Squirrel

From Fred:

I was in college before I learned that some people attach a stigma to eating squirrels.

I was shocked to find out these people weren’t just PETA vegetarians, they were meat-eating city dwellers. Some of them even fished, and supported the idea of hunting things like deer. But they looked down upon eating squirrels.

I have come to understand that it’s because some city squirrels are practically domestic. They’ve never been hunted. They aren’t afraid of people. They get fed peanuts in the park. They are practically pets.

Not so with country squirrels. Take a leisurely hike in the backwoods, away from state parks and other areas with lots of people, and you probably won’t see any squirrels. If you do see them, they might be 100 yards in front of you, jumping from tree to tree. They are wary, and not particularly easy to hunt. The best method I’ve found is to find a place they are likely to be, and sit down and wait perfectly still for a while. If they don’t hear you, they’ll come out of hiding. This is why I see more squirrels when I’m deer hunting than when I’m squirrel hunting; when I’m deer hunting I have more patience to sit still for longer periods of time.

I grew up with squirrels being the first type of game that someone learned to hunt. Firearms started with toy guns, moving up to a non-lethal but potentially dangerous to eyes Daisy one-cock BB gun, followed by an Crossman Air Rifle that fired either BBs or pellets which could theoretically kill things, then advancing to a .22 caliber rifle, or a single-shot Winchester 20 gauge, either of which could be purchased on a garage sale or auction, possibly with a case and some miscellaneous ammo, for about $60. You were then officially ready to begin pursuing squirrels, your first real hunting.

After a couple years of squirrel hunting, you add rabbits, turkey and eventually deer to the list of prey, but never give up squirrel hunting. The idea of someone starting out hunting by hunting deer with a large caliber rifle seemed absurd. We would call such a person a city hunter, and avoid being within ½ a mile of said person during deer season.

It’s not that deer hunting is harder. The kill zone on a white tail being hit with a heavy center-fire bullet is dramatically larger than the kill zone on a squirrel being hit with a .22. That’s what makes squirrel hunting the logical first step before deer hunting- it is where you learn basic hunting skills and marksmanship. 

I realize this small game to large game progression in hunting is probably no longer the case. I see the faces of the incredibly young hunters in the weekly newspapers after they get their first deer. I wonder how they withstood the noise and recall of sighting in their deer rifles. And I say to these little tykes, “Congratulations on your first deer, but tell me, how many squirrels did you get this year?”