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Me too. A paper grocery sack and a half.
I'm at least that. I make a push as season comes up to crank through it then by the time the I get my first deer we're sick of meat and let it sit again and repeat the following year hehe
I enjoy it more in cooler weather. Chili etc.
That does sound fun
Our vet told us that it was the best meat you could give them
For sure. Healthiest for them and us.
Be out there early, real early before the gray of dawn. They're very early risers. Sit against a big tree, and stay very still. If you shoot one, make note of where it fell, but don't move. When you do move, move very slowly. Use as much camo as you safely can.
Hell yea. I do the same. I carry my Ruger SP101 .22 revolver with me when I big game hunt and I'll carry a serious caliber sidearm when I'm small game hunting and my 10/22 is my primary. I might stop bringing the SP101 though. I wouldn't shoot a squirrel over 10 yards away with that revolver and I'm not shooting at a squirrel at all if I'm still waiting for a deer.
Thanks for the tips! I'm pretty sure my biggest mistake is going out too late and leaving too early. If I'm honest, I'll wake up at 2-3 A.M. to get to my spot in pitch black and freeze my butt off for 1-2 hours in 0 degree weather until it's even legal to shoot at a deer. But for squirrels, I don't think I've ever even stepped out of my car until like 20 minutes before legal sunrise. I'll definitely make sure to get out as early as if I were going for a trophy buck and incorporate the rest of your tips.
As a 14 year old kid living in the boonies, gray squirrels was the first hunting I mastered.
That's another thing. With my rifle, I've passed on a few shots where the squirrel has been on a tree branch silhouetted against the sky. Since I already don't see many when I'm out looking, that's accounted for a lot of missed chances. Of the couple I shot, one was on a log with my backstop being the ground and the other was smack in the middle of a thick tree trunk at a distance where I wouldn't miss. I always worried about losing a ton of meat with the shotgun though. I do have a semi-auto 12 ga I could use. What choke would you recommend for it between improved cylinder, modified, and full?
If those are your choices I'd use modified for early to mid season and full after the leaves drop.
Tell ya BD, .410 was never my fave cuz it needs 7-1/2's to get good pattern density on squirrels, and I never got consistent kills on squirrels with them. 6's in a .410 is a mighty thin pattern after 20-25 yards. If you got the discipline to pass up shots outside your sure kill range with 6's go for it, but I'd pattern it on paper plates and see what point I stopped getting a for sure 5 pellets minimum in a 6" circle.
That right there is the golden ticket. Sit in one spot and knock down 2-3 squirrels from your stealth sniper tree before the rest figure out they'd be healthier feeding somewhere else.
Don't apologize for the long post, the info is gold. What's the deal with weather in your experience? Are rainy days a bust or good hunting? Or after a rainy day? Then what about snow later in the season?
