After looking out my back window yesterday morning, I was surprised to see several of my squirrel meters not only out, but running up in the trees. It was only 30 degrees, so that shocked me. They usually just sit on a limb next to their dens that early and under those temperatures.
Did some chores, got everything together, loaded my squirrel rifle, and drove over to one of my happy hunting grounds. By the time I got in the thicket it was 11:30. By 11:36 I walked up on several squirrels that were on the ground digging and doing their squirrel thing. I said to myself “ole boy, you’re going to have a good squirrel hunt today”. This was on the property line and all the squirrels were between me and a house that was fairly close. One squirrel was within 15 to 18 yards from me but I dared not shoot at it.
Maneuvered my way uphill and around to where I finally found one that I could safely shoot at. Got a rest from a small tree and fired. Rolled the squirrel, leaves flew and it ran kind of whacky straight towards me. It went under a small tree that was down but was about 10 inches off the ground. The squirrel flopped a couple of times then stopped. Great, I already had one squirrel, so I slowly reloaded as I kept looking at a couple other nearby squirrels. Suddenly, my squirrel ran out from under that log and up a nearby tree. Then the others scattered. WTH? There was a dang deer that bolted off about 35 yards away through that thicket. End of hunt in that spot.
Truth be known, I probably should not have shot that squirrel due to how close it was to that house even though it was a safe shot and legal. So, I didn’t mind moving along. My guess is, by looking at how well that little bugger ran up that tree, it survived.
Eased up the gradual incline until I got out of that thicket and into open big woods. Due to my somewhat recent knee replacement, I had to sit a lot. Not my style of squirrel hunting but it was sunny and getting warm so I made the best of it.
I gradually made my way up high but not only was my knee and leg killing me, my entire body began to hurt badly. Even though I saw several more squirrels, I simply could not physically get to them due to steep terrain. It became obvious that my body had gotten weak during the 9 weeks I’ve been lying around recovering from knee replacement surgery.
Usually, I would have been ticked off having to leave a spot like that, under such great weather conditions, and with squirrels out and about. But I fully realized I needed to get out of there, so I headed out. Honestly speaking, I had a difficult time making it back to my truck. To the degree I was tripping over small objects. The last thing I need to do is trip and fall at this stage. I was totally exhausted by the time I was arrived home.
So, my first squirrel hunt of 2024 wasn’t the greatest but at least I was able to get away from being under house arrest and get to the woods. And for the first time ever, the way I felt when I got home, I was glad I had no squirrels to clean. I did have to clean Mr. Crockett and that was bad enough.
Iced that dang swollen leg and knee, and bedded down for the night.
So far this morning, it’s rough but I’m surprised things are not worse. So, with a little GOOD luck I might be able to get back out tomorrow. Only 9 days remaining until season closes.