I think about squirrel hunting a lot. Mostly when I'm not doing it, but I think about it while I'm out there with the dogs, too. The happiness hunting with dogs brings me is hard to articulate. Never once have I had a dreadful thought about squirrel hunting until now. I've been hobbling around for two months on a hip that is jacked up, and I have no real diagnosis of what the problem is so far. I'm treating it every single day with exercises, stretching, meds, heat, ice, rest, and now I've got a support band to wear, which seems to help a noticeable amount. Enough to keep me moving, albeit slower than usual. Still, I've given up a substantial amount of deer hunting time to sit home and rest my ass on a heating pad trying recuperate enough to hunt the next day. I think it's getting better, but excruciatingly slowly. I'm afraid that one long walk with the dogs might be one too many. Besides my broken down ass, I don't know how much Lefty will be able to hunt now. He'll go as much as he wants, and I won't be pushing him. He's entitled to come along for the ride now. Slick will do the heavy lifting.
Rifle dead nutz on, collars charged, shears and knife popping hairs. Dogs getting antsy. I'll have to deer hunt tomorrow with a much desirable and seldom seen this season north wind. I have a sliver of hope for a chance at a buck I care to shoot. West winds on Tuesday are no good for my deer hunting, so we chase rats on Tuesday. I'm taking this season as it comes. No grandiose hopes for this season, other than that we can hunt as much as we want without suffering any more than usual.
Rifle dead nutz on, collars charged, shears and knife popping hairs. Dogs getting antsy. I'll have to deer hunt tomorrow with a much desirable and seldom seen this season north wind. I have a sliver of hope for a chance at a buck I care to shoot. West winds on Tuesday are no good for my deer hunting, so we chase rats on Tuesday. I'm taking this season as it comes. No grandiose hopes for this season, other than that we can hunt as much as we want without suffering any more than usual.
I just didn't take it out on them. They get pretty excited the first time out, so they get a little latitude on the first hunt of the season. It didn't take Slick long to find another one. I finally caught up with them and found the squirrel. Dogs only ran off the tree twice before I convinced them to stay long enough to put a bullet in rats head. Lefty took off and treed a good ways out, so off I went again. Slick joined him before I got there, but I took a look from a about 100 yards out with binos, and saw the squirrel was there, so I got close enough to shoot, and, of course, the squirrel had hidden from me. Slick bounced off the tree a couple of times, but Lefty stayed on his squirrel like he knew what he was doing. I finally found the squirrel, but only had about 1/3 of the top of his head to hit, which I did by some miracle. Lefty was even treating my dead squirrels with respect today. 
Two in the bag, and off we go. Lefty got on one in a group of large Cottonwoods. Both dogs were really hot on this tree, so I looked around for a good while trying to locate this one. I never did find it, but I'm sure it was there somewhere. After a short walk, Slick got on one that turned out to be a big leaf nest. He didn't go 100 yards from that den to the next squirrel, and he had one this time. I had to do some maneuvering to get a clear shot through a bunch of small twigs and branches The dogs stayed on the tree, and the squirrel didn't move a muscle the whole time. I finally found a clear shot at his eye, and put a bullet in it. We had made a big loop and were pretty well back to the truck, so I put up the dogs and decided to call it a day while I was skinning our squirrels. Hip held up pretty well, so I'm not pushing it.
All taste the same in some gravy
