He’s just huffy because I made him stop licking the squirrels. 
We sleeping in tomorrow.
We sleeping in tomorrow.Squirrel Doggin' 23-24
- Thread starter Jamie
- Start date
cspot
Member
Have you ever had issues with coyotes coming in on the dogs? I had it happen a couple of times with beagles and also with the coonhounds. Never had one get a hold of any of mine. Know some guys that had some dogs get pretty tore up. Usually this time of the year is the worst since they are breeding.
One time at Mohican state forrest I had a coyote run by me about 30 yards away with Lefty hot on its heels. Could not get my gun up fast enough. Called Lefty off the other dog.
a couple of years before that while hunting squirrels in SC we had a much worse encounter. We had three dogs. Dean was carrying his .22, I had my 870 loaded with 4 shot. We were way the hell deep in a Palmetto swamp. I mean like a mile or more from any access. All three dogs were on a tree and we were a few hundred yards away marching to them. When we got there they had a squirrel, and by the time Dean was in position to shoot, we realized that we were surrounded by Coyotes. Our dogs forgot the rat and were chasing Coyotes, Coyotes chasing dogs and eyeballing us. This all happened in a matter of seconds. The yotes appeared out of thin air. I instinctually leveled my shotgun, but did not fire for fear of hitting one if ours. Dean was yelling at me to shoot and the shouting seemed to pause the action. I fired two shots at yotes running away and they all disappeared as quickly as they got on us. Took us a minute to collect ourselves and the dogs and we got the hell out of there as fast as we could go. There were at least 10-12 Coyotes around us. One of only two times that I genuinely feared for my safety in the field. I’ll never forget it.
Buckmaster
Senior Member
What’s your favorite skinning method Jamie? Warmer better than cold? I might go out this weekend and brave our snow.
I used the WOW 
not because of the yotes but because Jamie used a shotgun to hunt squirrels 
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not because of the yotes but because Jamie used a shotgun to hunt squirrels .It's a different game down south. Those little fucking grey overgrown mice with bushy tails they have down there are as skittish as our Mountain Jacks. Always a wing shooter in the group when you run dogs after squirrels in South Carolina swamps.
They may be gray squirrels, but they act like a red squirrel…..
ThatBuckeyeGuy
Active Member
I actually have a question about a shotgun that's a perfect squirrel gauge although I don't know if I could take it in the woods. I can start a separate thread on this as its very unique and bittersweet but first off, are there any winchester collectors on here I have a few questions if so. As said I can start a new thread I don't want to derail this oneI used the WOW
I had high hopes for today, but rats did not get the memo. Nice day to be in the woods today, but Slick only treed four today. My shooter killed one, missed one, I killed two. Lack-luster day of squirrel hunting for as nice as the weather was. No pics.
Slick 89
Slick 89
It seemed like all the weather forecasts were calling for cloudy with slowly falling temps today. Everybody got it wrong. Heavy drizzle and light rain the entire time we were hunting. Slick and I went for a walk in the rain for three hours. The squirrels were not doing anything. He only went to five or six trees, all of them had a leaf nest. He tried hard, ran all over half of the county to finally find a squirrel. He was over 500 yards away from me when he stopped, I could not hear him, but I could see he was treed. Took me a long time to get there slogging through slop the whole way, but he had one. Unfortunately, I could not find it fast enough. I didn't see it until it took off. Timbered out straight to a hole. Sucky hunt today. I got drenched and I'm tired AF. Dog ran me ragged today.
Slick 90
Slick 90
cspot
Member
We went out after work for a quick hunt. Was out for about 1.5 hrs. Had 2 trees. First one timbered right when I was getting there and got into a hole. The other tree was on a big tree with a ton of vines. I couldn't find anything, but by myself he could have been there. Like you said though it didn't seem the squirrels were doing much at all. It wasn't raining here and I expected some better movement with the warm weather. Plan on hitting it in the morning and hoping for better results.
Buckmaster
Senior Member
I’ve always seen lots of rutting in early February around the house. I’ll be interested to see how much I see this year though. 
Buckmaster
Senior Member
Witnessed some morning rutting today. One female fox squirrel had 4 babies in utero.
It’s no wonder how their population can get out of control if you don’t thin them out in 19 years! Lol
We had ourselves a nice hunt today despite being cut off from several places by high water. We'll probably have a little more of that tomorrow, but it should be a little better. Slick is simply the total package. He has really found his wheels without Lefty around (as if he needed more). In the last month he has really started covering even more ground than he has in the past. He commonly goes 400+ yards in a hurry. This tells me he is skipping over more cold tracks and dens to get to some real action, and indeed he has found some, and is staying on trees for longer and longer times for me when I have a long walk to catch up. He did it all today. He winded a couple, and even went swimming to get to a tree. River out of its' banks today, and when I put him in a place along the water with big Cottonwoods that usually hold squirrels he got on one that he had to have winded as the base of the tree was under a foot and a half of water, and was 30 yards from dry land. It was a broken off dead tree with a large hole it. I'm sure he had one, but I would have not shot it if I had actually seen it because I would not have been able to go after it in water up to my knees. This is the first time I have seen this dog on a tree in water almost up to his back. Lefty did it some in SC because there is often water everywhere in the swamps down there.
He treed 6 that I saw, and made three other trees that I know held a squirrel in a hole or nest. I missed the last one he treed on a very low percentage shot and rat timbered to a hole immediately. Saw six, killed 5. Made some ridiculous shots today because that is mostly all I could get, lol. We covered some serious ground, and Slick worked his ass off today to find me a limit. Great hunt. Try again tomorrow.
Slick 96
He treed 6 that I saw, and made three other trees that I know held a squirrel in a hole or nest. I missed the last one he treed on a very low percentage shot and rat timbered to a hole immediately. Saw six, killed 5. Made some ridiculous shots today because that is mostly all I could get, lol. We covered some serious ground, and Slick worked his ass off today to find me a limit. Great hunt. Try again tomorrow.
Slick 96