Sometimes the best way to begin a story is to pose a question. as a preamble to this tale I'll ask "What didn't happen yesterday?"
The first thing that didn't happen was us getting mired in a half frozen slurry of cow shit and mud in the barn lot at the Gar Hole, which is good way to start any hunt. I guess that's about the only thing that didn't happen, lol. I did not have to do my impression of Mt Goat, either, thankfully. I suppose this begs another question. "What did happen?"
I've been on a great many squirrel hunts, some very remarkable, but yesterday's hunt will go down as historic, for me and the dogs, at least.
Despite his resistance to my help in solving his guns accuracy problem, we found the remedy in the form of CCI standard velocity ammo. I don't think I've ever seen a .22 rifle that would not cycle and shoot this ammunition pretty well, so it was worth I shot to at least try it. Problem solved, and proven repeatedly yesterday in the woods. When I'm hunting in a party, I prefer to not do any of the shooting because I do it all the time, and I can concentrate on handling the dogs and keeping our dead squirrels from being destroyed by a certain little brown dog. I'm always ready, as back up, to open fire on a wounded squirrel trying to escape, but otherwise, my rifle stays across my back. We got started early, and it took the dogs a few minutes and a few dens to get onto a tree that produced a target. Lefty got the first one, and Brock shot its eye out. This is the way we like to start a squirrel hunt.
The next squirrel was found by Slick. It produced the most ideal shot anyone could ask for, and I must have jinxed Mason by telling him so as I summoned him to come and stand where I was for a true "gimme". He nicked this ones head, and it bailed out to the ground for an exciting ground chase for the dogs, who did tree it again, or so we thought. Brock was sure that he saw the squirrel run away from the tree that the dogs were on and not up it, so after a brief look up in the tree, the dogs started wandering around and got back on the trail, which led to a hole in a tree at ground level. Both dogs were quite sure the squirrel was in there, so we poked around with a stick a little to see if we could recover a body, but no such luck. I sent the dogs on again and they went right back to where that episode started. I was about to scold them for going back to an old tree when Brock spotted another squirrel. Seems like he missed and the squirrel started to timber out, but stopped on some skinny branches up high for a few seconds. none of us really had a shot, but I moved into a spot that I could shoot, and just as I was about to pull the trigger, the squirrel took a very daring leap to another tree, barely holding on upon landing, but did, and dashed into a leaf nest. This particular one had several vines going up to it, so I gave them a good shaking, and the rat came out and made a break for it. I don't recall how many shots were fired, but that one found a hole pretty fast. This is very exciting for the dogs, but shooters suffered a mild ego bruising. It's part of the game. Sometimes they just get away, sometimes we just miss.
We ended up 2 for 5 on the first drop. The action picked up nicely on our next stop, and the rest of the days shooting was first class. Best to get those bad shots out of the way early, I guess.
We hunted around in light snow on our second stop for a couple of hours of steady action, including a triple and a double. After covering the entire area, jumping two rabbits, finding a dead Red Tail hawk, playing lost and found with my gps receiver after the lanyard broke, unbeknownst to me, while I was fighting through bush honeysuckle to beat Lefty to a dead squirrel, we returned to the truck for a quick lunch and a break for our legs with 8 more squirrels. We did leave one hanging that rather "fell" into a leaf nest after being shot. This nest was already occupied, and the occupant burst out of his own abode only to take a bullet to the head, too. We could not shake the dead rat out of that nest even though there were some vines attached. I hate leaving them behind, but sometimes there is no getting them to the ground. So, we have 10 dead rats, three that got away on missed shots, and one left hanging, and the light snow continued to fall as we turn the dogs loose again where we started on this stop, hunting again what we already covered once a few hours ago. The dogs didn't do much the second time around, but did find two more for us, one of which the dogs ran down and killed as it was only grazed on the side of its head and made a run for it after bailing out of the tree. Twelve squirrels out of 16 is a pretty darn good take for the middle of January on a not great weather day. I think most sensible people would have been content with a two man limit under such a circumstance. Serious hunters, often being less than sensible, keep hunting. After some deliberation about what to do next, off we went to the Gar Hole, avoiding the barn lot, in favor of a parking place right next to the woods, lol.
The Dogs started off a little slow again, going to a couple of dens before dashing across a small field into an adjoining woods where Slick got on one immediately. I was bringing up the rear as we headed to the dogs, and just after I stepped across an old fence, I looked down to see a pair of antlers. I grabbed them up and made my way to the action. Brock shot out the squirrel when I got there, it seemed like a good photo op. Slick making sure this squirrel with his brains hanging out didn't try anything funny.
The next tree turned out to be a double, and those two both went to the bag with lethal head trauma. As we hunted our way back toward the truck the dogs went to a couple of dens before finding another squirrel. I had crossed a big deep ravine to get to the dogs on a den, and Brock and Mason did not, so were kind of far behind the dogs and me. The dogs had gotten out a little ways and Slick cut loose. I got there as fast as I could, and I spotted the squirrel quickly, so I moved around a bit to find a shot, and thought I had one. I hit the same small branch four times in a row, and had no other shot options. Brock was able to get a shot on this one when they arrived at the tree. Four in the bag with the truck in sight, snow picking up. We only needed two more to collect a three man limit of squirrels, so I sent the dogs off toward the only part of the woods we had not covered. Slick got us one fast, but it was up high in a large oak, and I was in the best position for a shot. Brock moved the squirrel for me a little and I made nice head shot. We collected this one and sent the dogs off again, and it only took Slick a few seconds to get on what turned out to be a den. As soon as I sent them on again Slick got on a tree and Lefty joined him. I was already in position and the squirrel offered itself up too nicely for me to wait as the snow was coming down pretty good and light was fading. I knocked the last one out with a slightly off neck/head shot. That made squirrel number 18. This is the first time I have ever been involved in a three man limit in one day with my dogs or anyone's. One thing is for certain, my dogs always seem to come up big in the "big games", and their performance was world class yesterday. It certainly helps to have brave friends who share the desire to stick it out this time of year. And that can shoot, too.
Only one word comes to mind to describe yesterdays hunt; Epic.
The dogs showed us 22 squirrels yesterday. We killed three greys, and two that got away on missed shots were grays, the rest fox squirrels. I completely lost count of which dog treed what, so I'm giving them equal credit when I update the counter. They both had career days, makes me very happy.
Thanks again, gentlemen, for another spectacular day in the squirrel woods.
Slick 107
Lefty 55