Squirrel hunters?

Few weeks ago, got 3 from one tree. Got the limit here in Indiana in less than two hours.

Having a great season, these are all from the last month or so.

We haven't been yet. The season has been open for two weeks now . In my opinion its been way too warm here. The leaves have just now showed any sign of changing

For as long as I can remember the season has started around mid October until this year.

I shot one, fox squirrel, from my tree stand, today. Got bored, pulled out the Ruger Mk 2 and laid the crossbow down. The squirrels are all over the woods. I coulda got a half dozen easy the other day just from the tree stand.

I don't hunt 'em a lot, but I think after deer season I'm going to cure that a bit in the spring. There is no closed season on rabbit or squirrel in my part of Texas. Nobody hunts 'em, though. I grew up shooting 'em with aa .22 rifle. I didn't have a place for a long time, but we bought a place in the woods and it's chock full of game, squirrel included.

I haven't been out yet, but I've started bringing my Crosman Marauder Pistol/Carbine with me when I deer hunt. It's super light and I strap it to my pack. If I'm having one of those mornings where the deer won't move but the squirrels are all over the place...well the squirrels are now in trouble.

It's a pre-charged pneumatic gun so there's no pumping and its super quiet and accurate. It's a lot of fun to finally be able to do something with those squirrels when they act up.

Northwestern PA here, usually we have great squirrel hunting, last year tho, I harvested none. I like to make squirrel pot-pie and squirrel "chicken" wings, so it was a disappointment. Hopefully this year is good although our season won;t open for another 2 weeks about. It hasn't looked good so far, I have not seen very many while I've been out and about.

I've killed several this year (my son got another yesterday). The woods I've been hunting has a fair number of fox squirrels but is crawling with reds. I'd rather not shoot the little friggers but man, there's a bunch of them.

Turns out they are small but tasty.

I've killed several this year (my son got another yesterday). The woods I've been hunting has a fair number of fox squirrels but is crawling with reds.

Click to expand...

Probably a little regional difference here, but what we call a "Fox" squirrel IS a red squirrel. Grey Squirrel is called "cat" squirrels.

So, I guess I'll refer to 'em as "red" and "grey" from here on out to avoid confusion.

Fox is the biggest, greys /blacks are smaller, reds are the smallest just barely bigger than a chipmunk.

Most eat fox and greys/blacks, don't know anyone that eats reds heard they taste like the pine cone seeds they eat.

I don't guess we have that "red" squirrel because our "reds" (aka fox) are bigger than greys.

I googled it and it seems there is an invasive eurasian "red squirrel" somewhere in the new world. Never seen one here, only native reds.

Grey or "cat" squirrel...



Red or "fox" squirrel




I can't seem to find where eurasian reds are in the US. Is THIS what you all are calling "red" squirrel? I've never seen one, new to me.



I'm also confused because I find a link to an "American Red Squirrel" and come up with a pic of a grey squirrel or at least what looks to ME like a grey squirrel, belly is white, not red.

I learned about Red and Grey squirrel in "Introduction to Wildlife and Fisheries Management" at Texas A&M as a sophomore before I switched my option to fisheries management. What my grandpa had always called a "fox squirrel", the prof, Doctor Englis, called a "Red" and what my grandpa always called a "cat", doctor Englis called a GREY squirrel. Maybe I should have listened more in class, but there's two species in Texas...red/grey, well, I've killed both. LOL!

Oh well, what the heck, I just shoot 'em and eat 'em, ain't going to get worked up over semantics.

dang i'm in the middle of overhauling my ol'e engine in my chevy truck, its a 1977 chevy Scottsdale with 350 v8 as this is my hunting/fishing truck! so soon as I get done i'm going squirrel hunting!!! gotta break in the new ruger 10/22 I got on sale recently...

http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=214826&stc=1&d=1444227044 These are Fox squirrels although some people around here call them red squirrels.

These are Fox squirrels although some people around here call them red squirrels.

Click to expand...

Well, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one.

I carried my Mk 2 to the tree stand this morning again. Squirrels were out barking in the woods, but none came my way and as I was primarily bow hunting deer, I didn't wanna get down and do a stalk.

We've had a bit of a squirrel population explosion in the past 2 years here. It's REAL nice.

FYI

ironworkerwill is holding the white nose variety of fox squirrel known as a Bachman's fox squirrel which is a larger sub species of the fox squirrel they occur in SELa MS and AL and elsewhere. Most of LA fox squirrels don't have the white nose. but we do have a few black colored grey squirrels and black fox squirrels in LA,

be safe and good hunting,

Bull

Thats right Bull. There are 3 color phases of the foxes shown. Red like in the picture then silver and black. I have personally seen solid white but never silver or solid black. I have also seen some that are piebald.

They whistle like a small bird rather than bark and chatter like typical grey squirrels.

So are we talking squirrel here or hunt'n?

There is one town in southern Indiana that has white squirrels.

Tree rats! I hate the little buggers. Limit in my state is 12 per day August 15 - February 29. We have a few and thinning is in order. No trips so far this year but my grandson is just itching to see if my M&P15-22 is up to the task.

fouled bore said:

There is one town in southern Indiana that has white squirrels.

Click to expand...

Olney, IL has made something of a tourist industry of their albino squirrel population. I'm told they get a bit upset, though, if you shoot them.

I, too, grew up hearing "red" and "fox" squirrels as synonymous. We have fox and greys around here. I haven't been out yet either, and our season started in August.

I don't even know if squirrel season is open here yet because it's just too danged hot to spend much time in the woods fighting mosquitoes. We hunt them a lot but generally in January and February when the leaves are gone and the dogs can work and you can actually see a squirrel.
We have grey squirrels and fox squirrels. The fox are much bigger than the grey and can have many different combinations of colors. They are not really very common but we always see a few on a weekend hunt and try not to shoot them. We also have flying squirrels but they ain't gots a whole buncha meat on them.

MCgunner said:

Probably a little regional difference here, but what we call a "Fox" squirrel IS a red squirrel. Grey Squirrel is called "cat" squirrels.

So, I guess I'll refer to 'em as "red" and "grey" from here on out to avoid confusion.

Click to expand...

Around here, we have fox squirrels, grey squirrels, red squirrels and apparently black squirrels. Here's a fox and a red next to each other - our fox squirrels are huge and the reds are maybe 2x the size of a chipmunk...

I don't even know if squirrel season is open here yet because it's just too danged hot to spend much time in the woods fighting mosquitoes.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm going to sleep in until we get another front. Game was NOT moving this morning. The squirrels came out and barked a bit, but didn't move around.

Do you guys eat the squirrels, or just shoot them?

I'd love to try squirrel meat some day! Might FINALLY take up squirrel hunting this year.

IMO, squirrel ranks up there with duck, lamb and ribeye steak for flavor.

I ate so many as a kid, and loved it better than chicken, beef and pork.

'Cept maybe BBQ pork and bacon.

slayerofbunnies what type and caliber of rifle you have there? its very nice!