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Post by joebuck on Oct 8, 2021 12:22:49 GMT -5
Hey, all; Well, i finally got my first squirrel this morning. I know some of you guys and girls have been at this fir a long time, and can remember your first successful hunt, and a squirrel may seem like a small thing, but it's significant to me. I didn't grow up hunting. Long story short, i was raised by a single mom, and although i had some pretty cool uncles, none of them were outdoorsmen; and seeing as how i grew up in the 70's, the outdoors was all me and my brother had. We'd run around "the prairie" as my mom called it, and sort of learned fishing by trial and error.(mostly error.). So now, i'm 51, kinda late to this aspect of outdoorsmanship. My motivation for learning how to hunt is threefold: 1: lets call it what it is - we live in uncertain times, and i wanted to see if i could acquire the tools and skills to feed my family, if need be. 2: i wanted to make the effort to get better acquainted with the food that we eat. Like i said, i fish; taught my daughter how to fish, but 99% of her peers think fish come breaded in stick form. 3: my brother is a chef, like a CHEF chef, so from a culinary perspective i've eaten some pretty interesting things...but i wanted to experiment with squirrel and rabbit. I'll need to get a couple more squirrels before i start cooking (i'm thinking of squirrel carnitas, squirrel rogan ghosh, as well as the classic fried squirrel and brunswick stew). I'll post recipes and reviews in the butcher shop forum! Anyway, thats it for now. Thanks for all the knowledge you've shared with me! This old dog's got some new tricks now! Joebuck
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Post by BOBinIN on Oct 8, 2021 13:36:36 GMT -5
Good for you...now do what I did, get out there, tie the tail to the back of your bike and showoff a bit with a couple laps around the neighborhood. Yep, I did that!
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Post by whitetaildave24 on Oct 8, 2021 13:38:38 GMT -5
Congrats and may that be the first of many more to come. Quite the accomplishment.
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Post by drfleck on Oct 8, 2021 13:52:44 GMT -5
Congratulations JoeBuck! You get a grey or fox?
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Post by joebuck on Oct 8, 2021 14:29:17 GMT -5
It was a grey.
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Post by featherduster on Oct 8, 2021 15:41:37 GMT -5
Did you run it over with a car or did you shoot it?
Details: like what kind of gun, where did you hunt..ect.
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Post by deadeer on Oct 8, 2021 17:53:02 GMT -5
Very much an accomplishment! Especially a grey, they are small, fast, and sneaky. Congrats!
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Post by joebuck on Oct 8, 2021 20:17:02 GMT -5
Lol no roadkill here! Went to lasalle this morning. The east side of the property, right off of u.s. 41, is where the greatest concentration of oak trees are. Got there at roughly 6:45, right before dawn, and posted up under a tree. I went with the Stevens .410 single instead of the Savage .22lr. Kind of a wet, overcast morning. I saw the leaves shaking as the squirrel traversed the canopy towards me. He scurried down the trunk of an oak about 30 feet away; when he paused, i brought the shotgun up, settled the red dot sight on him, and squeezed the trigger. He fell out of the tree and hit the ground with a thud. "Well, that worked." I said to myself as i ejected the spent shell and walked over. I nudged the squirrel with the toe of my boot; he was dead. I picked him up and went back to my seat and hung him by his back foot to the tree while i settled down to see if i could get another. A second squirrel came into the opposite side of the clearing but stayed on the backside of the tree. After 45 mins of waiting, i called it a day (i promised el wifeo i'd be back by 10), i took my only squirrel back to the parking lot to skin and clean him. Kind of screwed up on the skinning part- hey, first time, but i was able to get the job done. I guess i'll get better with practice. I took a picture but i don't know how to post it! Anyway, got him skinned, cleaned and in the freezer. It was actually quite interesting, seeing how the pellets (i was using nobel sport italia 3 inch 7.5 shot) worked; one of them broke the spine, and several went through the heart/lung area. Anyway, that's the story.
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Post by esshup on Oct 9, 2021 0:01:54 GMT -5
Good going! Congrats! May there be many more. Don't worry about the skinning part, they aren't that easy to skin. Fox squirrels are even harder.
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Post by INhuntin on Oct 11, 2021 17:14:33 GMT -5
Congrats on your first!
Yes I do remember my first squirrel. I think I was about 11, my older brother got a Sears & Roebucks single shot 22 short rifle that he ordered from the catalog. We were up by the woods shooting tin cans against a dirt bank. (back then they really were tin) My brother tried to hit a squirrel that was barking at us from a tree branch but missed every time. We would go back to shooting the cans & the squirrel would go to barking at us again. It was my turn to shoot so I ran up to the dirt bank & set the gun on top of the bank then took steady aim. One shot & I saw the squirrel drop out of the tree. We took it home but mom didn't know how to clean it & told us to take it out & burry it. I didn't get to eat it but I'm sure it would have tasted great.
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