Big game vs small game

[Robert Egler]

Am I the only one who actually prefers to hunt small game vs big game? Sure, I hunt deer, but only a day or two a year, and I’ve hunted elk on a couple of occasions, but I hunt every possible opportunity for squirrels, and rabbits, and various other small game.

By the way, how do you classify a fox? I guess legally it’s small game, and it’s not really big, but it’s a lot bigger than a rabbit and a squirrel. Is a fox really "intermediate game"? :wink:

Not intending anything to infer bad about hunting big game, :thumbsup: I’m just curious how many people prefer to hunt small game.

 

[Runner]

No, you are not the only one. Most of the time you can find me somewhere in the woods with a pellet rifle sniper rig trying to hit squirrels between the eye and the ear! I also use the 36 muzzleloader and the 12 guage for small game hunting. Humm, quiet morning drifting on a lazy autumn river casting for bass and sniping squirrels versus getting up at 4 to try to get in deep enough to hunt deer that I don't see anyone from the orange army. It isn't even close!
Don't know what you classify them as, but I have read some pretty nice prices for the hides!

 

[Walks Alone]

Am I the only one who actually prefers to hunt small game vs big game?
.......
By the way, how do you classify a fox? I guess legally it’s small game, and it’s not really big, but it’s a lot bigger than a rabbit and a squirrel. Is a fox really "intermediate game"? :wink:

Far from it. I have very actively hunted small game, varmints and predators for over 50 years. While they have always taken up more of my hunting time than all the other types of hunting combined, they have been my main focus since I pretty much stopped big game hunting and wing shooting nearly 20 years ago.
...
Fox are furbearers under most state hunting regs. They are predators to those of us who call them to hunt them rather than trap them.

 

[longfowler]

I hunt partridge,woodcock & squirel every chance I get! I even carry a side by side 12 during deer season with my left barrel loaded with an ounce of 8's, just in case. you might see 1 or 2 deer a year around here, but I can shoot 3 grouse & 5 squirels a day from sept. till dec. And I make a mighty mean squirel stew!

 

[BrownBear]

Put me on the small game list too. Hundreds of snowshoe and ptarmigan for each head of big game brought home.

 

[Britsmoothy]

You are a man of my ilk Sir. The fox is my main quarry. I have to admit though mine are mostly shot with other firarms but I have still taken some with my M/L shotguns and the odd smooth ball. I use my shotgun for pheasant, woodcock,duck,rabbit and squirrel. Not exclusivly but equally with the leveractions and sidexsides.
That smelly smoke sure makes ya grin when you get something :wink:
In Britain the fox is classed as vermin but for me that does not take from his intelligent cunning personality.

 

[Britsmoothy]

Here is some evidence :hatsoff:

 

[Little Wattsy]

Oft times I think its the "gettin ready" thats the most fun...planning trips, buying stuff, scouting , etc. soooo I find myself in pendelum swings.
I was DEEP into bow hunting then into long range centerfire mule deer hunting now into BP whitetail deer hunting and hungry to try preditor hunting with ML. Same sorta deal fishing at times I cant get enough fly fishing for trout little 12 to 14 inchers at other times I NEED to go after the steelhead and salmon.
Prehaps its my femine side comming out in the form of a "mood"?
:hmm:

 

[Stumpkiller]

There is grouse hunting - and then there are the other forms of hunting.

Someone famous said that and I somewhat agree. ;-)

 

[scott fellows]

it don't get much better than a good bunny hunt with the old .62 smoothie. my hunting pard and i will hunt small game during the deer season. not that we don't deer hunt, but if a big fox squirrel is sitting lookin at ya, then ya got to bust him with a roundball. can't go home empty handed...........lol
pieman

 

[bigbore442001]

I like small game hunting but it has gone down hill since my youth. Almost all of my muzzleloading is for deer. It is the most abundant type of game in the areas I hunt for. I would like to be able to hunt small game such as rabbit, snowshoe hare and upland birds like my old favorite, the ruffed grouse. But, the fact is that due to tremendous habitat loss, small game suffered. Whitetailed deer are highly adaptable and can live in the woodlots between developments. That isn't true of small game. Small game suffers the most from habitat loss.

 

[BrownBear]

Good point on the habitat problem. But if you have access to land, you can do lots about it.

When we bought our place in the Southwest, there was plenty of brush down in the river bottom, but cottontail were scarce.

We been clearing the brush, but contrary to local tradition, we do it by hand and stack the cuttings in big piles, then allow nature to kinda rot them back into the ground. Everyone else burns the stuff, whether or not they bother to cut it first.

We've learned that it takes about five years for a pile to rot back into the ground. In the meantime each and every one of those brush piles now has a cottontail or two living in it.

We generate twenty to thirty brush piles a year, each about the size of a Volkswagon. That means at any one time there are about 100 piles giving habitat to at least one cottontail.

Pretty good math when you got a sweettooth for cottontail!

Told friends in Nebraska about the process, and they've tried it on some land they lease for hunting. The owner is so happy to have the brush cleared, he even buys their chainsaw gas and pays to have the chains sharpened.

They're telling me they only have about 60 brush piles now, but they're ahead of me cuzz they average two cottontails and two pheasants per pile.

 

I love to hunt small game and varmints. As for "big game" the state of Penna Game Commission has some hair brained idea that all PA hunters want to do is take a trophy white tail and has forsaken small game in general. Oh - yes and a turkey. They have completely ignored small game and it has gone to hell - as has hunting in this state in general. Fox - in PA are considered "furbearers" and this take a special liscence to hunt and trap them.

 

[Thomas Dermako]

As a new hunter (didn't grow up with it), I get only a couple of tries at a buck per year (no luck so far). Someone wrote somewhere that a good squirrel hunter is just plain a good hunter so that's the advice I follow. Not real good at that either but at least I'm outside.

 

[Dave K]

I hunt small game, deer and birds with my ml'ers. They are all fun and fun is one of the reasons I hunt. Small game is so much fun. The season is long and the bag limit is greater than my needs.

 

[wvbuckbuster]

I hunt deer and squirrels with my mls. Have hunted turkey(still do some) and rabbits but they are few in numbers where I hunt. With the squirrels you get more time in the woods and more shooting as well. As stated above it makes one a good deer hunter I believe.