Aug 6, 2021 5 min read

The fruits in the trees are starting to ripen, attracting many animals. Squirrels, deer and rabbits are all out there eating away. It’s as nature planned. Where there is food, the animals will magically appear.

Squirrels are very intelligent creatures. They don’t mind keeping a human company while he is in the woods. They are clever and resourceful, which is demonstrated to us when we are hunting squirrels and they are hiding on the other side of the tree. The only weakness with that game is they forget to hide their tail.

Squirrels are masters at scolding hunters while they are flattened on the side of a tree in perfect camouflage. As the hunter circles the tree hunting for the squirrel in the canopy, the squirrel is circling around above frustrating the hunter.

There are a few well-know ways to trick a squirrel into showing himself. Throwing a hat around to the other side or hanging a jacket on the other side and waiting it out, for example. Sometimes these will work.

Every hunter has a favorite animal to hunt I always look back on squirrel hunting with great fondness as it is fun trying to outsmart a squirrel. They are much smarter than rabbits or groundhogs.

What can be more fun than sitting with your back against a nice oak tree on a crisp fall day watching and listening for squirrels?

One of my fellow coworkers at J&L Steel often squirrel hunted with me. One memorable day this fellow I know showed up at my house to go squirrel hunting, but, alas, I was on daylight at work that day. We hadn’t planned the trip out and I was on daylight while he was on the afternoon shift.

He decided to go squirrel hunting anyway as he had brought everything with him for work later. He hunted later than intended and rushed out of the woods in his hunting gear to go in to work, where I was. He had leaned his Mossberg 22 against a tree close to the lane to change his pants. The man was in such a hurry to get to work he had left his favorite 22 by my house and drove to Pittsburgh before he noticed.

He phoned as I got in from work. He was in a panic and asked me to ride up the road to the spot to see if his gun was still there. Being the most caring friend that I am, I told my wife the story and quickly drove up the road. There was the gun. Still leaning against the tree.

As I went to pick it up, a squirrel popped out of that tree and started yelling at me. I checked the gun and darn if it wasn’t loaded. I pulled it up and shot the squirrel with my friend’s gun. I put the now empty gun in my car, drove home and called him at work. He answered in a sweat, so worried about his gun and his responsibility. I, of course, as such a good friend, told him I didn’t find it and we hung up.

I waited about 15 minutes and called him back. I know this was mean of me, but I couldn’t help it. Then to make matters worse, he told me about his awful day and how he had seen squirrels but hadn’t hit any. They had tortured him by running around the trees. He blamed his favorite gun, said maybe he had been mad at it when he somehow left it. He was so upset with himself for his carelessness. That’s when I told him how that squirrel had been there with the gun, and I had shot it. There was silence on that phone as he processed my tale.

I know the story sounds like I am not a good friend, but we hunted many times after this and I got to tease him forever about squirrels.

One time, I was in a tree stand and heard a squirrel. I looked up. The squirrel leaped onto my head, ran down on my lap, down the ladder and onto the ground. I almost fell out of the tree. I guess he had never seen anything like me.

I remember a lot of fun times squirrel hunting with my son and daughter when they were young. My wife visited her mother at the bottom of a big, wooded ravine by my home. The woods were just perfect for squirrel. There were a lot of nut trees of great size. I would drop my wife off and park at her mother’s house and take the kids up into that ravine to sit and learn how to shoot squirrel.

Back in those days, people ate squirrel pot pies and it was a popular thing to do. My wife’s mother loved them and would ask us to bring her a couple of squirrels. There were plenty of grey and fox squirrels.

First, we would look for a good stand of mast or a fruit tree and settle in. The kids were never bored, and they learned to shoot accurately and handle a gun safely. We always came back with a squirrel or two.

Squirrels are always entertaining, and we would try to trick them, and they would try to trick us. This is a good way to teach a kid about the woods and the rifle. It’s good to start with a successful hunt and squirrel hunting is usually not too boring.

I guess you could say I was always a little bit nuts over squirrel hunting.