I just thought I'd mention that if walk and stalk isn't working well for squirrels, that you might want to try changing tactics, setting up a stand and taking long shots.
I'm mostly into plinking and pesting but I do do a bit of squirrel hunting to collect some tails for fly tying and some meat for the pot. I live on 10 acres in a rural area that has a couple of acres of mixed hardwoods with a lot of nut trees (beech, hickory, oak, walnut) and a good population of squirrels.
Before the leaves were down I bagged a couple of braces of squirrels (I have a self imposed 2 per day limit) while out stalking. Since the leaves have fallen the surviving squirrels have wised up become much more difficult to approach requiring me to change tactics. Instead of skulking through the woods looking to setup a 20-30 yard off hand shot with my FX Crown I set a chair in a relatively open area and used my Panthera to take shots out to 60-80 yards.
It's been working well for me. I've reached my harvest limit (18 squirrels - again, self imposed) for this year so I've put aside the long range PCPs in favor of the 10 meter airguns that I shoot over the long Canadian winter.
For those who live in warmer areas, you might want to give this a go. It's not a usual tactic for tree squirrels but it does work.
Cheers!
Hank
For those who look at the picture and wonder about the color of the squirrel tails, here where I live (Ontario, Canada) we have Eastern Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis). Locally the population is mostly the black phase (Melanistic), some (10%) gray phase with the occasional white (Leucistic, not albino) squirrels.
I'm mostly into plinking and pesting but I do do a bit of squirrel hunting to collect some tails for fly tying and some meat for the pot. I live on 10 acres in a rural area that has a couple of acres of mixed hardwoods with a lot of nut trees (beech, hickory, oak, walnut) and a good population of squirrels.
Before the leaves were down I bagged a couple of braces of squirrels (I have a self imposed 2 per day limit) while out stalking. Since the leaves have fallen the surviving squirrels have wised up become much more difficult to approach requiring me to change tactics. Instead of skulking through the woods looking to setup a 20-30 yard off hand shot with my FX Crown I set a chair in a relatively open area and used my Panthera to take shots out to 60-80 yards.
It's been working well for me. I've reached my harvest limit (18 squirrels - again, self imposed) for this year so I've put aside the long range PCPs in favor of the 10 meter airguns that I shoot over the long Canadian winter.
For those who live in warmer areas, you might want to give this a go. It's not a usual tactic for tree squirrels but it does work.
Cheers!
Hank
For those who look at the picture and wonder about the color of the squirrel tails, here where I live (Ontario, Canada) we have Eastern Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis). Locally the population is mostly the black phase (Melanistic), some (10%) gray phase with the occasional white (Leucistic, not albino) squirrels.
