 “HOW
TO HUNT SQUIRRELS AGGRESSIVELY”
Screaming
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.
Squirrels make two different types of screams –
a contented call and a distress call. The contented
scream often will be heard at the end of a bark or after
excited playing. Squirrels may give this call just at
dusk and dawn. A contented scream is slow and very quiet
- much like the meowing of a satisfied cat. The distress
scream is the cry a squirrel makes when it is caught
by a predator. Just like some people who will go out
of their way to see a wreck or look out of their windows
to view a shooting, some squirrels will move from their
hiding spots when they hear a distress call.
 Shannon
Talkington, the inventor of the Mr. Squirrel call produced
now by Haydel Game Calls, taught me the value of using
the scream call when he explained, “When a hawk
or owl catches a young squirrel in its talons, the bushytail
screams for its life. The scream is loud at first followed
by several smaller screams with less volume. At the
same time the squirrel is screaming, the bird is beating
its wings against the ground to maintain its balance
as it kills the squirrel. When the other squirrels in
the area hear this life-and-death struggle, they often
will run out of their holes and nests, begin to scream
and bark.
“I learned this tactic by watching a hawk kill
a squirrel and listening to how the squirrels in that
section of the woods reacted to what was happening.
After the hawk flew away, I went to the place where
I had heard the squirrels and bagged a limit.”
With this knowledge, Talkington returned home and began
to build a whistle  out
of bottle caps to try and imitate the screams of a dying
squirrel. Finally, he refined the call that today is
known as Mister Squirrel. To make bushytails bark, blow
a call like a dying squirrel screaming and whip the
ground with a leafy limb. The limb resembles the sound
of the hark’s wings, and the call sounds like
the dying squirrel. Repeat the call twice, and listen.
If you don’t hear any squirrels barking, move
100 yards, and call again. This call is most productive
after 9:00 a.m. when the squirrels already have fed
and are lying up on limbs or inside of hollow trees.
I have used the distress screams of Mister Squirrel
to pull bushytails out of hiding and into the sights
of my rifle scope.
TOMORROW: CUTTING
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