This is a single of my absolute most loved situations of the squirrel year to hunt. Don’t get me mistaken, I really like every and each individual month for the duration of the just about 6-month year — actually, it’s 5 months 17 days, or a 170-day-very long year, if you are curious or counting.
September is a great time to be in the subject with its warm afternoons, a great deal of food stuff sources to establish and scout, and often a joyful month to start off the period with. Oct heats up with mast foodstuff and cooler times and can be some of the best squirrel hunting instances in the year. November and December are fine to hand-select a several outings, but, in our point out, as with most, deer hunting is king, and those people are the key months for deer.
But arrive January and February, the woods are huge open up and there is no higher time for a squirrel hunt — specifically following a good squirrel dog. Why? Very simple enough: Mating year for squirrels frequently falls during this time and often several squirrels will be found in the very same tree or region of the woods.
It is not unheard of to stick to the sounds of a canine, glance up into the tree’s cover and see far more than a single squirrel. That is commonly not the case early in the time when foodstuff-source and denning trees are generally exactly where the squirrels are positioned. Also, the mating year, just like the deer rut, can result in elevated exercise during the day for the squirrels, giving extra chance for us.
But, extra vital to me, this time of year feels a great deal extra like a reward or bonus times to be afield. Confident, there are days when it’s grey exterior, and, of class, there are days of snow and sluggish heading, but there are also a lot of times when the sun’s rays warm the air ample to make your nose and cheeks glow.
Being aware of that I am a squirrel hunter, I often get references by early-period deer hunters, in particular bowhunters, that their particular hunting grounds have been loaded with squirrels to the issue that they were driving them crazy though perched in their tree stands. Normally have I returned to their spot later on in the period only to be unsuccessful in aiding them with their perceived squirrel dilemma.
In point, most of my wintertime squirrel looking grounds are completely distinctive than the grounds I wander on in the early season of September and October.
Whilst I am not an expert, a biologist or a skilled wildlife supervisor, I have paid consideration in excess of my nearly 40-calendar year squirrel hunting profession to know squirrels migrate to foods resources and that they are really superior at getting that readily available resource.
And there is no more rapidly way to come across out where the squirrels are (or are not) than adhering to a well-seasoned hunting pet dog. A puppy that is bred and seasoned to hunt squirrels will train you much more about what the squirrels are executing and where by they are positioned in a brief sum of time.
I really do not treatment if you noticed 196 squirrels from your deer stand previous slide, the puppy will allow you know quickly if they are continue to there or have moved along to a new food stuff supply area.
Oh, but when you do identify the wintertime hangout on a excellent sunny winter’s afternoon, you and your pet are in for some quickly action, and, for me, generally the very best squirrel hunting of the time.
Our period in West Virginia is open up now and closes on Feb. 28.
Chris Ellis is a veteran of the outside business. His new ebook, “Hunting, Fishing and Relatives from The Hills of West Virginia,” is offered at www.wvbookco.com. Make contact with him at [email protected].
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