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    • William Warren
      Member
        Post count: 1384

        Squirrels – 5 Duncan – 0

        The little beggars are hard to hit! Missed 1 at 15 yds then another surprised me at 10 yds and I did not have an arrow knocked. He just would not stick around for me to come to full draw. But it was fun and the beggars are rutting and chasing each other all around. One time I had 5 squirrels running all over me and could not get a shot!

        Anybody else hunting small game?

      • cody
          Post count: 87

          Heck yeah I’m hunting small game and I agree with you on the squirrels are hard to hit. So far the closest I’ve came is getting some hair on the end of my arrow. How you can get close enough to get some hair but not kill a squirrel is beyond me but it sure is a lot of fun to try. I’ll wish you luck on getting one of those little terds thought. haha

        • frassettor
          Member
            Post count: 27

            I love to hunt squirrels…



          • Stephen Graf
            Moderator
              Post count: 2429

              Duncan, glad to hear you are out giving the old squirrels a run for their lives!

              I have taken 5 shots at squirrels this year. The first shot was at 12 yds with a hammer head blunt. He was sitting there facing me when I drew and released. The arrow appeared to hit him square in the chest. The arrow came back about 6 inches, and the squirrel flew about 5 feet. Whereupon he started kicking in a circle in the leaves.

              I took my eye off him as another squirrel was coming in to me for a shot. After about 5 minutes I shot at the second squirrel but it was a close miss. Never did find the first squirrel 👿

              Took my boy to the NCBA rabbit hunt yesterday, 30 guys and kids, 6 shots, no rabbits. But we had a good time and shot a lot of stumps.

            • Tom 6107
                Post count: 25

                Duncan wrote: Squirrels – 5 Duncan – 0

                The little beggars are hard to hit! Missed 1 at 15 yds then another surprised me at 10 yds and I did not have an arrow knocked. He just would not stick around for me to come to full draw. But it was fun and the beggars are rutting and chasing each other all around. One time I had 5 squirrels running all over me and could not get a shot!

                I’ve been rabbit hunting twice, three shots, score: one miss, one sapling, one rabbit. Buggers won’t sit still long enough to get a shot, once you make eye contact and stop they are gone! On the one I got, I didn’t stop. I kept walking and drew then released when I had an opening. Great fun and good stalking practice!

                Tom

                Anybody else hunting small game?

              • William Warren
                Member
                Member
                  Post count: 1384

                  [quote=frassettor]I love to hunt squirrels…

                  Is that a game nabber? I’ve got some of those heads but I can’t remember who makes them. I have dispatched squirrels with the black rubber blunts and yesterday I was using judos that I recently aquired. Do you fry your squirrels? I like em fried or in the skillet with onions and peppers some bacon fat, salt & pepper and worchestershire sauce.

                • William Warren
                  Member
                  Member
                    Post count: 1384

                    [quote=steve graf]Duncan, glad to hear you are out giving the old squirrels a run for their lives!

                    I’m afraid the squirrels are in no danger! From me at least. How do you like those hammer heads?

                  • William Warren
                    Member
                    Member
                      Post count: 1384

                      Hey Tom,

                      Maybe there is something to that eye contact thing…

                    • Stephen Graf
                      Moderator
                        Post count: 2429

                        Hammerheads, do I like them? Not sure yet. I like the way they look. And they are tough. I have shot them into a lot of stumps and they are still sharp.

                        But I have only hit 1 squirrel so far, and he “got away”. I don’t know how he could have survived the shot. But when I took my eye off him, he managed to at least crawl away far enough to not be found.

                        I must collect more evidence before I make an opinion.

                      • Chris Shelton
                          Post count: 679

                          I know alot of you have already seen this from earlier in the season, but I will post it again, just because it fits and there are alot of new members!

                          I am currently working on another, along with a wabbit vid, and after getting very close to a goose at about 30 yards away and 30 yards up, I cant give up on that either!

                        • Chris Shelton
                            Post count: 679

                            frassettor, you must be a good hunter, I know around here, if you really want to get alot of good opportunities you need to get out before the leave totally drop. After that, everything gets really open, and close shot opportunities are a dime and a dozen. I had a shot last weekend that I probably shouldnt have taken(due to the fact that he was up in a tree and I was without my trusty flu flu’s) but boy was the shot perfectly low, lol. Just a smidge below him.

                            I will say that I dont have to worry about getting squirrel meat, no pressure there, dad is a maniac, I need to find a way to challenge him, lol. Last year he would always come home with 3 squirrels that died via his great grandfathers 12 gauge(that thing is almost 5 foot tall total), and yesterday we went out, and I let him take my 22, and he shot 2 grays, and got a black one, but the darn black one ran in a knothole. Fortunately the knothole was low to the ground, about 3 feet, but dad spent a good hour trying to reach in there to get him for me! Boy would I have loved to have that pelt:evil:!

                          • William Warren
                            Member
                            Member
                              Post count: 1384

                              Hey Chris,

                              I’ve seen those black ones up in DC and the Cheverly area. My Dad used to live up there.

                              Getting them out of knot holes that you can reach is a challenge. I have “twisted” them out by cutting a small sapling with a fork on the end. Trim all the branches and cut the forked ends short and sharp. It helps if the forks are wide. Then run the forked end into the knothole until you can feel the critter inside. Then crank on the sapling making the points grab the critter. When the growling and hissing starts look out he is coming out! Had one run down my arm one time. I was yelling don’t shoot cause my partner was waiting to dispatch the wounded squirrel. A length of catbrier works too, just trim the thorns on your end do the same thing.

                            • Chris Shelton
                                Post count: 679

                                He said he was very close to getting him, he was dead, but he just couldnt reach him. You said exactly what I suggested, he said he tried. Before he expired dad even tried to smoke him out. He finally carved out the hole with a little multitool that he carries, and tried just reachin down and grabbin him, but he went in all the way to the end of his arm and could just barely touch him. I told him to make a spear type deal and put a barb on it and stab him, lol. But he said there wasnt any good strait sticks around, he would need like a 3.5 foot stick to do that. I suppose that is just part of squirrel hunting, you win some and loose some. He sees those darn black ones all the time, and I am hunting the same woods and have not seen one yet?!

                              • Tom 6107
                                  Post count: 25

                                  Duncan wrote: Hey Tom,

                                  Maybe there is something to that eye contact thing…

                                  Yea, probably doesn’t help that I’m usually four or five feet away before I see them either! I should learn to look ahead more.

                                • Tom 6107
                                    Post count: 25

                                    Greatreearcher wrote: I know alot of you have already seen this from earlier in the season, but I will post it again, just because it fits and there are alot of new members!

                                    Chris, good job on the video, will be watching for more.

                                    I am currently working on another, along with a wabbit vid, and after getting very close to a goose at about 30 yards away and 30 yards up, I cant give up on that either!

                                  • Bert
                                      Post count: 164

                                      You lucky guys! Here in the state of Washington, we have the native Douglas squirrel who is a noisy, cute little guy that you wouldn’t get a teaspoon of meat from and the non-native grays that are all over the place, in fact usurping the Douglas’s habitat and, thanks to the powers that be, both are a “protected” species. Go figure!
                                      Currently, we have 4 grays that have trained my wife and I to constantly feed them peanuts, which they either eat or most often bury in the yard and I suspect we have more peanuts then Ole’ Jimmy Carter’s farm stashed away( hey, I didn’t start it- have to blame this on my soft-hearted wife- we won’t get into the 4 racoons that require dry catfood at this time!)
                                      I mean the one that comes up to my hand and gingerly places his little furry clawed paw on my hand to gently and quite delicately take the proffered nut- he has haunches the size of Rosy O’Donnells thighs and I keep thinking what kind of gravy- No, my wife would kill me!
                                      So, I guess it’s back to hunting the wily and feral giant slugs that infest this part of the USA- you know, it’s just escargot without the shell, alot of butter and garlic and you can barely taste the slime!
                                      Great video, GTA, good shooting and you should email a copy to PETA( Alaskan for People Eating Tasty Animals)!
                                      Your Dad needs a gaff hook or small treble hook attached to a limber sapling to pull those pesky blacks from their knothole recess IMAO-Bert

                                    • Chris Shelton
                                        Post count: 679

                                        Bert and tom, thank you! They are always fun to make, and definatly challenging!

                                        Bert, you bring up a interesting point, cause, dad was wineing because we had my truck. His has a cap on the back and he has rod racks that he made to hand on the sides in there, so we always have our rods available. He said that if we had brought his truck he would have been able to come back and get a big treble and a rod and fish him out, lol.

                                      • William Warren
                                        Member
                                        Member
                                          Post count: 1384

                                          Bert,

                                          My neighbor says the racoons come to his house for Oreos. No wonder the ‘coons around here are huge!
                                          Rosie O’Donnell’s thigh? Now thats gonna be a lot of gravy!
                                          A treble hook! Now that is a good idea. Just keep one along with some duck decoy line in your pack for emergency squirrel extraction!

                                          Duncan

                                        • Bert
                                            Post count: 164

                                            GTA and Duncan,
                                            When your Dad fishes out a live squirrel from a knothole with a treble hook and line, you have to get that, which should prove to be very interesting and informative, video- I’ll pay to watch it! Should be all teeth and claws- how do you get an angry squirrel off your face?!!!
                                            Bert

                                          • Chris Shelton
                                              Post count: 679

                                              no, no, no, dads squirrel died in the knot hole, lol. You are right though, that would be basically crazy!!!:shock:

                                            • William Warren
                                              Member
                                              Member
                                                Post count: 1384

                                                No squirrels on the face but did have one run down my arm while twisting him out with the forked stick!

                                              • William Warren
                                                Member
                                                Member
                                                  Post count: 1384

                                                  Here are some new squirrel busters made with hardwood shafts and some game nabbers.

                                                • Chris Shelton
                                                    Post count: 679

                                                    cool, those are some big feathers!

                                                  • Jesse Minish
                                                      Post count: 115

                                                      [quote=Bert]You lucky guys! Here in the state of Washington, we have the native Douglas squirrel who is a noisy, cute little guy that you wouldn’t get a teaspoon of meat from and the non-native grays that are all over the place, in fact usurping the Douglas’s habitat and, thanks to the powers that be, both are a “protected” species. Go figure!

                                                      The Douglas Squirrel and Western Gray Squirrel are protected but the Eastern Gray Squirrel may be trapped or killed all year with no limit or permit required. I would be willing to bet that most likely you have the Easterns in your yard and around your house and if you can find a place to hunt it would be legal.:D

                                                    • William Warren
                                                      Member
                                                      Member
                                                        Post count: 1384

                                                        Greatreearcher wrote: cool, those are some big feathers!

                                                        Those are high back bananas. Wish I had got the low back banana chopper instead.

                                                      • Bert
                                                          Post count: 164

                                                          Jesse- Thanks for bringing up the subject of Eastern vs Western grays- nothing I could find in the 2009 Washington game regs- will check it out. Are the Eastern visually different enough from the Western to make a distinction at hunting distances?- or do they have an elitist, liberal lisp with an Obama sticker on their ass( excepting Massachusett recently)?!!
                                                          However, THERE SHALL BE NO HUNTING AROUND THE DOMICLE WITH SQUIRRELS WE FEED ACCORDING TO MY BETTER HALF- well, I do agree as it would be akin to “hunting” cornfed deer on a game farm.
                                                          Good hunting-Bert

                                                        • William Warren
                                                          Member
                                                          Member
                                                            Post count: 1384

                                                            [quote=Bert] Are the Eastern visually different enough from the Western to make a distinction at hunting distances?- or do they have an elitist, liberal lisp with an Obama sticker on their ass( excepting Massachusett recently)?!!

                                                            Bert

                                                            The squirrels hanging out around the bird feeder waiting for a handout are the libs. You’ll need to go out into the woods to find some conservatives working hard to make a living. They are harder to hit too. Not all sluggish from eating free bird food. 🙂

                                                            Duncan

                                                          • Stephen Graf
                                                            Moderator
                                                              Post count: 2429

                                                              I think the conservative squirrels run to the feeder when no one is looking and take as much seed as they can carry back in the woods to bury. That way they are the only ones that benefit.
                                                              The liberal squirrels always get blamed because they are willing to be seen and share with the birds. 😉

                                                            • Jesse Minish
                                                                Post count: 115

                                                                Bert, Yes you can tell the difference in the two. The Western is more of a gray with a salt n pepper color while the Eastern is gray with a hint of reddish brown in the coat.

                                                                The reason you dont see them in the regs is they are considered unclassified. You can go to the WDFW site and do a search for Eastern Gray Squirrel and you will find pics of both squirrels and the legal status if you want to see first hand.

                                                                Now go find some squirrels and post some pics when you harvest some.:D

                                                              • William Warren
                                                                Member
                                                                Member
                                                                  Post count: 1384

                                                                  [quote=Jesse Minish]Bert, Yes you can tell the difference in the two. The Western is more of a gray with a salt n pepper color while the Eastern is gray with a hint of reddish brown in the coat.

                                                                  Wow, and the ears on the Western gray are longer. That would be a good identifier for me and the lack of red hair. The fox squirrel looked like the ones I’ve seen in Illinois. Are the introduced species all legal? That California ground squirrel ought to be easy to identify too. Go get em Bert!
                                                                  Duncan

                                                                • Chris Shelton
                                                                    Post count: 679

                                                                    I thought about buying a chopper like your duncan so I could use them as flu flu’s:lol:, but I am serious. I shot 5.5 high backs once and they really really slowed me down! So I think I might seriously get either a chopper or more to use as “ground flu flu’s”

                                                                  • frassettor
                                                                    Member
                                                                      Post count: 27

                                                                      Duncan …

                                                                      Ted Fry at Raptor Archery made these for me. They do a good job, but no matter what I hitem with they still have enough life in them! They are tough little buggers! I make pot pies out of my squirrels! If you want the recipe please shoot me an e-mail and I will make sure you have it..

                                                                      frassettor@yahoo.com

                                                                    • William Warren
                                                                      Member
                                                                      Member
                                                                        Post count: 1384

                                                                        Chris Shelton wrote: I thought about buying a chopper like your duncan so I could use them as flu flu’s:lol:, but I am serious. I shot 5.5 high backs once and they really really slowed me down! So I think I might seriously get either a chopper or more to use as “ground flu flu’s”

                                                                        Just shot those high back bananas and they shoot straight and I did notice they were a little slower than my carbons but not as slow as a full size flu flu. That was from a 50# Predator.

                                                                      • William Warren
                                                                        Member
                                                                        Member
                                                                          Post count: 1384

                                                                          frassettor wrote: Duncan …

                                                                          Ted Fry at Raptor Archery made these for me. They do a good job, but no matter what I hitem with they still have enough life in them! They are tough little buggers! I make pot pies out of my squirrels! If you want the recipe please shoot me an e-mail and I will make sure you have it..

                                                                          frassettor@yahoo.com

                                                                          Most squirrels I’ve hit with rubber blunts have expired very quickly. I have yet to hit one with a judo or one of the game nabbers. Maybe tomorow!
                                                                          Frassettor, feel free to PM me with your recipe.
                                                                          My Aunt makes squirrel salad out of them. Just make your favorite chicken salad and use squirrel meat instead of the chicken.

                                                                        • tpbc_hunter
                                                                            Post count: 9

                                                                            thanks for the viedo well done for just spair time.

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