Made the long walk in towards one of my favorite squirrel spots. The air was still and thick as i have ever seen and figured low clouds would keep the squirrels active until late in the morning. Picked up squirrel 1 on a tree no more that 5 ft in front of me. If i had synchronized it perfectly i could have caught him in my squirrel bag. Picked up squirrels 2, 3 and 4 from the same small hickory in open woods. glanced at the clock and it read 640.Crossed the fence and picked up squirrel 5 off the "halloween oak", an old twisted oak that looks like something from the yard of a haunted house. It is a tree that i have a lot of history with and rewarded yet again. Squirrel 6 fell to a long shot that i corrected after an errant first try. Had a small gray cross the logging road in front of me, but i passed on the free hand shot and he disappeared into thin air by the time a solid anchor was found. Glanced down at my time piece and was pleased that it was only 7:05, on my way to an easy early limit. NOT. Someone turned the switch off. Over a half mile of squirreless forest fell before me. I crossed out of the big block, transversed a small interior hay field and found the block of woods i have sought when this hunt began. The woods were unusually quiet. I was thrilled to anchor a small gray, squirrel 7, traveling down the edge of a soybean, and blew a shot opportunity at another because of a poorly selected rest tree that lacked the bulk to facilitate a solid shot. Found my way to ancient hickories that lay at the bottom. They were all barren. Judging by the ground, too much rainfall ad standing water had prevented them from bearing mast. I have noticed over the years that dry years present the best hunting in this lowland oasis. I finally heard distant barking and caught up with squirrel 8, a huge fox, that came tumbling from a big read oak. Decided rather that head back and i would go all in and head down a long narrow strip of hardwoods that sided 2 pasture fields. Picked up half of a pair of grays for 9, although the foliage stopped my bullet from its mark on the second. Started to back out when loud cutting set me up for a too close for comfort shot on a young gray snacking on acorns in huge oak on the western edge of the neck. He fell to the field age at exactly 825. On the way out i picked up a few of the pignuts that made on the upper edge of the woodlot. Most years nuts twice this large would line this block from top to bottom, but this year only trees at higher elevation seemed to produce. Looks like i may have to venture a bit deeper for my next hunt in this block. As i walked out i check my pedometer read 3.7 miles. Sorry for the bloody squirrel pictures. i used my squirrel bag, a contraption my mom made me from left over fabric. it is great for long hunts but the draw back is that squirrel bleed on each other in the bag. I put a few of the pig nuts in the picture, although they paled in comparison to what the ol fox squirrel was toting, lol (sorry ruger, don't ban me). 9 grays and 1 fox. 6 females and 4 males. 5 traveler, 4 cutters and a 1 barker. 10 for 12 with 2 clean misses
