Squirrel Season Starts

“Rich, are you going Saturday?” asked my friend. “It’s supposed to be a nice day, and the squirrels ought to be out and about.”

“I am,” I replied. “I targeted my .22 the other day, and it is right on. If I get good shots at squirrels, I ought to be able to hit them.”

“I’m going to be using a 16-gauge shotgun,” my friend replied. “I am going out to the ridge and am going to set up along a cornfield. The squirrels I see will probably be moving pretty quickly, so the shotgun will be better for me. Are you going to hunt on the mountain?”

“Yes. We found a good many squirrels feeding on hickory nuts in the big hollow, and I ought to be able to get some shots while they’re up in the trees. The only trouble I anticipate is that there are lots of leaves, and the squirrels in the trees might be hard to see.”

A couple of other guys were standing close to us, and they zoomed in on our conversation. They acknowledged that they were going to hunt for the bushytails on Saturday, too.

At the end of the day on Saturday, my friend and I compared notes. I had actually shot my limit of squirrels, though he thought he had come up one short. “I had seven, but I just couldn’t find one more to get the limit.”

I chuckled. “You got your limit. The limit is six squirrels. You actually got a bonus animal. Don’t tell anyone.”

These conversations occurred more than 55 years ago when I was still a high-school student. It is unlikely that you would hear such conversations about squirrel-hunting today. Only a few hunters still pursue these small-game animals. I think more squirrels are killed on area highways and back roads than hunters presently shoot.

I know of only a handful of hunters who like to hunt squirrels. A couple of these are enthusiastic rifle hunters, and they like to take challenging shots at squirrels with scoped .22 rifles. I know of a small group of hunters who like to get together early in the season and harvest a number of squirrels. One is a master chef, and he prepares the squirrel meat much in the manner that restaurant cooks prepare Buffalo wings. These guys share the camaraderie that is often missing among today’s sportsmen.

Squirrel season begins this Saturday, Sept. 14, and lasts till Nov. 24. A winter hunt runs from Dec. 16 through Feb. 28.