A Great UNsuccessful squirrel hunt....

[Big Muddy]

I don't usually hunt this late in the season because the squirrels are breeding....it's sorta early for it, but lately, we've even found babies inside some of the females we've skinned.

However, two buddies recently acquired 80 acres of hardwoods down in the Yazoo County hills, and gave Sandy and me an invite, yesterday....Sandy gave her approval, so off we went. ;)

They said the property is very isolated, which it definitely is, and never been hunted....WOW, it's all huge hardwoods, and I have NEVER seen so many squirrel nests in such a small area, in my entire life!!!....every big cherry bark and white oak tree held at least 2 to 3 big nests....they were absolutely everywhere.

I figured Sandy would go crazy, but we had some bad karma against us....first, all the hardwoods are budding-out about 2weeks early, so they're cutting the buds in the tree tops, and don't even need to come down to the ground....second, it was a full moon, so they fed all night, and never came down at daylight....third, and most importantly, it's breeding season....they've already mated-up, and are securely hold-up in their nests and hidey-holes.

Sandy treed maybe a total of six times in that ocean of squirrel nests, but we never saw a single squirrel or any movement, until we were getting ready to leave....she treed and really hammered on a big cherry bark oak with lots of vines, hanging from it, and a big nest about halfway up....we spread out, and surrounded the tree, as usual.

I shook and pulled on those day'um vines until my hands got numb, but no squirrel....then, just as I turned to leave the tree, one of the guys hollered and spotted the squirrel, as it scurried from the nest....finally, we got one of those squirrels nervous enough to jump the nest, and expose himself for a kill shot.

Sandy did her job, as usual, but those other squirrels just wouldn't budge for us....it was an awesome hunt, even though we only killed the one....but, the excitement of knowing that we've got another invite for next fall, when all those squirrels will be cutting fallen acorns is the successful part....I'll be dreaming about that place, all year!!! ;)

[Buckrub]

Guess I'm gonna have to take this up again. We have no deer, but we have two spots...one of which I counted 42 squirrels at one time while deer hunting. Last year, I saw a black one that I want mounted bad! I may have to take a shotgun through the streets of Traverse City (they have thousands of black ones........squirrels that is)......

[Big Muddy]

HAVE DOG--WILL TRAVEL. ;)

[Buckrub]

Most of the roads tween here and there are now paved.

[Big Muddy]

Correction....HAVE REALLY GOOD SQUIRREL DOG--WILL TRAVEL PAVED ROADS. ;)

[Buckrub]

I think our squirrel season closes for a few weeks in the spring, not sure when..........but it's open mostly year round now.

P.S.
Can you ship the dog? :poke

[HideHunter]

Sounds like a place worth revisiting, eddie. Got a batch getting ready to go to Mepps.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8511/8512192064_d4e6cddf57.jpg

329

[Big Muddy]

The two owners of the place we hunted yesterday say that the place is loaded with black squirrels, too....some with white-blaze faces.

Hide, do you ever kill any blackies, up your way, or just reds and grays???

[HideHunter]

Nope eddie.. rare as pheasant's teeth. I've seen 1 in the wild and that was when I was turkey hunting in the spring. There are a few towns that have a population.

[Big Muddy]

Nice batch of tails....Sandy ended this seaon on a record high of 98....how much will you get from Mepps for that batch of tails???....maybe I need to start saving these tails, and find a buyer. ;)

[Chicken Dinner]

Tons of black-phase squirrels around the suburbs here. Not so many out where I hunt. I've actually considered live trapphing a couple of taking them out to my hunt club.

[HideHunter]

Well, you won't get rich at it. ;) Over a hundred - 19-23 cents cash. Double if you trade it out in merchandise. I started saving them a few years ago to tie flies and jigs. Then I got giving them away on another fly-tying site. Demand got so big postage was breaking me so I'm selling them out except for a few for my own use. I hate to see anything useful go to waste. I just shipped 10 pr of turkey wing feathers to a guys who makes presentation arrows for "The Order Of The Arrow" in Boy Scouts. Sold my coon hides - now if I get all this stuff shipped out I may be able to get down to one freezer. ;)

I had my best season last year with 147. Got started chasing the coons early this year and only killed about 85.

[HideHunter]

Tons of black-phase squirrels around the suburbs here. Not so many out where I hunt. I've actually considered live trapphing a couple of taking them out to my hunt club.

Might work CD. I've heard that color phase has a dominant gene and once they get started they sometimes take off pretty well. Your black ones fox or grays?

[Chicken Dinner]

Grays. We don't see many fox squirrels in these parts. They may even be protected.

[Buckrub]

JB could catch a hundred blackies with his bare hands by dark today..........they are everywhere up there!

[Chicken Dinner]

I got curious and had to go look it up. What the hell is a red squirrel? Why are they discrminating against poor Sandy? Eddie and HH, we're overrun with nice hardwoods and squirrels as nobody hunts them much. Come on up.

Squirrel (Gray, Red, and Fox*)

* Fox squirrel open only in the counties west of the Blue Ridge and in the counties of Albemarle, Bedford, Culpeper, Fauquier, Franklin, Greene, Loudoun, Madison, Orange, Patrick, Prince William, and Rappahannock during any authorized squirrel season.

Bag Limit:
•All squirrels combined - six per day.

Season:
•Fall Season: September 1 through January 31: statewide
•Spring Season: June 1 through 15, 2013◦Closed on National Forest Lands


Gray and red squirrels may be harvested statewide, unless otherwise posted, and on the following wildlife management areas: Amelia, Big Survey, Big Woods, Briery Creek, Cavalier, Chickahominy, Dick Cross, Fairystone (including Fairystone State Park and Philpott Reservoir), Featherfin, Gathright, Goshen, Hardware River, Havens, Highland, Hog Island (Carlisle Tract only), Horsepen, James River, Lake Robertson, Little North Mountain, Mattaponi, Merrimac Farm, Pettigrew, Phelps, Powhatan (including the Goochland Tract), Rapidan, Short Hills, Stewarts Creek, G. Richard Thompson, Turkeycock Mountain, and White Oak Mountain.

Fox squirrels may be harvested on all lands, unless otherwise posted, in all counties with an open fox squirrel season during the regular squirrel season and on the following wildlife management areas: Big Survey, Gathright, Goshen, Havens, Highland, Lake Robertson, Little North Mountain, Merrimac Farm, Phelps, Rapidan, Short Hills, Stewarts Creek, and G. Richard Thompson.

Dogs may be used to hunt squirrels during the spring season.

[BarryBobPosthole]

I have enough red squirrels in my front yard to give Sandy a stroke. My young springer still hasn't figured out that they are just taunting her when they run the back fence. They'll pay some day. The doves sure paid that nested in the back last year.
BKB

[Big Muddy]

Yep, Chick, they've been kicking around the idea of opening a spring season down here, too....but, I'd NEVER put Sandy in the woods that time of year, down here....copper-mouth-cotton-headed-rattle-mokissicans are everywhere that time of year. ;)

[HideHunter]

CD - "red" squirrels are those little pine squirrels. We have red "fox" squirrels. Most of the neat color variations are fox squirrels. The rimfire site I go to has some hardcore squirrel hunters. Some of those guys kill squirrels that look like they came out of a pet store. ;)

Then there's those tassel-eared Aberts squirrels that would be almost to cute to shoot. I'd have to get the hide off them real quick. I'll bet they look just the same skinned. ;)

[Big Muddy]

Hide, I think we discussed this a while back, but have you ever skinned your squirrels under-water???....I got a big commercial stainless sink that I fill with water, cut off their tails, and skin 'em under-water....I hate the hair with a passion, and it won't stick to the meat, at all....and, it just feels good to not have my dry hands on the little bastages....I skin rabbits the same way.

[LJ3]

Eddie? sounds like you may need to rinse some of the sand out of your vagina, just sayin' :beer

[Buckrub]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGkVRF1oEuQ

[Captain]

Eddie you need to load Sandy up and head this way. We have a billion squirrels in the SC place. Gray and fox squirrels. I saw one solid white fox squirrels this year deer hunting. The fox squirrels here are black with some rust or gold color and white mask and ear tips. They come in all colors.
Sure wishes you lived closer. Mrs. Sandy would get a workout!
Take Care, Captain

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[Big Muddy]

Eddie? sounds like you may need to rinse some of the sand out of your vagina, just sayin' :beer


Huh???....whatchu talking 'bout, Leonard???

[Big Muddy]

Eddie you need to load Sandy up and head this way. We have a billion squirrels in the SC place. Gray and fox squirrels. I saw one solid white fox squirrels this year deer hunting. The fox squirrels here are black with some rust or gold color and white mask and ear tips. They come in all colors.
Sure wishes you lived closer. Mrs. Sandy would get a workout!
Take Care, Captain

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One of these days, Cap, one of these days!!!....we WILL hook up!!!

[DeputyDog]

I've got a few Fox squirrels in my neighborhood that are the typical reddish color but a bunch of them have white tails. First time I've ever seen anything like it.

[Buckrub]

That's not a fox squirrel, dufus.

That's a Fox.

[HideHunter]

Eddie - I do the cut across the butt - step on the tail method. I can have one skinned, gutted and cut into 6 pieces in under two minutes. With this method I very seldom get any hair on them. We've got so few rabbits around here anymore I seldom get to skin one. Been snowing the past few days. I did go sit by a doze pile just before dark and shot one in the head with the Mach II the other evening. Only rabbit I've had to eat all season.

[DeputyDog]

Ok, Bucky, then those are the first foxes that I've ever seen that can climb trees and are about the size of a fox squirrel. :moon

[Buckrub]

DD, those must be Devious Deer, then. We have 'em too. Devious Deer run through the woods in little squirrel suits. Sometimes, if you start to get onto 'em, they put on Fox suits, too. Some days that's all I saw when hunting, those Devious Deer.

[HideHunter]

lol.. this WWW is a wondrous thing. I posted a pic of the tails over on another site. Got a message from a guy who bid me .50 for 200 of them. Surely got to be selling them to fly shops. They'll bring 3 to 5 bucks depending on where. Hundred bucks ain't much anymore but it will buy a few .22 shells - and I didn't really need a bunch of spinners anyway. ;)

[Buckrub]

It'll buy about 10 of 'em.............

[Captain]

Hundred bucks ain't much anymore but it will buy a few .22 shells

A very few,,,, IF you can find them... Have you looked or priced .22's lately.
Good luck
Take Care, Captain

[HideHunter]

Yeah Cap'n.. I'm just riding it out. I'd buy a brick or two over the past few years. There's probably four or five thousand rounds in there, and maybe 1200 Mach IIs. I probably shoot about brick - maybe two, at most - a year. I'm sure when they finally catch up the price will have raised - again. But at least I don't have to take part in the "panic"

[Captain]

That's where I'm at too. I prolly got 12 to 15 thousand rounds of 22 and will be in good shape for a while. I think it's just sad that people are driving this shortage and thus raise the price so...

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[HideHunter]

Yep.. They tell me there are people standing and waiting on Tue and Thurs to grab up the stuff as it hits the shelves at Walmart in Burl. Buddy of mine talked to the owner of the local MomnPop hardware store. Said a guy from Cedar Rapids (80 mile) came in and bought every round he had and he can't get more from his suppliers. Guys said at the gunshow last week end, Remington 550 bulk that you could buy for under $13 last year is marked at $75.. It's Nutzoid.

[HideHunter]

Short answer: They can't get it because someone else is.

According to stuff that comes across my desk from the shooting industry - it's just a "perfect storm" situation. Most ammo manufacturers are tooled up to run ammo for the military. Law enforcement gets second crack and civilian ammo last.

This mostly accounts for the lack of .223 which is in higher than usual demand because of the sudden increased interest in the EBR. One of the major manufacturers of rimfire ammo has been shut down completely (due to repairs from flooding, I believe) and is just now getting back on line. As far as the virtually all other calibers.. the "shortage" is due to increased demand due to new firearm sales and even more to panic buying, "hoarding" or buying for resale at inflated prices.

Most are expecting at least nine months to work itself out.

As an example. . I look at the rimfire cabinet at Scheels the other day. About as much .17 ammo as you want, a few boxes of .22 shorts, some .22 bird shot and not a single LR round of any kind. Associate said they sill get some but can't keep a shipment over one day. We *all* know no one is shooting that much .22 ammo.

This too shall pass.

[BarryBobPosthole]

My question is why can't the suppliers get any more ammo?
Did the government shut them down?

I mean if you can't get ammo, your guns not good for anything but being a baseball bat!!!

That's one way to stop people from having guns!!


I can't find any .380 auto ammo anywhere!!

Would this be a conspiracy theory about another conspiracy theory?
BKB

[LJ3]

Ifit is, it would cause a black hole.... at a minimum.

[Buckrub]

This is not hard to understand, surely!

Obama yells something about guns, most folks don't listen closely anyway, and they get scared he is going to dry up all sources (He would love to, I am sure, but won't). Now we have a 'scare', a run on ammo and guns sort of like Johnny Carson's run on TP.

Manufacturers of this stuff can't retool and fix stuff for a 3 month shortage. It WILL be fine late this month, April,......June at the latest. So there is a shortage.

Then there are ambitious, energetic folks that see all this, realize its scope, and run around buying up all the AR's, all the ammo, you name it. I don't know why .22 ammo is the scarcest, probably because it's simply the cheapest, but it is. .223 ammo follows. .380 because that's what everyone uses in their CCW weapon. Other ammo is available, but limited in availability.

Just go to Midway (Larry Potterfield) and find what you want, and click on "Notify Me" and they'll send you an email when it is available. Then you can buy some. Brown will bring it to your door. Simple. And Larry won't raise the normal price along the way.