to hunting, you can tell the squirrels are there. You can sometimes see branches shaking if you can see the tree tops. Otherwise, they knock water and nuts down. But actually seeing them in the tree tops this time of year is very hard.




And when you're looking up, moving to a pot where you can hopefully see, you're walking into these ever 10 feet. Big, dime-sized bodied Ord Weavers, right at face level.