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Squirrel Doggin' 23-24

Jamie

Senior Member
5,725
177
Ohio
We have not hunted since our trip south last week. Took me a day to recover, Slick, too. Nancy sick AF when we got home Wednesday night and has not improved much since. For that, less than desirable weather, and me not liking to run the dogs on holiday weekends we have been couped up for almost a week. Lefty has not been out of the house for a walk, either, so I brough him along today. We did pretty ok. Dogs did not go to very many dens today. Lefty sort of behaved and even found himself a squirrel. Slick got four, Lefty one, and I saw another that eluded the dogs. Saw six, killed 5. Was getting pretty windy after our second drop, so we made it an early day. Lefty pretty worn out, but I glad he was along today. Slick gimping on his right front foot. I could not find a thorn or cut in his pad, so he must have stepped in a hole or caught a toenail or something. Good hunt to start the new year, but my throat is a little scratchy. Hoping Nancy did not give me her cooties again. 😒

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Slick 71
 
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Jamie

Senior Member
5,725
177
Ohio
Ole Lefty looks weary eyed.
I'm the only one of us not completely spent. These two are acting like they both ran 20 miles and spent 8 or 9 hours out there. We hunted for a grand total of about 2 1/2 hours with a solid 30 minute break while I skinned the first three, ate a sammich and drove to our second stop. I only walked 3.6 miles today and I'm feeling great (for now, anyway). :D
 

Jamie

Senior Member
5,725
177
Ohio
Between being sick, lousy weather, and ML season we have not done much squirrel hunting in the last few weeks. Finally got out today, but I did not have high hopes. It was quite breezy which made shooting pretty tough today, but some squirrels were out of their holes this morning. Slick was all business today and found me another limit. Five on the first stop, one on the last. I made three nice head shots and three bad head shots. The wind really did hinder shooting today. Of the three I hit badly in the head, one was in the neck, one in the nose, and one in the jaw. The one I hit in the neck bailed out of the tree to the ground, made a run for it into some flooded timber and tried to swim for it. LOL, I've never seen anything like that before, but Slick cleaned up my bad shooting like he always does, and he went swimming for this one. The other two danced around in the treetops a little and eventually fell out on their own right into Slicks jaws. A most excellent morning hunt. Saw 6 killed 6. Maybe try again tomorrow until it starts raining.

First five.

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One more.

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I went to a woods that is one of my go-to spots for just one more squirrel. We almost always get at least one there. Slick knows it well. When I drop the tailgate, he is off to the races at this spot. He ran just shy of 300 yards in what could not have been 30 seconds and started barking serious. I was already marching toward him before I heard him. When I got to within about 125 yards I could see that he was on the move again, but still barking his head off. He ran by me, still barking crazy, headed straight back toward the truck hot on the trail of a squirrel that I probably should have seen on the ground but did not. He gets about 100 yards past me and gets on a big Cottonwood. I saw the squirrel pretty fast, but it took a minute of hide-and-seek to get shot. That squirrel was treed, bailed out or timbered out and Slick saw him, stayed in pursuit on a pretty long ground track. Even that big ass tree was swaying today as the wind had really picked up by then. I shot, thought I had missed as the squirrel just started running around in the tree like it was going to timber out. I shot a couple more times, hastily missing both times, to try and knock it out before it got into a hole or something. Just about when I thought this one was getting away, it just fell out of the tree and Slick went to work. This is the one I shot in the jaw (on the first shot). Good enough. :)

Slick 77
 

Jamie

Senior Member
5,725
177
Ohio
As much fun as I have had cooking and working in the shop these last several days, I have still gotten stir crazy, and the dogs, too. And apparently the woman as well. It looked like today will be the best day out of the next several, so we decided to brave the cold and get some sun and fresh air. After it quit snowing here this morning it cleared up pretty quick and the wind was not too bad. Slick found three and I skinned them all. My shooter did not have a good showing today, lol, but the backup did ok. Lefty went for a nice walk, lol. We froze our asses off, but it was nice to get out for a couple of hours.

Slick working, Lefty doing I don't know what. :LOL:
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Probably won't make it out again before the weekend with this cold and wind,

Slick 80
 
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Jamie

Senior Member
5,725
177
Ohio
Weather today was much better than expected a couple of days ago, so Slick and I went hunting. We got off to a so-so start, and the hunting was about what I would expect this time of year with less than fantastic weather. The first squirrel he treed timbered out when I got there and went straight to a nest. The second tree was giant Cottonwood with another right next to it. I'm sure there was a squirrel there someplace as Slick was really, really excited on that tree, but I just could not find it by myself. He was wound the fuck up after that and ran off fast and farther than he has ever gone that I can remember. He ran nearly 500 yards, stopped moving (I was too far away to hear him if he was barking), when I finally got to within about 300 yards I could barely hear him barking, but he stopped, ran another 300 yards and stopped again. He had covered over 800 yards since the Cottonwood tree in less than three minutes. I just kept marching and finally could hear him barking again, and he stayed put until I got there, and he had one. Very difficult to get a shot at this one, but I managed to kill it. We went to a couple more empty trees before heading to another spot. He hunted a few minutes at the new spot before he got on one, and he did a very impressive job of finding the right tree after bird dogging all around it for a bit. This one cooperated a little better, but I shot three times, hitting twigs every time, but the squirrel did not flinch and the fourth shot was right in the noggin. Slick wound up on another big Cottonwood and again I could not find the squirrel. I decided to make one more stop, and Slick went right to work and got on one pretty fast. I had to play the waiting game with this one, but eventually got a look at enough of its head to shoot. After I got that one put away and sent Slick off he only went about 75 yards and started barking again. I had to look a little for this one, but it was pretty nervous and kept moving around the tree trunk in and out of my sight. Eventually rat held still where I could see and made a nice head shot. That would be the last squirrel we saw. Saw 5 killed four. Nice hunt. Slick has really found his stride without Lefty bothering him.

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Slick 85