Autumn

Autumn

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Squirrel Hunting - From My Garage

It's still early for squirrel hunting but I have the itch. As a teen I loved to rise before the light of day and sneak into the deep oaks and ease near the creek bottom. I'd find an old oak and snuggle my back to a hollow of its roots and wait, content.

Within a half hour the routine of the deep woods returned. I'd sit and take in the deep musty odor of acorn mast and pine sap, the song of birds, and the whisper of the gentle Autumn wind. Always they came, the squirrels. Wild tasty bundles to be returned to a bed of my mother's gravy and biscuits.

But, times have changed. Now I hunt from my garage.


My home is covered by trees; live oaks, hickory and two very large pines. Of course my neighbors have trees too. This is important, because they supply the squirrels. Love my neighbors.

It all began by accident. One late Fall afternoon I was sitting in my garage taking a break from some silly labor, enjoying a cigar when movement in my neighbor's tree caught my attention. This tree is large, huge, its limbs if cut and planted would make a fine tree too. Six or seven grays were fighting. They ran this way and that and I said to myself, "Self, get your rifle."


My squirrel rifle is a Marlin model 39 Golden, a .22. Its deadly accurate. (I can hear the screams of the liberals and girly boys, oh my God, he's shooting from his garage in the city) deal with it. Anyway, I walked to my reloading bench and grabbed a box of .22 short CB caps.  I settled back in my chair and waited.

I am careful, I limit my shots to certain zones of the tree. I keep in mind the background and hold my shots to a thirty foot section of the trunk of the oak. Oak is hard. CB Caps are weak. At sixty feet they will cleanly kill a squirrel and I seldom if ever take a shot at that range. Usually the kill zone is twenty feet. I hang the tails. I suppose one could say Ragnar Benson has colored my life with his writings. I'm a bad boy...

My Marlin's magazine tube will hold twenty five to thirty rounds of the little .22 CB's. I seldom need that many  to fill a my needs. In an afternoon or morning of 'hunting' I can take five or six squirrels. Keep in mind these are city squirrels, these critters wear clogs and drink bird bath water; wussies.

You ask, aren't you afraid of the rifle's report....no, for the first few days of my fun, Sweet Wife had no idea I'd been shooting local squirrels from my garage. Our garage is adjacent to our home's family room; one thin wall, and she didn't hear a single pop. The sound is almost completely contained within the garage. I shoot and wait. I allow the citified victim to rest under the tree while I wait for their friends to join them. When I've taken as many shots as I feel has sufficiently thinned the herd, I then gather and clean my harvest. Nothing is wasted.


After cleaning, throw these little beauties in a pan of bacon fat and fry. Take them out and make gravy, return the squirrels and simmer. Serve over rice or pasta. Then, run out and slap 'ya mamma for feeding you so poorly all your life.

Try it, but don't tell them it was me that got you into trouble.  Hey, obey the game laws of your state, and wait until Fall, after all, we'd civilized.


When you get your first kill, take it and have a nice mount made for the wife. She'll love you for it.


Stephen

20 comments:

  1. I have not squirrel hunted or even eaten squirrel in a very long time. I might need to get down to the creek this fall and bring a mess home.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MDR, it is fun, and fine chow. Thanks for the comment.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh I so wish I could shoot the little @%$#%# squirrels around my house, it's a constant fight to keep them out of the attic.

    Unfortunately we live in town.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love city squirrels. They are usually fat due to all the Pecans they eat (in my trees anyway) and seem more plentiful than in the woods. I have tons of them. Maybe it's time to load up my 22.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Odysseus, I don't see the problem...I live in a very large city, as does my friend, Duke. We shoot, have at it. Just remember, use the correct ammo (read the post once again) and be careful. Enjoy and thank you.

    Duke, load 'em up. It sure makes for a nice and quiet afternoon or morning..cup of coffee, cigar, gunpowder...ah, heaven.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Is that an Enfield MK. IV no.1 that squirrel is brandishing?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Arsenius, squirrels have class too. How's the squirrel hunting up in your neck of the woods?

    ReplyDelete
  8. UGH! Stephen - you will die to know that i feed our squirrels! we live in the middle of nowhere and only have a few squirrels that don't bother us at all, don't go in our attic, are fun games for our cats, and are just all-around cute! i love those squirrels! and feed them $7 bag of peanuts over the course of a week!

    now, in the event of SHTF and there was no food available, i'd shoot 'em, skin 'em and turn them into stew in just a few hours.

    but i don't need to do that right now. and they are really, really cute. and fun to watch.

    yes, i am a girl. so there!

    your friend,
    stassja

    ReplyDelete
  9. Stassja, peanut feed squirrel should be real tasty. I'll keep that in mind. Bang.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I think I live on the only plot of land in Missouri that doesn't have a squirrel on it. I am surrounded by hay, corn, soybean fields and the real woodline is so far away they never venture out this far. I have some hickory, pin oaks and walnuts planted but they have not reached enough growth to attract any tree rats yet.

    A Golden is a damned fine 22 rifle as well. I think we are raffling one off at my gun club this month as a matter of fact.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Don't have too much trouble with squirrels here. The live trap seems to be working quite well for the rabbit problem. All of them have quietly flunked their diving lessons so far. The city is really particular about projectile weapons - not worth the possible consequences.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hmmm.... that's a funny looking Marlin. :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. PioneerPreppy, That's a shame the squirrels don't hang around your home...try bait. I agree, and believe the Marlin Md. 39 Golden is the finest .22 caliber rifle ever manufactured. Period. Thanks.

    Mudbug, got rabbits?

    Mrs. S., our city too is funny about discharging weapons within our city limits...but, I'm a bad boy, and just don't care...if the government tells me not to do jump up and down, guess what...thank you for your kind comment.

    Tango Juliet, yes that is a funny looking Marlin, isn't it...just a file photo from Google. I really do need to snap one of mine, but all I use is my Blackberry and it isn't the best for pictures..it'll do I suppose. Thank you for dropping by. Checked you out yesterday. Hey, hit my blue button and I'll do the same. Links too.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Got cottontail and jack rabbits. Wife OKed me to shoot them. She won't eat them. Yet.....

    ReplyDelete
  15. That's great. Pecan fed squirrel is pretty tasty.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Mudbug, get a few cottontails and make a quick stew. Sneak it in her bowl, tell her it's 'chicken' and I bet she'll eat it....sooner or later she made not have a choice. Thanks...you're a good friend.

    45er, dadgum straight squirrel taste good...corn, pecan, or acorn fed. Thanks. You too are a good friend.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Well, thanks for sayings so. I sure have enjoyed all of the people I've talked to since I started blogging. What a great bunch of people.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Do you cut the legs off the squirrels? If you do-good for you! My grandfather (I also called him Papa) would take me everywhere with him..like your Little Bit, I wanted to know and demanded to know. I didn't help him kill the squirrels, but when he had it cooking in the gravy and smelling quite delicious, I made the mistake of looking in the skillet! Boy, was I mad! Papa why did you kill them squirrels, can't you see they were praying! Tears later, he promised me he would cut the legs from then on. Oh and the killing he explained to me was because they needed thinning out, I accepted that fact after he took me to the A&W Rootbeer stand right down the road from his house in the city! Remind me later, I tell you how he got me to eat Froglegs after going frog-gigging and gopher stew--after catching a number of them in the hills of west Fl one summer! Feel like I just wrote a book, sorry! That man was born in 1911 and his mother taught him to cook, hunt and help take care of 9 other children. The stuff they ate, the older 3 boys took turns bringing in the meat for the table. He was a youngun but its what they had to do, and they ate good! They also worked very hard!

    ReplyDelete
  19. TeresaK, Yes, I cut the legs from the squirrels, but having said that, I quarter them. Nice memory you gave us of your grandfather and you. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete