Had a bit of a different change in the game this morning right off the bat. I decided to walk in by remaining in the actual, small dried up creek bed due it still being dark and to avoid some thick brush. It’s easy to walk quietly for the most part. I’ve never been in that way but my plans were to sneak in undetected and remain east of the very active hickory. Somewhere over there was where I kept seeing and hearing hickory nuts being worked on heavily.
Well, I’m sorry to say, and no credit to me nor to my likin, even though it was getting somewhat daylight, it was so thick down in there that I wasn’t exactly sure how far away I was from my location yesterday. All I know is the drainage was getting deeper and narrower in many places to where the bank was higher than my knees. That didn’t settle so well with me. So, knowing I was getting real close anyway, I hopped up on the bank and took a few steps uphill. Stopped, looked around a little and listened, then as I took a couple of steps I noticed something move by my right foot but It blended in well and it was barely daylight in those dark woods. So I reached into my pocket and grabbed my LED and shined it down there. Sure enough, it was a baby copperhead about 12-14” long. It was uphill from me a little bit. I thought about stomping on it to prevent any noise now that I was close to the squirrel hood, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity. So I pulled the ramrod out from Mr. Crockett (due to the cleaning jag overhang a couple of inches) pulled back the hammer and slowly eased the muzzle as close as possible to that snakes head. That copperhead was somewhat coiled up. It was so close and on a hillside that when I shot, it just kind of made a muffled “thump” sound. Then no more snake. Wha, wha, wha, wha happened to my snake? I wanted my snake, dang it, but it was gone. So using my LED, I started scanning the area. I found what was left of that small copperhead about 3-4 feet up on the bank. I said to myself “oh great, Ed, way to go top knot. Not only did you just give away your position for a small copperhead that you could have easily stopped to death, but considering most of the time you to refuse to carry your cell, I have no way to take a pic of that slithering thing, it’s early and warm and I’m going to be out here for hours”. No flipping way was I going to put it into my possibles bag.
So, being the smart woodsman I am, I just stretched it out on a log thinking I’ll come back here on the way out and pick it up so I can get a pic of it. I knew it would be covered with flies by then but that’s the only rationale thing I could think of. Except it didn’t work out that way.
Back to my squirrel hunting I looked and looked for that arched tree where I was at yesterday but couldn’t see it. I knew I was close, and I did want to remain east of it anyway, but nothing looked familiar. So, I found a big boulder to park on and just watch and listened for a while. I was surprised that it took so long for the squirrels to get busy cutting on hickory nuts in the area. They didn’t really pick up well until almost 0900.
Long story short, I eventually had to make my way back to that one hickory via the sound of hickory nuts being dropped. I wound up with only 3 squirrels and I was getting tired. My knee is still giving me a fit and is mad about yesterday. However, I remained on scene until almost noon anyway. In the end it averaged out to be about one hour per squirrel. I certainly pulled back the hammer plenty of times only to have to ease it back down.
Thinking (and actually dreading) I was going to go back and find that stinking dead copperhead, that I was sure would be covered in flies, try as I did, I could not locate that log. I’m sure it was up stream from me now but I wasn’t about to walk back up there again to look for it. It was hot, very muggy and the squirrels that were pinned to my side were getting covered up with flies.
Time to get out of dodge. I am happy to have gotten the three squirrels that I did and really happy that Mr. Crockett got his first copperhead, even though it was a very small one. I’ve been hoping I’d run across one while Squirrel hunting however, I was also hoping it would be big enough to make a hat band out of.
