Most youngsters who grew up in the rural Ozarks learned to hunt by searching the branches of an oak-hickory woodlot or creek bottom for squirrels. In October and early November, when the leaves are hinting of the upcoming fall season, squirrels have little trouble finding a place to hide. Squirrel hunting in the fall is a challenge but it is made easier when squirrels begin to work the hickories. That happens as early as late August, and will continue at times through October. On a crisp, still morning in the Ozarks, you can hear the grating of teeth on hickory nuts and the sound of small bits of hickory hulls falling to the forest floor. In the times when squirrels are not plentiful, the cuttings, or bits of hickory hulls give away areas where they are concentrated. As the weather cools a bit more squirrels stay out later in the morning and come out earlier in the afternoon. When it's hot, their activity is lessened. But find a supply of hickory nuts or a walnut tree and you'll usually find squirrels. When the hickories and walnuts have dropped, they really turn their full attention to the acorns, and at such times they also seem to crave dogwood berries where you can find a lot of them.
Old timers talked about seeing fall migrations of squirrels in the Ozarks back in the thirties and again in the fifties, when thousands of squirrels were moving in one direction in long waves, moving from an area where the mast crop had been exhausted, and eating every walnut and acorn in their path, devastating small corn fields and other crops.
Most of us who have spent time in the rural Ozarks for many years have seen small migrations. Back in the 1980’s I remember seeing an October migration of squirrels in north Arkansas that was something short of what the old-timers spoke of, but nevertheless, a fascinating movement. On Bull Shoals, there were often 8 or 10 squirrels swimming across the lake, north to south, within view of any fisherman, and hundreds of them drowned in the attempt.
This year, squirrels are plentiful over most of the Ozarks. There are plenty, the hunting is good, and the numbers need to be thinned. Combine that with the opportunity to teach an anxious youngster and the fact that they are excellent eating, and you have reason to do some hunting well before the deer season is upon us.
There are four methods of squirrel hunting that work all across the Ozarks. One involves hunting with a squirrel dog, and another in floating small streams. But the old tried and true method of course is 'still-hunting'. When I was a youngster I'd take my old Iver Johnson shotgun down to the Tweed bottoms just off the river and walk an old logging trail where gray squirrels were abundant. Occasionally I'd spot one by moving slowly along, but when I'd reach a certain spot on a rocky hillside, I'd find a comfortable boulder and sit still enough to be taken for a part of the rock. Within 10 minutes, gray squirrels would have forgotten there was an intruder, and begin moving about. When one presented a good shot within 30 yards or so, the old shotgun would roar and then the forest would be still again. I learned if you stayed put, marking your downed quarry, that in 10 or 15 minutes things would return to normal again and squirrels would begin to scurry about. A still hunter could sometimes take several squirrels in less than an hour from one spot. And there was always much more to see, as other wildlife passed through and birds flitted through the nearby branches. When things were slow, I’d lay back on the big flat rock and go to sleep, dreaming of hunting moose and bear in Canada someday. Still-hunting had many rewards.
Later I learned that two hunters could effectively find squirrels if one hunter became the eyes and the other became the feet. Hunter number one moves slowly along, watching the branches as best he can but traveling at a quiet snails pace. Usually he won't see squirrels which have already heard him. When he's well down the trail, he stops and waits and hunter number two advances in the same manner moving on past his partner to take a new position. Squirrels react to a moving hunter by moving themselves, well concealed by a tree trunk or branch. And while they are concentrating on the moving hunter they expose themselves to the hunter who is still, and watching. When two hunters hunt together, that walk and wait method is the best way to find squirrels in the early fall, a perfect method for a father teaching a youngster to hunt.
So having said all this, we come now to the responsibility of taking care of the game, making sure it is cleaned properly and therefore at it’s best for the table. My dad used that to make sure I developed a reverence for life. He made me to understand that no hunter should make a target of any living creature, that all the game we hunted was to be utilized, and valued. I learned as soon as I learned to shoot, how to clean and care for whatever I shot.
Today I carry in my game vest a handful of freezer bags, and soon after a squirrel is dropped, I skin it with the old method of cutting just below the tail and then pulling the skin forward over the front legs and head by using the tail, then stripping the remaining skin back over the hind legs. Then I cut off all four feet and the head, remove the entrails and place the cleaned squirrel in the bag. I seldom kill a limit of six unless there will be several people at my table to eat them, but I can eat a couple of squirrels easily, and it is nice to put some in the freezer for late winter meals.
So there you have it. A year with plenty of squirrels, an opportunity to test your marksmanship with a small bore rifle, and a chance to take a youngster to the woods….and a chance to let him learn, from a bushy-tailed teacher.
My website… www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com
E-mail me at lightninridge@windstream.net or write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, MO. 65613
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