Squirrel tales 19-20

[Jamie]

after a solid month and a half of bow and arrow hunting, I'm very happy to be getting back to having fun in the woods again. we got three last Friday on a spur of the moment afternoon hunt, got six today, and two more got away on missed shots/bullet deflections. those two were both hanging close to leaf nests and both ran right to them when I fired. We went to a bunch of dens both days, too. Lefty still hunting like old people fuck, but he is treating my dead squirrels with the utmost respect with no corrections at all, only verbal commands. I'm still in awe of how well beating him with a dead squirrel worked better than electrocuting him. whatever it takes, I guess. Slick tearing it up, finding the meat, doing me proud. damn nice to be out in the squirrel woods with my dogs again. sure is a long time between seasons. back to the deer woods tomorrow.

Slick 8
Lefty 3

 

["J"]

Nice update, Jamie. How’s your deer season been going? On par?

 

[Jamie]

below average, by my measure. I haven't had a good deer season in 5 years. I've hunted every day but four since October 18. have seen lots of deer, some decent bucks, but nothing like the bruisers I was seeing last year. I've had many close calls and passed on a dozen lesser bucks, but that is the nature of hunting with classical archery equipment. no acorns on my place, no corn anywhere near by, and AEP butchered the edges of their transmission line easement in August and September. wiped out lots of thick cover along established travel corridors. has been another lack-luster season so far for reasons beyond by control, again. nobody gets a pass now. brown is down until my freezer is full.

 

[Archertl]

I was waiting for this thread. Good start to the season jamie

 

["J"]

below average, by my measure. I haven't had a good deer season in 5 years. I've hunted every day but four since October 18. have seen lots of deer, some decent bucks, but nothing like the bruisers I was seeing last year. I've had many close calls and passed on a dozen lesser bucks, but that is the nature of hunting with classical archery equipment. no acorns on my place, no corn anywhere near by, and AEP butchered the edges of their transmission line easement in August and September. wiped out lots of thick cover along established travel corridors. has been another lack-luster season so far for reasons beyond by control, again. nobody gets a pass now. brown is down until my freezer is full.

Good luck on the freezer full mission.

 

[giles]

This is about to get good!

 

[Jamie]

that remains to be seen, but we gonna terrorize some rats for shor. are any of those crumb crunchers of yours old enough to shoot a rifle?

 

[giles]

that remains to be seen, but we gonna terrorize some rats for shor. are any of those crumb crunchers of yours old enough to shoot a rifle?

It’s about to get a lot better. Someone got them all 22s for Christmas. Won’t be a squirrel safe at my place.

 

[Jamie]

what I was really asking is are any of them old enough to bring them out to hunt with the dogs?

 

[giles]

what I was really asking is are any of them old enough to bring them out to hunt with the dogs?

Next year we get a couple of them with licenses. We could maybe set it up at the house. I’m sure the dogs and the kids would love it! Usually plenty of targets. Dogs will be marking on every other tree

 

[Jamie]

AHHHHH, finally back down to bidness in the squirrel woods. put up some meat last weekend with the trusty revolver, had to paint for a few days to make some gas money for rat chasin'.

I started late this morning since it was only 18 degree here, but it wasn't late enough. didn't see a squirrel until almost noon. Slick is like the Chase Young of squirrel dogs. A total natural with a big motor, big desire, a good attitude, no quit, and team spirit. Lefty turning into the Cur-mudgeon that I've been assuming he would. He did hunt with some gusto today, but Slick left him in the dust. I didn't shoot worth a fuck this morning, but did manage to get my shit together this afternoon. The hunting certainly picked up after 1 today. Slick treed two on the first drop, the first died, but the second was about 200 yards off the public ground, so I didn't shoot it, but it offered itself up nicely. I was tempted. Lefty treed one on the second stop, and it got dead, too. The flood gates opened on what was going to be our last stop today, no matter what. Slick nailed four. Just bam, bam, bam, bam. He really is something. I gave those four a bad case of lead brain. Unfortunately, Lefty forgot how to treat my dead rats. He was molesting them all day, but would at least stop when I ordered him to. He forgot his place on the last one, and got clobbered with a dead squirrel, again. When I finally caught him and had him by the collar with a dead rat in my other had, I was looking him right in the eyes, and I swear if that dog could talk he would have said "goddammit, I just couldn't stop. give me my medicine and I'll try to do better tomorrow. We'll see. a pretty fun day, all things considered. try again tomorrow. Slick treed 6 today, Lefty 1.

Slick 14
Lefty 4

 

[Jamie]

Deja vu. Today was a repeat of yesterday. Not a ton of squirrels out, but the dogs went to several obvious den trees today. Things started off really slow like yesterday, but we did get two on the first drop. First one was a black squirrel and only the second one I've shot over the dogs. The only other black squirrel I've killed was treed by Lefty several years ago in a different part of this same wildlife area. Once again, my shooting left a little to be desired on the first go, but I did wind up shooting the last five in the head. We got two more on the second stop. Lefty and I were pretty tired, and I almost called it a day with four in the bag, but decided to go to one more small woods on the way home. This particular spot is only accessible from a park visitor parking lot, and it's about a half mile walk to the woods. I always have to drag both dogs most of the way because people walk their dogs here and these two want to sniff and piss on every blade of grass along the way. As usual, it was worth the trip. I let the dogs go about 100 yards from the woods edge. They sprinted out of sight and opened up about one minute later. GPS said they were together about 400 yards out, so I double timed it to where I could hear them good and they were both going crazy. As I approached and could see them, I realized they were on two different trees and a quick look with my nockies confirmed they both had a squirrel, but the trees were only about 20 yards apart. Both dogs stayed on their respective trees as I moved into position to shoot Lefty's out. It was in the top of a smallish tree with nowhere to hide, but I had to relocate three times before I found a clear enough path to the squirrels head. Ker-pow. one down, and I was able to keep Lefty off of it with a command. Slick ran off the tree when dead rat hit the ground. I stuck the dead squirrel up on a branch high enough to keep dogs off of it and ordered Slick back on to his tree. Lefty went too, and I went about finding the other squirrel, which had moved from it's previous position during the commotion. I had to herd them back on to the tree once, but I eventually found the other squirrel again and after a brief game of hide and seek, I was able to head shoot the last one. A split tree double to end our day. Jolly good!

Killing a limit on two consecutive days by myself might be a first for me. Pretty lucky, really. Both dogs working hard for me on what I felt were kinda slow days. Slow but steady, I guess. Slick got 4 today, Lefty got 2. Even Slick is worn out today. rest up and finish butchering venison tomorrow. try and get a hunt in before crappy weather arrives Sunday.

Last two.

 

[Jackalope]

Freaking awesome man. Keep up the fun.

 

[switchhitter]

Dang
Lefty is starting to look a little older
I feel for ya buddy old age sucks


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Jamie]

Forgot to update count.
Slick 18
Lefty 6

 

[hickslawns]

Always enjoy this thread! Great updates Jamie.

 

[Mike]

That's awesome

 

[brock ratcliff]

Great update!

 

[xbowguy]

Just got caught up myself. Looks like it's all going well!

 

[giles]

I missed a white one this morning with a fox tail. Blew him out of the tree and he dented the ground. I couldn’t see him behind a big tree and he ran off. I hope he shows up again, I want to put him on the wall. Coolest looking one I’ve ever seen. Freaking big one too!