I spent a few hours yesterday afternoon slipping through the woods with my .22 cal. FX 2000 in pursuit of Mr. Tassel Ear. I had never hunted this area before, but as I was 4 wheeling into the area I liked what I saw. There were a lot of mature 80 to 100 foot tall Ponderosa Pines. I have found that these trees are a favorite of the Abert's squirrels.
The crowns of these trees are loaded with pine cones. Said pine cones are the favorite food of Mr. Tassel Ear. As I was digging out my gear I marveled at the pure beauty of a Fall day in the woods. There was almost no wind, the temperature was in the mid sixties, the sun was bright, the sky was clear, and the air was pure and sweet as always. Nothing but beautiful forest for as far as the eye could see, which in this case, was maybe 300 yards. LOL.
After getting my hunting gear sorted out, I locked my vehicle and headed out south east. This put the sun at my back. It makes it easier to spot movement in the tree tops when the sun isn't in my eyes. I find that the squirrels like to spend time in the crown's of the Ponderosa's, leisurely feeding on the pine cones. While in pursuit of the seeds the cones hold, a squirrel can field strip a pine cone with amazing skill and speed.
Once finished, they drop the spent cone to the forest floor. When scouting an area for squirrel hunting, these spent cones on the forest floor are what I'm searching for. The area I hunted in yesterday was loaded with them.
I was slowly hunting along, when out of the corner of my eye, I spotted motion in a pine off to my left. It turned out that the motion was caused by a chipmunk dashing up the trunk of the tree. As I was watching it, I spotted a flash of white in the crown of the same tree. Sure enough, 80 or 90 feet up in the crown of the tree there was an Abert's squirrel moving from limb to limb. The underside of these squirrels is white.
LET THE GAMES BEGIN. I could see occasional movement up there, but with all the limbs and pine needles, I couldn't really get a clear shot. I tried slowly moving to different places around the tree, but to no avail. I finally decided to back off about 50 yards and bide my time. I put my back up against a nice big pine and just waited. There were times that the only way I knew he was still there was because I could see the branches moving, but I couldn't actually see the squirrel.
He finally started working his way over to my side of the tree. I started carefully watching his movements through my binoculars. He finally popped out on a branch that gave me a decent shot, providing I could slip the pellet through a few small branches and pine needles. I got the shot lined up, I'm 50 yards away and he's about 80 feet up in the tree so I held a bit low. When the shot broke, I heard the pellet hit the branch he was sitting on. He was instantly gone. I HATE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS. LOL.
LET THE GAMES BEGIN (AGAIN). I tracked him with my binos for another ten minutes before I had a chance at another shot. This time he was in the clear and looking right at me. I put a Kodiak dead center in his chest. Down he came with the usual sounds a stone dead squirrel makes while falling 80 feet through the branches and twigs. He landed with that satisfying THUMP that indicates the journey has ended.
I got two more squirrels in the next hour, but one of them, after dropping about 30 feet, hung in the crotch of a branch. I hit him once more with a Kodiak in the hopes of jarring him loose, but no luck.
The next one was sitting on a stump at 53 yards field stripping a pine cone. I hit him through the heart lung area, and much to my surprise, he just folded in place. Not even a twitch. A lot of times, with heart lung shots, I expect to see quite a bit of flipping and flopping. Not this time though. This guy was definitely Bubba. He was one heavy, healthy squirrel.
The shadows were getting long, and the air was starting to get a little cool, so I took a picture, picked up my prize and started the hike back to my rig. It was an end to an absolutely perfect day in the piney woods Daniel Boonin' for squirrels.
Here are some pics from the days hunt.
