Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Small Game Opening weekend squirrel report.....

Opening weekend was a success.....

I awoke Saturday morning to drizzling rain but still huntable conditions. I nailed one right off and just knew it was going to be a good day. Thirty minutes later it started pouring and I was sent home early with a wet azz and a squirrel to clean. So much for a good morning hunt....

Thankfully, by mid-day the rain had stopped and I was left with damp ground (mucho quiet) and cool cloudy weather. Perfect... The squirrels were very active and it was no trouble to hear them long before you could see them. The odds were in my favor, today at least.

Within a half hour of starting I had found my first productive tree, a big oak. The spent acorns were raining down on the lower canopy trees from the limbs above. Ten seconds and four shots later I had three in the bag. The gods were smiling... So was I.

On my brief jaunt I had noticed that none of the usually productive hickorys were bearing this year. A couple of pines showed sampling but no major feeding. They were definitely concentrating on the oaks right now. Now I had prefect conditions and I knew what trees they were in.... Bad day to be a squirrel.

The next tree containing fuzzytails was maybe 500 yards from the first, assuming I had taken the most direct route. I had taken the scenic route, however, and walked the entire ridge by now though. Had to give the 870 a chance to cool down (grin). It was yet another oak alive with movement. A ten minute stalk, two shots, and two squirrels later I had my limit (six daily). This squirrel hunting stuff isn't as tough as I remembered....

Fast forward to Sunday evening.... I revisted my "hot spots" from Saturday and quickly killed one. You guessed it, oak tree... It's almost unfair how good I was doing.

Three hours, seemingly several miles, and not even a single squirrel sighting later I was thinking differently. My idealized hunting prowess was crashing to reality and it stung a little. Now this is how I remember squirrel hunting.... Sneaky little bastids.

The sting was short lived though... I came home to a saucepan of stewed squirrel with gravy and a side of cornbread. A day of getting damn near skunked never tasted so good. I might just have to do this again (grin).

How many states have an early squirrel season? What is the bioloigy behind how early a season can start? Mine doesn't start until 10/1 and by then I am caught up in the "serious business" of filling the freezer with venison.....
John

To add insult to injury, we get a one week Spring squirrel season in June AND just this year they changed the end date of the Fall season from the end of Jan. to the end of Feb. But that doesn't answer your question....

Here's a link to a recent interview with a KY small game biologist. Might point you in the direction of "why?", at least for KY.

I have to wait until October 18 <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

Good to read your story. I have not hunted squirrels since I was a boy. Thinking of starting up again this fall. I beleive our season starts September first.

I was caught up in a bunch of other things and didn't make it out for the opener, but I did manage to take a walk in the woods on Sunday. It looks like the hickories and the white oaks are producing a bumper crop this year. I'll be out shooting tree rats this weekend or next. This year, the rain was just right and the temperatures were mild. I'm expecting big things.

As an answer to the question of why such long seasons, the biologist pretty well said all there is to say. The only other thing I can add is that the trees themselves play an important part in it.

About every 10 years or so, the mast crop of the oaks fails completely. The result is ruinous to the squirrel population. The next year, they produce a bigger than normal crop of acorns. There's been some research to suggest the trees have evolved this way as a way of insuring that at least one crop out of 10 gets to fall to the ground un-hindered by the squirrels.

We had a localized crash a few years ago in SW Bracken County, KY. Neither the white nor the reds produced much of anything and all the squirrels disappeared. They were just starting to rebound last year. In 2001, I spent 3 days trying to bag a squirrel with no luck.

Up on the northern side of Cincinnati, I remember a crash. We went from swimming in tree rats to nary a one from one year to the next. The next year I had oak trees and maple trees springing up everywhere in my lawn and flower beds.

shaman,

That's interesting, 1 year out of every 10 years the mast fall on the ground without hinderance from squirrels. Looks similiar to how mange works. Guess this is some way of controlling the population of animals, for the benefit of plants.

v