After we had finished, and had a few hours to digest our food, we decided that it was time to take our traditional squirrel hunt. The 4-10 along with BB guns, and a single shot 22 were all brought out and loaded. Once all 15 members of the hunting party were ready, we set out along our trail looking for squirrels as we went.
It was not long before Willow our dog caught our attention with her barks, which generally indicates the presence of a squirrel. We began heading in the direction from which the barks were coming, and soon the furry little tree dweller was seen jumping from tree to tree! Shouts of excitement were heard as everyone followed the animal, who no doubt was very much afraid of all the noise.
All who had guns moved to the front, and the ones without guns stood back and out of the way. Everyone had their eyes on the tree, looking hard, for the squirrel seemed to have disappeared! We looked intently, but no squirrel was in sight. I happened to glance over at a neighboring tree and chanced to see the end of a squirrel’s tail slip behind a branch! I pointed out to the others where the animal lay flat against a limb.
Jonah, who was in possession of the 4-10, with my help was shown where the squirrel was. He was just about to shoot, when some shouts caught our attention. There’s another squirrel, and another! There were three squirrels! Looking around, we saw that two of them were running and jumping from tree to tree! I turned to watch as Jonah took aim at the squirrel closest to us, and fire! Boom went the gun, and the squirrel fell from the tree.
The gun was passed to me as Jonah went to collect his prize. I took a shell from Dad, and after putting the gun on safety, reloaded it. I then, with the gun pointing to the ground, quickly walked ahead to where the other two squirrels continued to run.
One squirrel managed to slip into its nest and being unethical to shoot into the nest after it, we let it be. The other squirrel, however, passed the nest and stopped in the crotch of a tree where it sat motionless. I shifted my orange hat, then carefully took aim and pulled the trigger. Bang went the gun, and down went the squirrel.
We continued walking, and neared the house right as dusk began to settle. It was then that I saw a squirrel run across the trail ahead of me! I called out “squirrel,” and pointed it out to everyone. Once again, the armed members of the group took the lead, and once all the watchers were back and out of the way, they began carefully taking shots at the squirrel. The shots scared two more unseen squirrels into running, making three squirrels altogether running and jumping from tree to tree!
We all split up, each group following a different animal. I saw one of squirrels run down a tree and pointed it out to one of the shooters. Once he was sure that no one was behind, or around the tree, he fired. Boom, boom! Two guns fired near the same time, and two different squirrels fell from the same tree! As the third squirrel scampered off, all of the guns were put on safety, then the squirrels were gathered up and we walked the rest of the trail.
Once we arrived back at the house, the guns were unloaded, and put away. All of the hunting orange was removed and put back in the box.
We gutted, skinned and quartered the squirrels, and put them into the freezer for later. It is fun to go on the big family squirrel hunts, especially when we get four squirrels! I am thankful for the squirrels we did get and am glad that everyone was safe. I am already looking forward to the next time we go on our safe, loud, exciting, crazy, and fun squirrel hunt.
~Samuel
1 comment:
Good Eats!
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