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Post by Toby Benoit on Feb 6, 2006 7:15:14 GMT 12.75
I've written in another post about my kid brother Fred and the war he's waging on squirrels.
He found an ad from Mepps in the back of one of my magazines and read where they'll trade him fishing lures for his squirrel tails.
Who better than big brother to get wrapped up in his schemes. There's a lure called the grasshopper that he wants bad and needs fifteen tails to get it. Trouble is after yesterdays hunt, we only got one.
So, I took a bunch of empty dogfood cans and wired them to some small oaks about a hundred yards apart and filled the cans with corn and birdseed. Now we can take afternoon walks going from can to can, hoping to intercept the little buggers feeding.
What are ya'll favorite ways to ambush the little rascals?
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Post by Mars on Feb 8, 2006 1:32:50 GMT 12.75
I just wander around until I found a squirrel.Really. Nothing fancy, just an excuse to get out of the house for a few hours. Contact Mepps before sending any tails. There are some strict rules.
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Post by Paws on Feb 8, 2006 5:34:26 GMT 12.75
I go find a nice comfortable spot under the biggest oak in the grove and sit down on my turkey seat with the 410 parked across my knees. Then when I wake up, I shoot them as they run away from me! ;D
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Post by Bro. Freddie on Feb 8, 2006 7:01:04 GMT 12.75
Am i the only one that has ever noticed that you see a lot more squirrels when you have a deer rifle in your hands than something more suitable for them? ;D Sounds like Phil hunts them about like I do ;D
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Post by Brikatw on Feb 8, 2006 7:22:09 GMT 12.75
Your not alone there Freddie. But I have now figured out that it's the tree stand that makes the difference. A squirrel just doesn't figure a man hanging off the side of a tree trunk a threat or maybe they just figure your a REAL big squirrel. Now I go out and hunt squirrels from a tree stand or even a ladder stand. I pop a few then go get them, then I set up again and pop a few more. A good oak flat is always a good place to set up. ;D
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Post by Carter Northcutt on Feb 8, 2006 9:35:51 GMT 12.75
Phil, I didn't know you could hunt brushytails at night in Ohio ;DWith my new 3,000,000 candle power spot light; night no longer exists! Paws
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Post by brittonfaith on Feb 8, 2006 11:21:28 GMT 12.75
Am i the only one that has ever noticed that you see a lot more squirrels when you have a deer rifle in your hands than something more suitable for them? ;D I see most of mine with the front tire of the van. I never see any when I'm looking for them.
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Post by Toby Benoit on Feb 8, 2006 15:26:09 GMT 12.75
Mars, I e-mailed Shep Shephard at Mepps and he said the only thing was to leave the bone in and freeze them stright, not curled. Fred's up eight tails now.
I like Paws method of sleeping until they show up. That's my usual way of doing it, but I'm trying to be more aggressive. Weather's been goofy as heck.
And yes, I ALWAYS see more squirrels when I'm deer hunting. Just like yesterdays little stroll for tree-rats, No squirrels, but eight deer in a half hour.
It'd be simpler to buy the little turd the fishing lure he wants, but then I'd miss all the time I'm spending hunting with the kids.
Just this morning Fred came banging on my door. He was leaving for school and spotted two squirrels. If I hadn't been up all night working, I might have gotten dressed and went after them, but I was just too tired and he had a bus to catch. Funny kid! ;D
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Post by Toby Benoit on Feb 9, 2006 16:19:14 GMT 12.75
I busted two this evening ;D and Fred missed one . It was a good time. We only saw five all together and one deer. It got really cold and we both froze our butts off. It was only about forty degrees outside when the sun started to sink and we only had light flannel shirts. He's up to ten tails now.
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Post by Toby Benoit on Feb 17, 2006 7:54:20 GMT 12.75
Alright! Fred's got his quota. Now I gotta get them salted and sent off for him. I thought I was going to be smart, so I hung feeders out for the squirrels in the woods every hundred or so yards. Know what? They ignore them!!!! I can't have a bird feeder up by the house because of all the freakin' squirrels. They rip them right off the doggone limb! I'll hang one and fill it up and in a matter of hours it'll get mobbed, so I thought that I'd do the same thing down in the bottoms where we hunt them, but the corn and bird seed's just sitting there untouched. Aggravatin' devils!
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Post by Mars on Aug 26, 2006 13:15:49 GMT 12.75
Squirrel starts tommorrow. Switched my daughters Rossi over to the .410 barrel and let her fire it at the range today. If a plastic pop bottle or can shows up in the morning it's in trouble!
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Post by Brikatw on Aug 26, 2006 14:24:24 GMT 12.75
Just finished looking at the web site for fish and critters. Small game starts Oct 7 here. That's squirrels, rabbits and even hogs. Just gotta use, a rim fire 22 or a shotgun with shot no larger than bb size. I'm here to tell you guys, don't pop a hog with a shotgun loaded with shot any smaller than say 00 buck. They get real ornery real quick. Matt did that a couple years ago and all he managed to do with his 870 was herd the hog back to where I could get him with the 22 mag.
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Post by Toby Benoit on Aug 26, 2006 14:38:33 GMT 12.75
Both Fred and our sister Terri are bringing me squirrel scouting reports almost daily! It doesn't seem all that long since the season ended.
I've got to get busy buying bird feeders. I figure to bait them sumvaguns up good this year! Ya'll got to see how wide ol' Fred grins when he knocks a tree rat off of a limb! Plumb tickles that kid to death!! ;D
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Post by Paws on Aug 26, 2006 17:11:05 GMT 12.75
Sounds like they might be getting in the mood for a little cool weather, some flannel shirts, and pan of fried squirrel! ;D
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Post by Carter Northcutt on Aug 27, 2006 1:50:58 GMT 12.75
I took my two boys out opening day of squirrel season last weekend but it was just too hot and muggy. The tree rats never showed themselves. We did however see a few deer. One was a young buck Maybe one of them will be able to shoot it when we go muzzleloading.
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Post by Mars on Aug 27, 2006 5:37:57 GMT 12.75
We went out this morning. I saw one as we where leaving at about 9:30 and pointed it out to my daughter. I told her to get ready as it looked to be heading right for us. At 20 yards I told her to take the shot if it got into the clear. It closed to 10 yards and I again told her to take the shot and she said she couldn't see it. The squirrel did spot us and headed up the tree pausing several times to look at us. It ran out on a limb and paused again before it could jump to the next tree and escape. I told my daughter to shoot and again she said she couldn't see it so I shot it. She sat down, mad at me for shooting her squirrel, and said she'd wait to see if another came along. I moved about 20 yards off and sat down, wondering if she "couldn't" see the squirrel because she balked when it came to actualy killing something for the first time. Along about 10 o'clock a "bird" that we had chased all morning showed up again. My daughter asked if she could go ahead and shoot this bird. Without thinking I told her to go ahead if she wanted to do so, thinking that she wouldn't. She did. Perfect head shot at 30 yards. Though a non-game animal it proved to me that she could pull the trigger on an animal and for some reason she really couldn't see the squirrel to get a shot. She wants to go back this afternoon so I'm taking her and leaving my gun at home. Maybe knowing that only she can take a shot will improve her vision.
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Post by Toby Benoit on Aug 27, 2006 7:50:01 GMT 12.75
Good luck with the bushy tails! If she gets one, get a picture for us! ;D
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Post by Bro. Freddie on Aug 27, 2006 8:32:04 GMT 12.75
Our squirrel season doesn't open till Sept 8th. I'm gonna take Lucas ( 8 years old) and hopefully get him on his first squirrel. If he gets one, I think I'm gonna get it mounted. I think it won't be but about $50.
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Post by Brikatw on Aug 28, 2006 4:35:02 GMT 12.75
Now that the kids are grown, I have to admit, I miss the fun of taking them out hunting like when they were young. Now they take me. ;D I wouldn't trade a minute of any of our days out. When Chris was about 10 or so, I got back from a TDY on a friday mid-morning. It also happened to be the second week or so of deer season. When I got to the house, Miss Kathy had the camper on the truck all loaded and stocked. I went from the airplane to the camper and took Chris out of school to go hunting. As we drove up, I told him that Squoirrel was also open and that the camp where we would be staying was full of them. He got all worked up on that 2 hour ride.As we pulled into the camp, he spotted a nice grey on the picinic table where we would be parked. Wouldn't you know it, he grabbed his bow, an old fiberglass recurve, and an arrow and flat un-assed the truck. Scared the fire out of me because we were still going about 15 or 20 MPH. He hit the gravel road and skun himself up pretty good. Luckily I missed him with the truck too. The squirrel ran off. I still laugh when I think of that trip because an hour or so later, while we were eating a PBJ sandwich, the squirrel came up and sat on the end of the table again with us there, giving Chris a dirty look.... ;D
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Post by Mars on Aug 28, 2006 7:42:27 GMT 12.75
She had no luck Saturday afternoon. Had one on the ground and when she raised her gun it took off and didn't offer a shot.I saw the shadow of one later, this time in a tree. I pointed it out to her but again it never offered her a clear shot.We saw several more that where moving through at the tops of the trees. The tree nuts must not be ready to eat for them yet as they are moving and searching but we didn't see any actualy stopped and eating. The owner said he'd throw some corn out in a couple of places to help her out a little and she should do better next Saturday. And yea, I got the, "your going to mount my first one,right" question.
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