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

[Gum Slough Muzzleloader]

Glad ya got out there, Ed.
It's good to hear that the sight problem was the sight and not your new lenses. Hope that your site continues to improve. It's a good thing that ya found ya a decent spot to hunt. Hoping to get out this weekend and do some squirrel hunting. I should be deer hunting but the public lands have been hit hard. I feel most bucks went nocturnal. I thought about take my double barrel shotgun and load one up with #6 and the other one with buck shot, just incase a shootable buck walks by.

 

[ETipp]

Glad ya got out there, Ed.
It's good to hear that the sight problem was the sight and not your new lenses. Hope that your site continues to improve. It's a good thing that ya found ya a decent spot to hunt. Hoping to get out this weekend and do some squirrel hunting. I should be deer hunting but the public lands have been hit hard. I feel most bucks went nocturnal. I thought about take my double barrel shotgun and load one up with #6 and the other one with buck shot, just incase a shootable buck walks by.

Thanks. I’m not sure just how good this new place might be but I’m going to find out. There are quite a few squirrels in there for a fact.

Much of hunting is about location, IMO. You can’t kill them if they aren’t there. After finding them then it’s up to us to do our part properly.

 

[Gum Slough Muzzleloader]

Much of hunting is about location, IMO. You can’t kill them if they aren’t there. After finding them then it’s up to us to do our part properly.

You're right about that.
After all we must do our part!

 

[ETipp]

Winds for the next three days. The weekend isn’t supposed to be much better. Check out the forecasted wind gusts. No squirrel hunting for ETipp.

 

[Gum Slough Muzzleloader]

Winds for the next three days. The weekend isn’t supposed to be much better. Check out the forecasted wind gusts. No squirrel hunting for ETipp.

Just plan sad.

 

[Jim K]

Yep, wind and squirrel hunting don’t go together. Hang in there Ed, it’s got to get better!

 

[Jim K]

I had a good morning today in my new favorite spot. It was a calm( sorry Ed), cool morning. Squirrel activity was high.

I’ve been hunting a lot this year. I’ve been keeping a journal. This was day 35. Most days I just hunt mornings then go work in my shop.

This new area has lots of hickories and there are some still in the trees although most activity is on the ground now.

I have a funeral to attend tomorrow and bad weather the rest of the week. Monday looks ok. Family coming Tuesday for Thanksgiving then our rifle season starts the Saturday following thanksgiving. No squirrel hunting allowed during the two weeks of rifle season.

So it looks like I might only get out once more before then.

I’ve had a great season so far and look forward to getting after them again in a few weeks.

You guys will have to keep me entertained in the mean time.

 

[10 spot]

I had a good morning today in my new favorite spot. It was a calm( sorry Ed), cool morning. Squirrel activity was high.

I’ve been hunting a lot this year. I’ve been keeping a journal. This was day 35. Most days I just hunt mornings then go work in my shop.

This new area has lots of hickories and there are some still in the trees although most activity is on the ground now.

I have a funeral to attend tomorrow and bad weather the rest of the week. Monday looks ok. Family coming Tuesday for Thanksgiving then our rifle season starts the Saturday following thanksgiving. No squirrel hunting allowed during the two weeks of rifle season.

So it looks like I might only get out once more before then.

I’ve had a great season so far and look forward to getting after them again in a few weeks.

You guys will have to keep me entertained in the mean time.View attachment 363191

 

[10 spot]

Congradulations, JimK, mopped up looks like!

 

[ETipp]

I had a good morning today in my new favorite spot. It was a calm( sorry Ed), cool morning. Squirrel activity was high.

I’ve been hunting a lot this year. I’ve been keeping a journal. This was day 35. Most days I just hunt mornings then go work in my shop.

This new area has lots of hickories and there are some still in the trees although most activity is on the ground now.

I have a funeral to attend tomorrow and bad weather the rest of the week. Monday looks ok. Family coming Tuesday for Thanksgiving then our rifle season starts the Saturday following thanksgiving. No squirrel hunting allowed during the two weeks of rifle season.

So it looks like I might only get out once more before then.

I’ve had a great season so far and look forward to getting after them again in a few weeks.

You guys will have to keep me entertained in the mean time.View attachment 363191

Awesome day of hunting for sure. Congrats to you. Well done.

 

[Gum Slough Muzzleloader]

I had a good morning today in my new favorite spot. It was a calm( sorry Ed), cool morning. Squirrel activity was high.

I’ve been hunting a lot this year. I’ve been keeping a journal. This was day 35. Most days I just hunt mornings then go work in my shop.

This new area has lots of hickories and there are some still in the trees although most activity is on the ground now.

I have a funeral to attend tomorrow and bad weather the rest of the week. Monday looks ok. Family coming Tuesday for Thanksgiving then our rifle season starts the Saturday following thanksgiving. No squirrel hunting allowed during the two weeks of rifle season.

So it looks like I might only get out once more before then.

I’ve had a great season so far and look forward to getting after them again in a few weeks.

You guys will have to keep me entertained in the mean time.View attachment 363191

Good for you Jim.
Looks like you are on a roll, keep it going.

 

[ETipp]

Gale force winds continue here in KY. Temps dropped big time. Hoping to be able to go back over to that area and looking around more soon. It’s a huge area overall with a couple of small backroads. Hopefully I’ll be able to find a promising looking place that’s out of the wind to hunt for later on. Lots of pretty good size hills over there with some deep hollows.

One thing is for certain. The squirrels are not going to come to me. If I want to kill some, I gotta get out there and locate them first. Worst case scenario, I do like to scout new areas. It’s like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.

 

[longcruise]

Our weather is looking up but I have family coming in Saturday to stay through Thanksgiving. I and the grandsons will get something done. Would love to get after some Aberts.

Meanwhile, my little Pineys get no respect

 

[Jim K]

Our weather is looking up but I have family coming in Saturday to stay through Thanksgiving. I and the grandsons will get something done. Would love to get after some Aberts.

Meanwhile, my little Pineys get no respect

View attachment 363536

Long cruise, tell me about the Aberts squirrels. Are they common? Do they get hunted a lot? Etc. They’re beautiful squirrels.

 

[ETipp]

Long cruise, tell me about the Aberts squirrels. Are they common? Do they get hunted a lot? Etc. They’re beautiful squirrels.

Me thinks there's another road trip in the making.

 

[Jim K]

Me thinks there's another road trip in the making.

You want to go Ed??

 

[Jim K]

We could swing by the colony and thin them down too!!

 

[yellowhammer]

I did TDY's out West in my prior life. It's cool to see those Alberts squirrels w/ ear tufts - he's an elegant feller. Numerous around Fort Carson.

PS Those Douglas squirrels you see around Yakima and Mount Ranier have tufted ears but much less pronounced; also a handsome dude as rodent's go lol.

 

[yellowhammer]

I think there is real avoidance of contact with squirrels and rodents around the four corners region out there due to fear of hantavirus. Others with more knowledge on this speak up.

However, shooting prairie dogs at a distance is almost a blood-lust obsession with some of those guys LOL...

 

[longcruise]

Long cruise, tell me about the Aberts squirrels. Are they common? Do they get hunted a lot? Etc. They’re beautiful squirrels.

The Aberts is an unusual squirrel. Most of them are black with some white markings but I did see one that was all gray about the same color as an eastern gray but definitely an Aberts with the tufted ears. They are bigger than our local fox squirrels (which don't inhabit the mountains).

Here in Colorado I've never seen one north of hwy 285 but as one travels south of 285 they become more common. By the time you get to the area west of Colorado Springs they are even more common. As @yellowhammer pointed out, they are common around Ft Carson which is just south of Colorado Springs.

The Aberts lives among the Ponderosa pines which grow in the mid range of elevations from about 6500' up to as high as 8500 and even 9000 if the area is sunny and dry. at 7000 to 8000 feet it's typical to find ponderosa on the south facing hillsides and lodgepole on the north sides. Ponderosa grows more or less spread out so it's not thick cover. Older growth ponderosa can be very large and tall. often the ground cover is pine needles and grass but sometimes mixed with scrub oak.

I don't think Aberts get hunted much at all. I've never come across another hunter who was pursuing Aberts. In fact, there is not much squirrel hunting in Colorado at all. Nobody hunts the Pine squirrels that I know of other than me and my grandsons. Probably because their diet is spruce and fir cones they are thought to taste like pine but it's not so. Also they are small so it takes a few to make a meal. They are not piney tasting at all though so many are missing out.

The Aberts is also a cone eater and once again, no pine taste.

The way I hunt them is to simply move slowly through the poderosa growth and keep a close eye out. They are often caught on the ground but will usually flee into a tree before you can get a shot. In most cases the ponderosa are spread out enough that they often can't travel from tree to tree. But that doesn't mean it will be easy because they are very good at hiding and the tree can be tall. However, they do have a habit of going all the way to the very top of the tree and there clutching to a large tuft of pine needle growth. That's usually a long shot. As much fun as hunting them with a muzzle loader is, I don't like to shoot at them without a backing to catch the ball so in those cases it's best to use a smoothbore. Some of my favorite Aberts hunting ground is public land but interspersed with private ground with homes.