As usual as soon deer season is over, the shows start and it is time to see all of the new products for the year. A few days after I got back from Kansas I had to attend a dealer show for four days and sell products for the upcoming year. There are a lot of neat products that are coming out this year. After getting home from the show and spending some time with my little boy it wasn’t long until he was asking me about going hunting. He thinks everything is deer hunting and doesn’t realize that the season is over. After trying to explain to him that deer season was over, I told him that we could go squirrel hunting when I got off of work Monday afternoon. The problem is the arctic weather that I thought we left in Kansas must have followed us home.
As soon as I got off and picked him up we got bundled up and hit the woods. He was pretty excited even though I don’t think he actually knew what we were doing other than carrying a gun through the woods. We crossed a small creek and headed to a ridge where I see a lot of squirrels throughout deer season and thought we would have the best chance there. About halfway across the ridge we sat down against an old white oak and I told Tye that we should sit still for a little while and the squirrels would come back out.
Keeping him quiet wasn’t as bad as you would think; the little rascal is really funny in the woods. When he talks he uses his “hunting voice,” which is a whisper you can hardly hear. After sitting for about ten minutes we spotted a squirrel across the creek on the opposite ridge so I grabbed the rifle and Tye and we took off after our quarry. As you can expect, by the time we got to the other ridge the squirrel was up a tree and in his hide out. Tye’s hunting voice was long gone and he was asking where “did the squirrel go daddy?” After telling him how squirrels live in trees, what a nest is, and why they don’t live on the ground, we decided to sit and wait to see if he would come back out.
It is amazing to me that during deer season there are squirrels everywhere all the time, but when we go out to hunt them they disappear. We got a late start as it was and right before we were going to give up there was one last little grey squirrel that was looking for a meal that stuck his head out. Luckily enough Tye was able to see the squirrel before the shot and see what was going on. The squirrel hit the ground about twenty yards from us and when he landed Tye headed out after him not knowing what damage a squirrel can do to a finger. I caught up to him before he got to the squirrel and made sure it was okay for him to pick it up. He did pick it up but there was a look of confusion on his face as to what kind of animal he was holding.
With us getting lucky at the last minute it made for a great afternoon squirrel hunt. That was our first squirrel hunt. Small game hunting is a laid back, carefree type of hunt that can be enjoyed with friends all hours of the day. I haven’t been squirrel hunting in a long time, but it looked like Tye had himself a ball, and as long as he enjoys it he and I will have to make this a weekly hunt.
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