Squirrels are active still

[Rondevous]

Squirrel hunting has been very good for me this year.
Got another one tonight and saw several I passed on.
Abundant nut crops and more quick trips to the woods have yeilded 8 squirrels for me.
I bought a blue hubbard squash to cook with the squirrels just don;t know when I'm going to have the feast.
Maybe after duck hunting a few time or I might save them for a ML deer hunt meal.
Anyhow if your thinking of squirrels get out there while the feast of hickorys is still going strong.
Later the corn fields will produce nice as well.

[Thunderhead]

Sounds like a fine meal in the making Kirk. Squirrel meat is my absoulte, hands down favorite. Enjoy. :)

[Foreveryoung001]

I've taken my son and daughter out a few times since mid september, and we've only come away with a few, but saw a lot of turkeys which got me excited for the turkey season. Went out after turkey's yesterday, and I must have seen at least a dozen nice squirrels, but no turkeys. I really think the turkeys and the squirrels are in it together. As soon as I can prove the conspiracy, I'm going public.

[Randy Kidd]

Squirrel pot pie..Yuuuuuummm

[Wizard3686]

congrats on the bushy tails i been out for a while now and i have yet to find any any tips on what i should do or what i should look for

[john warren]

way to go... keep working on them bucked toothed evil ones.ive broken the 20 line on them so far this year. its been tuff hunting with all the leaves still up. but im determined do keep the toothy hoard of the forest in check.

my 3 year old grand daughter has fallen in love with pappa's squirrel meat too,,, i can hardly get a plate full when that girls around.

last night she was chowing down on my venison dinner,,, im going to need to hunt more if this keeps up.

[Linda G.]

At this time of the year, with small game and turkey tag in my pocket, I travel with everything in the truck-literally a small sporting goods shop. I have my .22 rifle, my 20 gauge, and my 12 all in the truck. That way, if I see squirrels, I'm prepared. If I see good bird cover, I'm prepared. If I see turkeys, I'm prepared.

I love this time of the year. I should be out there right now... :(

Anyway, up here, with the very abnormally warm weather, we've seen very few squirrels as yet. We have 5-6 different squirrel hunting areas, and keep a very close eye on all of them-we being myself and 3-4 buddies, and we all keep close tabs.

Anyway, at the beginning of the season, there were very few squirrels in any of our areas. Just too much food and too much warm weather. There would be a few right after dawn for an hour or so, the rest of the day you'd be lucky to see any at all. Same situation for turkeys and deer.

A real bummer, because I had 2 brand new hunters, 12 years old, out with me several different times, and we came up empty-handed every time out. Couldn't get either of them out right at dawn...

But food sources are narrowing now, squirrels are moving into our areas from all over (squirrels are migratory within a 10 or so mile area, lots of people never realize that, but watch some squirrels you see on the road sometime, you'll see they make a fairly straight line, and can cover a lot of ground fairly quickly), and the weather is cooling.

All of our areas are public land, and have already seen a number of hunters, yet last night I saw more squirrels in one of those areas than I've seen all season. I was waiting for a young man and his dad to join me, by the time they did, it was almost too dark to see, and with a new hunter's hesitancy, we once again came up empty handed. But that will change our next time out. Hopefully, next Monday, I've got commitments all weekend.

I have whacked a few this season, to my surprise, I killed a female fox squirrel last week that looked like she had JUST weaned some kits...nipples still very present, just starting to recede. Several black and gray squirrels we've taken were obviously just babies.

Now, if these were the results of a second or third litter, I would think the woods would be crawling with squirrels of a variety of sizes. Yet all we've seen so far have been a couple of adults (definite sex organs present) and a couple of very young squirrels, probably not more than 3-4 weeks old.

So, up here at least, it looks like the squirrels had a very late mating season, very strange considering how perfect the weather was all summer-perhaps it was TOO warm?

I've noticed that a lot of our hen turkeys up here just up and quit all nesting attempts altogether in mid-June this year without so much as hatching an egg...biologists told me that the temps were just too warm, the hormones departed from their bodies. A real phenomenon in northern Michigan, I've never seen anything like this happen before, and neither had any of the biologists I've been talking to. Not in Michigan, at least. I've seen this in Tennessee.

From reports, I think the grouse may have done the same thing.

It's been a very strange year, that's for sure. But if the temps ever drop-it's 60 degrees up here right now, at 8 in the morning, we should see some really good hunting, if it doesn't get too cold too fast.

No sign of any woodcock flights, either, up here, although I think the locals have moved on-reports from the UP indicate they haven't seen any flights up there yet, either. Very strange...

On another squirrel note, tho, I found the perfect place to hunt squirrels when in the Detroit metro area last Monday...suburban cemetaries... :corkysm55


Just kidding...but I couldn't believe my eyes, I must have seen a hundred or more in half an hour.

There were great big fox squirrels everywhere....

[unclecbass]

Are you sure those wernt rats? If you want to shoot a good number of squirils just dress up in camo and pretend like you are trying to bow hunt. You will see plenty of squirls.

[bucknduck]

Went out squirrel hunting for the first time last weekend and within the first half hour I had 2 in the bag and both taken within 10 mins of each other. squirrel pot pie huh? Sounds good.

[bigbite]

I've been out five times this year and haven't seen a single one.... they have all moved to the cities. :dizzy: ... Any help on finding some squirrel's will be of great help...

pm me.... if you don't want to post... thanks..

[Linda G.]

We USED to hunt in your neck of the woods, on private land along the oak ridges near the river...there were always lots of squirrels in there. But then the landowner told us we couldn't hunt there anymore, because we were "disturbing" the deer his buddies were bowhunting. Even though we never saw any trucks or anyone at all whenever we were in there-when we knew someone else WAS in there, we'd go somewhere else.

We do wear camo, and only as much orange as the law demands. I'm sure that you are seeing lots of squirrels now, they've been moving for the last week or so in a big way...but it's still slow. We consider good squirrel hunting seeing a minimum of at least 8-9 DIFFERENT squirrels in an hour of walking, not the same squirrel over and over viewed from the same spot.

Get us permission to help us with your squirrel problem...we'll share the meat with you, and will be sure not to "disturb" the deer... ;)

[Hunter333]

What is the best way to get the maximum amount of meat from a squirrel? Cook the whole thing then pick the meat off for stew, BBQ or whatever?