Spring Squirrel Season

The Ozarks are really getting low in deer - too much poaching and not enuff enforcement, in my opinion. Anyway, I saw zero deer during the season, but did come up on a little flat near the top of the hill. Looked over the lip of the flat and I was at eye level with the tree tops of a deep gulley right next to me. Never saw so many squirrels in my life - well over 3 dozen within 50 yards. Everyone of 'em was flicking their tail like mad, and of course I had a 30/30 in my hand. I drove the Rhino back down to the bottom and DID NOT tell my brother about it. It's about a month till spring squirrel season opens and I'm going to eat 'em up. If I get there and lie down while dark and use shorts in the .22, I should have more fun than kickin' old folks. [smilie=w:

Jim

Took a lot of squirrel in my day with the .22 short out of an old Hamilton rifle. Grandpa had only one eye and if he bite into a squirrel or rabbit and hit some buck shot there was hell to pay. Done all my hunting with a .22 in my youth.

Sounds like the local city parks here, a few years ago. People would feed them with fast food junk and white bread, and they all looked mangy and badly stressed by the competition.
Then the coyotes moved all the way to downtown and took care of the squirrels number; now they are mostly after cats and rats, ...and people are trying to feed the 'yotes :? .

kg

Gray squirrels have only been legal to shoot up here in the last few years - this far north we have mostly reds and fliers, neither of which have enough meat to bother with, and the reds will drive the grays out of an area as they are much more aggressive. But, they do make for good target practice and shooting them is a public service as they do an incredible amount of damage to buildings. Fly tiers like the tails, too.
Our deer herd is finally starting to come back after some pretty lean years. I actually saw some this past season, but nothing with antlers that was legal to shoot. In the southern third of the state they're becomming pests, but there're less and less places where you can hunt. It is turning into a bedroom community for the workers in the greater Boston area, most of whom don't hunt and won't allow it on their land. I keep hoping that one of these years they'll put extra tags on the license for jawflappinidiots and illegal aliens, there are more of them than there are deer and they'd probably make good dogfood. :twisted: Kind of like the way they take care of too many camels and roos down under.