No Lease, No Problem: Why Squirrel Hunting Is the Ultimate DIY Hunt

I’ve been a squirrel hunter for most of my life. In some parts of the country hunters think that is an odd statement, they didn’t grow up hunting squirrels and it’s not part of their hunting culture. But in my part of the world, the southern Appalachian Mountains, there was a time when nearly every young sportsman’s hunting career began with squirrels. The squirrel woods are where we learned how to be a hunter, it’s where we learned all of the basic woodsmanship skills needed to hunt everything from bushytails to greater kudu. Even if you have taken your share of big bucks and maybe even a kudu, but don’t know the pleasure of traipsing the woods with a light .22 in search of squirrels, the good news is it isn’t too late. And if you are looking for your first hunt, a squirrel hunt is a perfect way to start.

Squirrel hunting was made for new and first-time hunters. You can hunt them almost everywhere; any forested area is likely to hold squirrels. East of the Mississippi there is an estimated 384 million acers of woodland, a lot of this is on public land like national forest and state wildlife management areas. As for private land, many times landowners will give you permission to squirrel hunt when they might be reluctant to do so for deer or turkeys. Expensive leases are not required to be a squirrel hunter.

The Woodland Classroom

If you are a new hunter or just new to squirrel hunting, think of the forest as your classroom. You are going to learn a lot here and have a lot of fun doing it! So, what might be some of the basic skills you will learn to be successful on squirrels and other critters?

The basic premise of just sitting still is ground zero for hunting squirrels and many other game. Sitting quietly and observing your surroundings without being seen or heard is the first thing squirrels teach us.

In good squirrel territory sometimes, this is all you need to do. If there is available food, and you have seen squirrels in the area before, try to move in quietly and find a place to sit and observe. Many hunters will not move even when they have fired the first shot, especially if they are using a .22 rifle. Make sure the squirrel is down, remember the location and continue your quiet sit. It won’t take long before other squirrels will begin to stir, even after the shot.

The second chapter in the sitting still lesson is patience. All hunters must learn patience when watching for game. In observing other hunters over many years, I have seen the full gamut on this. Some hunters have it from the start and seem content to sit and watch for long periods—no problem. For others they must learn to sit without fidgeting, moving and making noise.

Make no mistake, if you move too much or crunch leaves in excess you will not see many squirrels; at least not in range. This is as good a time as any to mention you will be hunting wild squirrels not the ones you see in the park, used to people and begging for peanuts. Wild squirrels are a target for most any predator in the woods including hawks, owls, bobcats, coyotes, foxes and others. They are all trying to have squirrel for dinner. So, squirrels have learned to be cautious in nature.

The squirrel lives by his wits, speed and agility, and he is a master at detecting motion and sound. Every bow hunter in the eastern United States has been harassed by squirrels while sitting in a tree stand and believes they can kill a sack full of squirrels any day of the week. Do I need to say it all changes when you are actually hunting squirrels and not deer?

The next skill you will learn is how to move quietly through the woods. Still hunting, or spot and stalk as some call it, is just a fun way to hunt squirrels. If you get tired of sitting and need to move to a new area, this is what you do.

First, slow down! Pick a spot, a tree or other destination within 75 yards or so and see how slowly and carefully you can get there. In some areas of the South this is called “slip” hunting as you are trying to “slip up on” the squirrel. Most of time the conditions will be dry, crunchy leaves that will test your ninja skills to the max.

That is part of the fun. You will quickly learn to slow down your steps and movements. In dry conditions the trick to reducing noise is focusing on each individual step. As you extend your foot for the next step, slowly, ever so slowly push down and compress the dry leaves until you reach firm footing. If you feel a stick under your foot, let off the pressure and try to push it to the side. Lightweight boots help with this; some serious hunters have been known to remove boots and stalk the last several yards in stocking feet.

Besides all the stalking and tactics skills, squirrels will teach you other basics that every hunter should know. Learning to find and recognize the food that game needs is essential to any hunter. If you think about it, much of what a wild animal does every day is walk around and look for something to eat. This goes for deer, bear, turkeys and squirrels. Squirrels will establish a home range, especially if it is centered around a good den tree, usually an older, large tree that has hollow places that squirrels can get into. This is the bomb proof shelter squirrels will run to when all else fails and may be the sleeping quarters during bad weather.

Squirrels will stay in this area if there is food, but remember, if the food runs out, the squirrels will leave. During times of widespread mast failure, huge migrations of squirrels have been noted involving hundreds if not thousands of squirrels. It can be anything from such a large scale to squirrels in a local area moving a short distance to find food. The point is if there aren’t any groceries in the area, they will change their zip code.

In my neck of the woods, the squirrel’s diet is mostly oak and hickory based. There are lots of other foods they may take advantage of like maple seeds, dogwood, walnuts and others, but acorns from the various species of oak trees are what gets most of our game through the winter. This goes for squirrels as well as deer, bear and turkeys. Find the food and you will find the game. In the early fall squirrels will usually concentrate on hickory nuts and ultimately clean them out in the early season. They will then quickly move on to any available acorns and, like deer, they prefer white oak acorns before moving on to other, more bitter tasting acorns like those of the red oaks. Learning to identify these trees and any other available food sources will boost your success as a squirrel hunter tremendously.

No Special Gear Required

If you have a .22 rifle or a shotgun and a pair of boots, you are ready to go squirrel hunting. Camo clothing may help but is not absolutely necessary, wear your old jeans and a sweatshirt. If you have a turkey vest, they are a great way to carry squirrels and whatever gear you chose to take plus they supply a seat cushion. A small game or bird vest is also handy.

Any .22 rifle that you can shoot accurately out to 50 yards will do as well as most any shotgun. And you don’t necessarily need a 12-gauge shotgun with 3-inch magnum shells. A 20-gauge will do fine or even a .410 for younger hunters.

It’s True, Squirrels are Tasty

Those who have never squirrel hunted may give you funny looks when it comes to talking about cooking and eating squirrels, but it has always been one of my favorite wild game to eat. You can use almost any recipe you might use for chicken or any small game, but to me there is only one way to cook a squirrel, fried. After carefully cleaning and cutting up the squirrel in pieces—front legs, back legs and the back portion—either par boil the pieces or pressure cook them to make sure they are tender.

The pieces are then rolled in seasoned flour and fried golden brown with gravy made in the skillet after you remove the squirrel parts. I know I am partial to this method because this is the way my Mom fixed them. Many old-time squirrel hunters will say there is only one way to serve squirrel and that is with biscuits and gravy. This may be true. If you haven’t tried it (and I feel for you if you haven’t) you will have to find out for yourself!

Just Plain Fun

In case you didn’t know, hunting is supposed to be fun. Some people take it too seriously. But squirrel hunting, without the trophy aspirations common to large game hunting, frees you from obsessing about the size of antlers. Enjoying a day in the woods, roaming at will, taking in all the sights and sounds and smells of the forest has been forgotten by many of us.

How about frequency of opportunities to take game? How many times will you actually pull a trigger or fling an arrow during a typical deer season? Once? Twice? A good day in the squirrel woods may offer many times that, I have never taken anyone on their first squirrel hunt that did not say they had fun.

The woods are there; the squirrels are there. What are you waiting for?

Check out more Larry Case stories at his website www.gunsandcornbread.com.