When we started hunting this morning there was nothing moving at all. It took an hour before Slick even found a den tree that smelled enough to get his attention. When the rats finally got out of bed it was the Slick show all morning. Yes, he did run my sorry old broken-down ass nearly to death. He treed the first squirrel at 10am. We had three in the bag by 10:30 and had covered nearly a mile in the process. We walked a good ways back through what we had already hunted and once we got to some new ground, he had another one. After that we hunted our way back to the truck, I let Slick keep on going into a small woods where we park. He had one in less than a minute. I went to him and got into position for a shot after I found the squirrel. I played the waiting game with this one for a while and Slick just kept hammering the tree for me. I finally got a shot and missed. This was a wide open gimme of a shot at the whole squirrel after it slid around to my side of the tree. A quick follow up shot missed, then another one after the squirrel came down the tree a ways. I missed a fourth time as squirrel descended all the way to the ground. That was still a fatal error on the squirrel's part. Slick was on him before he even hit the ground. Squirrel bit him and ran, Slick chased it down, got bit again dropped squirrel and chased it down again. Third time was a charm. My shooting was lights-out all morning until this one, but Slick had my back, lol. This is the fourth uninjured squirrel he has caught on his own. You cannot teach a dog to do that, and it is some seriously cool shit to have a front row seat for that kind of action.
I peeled the first five, ate a sandwich and got myself properly hydrated, recaffeinated, and a little rest for the both of us. It was only about 12:30, so we went off to another woods nearby. Only took Slick a minute to sniff out another one. This one was way up high in a huge multi-trunked Red Oak. Took me a minute to find the squirrel and get into position for a shot. While I was maneuvering the squirrel actually moved higher and offered me a better look, but it was up really high and the trunk it was on was swaying in the wind a bit along with some branches in between us swaying in and out of my view through the scope. I don't know how in the world I made this shot, but it went exactly where I wanted it in the back of squirrels' head at the base of the neck.
Slick as pleased with himself almost as much as I was pleased with him today, as he darn well ought to be. When the rats came out of their holes, he lit them up. Scoured the woods fast and furious, leaving no stone unturned. He stayed treed on every tree today with no help from me, and some of those were a long time. He really was at the top of his game today, even gathering up the one I fucked up on. This hunt does not go this way if Lefty is there.
That is enough squirrels for this week and the rust has officially been knocked off. Now we are all whooped. Well, I'm whooped.
We all rest up a few days and back to work next. week.
Slick 12
Lefty 3
I peeled the first five, ate a sandwich and got myself properly hydrated, recaffeinated, and a little rest for the both of us. It was only about 12:30, so we went off to another woods nearby. Only took Slick a minute to sniff out another one. This one was way up high in a huge multi-trunked Red Oak. Took me a minute to find the squirrel and get into position for a shot. While I was maneuvering the squirrel actually moved higher and offered me a better look, but it was up really high and the trunk it was on was swaying in the wind a bit along with some branches in between us swaying in and out of my view through the scope. I don't know how in the world I made this shot, but it went exactly where I wanted it in the back of squirrels' head at the base of the neck.
Slick as pleased with himself almost as much as I was pleased with him today, as he darn well ought to be. When the rats came out of their holes, he lit them up. Scoured the woods fast and furious, leaving no stone unturned. He stayed treed on every tree today with no help from me, and some of those were a long time. He really was at the top of his game today, even gathering up the one I fucked up on. This hunt does not go this way if Lefty is there.
That is enough squirrels for this week and the rust has officially been knocked off. Now we are all whooped. Well, I'm whooped.
We all rest up a few days and back to work next. week.Slick 12
Lefty 3
