seemed logical to me that squirrel hunting in gale force winds would be more fun than holding on for dear life in a tree stand while waiting to kill something. we got after them on Friday the 13th for the first time this season, had a pretty good day in spite of the 25mph winds, gusting to 40 here in central ahia. squirrels moving good enough for Lefty to tree 8 for me, plus a couple of dens. four went to the game bag, four got away. two in one tree that I could not find until one bailed out just as we gave up looking and started to leave the tree. squirrel hitting the ground from 40 feet up in a tree sounds like a hedgeapple hitting from the same distance and it's pretty loud. got to watch that one run up another tree into a hole and other squirrel in the tree ran into a large hole in the tree he was in. I totally goofed on that one by giving up too easily as it was a medium sized hickory tree with a large den hole in it. the other two got waaay up in the skinny limbs in the tops of two big red oaks, one of which still holding lots of leaves, which complicates the matter of shooting them even further. very hard to hit squirrel swaying, quite literally, five feet in either direction in 25-30mph winds. eventually, after missing them nearly ten times each, they timbered out and found holes real fast. dog didn't miss a beat. found the meat and stayed treed solid, stayed with every one that timbered out until they found a hole. handler, however, needs to get his shit together. should have had a limit.
here's the first two, Lefty, being the little friggin' prima donna that he is, not cooperating in the slightest with having his picture taken.
