He comes by his addiction honestly, having grown up a country boy in the wooded hills between the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers before they were dammed to create Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. Though the famed call maker and big game hunter is known more for his turkey- and deer-hunting exploits, Knight never passes up a squirrel hunt if he can help it. Hence, nothing is guaranteed, and it’s feast or famine for gray and fox squirrels. The multiplier effect of successive generations would decimate the natural food supply, including the mast a forest depends on for regeneration. If given a steady food supply, squirrels and other critters that depended on nuts would flourish to levels that threaten tree propagation. A Heavy Fall Mast Crop Leads to Squirrels Galoreīiologists who study such things tell us that the reason the mast crop is so unpredictable each year is due to the fecundity of the squirrel population. And thanks to seasons that extend into January and February, hunters in several southern and midwestern states can take advantage of cold-weather squirrel hunting. Hunters who use dogs consider late winter and early spring the best time to hunt squirrels because the leaves are off the trees, making the little rodents easier to spot whether they’re moving or not. Winter is a good time to hunt squirrels because there are no leaves on the trees and they are easier to spot. To him, the trees of the forest are extensions of the ground, albeit ones that he can’t cross, but his ears and eyes go where his legs can’t. He pauses occasionally to vacuum scents off the forest floor and periodically scans the terrain ahead.
#Pa squirrel season full#
The dog’s pointed ears alternately come to full attention as he listens and watches, then droop when he is on the move in a series of zigzagging spurts. It’s the treeing part, not a squirrel’s end, that interests him the most. Little Stubby picks up the limp squirrel in his mouth and walks to within a few feet of Coffey, where he drops it unceremoniously on the mat of leaves and returns to minesweeping the forest floor.
Colin Moore Hunting Squirrels in the Winter Harold Knight taking a shot at a squirrel. The rifle cracks and the bushytail tumbles down through the branches. Knight yells out that he sees it and draws a bead. This squirrel’s gray coat plastered against the trunk isn’t easy to spot, but Knight finds it through his scope. The ensuing commotion in the leafless canopy causes the squirrel to scramble upward a few more feet. Little Stubby continues to fidget around the tree as Cochran arrives and begins to shake a grapevine trailing down from the oak.
0 kommentar(er)
