The last Hunts of the Season

[Johnsfolly]

Well the small game season has ended. I did get out a couple of more times before the season ended. I got out with Jeremiah (my daughter's boyfriend) and Herbie (brother in-law) and hunted Davisdale CA in Howard county. We went out the first weekend of February. It was very windy and I decided to hit this property since there is good population of rabbits. With the wind, I felt that the squirrels would be less than active and that we might be able to get a rabbit or two. We hunted several draws and tried to stay out of the wind, but we just weren't finding any squirrels. We busted through several briar patches and brushy areas but only kicked up one rabbit and did not get a shot. After pushing the brush above a draw we set up along a creek. I was next to a couple of large oaks. I looked in the notch of one of the trees and saw what I thought was hair. It turned out to be a sleeping raccoon. Of course this was a couple of days after the end of the furbearer season.

When I headed back to Herbie, I saw him pull up his shotgun and he shot twice.  Jeremiah got down into the creek bottom and he shot once apparently for the killing shot on the only squirrel that we would get on this trip. As we were heading back to the vehicle, we saw a herd of deer off in the distance. We saw at least 25 deer in total with four bucks. Two of them had really nice antlers. The wind really affected our hunt, but it still was a memorable day.

The last hunt that we did this year was just Herbie and I on the last Saturday of the season. We went to a local piece of the Mark Twain national forest land. Herbie went along one split of the creek branch and I went into a cedar thicket on the other side of the creek branch. I immediately saw several squirrels when I entered the thicket. No shots. I eased up to a large cedar and waited for more activity. I had one get down on the ground about 30 yards from me. I was able to sneak about 10 or 15 yards closer and got a good shot. I picked up the squirrel and moved deeper into the thicket. I knelt down next to another thick cedar and saw a couple of squirrels chasing each other about 80 yards away. I hunkered down to see if I could get a chance at either one of these guys. As I was watching them, I saw movement to my right and saw a doe enter the cedars. Then one of her fawns then another. The last one was only 35 yards away when It noticed something not right at the base of my cedar tree. She spooked and took the other two does with her. As they left the cedars, they met up with another six deer that were getting  ready to enter the cedars. Fortunately they might have spooked the squirrels towards me. I had one in the tree just above me and I shot that one and saw the other 20 yards to my left, but no shot. So far within 250 minutes I had two shots and two squirrels on the ground. Herbie took a long shot and missed one before I met up with him to move to another timbered creek bottom. We both got a couple more shots and I ended up with another squirrel and Herbie lost one and got one. We only hunted until about 10 am when the squirrels just get back to their nests. So we ended up with four total. three grays and one young fox squirrel.

I have them in the freezer and will have to find a good day to get them cooked up. I have the idea that I might make a Sichuan squirrel dish ala Hank Shaw.

I didn't get out again do to travel for work. I never did pull the trigger on my release on the yard rabbit or any of the local squirrels. I enjoyed this year and hope that I will be able to get back on them in May.

 

[Johnsfolly]

So here is my parting shot of the 2016 2017 small game season. this is the doe cottontail that lives in a brushpile in our yard. and Yes she is only about 12 to 15 feet from me when I was taking this picture.

[JestersHK]

Nice job on those squirrels.  Didn't do any tree Rat excursions this year, but I love eating them.