 “HOW
TO HUNT SQUIRRELS AGGRESSIVELY”
Barking
EDITOR’S NOTE: I've learned you can take more
squirrels by talking and walking to bushytails rather
than by sitting and waiting on them. Instead of moving
into an area where I've seen cut nuts and uneaten nuts
and sitting and waiting on one or possibly two squirrels
to appear, I aggressively walk, hunt, call and cover
a lot of ground to find large groups of squirrels. Squirrels
often travel in bands with as few as five to as many
as 20 squirrels moving and feeding together. Hunting
areas with larger numbers of squirrels allows me to
take more bushytails in a shorter time. I call to the
squirrels, listen for them to call back and then stalk
in closer before I start calling again. Squirrel calling
can add a new dimension to your bushytail experience
and actually increase your odds of finding and taking
more squirrels. The many new tactics that have been
developed and the new calls on the market have made
the sport of calling squirrels much more fun, exciting
and productive than ever before.
 Although
I never had hunted squirrels in a national forest, the
forest ranger of the Talladega National Forest, just
east from my home in Birmingham, Alabama, Kent Davenport,
had told me that squirrels were along every drainage
in the forest. He said, "Just slip down the creeks,
and you'll find the squirrels." However, after
traveling 100 yards, I hadn’t seen or heard a
squirrel. I reached into my pocket and retrieved a squirrel
barker. I patted the rubber bellows part of the call
and cupped my hand around the wooden throat to make
the barking sound of a squirrel. Before I completed
the call, not 30-yards away, I spotted a squirrel jumping
up onto a small sapling. Then it started to bark back
at me.
With my black-powder shotgun, I aimed and fired. After
a loud explosion and a puff of gray smoke, the woods
were still. I waited about 30 seconds after reloading
and barked again on my call. Then I saw a squirrel's
head pop out of a nut hole 20-yards away before looking
both ways. The squirrel ran out of the hole, perched
on a limb and barked. The smokepole once more breathed
hot lead. The second squirrel tumbled into the crimson,
yellow and orange leaves of fall. The barker had located
one squirrel for me and called the second squirrel out
of its hole.
 According
to Brad Harris of Neosho, Missouri, a well-known outdoorsman
and skilled outdoor videographer, "The barker probably
is the best call to use to locate squirrels. If you're
hunting in new woods and don't know where the nut trees
or the den trees are, you can use a barking call to
make the bushytails talk to you and give away their
locations. Also a barker will stop running squirrels.
If you hear squirrels running out in front of you but
can't see them, bark at them. Many times they will jump
up on the nearest tree to bark at you. With some barkers,
you can take the rubber bellows off the back of the
calls, make the barking call and follow that call with
a scream to add more excitement to the call. Often squirrels
will scream without barking to give away their locations
to other squirrels."
Another important application of the barking call is
to utilize it when squirrels are running around or through
the trees and won't stop to present a shot. One day
I was slipping along a woods road when I spotted leaves
falling off a tree 40 yards ahead of me. I assumed squirrels
were eating, playing or mating in the tree. With my
binoculars, I found the rampaging tree rats. I quickly
took my bellows call out of my pocket and bumped the
back of the call four or five times. The squirrels stopped
running. One bushytail scurried out on a limb to sit
up and to watch to see from where the barking had come.
Bringing my .22 to my shoulder, I looked through my
2-7X scope, spotted the squirrel and zoomed the scope
from 2X to 7X. I prefer a scope with a greater magnification
than 4X because I am a serious squirrel hunter who likes
to make long, accurate shots. When the crosshairs settled
on the bushytail's shoulder, I gently squeezed the trigger.
The squirrel fell.
 Although
the second squirrel hadn’t seen the first squirrel
fall, it had heard the crack of the rifle and the lever
action of the .22. With the skill of a gymnast, the
second squirrel bounced from limb to limb headed for
a den tree. Again, I barked on the call, and the squirrel
stopped to look behind as it whipped its tail back and
forth excitedly. Replacing my call in my pocket, I raised
my rifle, braced against the tree and fired. The scope
was accurate, and the second squirrel tumbled. I waited
three minutes before barking again on the call, but
nothing happened. After sitting still for 5 minutes,
I barked lightly. As I was putting my call back into
my pocket, I heard toenails against hardwood and saw
a squirrel climbing up a sapling not 15-yards away.
When the squirrel went around the tree, I raised my
rifle to shoot and screwed my scope back from 7X to
2X. When the squirrel went around the tree, I raised
my rifle to shoot and screwed my scope back from 7X
to 2X. When the bushytail reappeared, his image filled
the scope. The crosshairs settled on its head just before
I squeezed the trigger. I had taken three squirrels
in less than 15 minutes. Barking at squirrels and shooting
accurately had paid off.
TOMORROW: SCREAMING
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