The Green Horn Hunter

Wish me luck Y'all, I am off to go hunting.

I will be spending the full day out hunting, I have dressed the warmest I've ever been, lol!

GatorWrestler

Good luck and be sure and let us know how you did!

TrapperRob

Good luck, I think squirrel and rabbit are the hardest to hunt. They require you to become "one with the woods". If you master squirrel hunting you will be that much better of a big game hunter.
Make sure you keep a journal of your hunts, that way you can look back on your notes and learn from all of your hunts. Plus, it will help you remember your hunts from years later.

The Green Horn Hunter

Thank you TrapperRob, We didn't have any luck last Sunday, We didn't even see any tracks. Well barely any tracks...

I think the winter has even been tough on the animals to tell you the truth.

buckman11

squrils are hard critters to hunt. ive hunted them for years and still havn't figured them out. i think about 40% of squrill hunting is skill and about 60% luck. butt one thing i do know to look for is the tails. most of the time you can see them hanging off the limbs. also one thing that always works when i hunt in groups is getting sticks and you and your buddy standin on oppisate sides off the tree and bang you sticks together and holllar alittle. that will spook them out. also, what gun do you shoot?

patience0830

Spook them out? A good squirrel hunter never lets the squirrel know he's in the woods. We hunt strictly with a rifle and a moving squirrel is not a high percentage target.
Season of the yr and weather have a lot to do with timing. Really cold snow covered woods with a breeze on a sunny day? Hunt a sheltered south slope early in the afternoon under oaks and walnuts.
August through October and into November, early morning's and late evenings are best. Though as it gets later in the year, they'll be active a large chunk of the day storing nuts. Always hunt the food source that's ripe. They love beech nuts over
about anything early in our season but mast crops on beech can be spotty, year to year. Wild cherry and a producing muscadine or foxgrape vine can be very good early also. Hickory nuts are next in line of favorites, then oaks and walnuts. They'll be ripe at different times according to species and varieties within those species.
A Shagbark or Shellbark hickory in early September can mean an easy limit if a feller can sit still and wait to pick up the ones he has killed.

In a lean mast year Tulip poplar and maple seeds are often a target. I hate those
yrs. Beech can be tough to hunt 'cause the squirrel seldom stop. But the maples and tulip trees offer so much cover that it's nearly impossible to find a squacker if he knows you're there.

If you hunt with a scattergun it's less of a challenge. You'll usually kill more squirrels. But I've never lost a tooth nor bit down on a wad of hair on a squirrel
that was head shot with my rifle.

Erno86

For squirrels: I like #5 shot with a shotgun...and subsonic 22's {hollow points or solids being you're choice} due to the mild report, that spook's the squirrels less. On snow covered cold days, the squirrels will tend to come out of there dens later in the morning; if they come out at all.

Fox squirrels tend to rummage around more in the fall leaves, then the greys who tend too like to run on fallen logs and tree limbs; so they can be more stealthy. Find fox's along streams and river tributaries including the surrounding slopes; because they migrate up an down the rivers.

I prefer setting up near a den tree before first light. Wear amplified hearing protection, that boosts sound 125%. I like wearing my camo Howard Leight amplified hearing muffs, so I can better detect the sounds that squirrels make; while protecting my ears as well from the sound of shotgun blasts.

If a squirrel spooks and runs up the opposite side of the tree to hide... try shooting the bark on the opposite side of the tree --- of where you think he's hiding --- and he might spook onto your side of the tree. If you just see his bushy tail while he's hiding up high in a tree...shoot at or just the below the tail; and he'll probably spook an run-up higher in the tree --- till he has no more tree left to run-up --- unless he runs into his den or onto another tree.

Bring along a squirrel call...one for mountain fox's {not the Delmarva Fox squirrel which is protected here in Maryland} and one for grey's, if both are present.

I like to skin an field dress my squirrels with a 4" long knife blade and a good pair of pruning shears --- with the shears --- for cutting off the feet, head an tail bone; including the aitch bone which is located between the inner rear legs.

Cooking squirrels: Soak them in a bowl of water overnight in the fridge, pat dry, flour an pan brown-fry them lightly, then throw them in a pressure cooker for 40 minutes; for some fork tender squirrel or rabbits.

I only went squirrel hunting twice last fall --- just when the hickory nuts were falling --- with my hunting partner at the same location, here in Central Maryland. On the first outing --- on public hunting land --- we both had our limits of six squirrels by 12 noon --- the second outing --- had me limit out by 9:00 A.M., while my partner bagged 5.

Listen for the tell-tail sound of squirrel's chewing on the nut hulls, and the sound of hull's hitting the forest floor --- once the sound stops --- prepare for squirrel movement.

coolbrze0

For squirrels, get in the woods & sit. They're usually out just after 1st light unless it's real cold (it's in the single digits here now). If that's the case, they're gonna come out a little later.

For rabbits, I've got 6 beagles that will jump & run a rabbit back in a circle to the approx. area he jumped from. If you don't have beagles, that means you've gotta jump shoot them. If its super cold, they're often underground but if they're not, they'll be in the thickest, nastiest cover you can find. Lap/brush piles, briar patches, under downed trees, in thick overgrown fields/cutovers, etc.

alleyyooper

Hunt where the squirrels are, then get in the woods and set your butt down and shut up. early morning from about 7:00 AM till about 10:00 AM Afternoon from about 3:30 PM till dark. Shoot a few squirrels then pick them up and move to another area.

Where I hunt them there is no reason even on windy days to not fill your quota in the morning unless your a awful shot. or can't sit still. I use a Ruger 77-22 with a cheap 3x9 scope on it.

One year I was hunting deer in a new spot. Seen so many squirrels in the area I wanted to return to hunt them.
I took a 5 day vacation early December and shot so many squirrels and cooked them I got sick of eating them and started giving them away.

Just sitting in my deer blind.

Gnawing on bones.











Al