2024/2025 Squirrel Hunting Thread...........

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ETipp said:
The weather has changed here, much like what you are seeing, Stan.

Due to not feeling well at all, yet continuing to push the limit, I totally flamed out yesterday evening. After I cleaned my Crockett and squirrels, cleaned up and grabbed a bite to eat, I was in bed before 1700 hours.

Now I don’t know what time it was but I remember a few storms coming through. The wind picked up and I remember hearing rain hitting the side of the house. However, I was so out of it that I went back to sleep.

I was awakened when the easy music I listen to shut off. The power went out at a few minutes past midnight and is still out.

Dang it all anyway. I had planned another squirrel hunt this morning but between light ran, very cloudy skies, and the power being out, it’s not going to happen. It’s been over 7 hours now so I need to get the generator pulled out and fired up for the fridge. So, perhaps in the morning I can go back out.

Seeing open sights under dark and cloudy conditions is a big time issue for me at this time.

The weather people are calling for cooler weather this coming week with mostly clear skies. Should be good for squirrel hunting, other than the forecast wind direction.

Tom, I reckon giving myself time to rest up and get over this crud I have will be a good thing as well. I have the same symptoms as the recent COVID that’s going around here yet I’ve tested negative 3 times now, including yesterday evening.

Oh, BTW, if I were to name my Crockett “The Decapitator” I most likely would never again get a head shot.😁
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Not so sure about that ol buddy. Babe Ruth only called his shot one time, and look how famous that made him🤣
 
I think I’ve had a change of mind on something here. As much as I absolutely hate packing anything in the woods with me for short hunts that I don’t have to have, due to the flies, I’m thinking of wearing my trusty old hunting pack. That way I can put something frozen into large, sealed ziplock baggies then put my dead squirrels in a different bag down into that backpack. That should keep the squirrels cool and keep the flies away.

The fly situation only lasts a couple of months at most, but I’m tired of fighting them. Between having to worry about my squirrels spoiling and the flies, it takes a lot of the fun out of a hunt.
 
ETipp said:
I think I’ve had a change of mind on something here. As much as I absolutely hate packing anything in the woods with me for short hunt that I don’t have to have, due to the flies, I’m thinking of wearing my trusty old hunting pack. That way I can put something frozen into large, sealed ziplock baggies then put my dead squirrels in a different bag down into that backpack. That should keep the squirrels cool and keep the flies away.

The fly situation only lasts a couple of months at most, but I’m tired of fighting them. Between having to worry about my squirrels spoiling and the flies, it takes a lot of the fun out of a hunt.
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Not a bad idea. A frozen water bottle or 2 works good. Plus size of that, if its hot enough by the time you get back to the truck you can have a cool drink.
 
snakebit said:
Not a bad idea. A frozen water bottle or 2 works good. Plus size of that, if its hot enough by the time you get back to the truck you can have a cool drink.
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That’s what I was thinking, two frozen water bottles. Ought to keep a few squirrels cool for a while.
 
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yellowhammer said:
@MrTwelvette , What is the weight of your Zouve? Thanks.

yellowhammer
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Hi Yellowhammer. My kitchen scales say 7 lb 6 oz. Barrel is 33 inches end to end and 32 inches from ignition point to muzzle

Ive seen 12 bore versions, and I think there's also a .58 rifled model by zoli, but I've no idea how much those weigh.
 
I had, quite possibly, the best wild game meal ever for dinner last night. It was absolutely amazing. The only way it could have been better was perhaps served in a lightly toasted onion bun. I put it between two pieces of butter bread. My wife did really good on this one.

I don’t know what to call it. It was like pulled pork but instead it was pulled squirrels. I do not know the recipe yet. My wife said she would text it to me so I could post it for y’all.

I’ll post the information later after I receive the text. For now………….
 

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A beautiful morning for a squirrel hunt here in Upstate New York. I couldn’t get out for the season opener yesterday, but this morning didn’t disappoint. Lots of squirrels, lots of action. I took the old 44” 20 gauge English Smoothbore that I bought off of @rusticbob last summer. I had never shot it before this morning, and it performed without issue. Left with a couple squirrels, missed a few who were way up in the tree. Really a fantastic morning.
 

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ETipp said:
I had, quite possibly, the best wild game meal ever for dinner last night. It was absolutely amazing. The only way it could have been better was perhaps served in a lightly toasted onion bun. I put it between two pieces of butter bread. My wife did really good on this one.

I don’t know what to call it. It was like pulled pork but instead it was pulled squirrels. I do not know the recipe yet. My wife said she would text it to me so I could post it for y’all.

I’ll post the information later after I receive the text. For now………….
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Ed, that looks really good.
Lot of recipes I'm going to have to try.
All I ever had was fried squirrel.
 
snakebit said:
With you there Fred. I've got recipes for squirrels I haven't even killed yet🤣 squirrel nachos being one of them.
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Smoked, cooked up in a stew, slow cooked pulled squirrel sammiches, BBQed , tacos, nachos, squirrel pot pie, dumplins or homemade egg noodles.
I have no choice other than I gotta kill.more squirrels.
 
snakebit said:
With you there Fred. I've got recipes for squirrels I haven't even killed yet🤣 squirrel nachos being one of them.
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Gum Slough Muzzleloader said:
Smoked, cooked up in a stew, slow cooked pulled squirrel sammiches, BBQed , tacos, nachos, squirrel pot pie, dumplins or homemade egg noodles.
I have no choice other than I gotta kill.more squirrels.
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Yep. Can't go wrong!
 
Had an interesting morning squirrel hunting. Woke up still not feeling good at all but I headed out anyway. This time I took some frozen water bottles to keep squirrels cool and fly free.

Not a high action hunt at all. In fact, the wind started blowing before 0820 so I knew then that It was not going to be a productive day. I stayed out for about 4 hours anyway hoping and trying.

I passed by the active hickory and at least two squirrels were already having breakfast up in the top. Due to the wind, and for the fact that I’ve already taken 9 squirrels out of that immediate vicinity, I decided to move along somewhere else.

It was a very difficult morning to hunt. Trying to locate squirrels was a big problem. However, the wind would lie down for a minute or so every now and then allow me to spot some squirrels in several other hickory’s. They were not high action hickory’s by no means. There was about 3 hickory’s fairly close together that the squirrels were running back and forth to and from. They were on the side of a steep hill.

After studying this scenario for a few minutes, I decided I would try to ease in. However, I got busted by a couple of other squirrels off to the sides a little ways off. Come to find out, there was one squirrel directly above me barking in a tall hickory somewhere that I could not locate. So, I froze in place for about 10 minutes until the barking stopped.

I reckon I stood there for close to an hour, and I did see several squirrels, but they were up higher in trees uphill from me. Finally, realizing that I was not going to kill any squirrels down there, I formulated a plan to backtrack about 40 yards, walk uphill near the top of the ridge, then ease over through the thicker stuff and then ease back downhill a little ways. This put me above those hickory trees and the squirrels. That’s more like it.

I must to have stood next to a tree for 45 minutes or so waiting for a shot. Those squirrels would not stop for much of anything. Finally, I saw one jumping through the tree limbs over real close to where I was at, run out on a limb with a big hickory nut in its mouth, then I couldn’t see it anymore. I knew that squirrel stopped up there somewhere close but try as I did, I could not see that squirrel.

Focusing back into the other trees, I saw another squirrel park on a branch eating a hickory nut. It was not a good shot and definitely stretching it for me. I was just about to give it a try anyway when I said to myself “ I know that other squirrel is close and still there”. So I moved over about a foot and looked again. Son of a gun, there it was but all I could see was a tail hanging down. It was hanging straight down so I said to myself “ there’s got to be a squirrel attached to that tail” but all I could see was leaves.

I stood there a couple more minutes until I said “what the heck” took aim where I thought the body of the squirrel would be, and squeezed the trigger. Down came the squirrel and part of the limb with it. It was darn near a straight up shot.

After that, everything got real quiet, besides the wind in the tree limbs and leaves. It was 0940 before I got the first shot. The wind was increasing so I decided to ease back the way I came in from.

Stopping at that same active hickory, I was able to get a shot at one more squirrel in the blowing around limbs. The squirrel fell but flipped flopped downhill. I took off after it and we had a good chase through the woods until it went down between some rocks. Oh well, one squirrel is going to be it for the day.

After returning home and cleaning my Crockett, I went out to the garage to clean my only squirrel. I noticed that it had a hole behind the front leg but that didn’t add up. There was also a large chunk of fur gone around that hole as well. I thought “what the heck happened here, none of this adds up”. Then I noticed another hole, much larger than the forward hole, just under its tail by the rectum.

When I removed the hide it all became clear. The ball entered through the rear, traveled lengthwise through the body, and I had thought it exited through the front hole. Still, it just didn’t look right. It made a mess out of that squirrel for sure. When I went to clean up my bench I found the flattened round ball lying there. It must have fallen out of the hide up near the front leg area. That makes only two .32 round balls that I’ve recovered out of 96 squirrels with my Crockett.

I still do not understand the large patch of hide that was missing. It was clean and freshly removed. I would say it was close to two inches in diameter.

Indeed, this ole boy worked really hard for my one squirrel this morning. It’s the hardest I’ve worked for one squirrel in a long time.
 

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Splitear said:
A beautiful morning for a squirrel hunt here in Upstate New York. I couldn’t get out for the season opener yesterday, but this morning didn’t disappoint. Lots of squirrels, lots of action. I took the old 44” 20 gauge English Smoothbore that I bought off of @rusticbob last summer. I had never shot it before this morning, and it performed without issue. Left with a couple squirrels, missed a few who were way up in the tree. Really a fantastic morning.
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Congrats on a fine hunt.
 

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