Your Squirrel Hunting Techniques

[hogless]

I still hunt them though areas that they are known to be in . Look for areas with multiple nests and work those slowly also if you can find a log with a pile of nuts on it and set up with in bow range several squirrel will use the same log to chew nuts on.I use mostly old arrows for tree shots that way if you don't fine them it's ok

[Terry Lightle]

And Gordons squirrel dog is really handy to find lost wood arrows too.

[7 Lakes]

In my travels I have found a 6 mile stretch of slow flow river that empties into the Pee Dee.  The flow is slow enough to easily paddle back up stream.  

I put in a canoe with plenty of flu-flu's and a few broadheads.  I use a short recurve, 7 Lakes "Sawed Off" and just float quietly through the hardwoods and Long Leaf Pine.  

Spring time means Turkey and the Stripped Bass run. Maybe some Crappie in last years Christmas trees that were sunk.

[7 Lakes]

The easiest method is to make your wife pay for the bird feed.  Bird feed is known throughout the Squirrel kingdom as "Squirrel Food".  After about a year of buying Squirrel Food every 3 days she will come to you for a solution.

Now I like to watch a few squirrels in the back yard but I'm not willing to adopt every woodland creature.  Especially the tastier ones that make such wonderful gravy.

The solution... If they don't come when you call 'em, they ain't pets.  
 

[TxAg]

^^^^ that's the only way I've been successful

[monkeyball]

Some good suggestions here. i have never really just bow hunted for "squirrels". Lots of photos, and a few shots, and even a kill every now and then. The eye really stands out.

 

[monkeyball]

[monkeyball]

[Gordon Jabben]

TxAg is right, Molly is a Boykin Spaniel but many breeds will make good squirrel dogs. James, I do shoot the squirrels up in the trees.  I have a hard time hitting them on the ground like from a treestand.  I try to position myself for the shot so that the arrow will hit in a field or opening should I miss which I do a majority of the time.  Then I send the dog around the tree hoping the squirrel will come around to my side for a shot.

[kill shot]

This topic is cool.I have an old black widow target bow 69" long 41# limbs. This bow is dedicated to small game as I use only flu flu arrows out of it. My big game set up don't shoot flu flu arrows the same as regular arrows. Any how my favorite method is trails and two tracks. Small woodlots are a close second. If it's not too cold I take our "dust mop dog" as he gets crazy when you just say the word "SQUIRREL".

[kill shot]

Also shame on you for starting this topic. I'm pumped but I have to go to work today.

[GreyGoose]

When I was younger I used to like to get the sun behind m, sit still, and position myself to shoot at them in trees.  I lost a lot of arrows that way, including flu-flus.  Now I prefer to get the high ground, after a rain, and try to catch them feeding on the ground.  They're still hard to hit, but at least I get to re-use my ordnance.

[fnshtr]

I said that my preferred method is still-hunting... by that I mean moving, but moving slowly.

I don't know if anyone else will agree with me on this, but... there is a "slowing down" from our normal "rushed" lives that is hard for me to describe. Maybe it compares to an athlete getting "in the zone". Total focus and getting into the "rhythm of nature".

Sort of getting lost to time... clearing the mind completely and "tuning in" to nature.

Whatever it is... I experience it when I "slow down" enough. In that "state" I find squirrels and other game seem to pay less attention to me... like I'm "accepted as part of the scene" somehow.

   

Maybe I'm nuttier than squirrel poop... but this is the way it seems to be for me.

Squirrel hunting lets me practice getting into this "state".

OK... Call me crazy!

Good hunting...

[Krex1010]

Fnshtr....you're not crazy, I feel the same. Quite frankly I don't think there is a better way to practice and hone hunting skills than to go squirrel hunting. You can have a couple deer seasons worth of spot and stalks in one day, and if you can hit a squirrel you can surely say you're ready to shoot at a deer. I picked up squirrel hunting later than most and I'm a better hunter because of it.

[kill shot]

fnshtr, that is the heart of a hunter.

[achigan]

double post

[achigan]

Originally posted by achigan:
I'm just beginning trad hunting, but have have been after tree rats for quite a while. I've hit five, knocked two from the sides of trees with a blunt and a judo, not retrieved, and cut two with broadheads and not retrieved them, and put this one in the bag      If I made my own arrows and points, I might go after them in the tree tops, but it's too pricey to be flinging carbon up into trees. I see plenty of grey and fox squirrels while stand hunting for deer, so that's how I go about hunting them, really slow, letting them come to me mostly.

[achigan]

double post  

[achigan]

??

[hogless]

If the squirrel start barking your moving to fast but if they do bark move on them slowly and watch for them flipping there tails sometimes you can spot them and move into range before they move