The squirrels didn't cooperate, but....

[Spikebuck]

Yesterday I got the opportunity to get my newly built SMR and it's accouterments out into the woods. Believe it or not, this was the first hunt I have done this year. It was WAY past due to get some time in the woods. I didn't have time to travel to the two pieces of private property I have permission to squirrel hunt, so I headed for over-hunted state land near me. I knew going in it would be more of a walk in the woods than a hunt, but that was OK.

As I suspected I did not see any grey or fox squirrels and in covering miles of woods only cut two tracks of those kinds of squirrels...and one of those was in the parking lot! I did hear several and saw two of those little nasty red/pine squirrels that always interrupt my bowhunts by getting close in a tree then sitting and "trilling" and squawking at me to alert everything else around. One defiantly sat on a limb 10 feet off the ground ignoring me just a few feet away as he contently gnawed on a nut. I left him for the owls and hawks to catch!

Coolest part of the whole afternoon was when I was walking out across an undulating cutover grassy area on public land about 15 minutes after sunset. The near full moon was getting high in the sky and it was calm and in the mid 20's. A little snow on the ground. My mocs made walking quiet as a church mouse, but I wasn't trying to be stealthy...I was just heading for my truck about a 1/2 mile away. Just as I crested a rise in the old cutover field there was a small buck feeding just 40 yards in front of me quartering away. Now, there is not an open season in this area now and I passed on deer hunting this year anyway, but it goes to show what CAN happen at any time, even on extremely heavily hunted public ground. He had no idea I was there. I quickly knelt down and just had to bring the new SMR up just to put the sights on him. With a solid rest on my knee I'm pretty sure that had it been season and if I had a license, he could have easily been mine with a legal front-stuffer (the .36 is not legal in MN for deer). I watched for a few minutes then stood up. He still didn't see me. It was so nice out I knelt back down and just watched him feed for another 5 minutes. Finally I decided I'd better get going, so stood up again. This time he saw me, but just stood there broadside staring at me. I raised the rifle on him again and said "BANG!" That sent him about 75 yards or so down the field where he stopped and just stared at me. I started walking and finally his tail went up and he headed for the woods.

No squirrels, but that just made my day! If I'd have had the choice between squirrels and that deer encounter I may have very well chosen the small buck rendezvous anyway even though he wasn't game that could be taken. There's just something for me about deer encounters that gets the juices flowing and it made me promise myself that I would not miss next year's deer season.

While I didn't get a picture of the little buck, I did take a couple of shots of the SMR along with my accouterments, including the Southern Banded Horn Ames made for me. I have a new bag from The Leatherman for this rifle. Also made a necklace with an antler powder measure I made for the preferred 35 gr load, an antler pan primer I made, a ball block, pick and a pan brush. So everything I need to reload is quickly available without going into the bag at all. I tied these apart from each other on the leather thong necklace to keep them from contacting each other and making noise.

That's a rabbit's foot tied to the bag...I have one on my smoothie's bag as well. Not sure they have brought me good luck, but they are a good decoration anyway.

 

[Coloradotrapper]

Awesome write up! I have had my share or successful and not successful hunts. But each time I learn something new and always enjoy myself.

This year elk hunting I was unsuccessful after a few days of hunting but saw a large bull moose on my walk back to the trail head. Seeing that moose made the whole trip worth it.

 

[Justin.44]

Nice story and even nicer rifle/accoutrements! Thanks for sharing.

 

[LawrenceA]

I am with Justin44.
Great story.
Great gun
Great gear!
Thanks for sharing

 

[Roundball2319]

Although the outing didn't go as planned. Isn't some of the great things about being outdoors in nature is that the sights, sounds, and discoveries one makes along the way.

 

[Britsmoothy]

What a great day you had. Just being there is going to give you something to smile about.

 

[Sidney Smith]

Best way to kill squirrels is to say youre going deer hunting. Then take a seat in the woods and hunt just like its deer season. Then the squirrels will come.

It seems as if every time I go deer hunting, I see many more squirrels than deer.

 

[Ames]

Gospel right there!

 

[Christophero]

Beautiful Kit you have there. Much fun to stroll the woods and dale with such equipment. Thank you for sharing your time afoot with us.

 

[Carbon 6]

Best way to kill squirrels is to say youre going deer hunting. Then take a seat in the woods and hunt just like its deer season. Then the squirrels will come.

It seems as if every time I go deer hunting, I see many more squirrels than deer.

Truer words have never been spoken.

 

[hanshi]

Some of my most memorable hunts were ones that resulted in an empty game bag or truck bed. I could picture you hunting as you walked the woods enjoying the solitude and splendor of nature. That rifle is what tops my bucket list.

 

[Bob McBride]

Sounds like a good day. A pair of Treeing Feists would have put a full stringer on your tailgate.....

 

[Spikebuck]

Thanks, all, for the nice comments. Hopefully I will get to my private land areas in the next week or so where there is an abundance of small game.

Recently I was very fortunate that the current lessee of the 800 acre lease I left two years ago has given me permission to small game hunt there in January/February. The owner is, unfortunately, extremely ill and really doesn't have the cognitive capability to even know where his land is anymore. So I've helped the current lessee on occasion with "things" I know about the place after spending 7 years there myself. We were talking the other evening about a neighbor issue he was having (same neighbor I caught driving around the fields one evening with a loaded shotgun in the front seat who openly told me he was trying to shoot deer in a field). I just happened to mention that the one thing I missed most was making a couple of late small game season hunts there. He said, well you've been really helpful to me, so if you want to make a few small game hunts then go ahead! So I am really looking forward to making a trip over there because, other than one year when we had a complete mast failure, the place was crawling with unhunted squirrels, mostly fox squirrels. Might even be a few rabbits.

The state land I was on in this story used to be fantastic 25 or 30 years ago, but the squirrel population there has been so overhunted for a couple of decades now that a recent three-year study by the DNR on this area, which has a total of nearly 80,000 acres of wildlife management and state forest land, concluded that the squirrel population is on the brink of total collapse, unable to reproduce itself to stable levels. When I asked the head researcher what they planned to do about it (ie: cut the super long season, cut the bag limits, close the season for a couple of years, etc.) he said that he presented all those things as options to the higher ups in the DNR who said, "Well, that season has been that way forever, we're not going to change it now." So I guess they must have already had the answer and action plan before the study was even done. The study was done at the request of a certain group of hunters that heavily overuse the area and think nothing of constant overharvest then wonder why there's no game left! I'd better quit now...I feel my blood pressure rising!