Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

Went hunting tree rats this morning, saw no squirrels but 3 deer and 2 turkeys, I bet if I go back to that spot in November I will see no deer and plenty of squirrels.

graybeard321 wrote:Went hunting tree rats this morning, saw no squirrels but 3 deer and 2 turkeys, I bet if I go back to that spot in November I will see no deer and plenty of squirrels.

Yep, that's the way it works for me. And I'm always seeing squirrels.

Andy

I have not shot squirrel since I was a boy, and my friends father cleaned them. Now I feel like I need to learn this skill. Watched a very good video a few months ago how to skin squirrel. Learning to hunt deer and squirrel is on my list of learning survival skills and things I can teach my son. Not that I'm set on bagging them for food, but I just think I need to know how to do it. Joining a hunting club seems to be the answer I guess. Also I need the spare time, training and the cash to pay for it. I've drooled over how nice some of the bolt action rifles look with a high quality scope. All I've got right now is a Savage Model 64 and figure I've got one good enough scope to mount on it. Oh yeah I do have a 24" rifled slug barrel I can put on my Mossy, so I guess I could hunt deer in fields or brush with either shot or slug ammo. I know another good way to hunt tree rat is with say a 410 or a 20 gauge. Don't mean to be stealing the thread, but I 'm just looking for feedback - what's the easiest way I can get ready to hunt squirrel (they are open season this winter, right?) I have no camping gear, no other hunting gear like cammies or good boots, not even a good knife yet. Again, I do not know if I'll ever become a regular hunter, but I feel strongly I should learn how to hunt. Its something I want to pass on to my teenage son and expect him to do the same if has any kids. Does anyone have suggestions how I can get started?

Jakeiscrazy wrote:I've shooting for years and still haven't been hunting. Just doesn't sound like there is enough shooting in it for me.

A high shootn' day for squirrel is 6-10 shots.

Why not trade quantity of shooting for quality of shooting?

Headshots with a .22. I no longer hunt but grew up hunting with my dad. His dad and his grand dad taught him to hunt. They used an old Western Field single shot .22 bolt action. In the early 60's my dad traded an old boat motor for a Savage Model 29 pump .22.

Any place but the head was damaging meat they were expecting to eat so it was headshots.

Dad still tells the story of his dad leaving the house one Saturday morning with 7 shells for his little rifle. He came home after lunch with 4 squirrels, 2 rabbits and a ruffed grouse - all head shots.

It can be done.

Aw man I want to hunt some squirrels.....*narrows eyes* they're getting bold since my dog died!

I do more shooting getting ready for squirrel season then i do any other time of year. I get ready by trying to shoot old shotgun shells with a 22 at 35-50 yards. Not a big target but then again neither is a squirrel.

There are several great options for small game shooting nowadays. For squirrels I have a high power crosman that shoots pellets at 1200 ft pr Se. They are not very expensive either, and with a good scope I can shoot squirrels in the tree tops. I take head shots when I can or middle of back if I dont have a clear line of site. The pellets dont tear the meat up because they don't expand. I also use gold plated pellets, never, never, never lead pellets. The pellets cost me about $15 per 100. Money well spent in my book. My son who is 7 now goes with me, in the back yard and we kill- marinate them and then eat them. My wife still doesn't "get it". I tell her I'm just practicing my gravy recipes.

I'm with the rimfire rifles and headshots crowd. Never worried about lead but I prefer headshots anyway. Haven't hunted squirrel in years as I stopped eating them and I don't like to kill what I won't eat - varmints excepted.

I'd try a pellet gun too. Even so I prefer open sights to scopes. Mostly because I never really got the hang of sighting through a scope.

The thing is, hunting with a rimfire or pellet gun doesn't have to be expensive and it can be a lot of fun.

Andy

No matter how many types of guns I own, shooting anything with a .22lr somehow takes the cake. My Ruger 10/22 has been my loyalist friend for the past 18 years. The only time it ever let me down was when i tried using a cheap plastic ram-line 50rnd mag.

Well I finally got around to mounting a NIKON 4X Rimfire scope onto the Savge Model 64 and WOW! what a tack driver! My son and I zeroed as best we could at 50 yards and then started shooting bullseyes 1" groups at 25 yards at the range.

November being just around the corner and I see I can get a hunrting license onlline for $16.00 - so I reckon I need a WMA or State Park pass and some good winter / outdoor camo hunting clothing, boots knife, and...hey anybody out there willing to show me and my boy some pointers before we go out and do something stupid?

Any squirrel I shoot I'd be willing to give to whoever is our guide. I mean I've seen videos how to skin squirrel, but the ole lady being from Long Island sure aint no country girl & aint gonna eat no tree rat unless she's REALLY hungry!

Seriously, does anyone have a few acres of land they'd let me come out and see if I can even hit a squirrel?

Brings back memories. I used to squirrel hunt all the time as a boy and young man. I always used a 12-gauge shotgun. In the beginning, it was because that was the only shotgun I had, and I didn’t have a .22 rifle. Also, my dad was always adamant that it was dangerous to squirrel hunt with a rifle. Dad liked the brains, so he didn’t like headshots. Could be the old man just didn’t want me blowing his squirrel brains away. I used to hate taking squirrels to my old man, because I had to skin the heads, which is a ROYAL pain in the arse. But he always got the first 2 or 3, because he was my daddy.

You don’t need any camo or any of that noise. I used to go early in the morning in my school clothes, and then go on to school. Put the squirrels in a cooler and the gun in the trunk. Guess I’d be in jail these days. Carry the squirrels you kill by their tails and drop then when you need to take a shot; you don’t even need a game bag. As to technique, you just have to learn. If you know where squirrels are, go there and be quiet. Don’t make a lot of noise moving through the woods. If you don’t know where squirrels are, go to a likely patch of woods and move quietly. In all events, look for dark spots in trees where they don’t belong. Watch for motion. LISTEN. You might hear one “squacking”. If it is dry enough and not raining, you can also hear them “cutting”. “Cutting DOES NOT mean breaking wind; it means they are biting the hulls off acorns or other nuts and you can hear the pieces of nutshell falling into the dry leaves. You can also hear dry leaves rattling as they shake limbs by their movement. Infrequently, I have seem them move from tree to tree in a group. Usually, they'll be alone or in twos and threes feeding on whatever mast is in the trees. You use all your senses; and it will just take some learning and thinking.

As to cleaning a squirrel, the best way is to cut the skin in a circle around the squirrel’s anus, then stand on his tail and pull hard and fast on his hind legs. His skin will come off like a union suit. Cut off his head and feet with the skin, and then take out the entrails. This way is faster and gets a lot less hair on the meat.
As for a wife that won’t cook a squirrel, the only solution is to cook it yourself. In my experience, after she cleans up after your cooking fried-squirrel-and-gravy a time or two, she’ll either leave or reconsider. Either way, the problem works its way out.

Is squirrel tasty? It can't be a great deal of meat on such a small body. I can't think the pelt would very big.....just trying to understand why people hunt the fuzzy tailed rats.

As I recall they tasted alot like fried chicken! But actually, in my Navy days at sea they used to serve fried rabbit once in a while and I figure squirrel tastes a lot like that. Some folks tell me its good just to throw them on a grill after they are cleaned. As for making a meal out of them I reckon anywhere between 2 to 4 squirrels per person is about right.

Hey, dorminWS, my wife's mother is in a senior citizen's home in Luray, so several times a year we head down that way. I live in Reston. I assume "Extreme SouthWest" would be closer to Bristol. I know there's one WMA just north of Front Royal I might check out, but was wondering if you knew of any good places to hunt down in your nick of the woods?

N0VA wrote:As I recall they tasted alot like fried chicken! But actually, in my Navy days at sea they used to serve fried rabbit once in a while and I figure squirrel tastes a lot like that. Some folks tell me its good just to throw them on a grill after they are cleaned. As for making a meal out of them I reckon anywhere between 2 to 4 squirrels per person is about right.

Hey, dorminWS, my wife's mother is in a senior citizen's home in Luray, so several times a year we head down that way. I live in Reston. I assume "Extreme SouthWest" would be closer to Bristol. I know there's one WMA just north of Front Royal I might check out, but was wondering if you knew of any good places to hunt down in your nick of the woods?

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I'm around 66 miles north and west of Bristol. Used to love to hunt squirrels and eat them. Haven't squirrel hunted in years. In fact, last time I went, the squirrel's tail slipped out from under my boot when I gave it the "skinning jerk" and all I did was peel all the hair off the tail. I was left holding that dead squirrel up in front of my face with a totally hairless tail. It looked so much like a rat I never ate, and therefore never shot, another one. Now, I'm just too fat, lazy and crippled to skin up and down these steep ridges even to shoot a grouse; much less a fuzzy-tailed rat. But there's all kinds of good hunting places out here, starting with the entire Jefferson National Forest. Lots of coal company land, if you get a permit to be on it.

I forgot one thing in the first post: It's the same as with deer. Go where the food is. Squirrels eat acorns, but they LOVE hickory and beech nuts. Best bet is find you some hickory trees with nuts on them.

sent dorminWS a PM

I hunt squirrels and that is the majority of my shooting. I also raise a line of Mountain Feist specifically for squirrel hunting so I suppose it makes sense.

GrayFeist wrote:I hunt squirrels and that is the majority of my shooting. I also raise a line of Mountain Feist specifically for squirrel hunting so I suppose it makes sense.

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Been a while since I've heard tell of or seen a Feist. I'm glad to know there are people propogating the breed. They are the best dang squirrel dogs alive; and an important part of the Appalachian Mountain heritage. When I was a boy, a Feist was hard to come by; and regarded as a real treasure.

Thanks! They are still a treasure and not very common by most breeds' standards. My ancestors lived in Appalachia and that's where I got my originial stock. I went deep into the mountains and got the best blood I could to start with. I am working with a couple other hunters to keep this line going and will have the 5th generation on the ground this summer.