Squirrel hunting

[T-Bird]

the "wolf worms" aren't killed by the frost. They leave the host's body and pupate in the ground about the time of frost. They emerge as black flies the next spring. These flies in turn lay eggs on vegetation, they hatch into larvae that get on the next host and so forth. They don't harm the host. More than y'all probably wanted to know. Real name is Cuterebra.

[Outer Rondacker]

Here in NYS its Sept. 1st to Feb. 28th. Never understood the idea of Jan Feb as a season here. If I wanted to go hunt squirrels I would of needed to walk in three feet of snow or more.

The grey/black are the largest with the reds being smaller and flying the smallest. Flying only come out at night. They look much like a chipmunk.

I shoot the reds around the house as they will do damage to the home. I leave the grey and blacks alone.

[richhodg66]

Anybody got these around?

[Three44s]

I reckon those antlers fold so that critter can go home.

Three44s

[Cheshire Dave]

Yes we have them in the woods out here. That's why I bought a 9.3 by 74.

Sent from my SM-J320V using Tapatalk

[RGrosz]

We just had Fox types around here. With some of them coming in the black color phase. Used to hunt them all the time.
Dad would sit in a lawn chair out side with his feet resting on a tree and take naps. He would also have a bag of whole (in the shell) peanuts with him. There would be several squirrels that knew that and come around and beg him for peanuts. They would that the nut right out of his hand and climb the tree and eat it. Once in early summer a young squirrel came begging for a nut. Dad saw that 'mom' was watching it as he got closer to dad. Dad got a peanut and held it out for the little one to take, and the squirrel got all excited and took the nut and nipped dad's finger. Dad got up to put a bandaid on it, and walked into the house. When he came out the bigger squirrel had climbed the screen door and was cussing the young one and making all kinds of racket like he was mad at the young one for hurting dad and causing him to leave. When the older one was done dad came out again and resumed his chair, the older one came down and got a nut, followed by the smaller one who was real careful to take it real gentle, almost as to say 'I'm sorry'.
That was dad favorite story.
Rob

[sharps4590]

Rich, I have a Jeffrey Rook rifle that decades ago had been re-chambered to 25-20 WCF. When I bought it the bore was....something worse than abysmal, it was bad. I couldn't afford to have it re-lined and re-chambered back to the original 255 Jeffrey so my 'smith and I took it back to 25-20 with a new liner. Got a 255 Jeffrey equivalent load worked up for it and it makes a dandy small game round...so long as you pick your shots when they're in the trees and have a good tree trunk for a back stop.

For a few decades my favorite squirrel rifle was a 36 cal. Southern Mountain flintlock. Man that thing has put a lot of squirrels in the pot. I should get it out and use it this year.

Our season opens the Saturday of the weekend of Decoration Day and runs through Feb. 15th. As with yourself I stay out of the woods when it's summer time. I've fought all the chiggers, ticks and spider webs I intend to. Heck, I'd rather hunt squirrels than deer!!

[starmac]

Who said it, when I lived in squirrel country, I much preferred hunting them than deer, especially after the leaves dropped with a good dog.

[35 shooter]

Lol, i got back into airgunning a little over a year ago. This season my squirrel hunting was with a Benjamin 392 in .22 and a crosman 1377(.177), and even a Daisy 880 in .177 cal.

Shot squirrels with both cast and swaged pellets. It was a ton of fun hunting with those little pump airguns....well for me lol, the squirrels didn't like it one bit.
We have both greys and red fox squirrels here, but the reds are much bigger and tougher than the greys.

[sharps4590]

star, hunting squirrels over a dog is something I have yet to do. As much as I loved the pack of beagles I kept for over 20 years I have no explanation why. Maybe I oughta put that on my list of things to do....gotta be a hoot!!!

35, I have shot a few squirrels off our bird feeders with my air rifle. I have a Walther springer...I doubt Walther actually made it....and it's pretty hot, at least it seems that way to me for no more than I know about air rifles. Sure puts 'em down in a hurry. I have very few reds, we usually call 'em fox squirrels, around the house, habitat difference, and loads of gray's. A mature red will be about 1/3 bigger than a mature gray....both of which I try to avoid shooting for the table.

[BAGTIC]

All squirrels are related to rats and they all eat one another on occasion. It is part of being rodents.

[redhawk0]

the "wolf worms" aren't killed by the frost. They leave the host's body and pupate in the ground about the time of frost. They emerge as black flies the next spring. These flies in turn lay eggs on vegetation, they hatch into larvae that get on the next host and so forth. They don't harm the host. More than y'all probably wanted to know. Real name is Cuterebra.

Thanx for posting this...I was wondering what Wolf Worms were. I never heard of them up here in the northeast.

Always learning something new...much appreciated.

redhawk

[wills]

the "wolf worms" aren't killed by the frost. They leave the host's body and pupate in the ground about the time of frost. They emerge as black flies the next spring. These flies in turn lay eggs on vegetation, they hatch into larvae that get on the next host and so forth. They don't harm the host. More than y'all probably wanted to know. Real name is Cuterebra.

This is interesting. I had not heard of them before. Here is more:

https://www.thespruce.com/what-is-a-...rasite-3385256

[starmac]

I had never heard of them before either, and I hunted squirrels constantly when I was a kid, but only in the winter.
Rabbits had what we called wools, and it was always said to only hunt them during months that had an r in it, so I only hunted them in the winter too.

Up until about the time I could start hunting on my own folks ate armidillos, but then they had an outbreak of leprocy iirc, so I never hunted them. The old timers claimed they were good eating.

[OldBearHair]

Several Warbles in a cowhide can ruin the best leather along the backstrap area leaving a bad visible scarring. Depends on the area where you live such as in New Mexico we didn't eat the squirrels with cheek pouches. Tried cleaning one to eat once and upon smelling the bad odor, gave it to the dog. 'old Duke". He wasn't picky at all. As for squirrels eating each other, I have never been witness to that down here in the South, Texas, Alabama, Louisiana. Oklahoma, or New Mexico. Did hear that older males will castrate young squirrels when they sense poor nut harvests! Of course , in my opinion, squirrel meat is classed very highly edible on my list of wild animals that I have harvested. Donny Lynch in Marshall Texas raises old style Rat Terrier Squirrel dogs and shows them in State Line Hunt Clubs and lots of other places. I have one of his dogs named Duke ( what else ) at 30 lbs standing at Stud.

[starmac]

I have never heard of a squirrel eating another squirrel either. We do have some kind of varmint up in Alaska that looks a lot like a prairie dog that eats there companions when they get killed, usually run over then their buddy gets run over too trying to eat it.

OldBearHair, where did you hunt squirrels in New Mexico, the only ones I ever found that looked like maybe eatin squirrels were down in the Gila, I forget exctly what they were called, but they would have been no challenge at all to hunt. The dam things would get 5 foot from you and just raise cain if you got close to them. I never messed with them because of something like one a day and five a year limit.

[sharps4590]

Adult males do not castrate younger ones. It sometimes appears that way because unless a male squirrel is in mating mode its testes are mostly drawn up into near nothing. I heard that old wives tale as a youngster but have never seen a male with no testes when their scrotum appeared empty. This year will be my 60th opening day and I've killed a boat load of squirrels in that time.

[MT Gianni]

Western ground squirrels are often seen eating road killed squirrels. They can carry bubonic plague and should not be handled if that is active in your area. Like fox, coyotes and other ground denning animals they are usually lice ridden. I would need to be on the edge of starving to try eating one.

[OldBearHair]

Hey Starmac, We hunted elk, deer, grouse, bear, rabbits, and squirrels with bow and arrow in the higher areas above 6000 feet. There were two major species of squirrels, one was the Aberts, which is a big one, and the little grey or sometimes called red because of a little reddish streak on the side of its belly. If one would like to see more varieties just search "Tree squirrels of New Mexico". I did limit out on grey squirrels a few times at five per day. We cleaned them, flattened them out in the skillet and held them flat with the spatula until they set. Get them good and brown, flip over and brown that side and when you ate the ribs the bones were undetectable. Two of us could dispose of the daily limit with a grin on our faces. Man they were good. Only thing better is the grouse.

[OldBearHair]

We were moving a wood pile at the N Mexico Boys Ranch circa 1980, and a timber fell on a mama squirrel and the boys found baby squirrels in the nest. They were determined to save them and I was elected to care for them. Three out of four of them had cleft palates causing them to drown in milk. The fourth a female survived to the ripe old age of at least seven years. The average age for the species in the wild is like eighteen months. The big tomcat tried to reach through the bottom of the cage and the squirrel would bite at the claws. She became very aggressive and gained her freedom at one year old. I would see her from time to time as I was out and about. I was the only person that she would come out of hiding for. I could get no closer than about six feet. I would talk to her and she would listen unafraid. Any wild one you saw wouldn't stay in sight if they saw you.