Prepping for squirrels this spring

[Idaho Mule]

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The wife's gun on the left; mine on the right. Both 32-20; one old and one new.

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My reloads. Ready for squirrels!!

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Just an old Smith.

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Just a new Colt SAA.

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Another shot of the oldie.

[starmac]

The squirrels know they are pretty safe, when all I'm carrying is a hand gun. lol

Do you have pretty good squirrel hunting in idaho?

[smoked turkey]

I know we have a knife section now but I have to say that knife in the picture looks like a good one from what I can see.

[Idaho Mule]

starmac, yes, but they are ground squirrels. Not the eating kind. Still very good hunting practice and lots of fun to shoot. I grew up down in the south-east corner of Idaho (where runfiverun lives) and we had literally millions of them to shoot. They are not quite so prevailant here in northern Idaho where I live now but you can still find 'em if you look. Short story here for a minute. About 12 - 15 (??) years ago some friends and I went on a spring bear hunt up the North Fork of the Clearwater River. We crossed the pack bridge at 4th of July Cr. and headed for the divide to find bear. Well we were a bit to early as snow was still down pretty low and bears were still napping. Upon our arrival at Camp George tho we found lots of squirrels, we had a couple beers and contemplated, then rode on for a couple more miles until one participant fell off his mule and ended up in a tree well stuck on his head in the snow. We yarded him out after laughing for a bit, had another beer and headed back to Camp George. Once back there, sun was shining squirrels were running about, and we commenced to unleash on them. Keep in mind, we had no 22's but were loaded for bear, but these were the biggest squirrels I have ever encountered. We blasted heck out of them with '06, 270, 300 WM, and 338 WM. Was a great trip but no bears, just king size squirrels and a lot of fun. If ya wanna come down about April, May I'm sure the boys and I could find you some. JW

[Idaho Mule]

smoked turkey, thanks. It is hand made by a friend of mine for my oldest son, and yes, it is a good knife. JW

[Chicken Thief]

Southpaw?

[starmac]

LOL we have the little ground squirrels (basically nonedible) here too. I don't know if it is state wide or not, but at least in some areas now you are required to salvage either the meat or the hide to shoot them now. lol

[blackthorn]

Can someone explain to me what makes one rodent more edible than another???

[hoosierlogger]

Can someone explain to me what makes one rodent more edible than another???

the amount of meat.

[starmac]

Other than size, I would assume their diet, just like any other animal.

[runfiverun]

shhhh on the ground squirells.
i have a couple of spots,and there was a fire last fall in another likely looking area of state land.
one spot we go to you spend most of your time waiting for them to climb up on sagebrush to take a poke at them. [frustrating too as you can hear them everywhere]
another area you hike through some rolling canyons to get to them.
those ones are almost never hunted and you can walk up to about 40 yds before they even care. [but it's a small population]
those ones we get with the deer rifles using cast boolits.
the others we use home made bullets and boolits on,
there isn't enough to pick up let alone eat.
it's a year to year deal though.
we did find a couple of good places out near winnemucca last year at the nvcb shoot,and stayed a couple of extra days to go get after them.
i know we went through more rounds in those few days than we did the whole year around here.
even including the outstanding grouse season we had.

[dale2242]

I am really getting itchy to get after the sage rats. Cabin fever I guess.
I know it`s at least 4 months out but I have a new cast load for the Hornet I am excited to try....dale

[WILCO]

We've got greys, blacks and reds here. I went out for the fall. Still too many leaves on the trees, but managed to bounced one with my little .410. Great fun for sure.

[Idaho Mule]

Now I got a brand new to me thutty-thutty to blast 'em with!!

[runfiverun]

30-30's are for grouse.....
erm
for headshots on grouse.
i'd almost bet that there are still feathers falling out of the pine tree from when i didn't heed that advice myself last fall.

[horsesoldier]

I might have to take that spring bear offer, sounds like fun!

[Idaho Mule]

run, yep, I too have "over-killed" a few grouse, hate it when that happens. They're kinda hard to put back together. horsesoldier, anytime, just give me enough time to prepare. Chickenthief, the man that built the knife was a lefty, but the kid that packs it is a righty. If you are interested I could show a couple more pics of that one and two more that he built. JW