|
BUSHYTAILS - THE RIFLEMAN'S
SPORT
Tree Standing
 Editor’s
Note: To squirrel hunt, one of my favorite hunting sports,
effectively and accurately, I need a good rifle, a quality
scope and also the best binoculars I can buy. I'll only
find the rifle and the scope effective if I can see
the squirrel. Spotting a bushytail lying on the limb
at 60 yards will test even Superman's X-ray vision without
binoculars and a riflescope. However, from 60 to 80
yards with these optics, I can distinguish the difference
between a squirrel's tail swishing or a bird's wings
flapping. I also can determine if a bump on a limb is
a squirrel's head or a knot on the limb. I particularly
enjoy lightweight binoculars that have superior light-gathering
qualities, which many optics companies offer today.
Using quality optics enables me to bag bushytails at
long range.
Most of us don't have too much trouble taking squirrels
in the early part of the year when the animals eat acorns
on the ground or cut nuts up in the leafy hickory nut
trees. However, hunting squirrels becomes tough later
on in the year when the bushytails rarely range far
from their den trees. You'll have a difficult time stalking
then because the squirrels can spot you from about as
far away as you can see them. Here's a different way
to bag bushytails.
A close friend of mine, Dr. Bob Sheppard of Carrollton,
Alabama, a longtime, avid squirrel hunter, learned through
observation that when a squirrel came out of its hole
or nest, it looked for danger on the forest floor and
not up in a tree. Sheppard decided to hunt from a tree
stand. Then the squirrels in the other trees probably
wouldn’t see him. Once he found an area with a
high squirrel concentration, he used his rifle with
its 3-9X scope. Although Sheppard had his rifle sighted
in at 50 yards, he knew he could shoot well up to 80
yards. In a morning of hunting, Sheppard could sit in
his tree stand 12 to 15 feet in the air and bag a limit
of bushytails before 10:00 a.m. Sheppard explains, "These
squirrels never know what hits them. When I shoot a
squirrel, the other squirrels in the area will look
all around but can't decide from where the sound has
come. Then the squirrels will return to the ground and
feed again. All I have to do is mark the spot where
I've taken each squirrel. When I'm finished hunting,
I come down the tree, collect my squirrels, go home
and clean them for supper."
 For
the rifleman, squirrel hunting offers an exciting challenge,
an opportunity to hunt a long season in most states,
a chance to fine tune his shooting skills and a delicious
treat, which makes the rewards of a good shot last even
longer. When you become weary of sitting on a cold deer
stand and seeing nothing, you have sore and achy muscles
from chasing elk up and down mountains, or your feet
need to dry out after wading wetlands for waterfowl,
take up the challenge of hunting bushytails with the
little rifles that bark with deadly accuracy.
|
