{"id":2684,"date":"2019-03-07T12:30:13","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T19:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregg57.sg-host.com\/hunting\/?p=2684"},"modified":"2019-02-01T16:28:47","modified_gmt":"2019-02-01T23:28:47","slug":"overnight-squirrel-hunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/hunting\/2019\/03\/overnight-squirrel-hunt\/","title":{"rendered":"Overnight Squirrel Hunt!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I did a lot of squirrel hunting last season and plan to do so again when the winter finally fades away: getting in both all-day hunts as well as the shorter outings before and after work. But with a few open days in front of me, I decided to get out on an overnight trip. The plan was to drive up early in the morning, hike in and dump my camping gear, then move onwards for some shooting. I reckoned that if I stayed out until the following afternoon, I should get three or four good hunts in different areas of the property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would be camping on a 200-acre parcel of land owned by a\nfriend, that contained several stands of mast producing trees; some up in the\nhills bordering ridgelines, some down in the bottoms along the creek, and some\nbordering the crop fields that surround his place on three sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Geared up to hunt and camp, I make my way way into the woods.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Unlike my overnight trips later in the year, these early fall\nhunts don\u2019t require as much gear, and what is packed tends to be lighter\nweight. I found a level area tucked away in the trees during a preseason hike,\nwhere I thought it would be nice to hang my hammock and set up a base camp.\nFrom this campsite, it would be easy to strike out for hunting areas anywhere\non the property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The gun packed for this trip was the Brocock Bantam in .22\ncaliber. If you follow my writing or videos you will know that I am a big fan\nof the Compatto, and the Bantam is the bottle up-front version of this\nsemi-bullpup. That bottle means more shots, and with a couple of days squirrel\nlimits along with the possibility to bag some rabbits and crows, the additional\nshots could mean the difference between continuous hunting and running dry!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My core gear, the Bantam, binoculars, range finder, shooting sticks and extra pellets.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The camping gear was based around my ultralight kit: a\nhammock with tarp, lightweight 50 degree sleeping bag (I could sleep in my down\nvest if it got cold), headlamp, lantern, dry fuel camp stove, and food stores.\nI thought that some articles of hunting gear such as a closed cell foam seat,\nshooting sticks, and camo poncho could perform double duty for both hunting and\ncampsite tasks. I also had a couple of new audio books downloaded on my phone,\nas I take great pleasure in listening as I drift off to sleep in my hammock at\nnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A hammock and tarp go up fast, is comfortable, and provides excellent shelter. Fixing a cup of soup before heading back out.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The weather during the 5 am drive out was cloudy, with an on\nagain\/off again rain, and on the cool side but not cold. It took about two\nhours of country back roads to reach my destination, and by the time I\u2019d arrived\nthe rain had abated. After parking the car, I staged my gear and ran through it\nto make sure nothing was forgotten, then shouldered my pack and rifle and hit\nthe trail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The clothing selected for the trip warrants some mention; I\ndressed in lightweight synthetic backpacking oriented outerwear worn over super\nthin 32-degree thermal underwear (tops and bottom). I had a synthetic fleece\npullover and a windbreaker shell packed, and knew from experience this would\nkeep me warm enough even in freezing conditions. I also stashed a down vest,\njust in case conditions really broke down. None of this clothing is camouflage,\nbut a set of thin camo coveralls presented me with various layering options,\nproviding a great deal of flexibility with minimal weight. Another advantage\nwas that if I got soaked in the rain, these cloths were still effective in\nretaining heat, and dried out quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Working my way through the woods, the Bantams\u2019 compact dimensions made it a pleasure to carry. The squirrels were active and I found using natural rest made the quick shots easier.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The leaves were starting to come off the trees, though there\nwas still substantial cover in the canopy, and a lot of ground cover to trip\nthrough. As I hiked in, the presence of squirrels became obvious. I could hear\ncutting from above, or see the shavings from gnawed nuts raining down, with the\noccasional plop of a walnut or hazelnut hitting the forest floor. Nuts were\nlittering the ground waiting to be stashed away for later in the winter. It\ntook me about a half hour to reach my spot, and I quickly slipped out of my\npack and geared up to hunt. Leaving my pack and most of the gear behind, I\ngrabbed shooting sticks, binos, and range finder and slipped back to a stand of\ntrees about two hundred yards away. On the way in, I\u2019d spotted a lot of\nsquirrel sign and seen a couple bushytails moving through the canopy in the\nearly morning haze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Both unopened nuts and gnawed shells falling out of the trees is the signal to sit, shut up, and search.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Settling in, it was only a matter of minutes when the first\nsquirrel, a big orange fox squirrel, came in my direction moving through the\ntrees. He hung up at about 50 yards, moving up and down a large oak that appeared\nto be a den tree. Finally, he stopped on the side of the trunk, hanging upside\ndown and looked at me. I had the Bantam up on the heavy Primos Pole Cat\nshooting sticks, and lined up the shot. On the muffled bark of the gun, the\nsound substantially reduced by the affixed Huget suppressor, I watched my first\nsquirrel drop. I noticed a second squirrel moving through the trees a couple\nhundred feet away, and after marking the spot where the dead squirrel laid,\nstarted off in pursuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Staying behind a few larger tree trunks as I made my\napproach, I heard a warning bark and was surprised to see that the squirrel was\noff to my side 30 yards away watching me. Slowly stepping up to a big Shaggy\nOak, I brought the rifle up and leaned it against the trunk for a rest, then\nlined up the shot and let the Exact Jumbo RS 13.4 grain pellet fly. With a\nthwack, the arboreal rodent sprang up then dropped to the ground. After another\nhour of hunting I had two squirrels in the bag, a third had dropped into a\nthicket and I couldn\u2019t recover it, though I spent a half hour trying. I finally\ndecided to take a break as I was halfway to my daily limit and it was only\nmid-morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I find a game carrier that is made for bird hunters, works very well for small mammals as well.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After setting up camp and making myself a cup of soup, I\nspent a couple of hours without my rifle scouting the entire property, and then\nlounged about. I dozed on and off whilst listening to my book, then around\n2:00, loaded my hunting pack and rifle and started off with the objective of\nrounding out my limit. I saw a gray and another fox squirrel, but didn\u2019t have a\ngood shot opportunity, so decided to hike back to the car so that I could\nprocess the squirrels and put them on ice. I am collecting meat for an acquaintance\nthat is a serious chef, and wants to experiment with all types of game. I\u2019d\nagreed to supply the larder, and to be honest what I really wanted the most\nwere the tails to use for fly tying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The tails from these fox squirrels are a main ingredient in my crayfish flies, and I always need more!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Getting this chore out of the way, I reached camp as the sun was starting to set. I boiled some water and made a cup of raman noodles, cut up some hard salami and cheese, and after a simple but filling meal climbed into my sleeping bag and drifted off. During the night, I woke to the sound of an explosion, finding myself in the middle of a downpour, with lightning and thunder going off all around me. I only slept sporadically the rest of the night, and by morning the rain was threatening to get worse. Staying under my hammocks tarp I fired up the stove and boiled water for a bowl of oatmeal and cup of coffee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considering the options, I decided to call it a trip, and\nafter eating loaded up my pack for the hike out. What had taken me 35 minutes\nto reach the day before, now took twice as long as I tried to avoid streams,\npools of muddy water, and trees that had fallen over in the night. Some of these\ntrees were quite large, and I was happy that I\u2019d given a close inspection to my\ncampsite before settling in!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A 6 shot forty yard group from the Bantam off sticks, a fine little small game gun, witch accuracy, power, and shot count.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So, in the end I had a great morning hunt, a relaxing lay\nabout in the afternoon, and an adventurous night, and a soggy hike the next\nmorning! The Brocock Bantam had done a great job for me, and proven itself\nevery bit the capable hunting gun I\u2019d expected it to be, based on its\nstablemate the Compatto. It\u2019s a funny thing: I was in Africa a couple of months\nago, I will be out for big game in several states this season, but I am sure\nthis is a hunt that will stand out in my memory. It isn\u2019t the type of game you\nhunt or the gun you use by themselves that that establishes the quality of a hunt,\nit\u2019s the total experience. And I\u2019ll tell you right now, this short local trip\nwas an experience!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I did a lot of squirrel hunting last season and plan to do so again when the winter finally fades away: getting in both all-day hunts as well as the shorter outings before and after work. But with a few open days in front of me, I decided to get out on an overnight trip. … Continue reading »<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[103,182,70,150,122,79,7,52,121,1],"tags":[204,202,203,4],"class_list":["post-2684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-airguns-of-arizona","category-bantam","category-brocock","category-camping-with-airgun","category-compact-guns","category-offhand-shooting","category-smallgamehunting","category-squirrels","category-stealth-hunting","category-uncategorized","tag-adventures-in-hunting","tag-hunting-camp","tag-overnight-squirrel-hunt","tag-squirrel-hunting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/hunting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/hunting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/hunting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/hunting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/hunting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2684"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/hunting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2695,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/hunting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2684\/revisions\/2695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/hunting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/hunting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.airgunsofarizona.com\/hunting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}