TRICKS IN THE TREETOPS

Squirrel Calling - Use Mr. Squirrel

Editor's Note: Regardless of how many years you've hunted squirrels, each season you tend to forget some of the basics. You even may refuse to learn any new skills, believing that you've always taken squirrels with the hunting tactics you use.

To trick a treetop trickster, learn how to talk to him. If you don't use squirrel calls, you probably don't bag half the squirrels you could. More than likely you also spend twice as much time trying to take those bushytails as you should. Squirrel calling makes hunting squirrels even more exciting. I mainly use the Mr. Squirrel whistle made by Haydel Game Calls and the Knight and Hale 4-in-1-squirrel call. Late in the morning around 9:00 a.m. while most bushytails remain in their holes or their nests, you may have a hard time finding a squirrel to hunt. However, using the Mr. Squirrel whistle enables you to trick a squirrel out of its hole or its nest and causes the squirrel to bark and give away its location.

Many outdoorsmen make the mistake when we purchase sporting equipment of not reading the package directions. The first time I used Mr. Squirrel, not a single squirrel barked. However, when the inventor of Mr. Squirrel, Shannon Talkington, agreed to come and hunt squirrels with me, I learned why. As we prepared to hunt, Talkington cut a small leafy branch from a tree. When I asked Talkington what he planned to do with the branch, he asked, "Didn't you read the directions on the package?" When I admitted I hadn't, Talkington said, "So, you haven't been using a branch when you use the Mr. Squirrel call?" "Nope," I answered. "Well, no wonder you didn't call any squirrels," Talkington explained as he smiled. "Mr. Squirrel doesn't work as well unless you whip the ground with a leafy branch while you blow the call."

Talkington went on to explain how he developed the Mr. Squirrel whistle. "I watched a hawk catch and kill a young squirrel. First the hawk spotted the squirrel on the ground, dove from the air and drove his talons through the young squirrel. The squirrel gave off a high-pitched squeal. At the same time the squirrel was squealing, the hawk's wings were beating the ground to help the bird keep its balance on top of the squirrel. I noticed while the hawk was killing the squirrel that other squirrels begin to come out of their holes and nests and bark. I decided that if I could make the sounds of a young squirrel's squealing as it died and the hawk's wings beating the ground, I should be able to cause squirrels to come out their holes and bark just like they did when I watched the scene in the woods."

To make the sound of the dying squirrel, Talkington put two thin pieces of aluminum together and made a hole to blow through -- creating a high-pitched whistle. He then caught a young squirrel and recorded the sound it made as he squeezed it. Next he tried to duplicate that sound with the whistle and had the frequency of both sounds analyzed by a university's science department. Once he had the whistle tuned to the same frequency as the young squirrel's squealing, he felt he had a call that would bring bushytails out of their holes. Then because Talkington knew he had to imitate the sound of the hawk's wings beating the ground, he cut a leafy limb and beat the ground with the limb as he blew the whistle. The technique worked.

On our hunt, after bagging one or two squirrels in a place, we would move about 100 yards away to repeat the calling sequence. Not only did we make nearby squirrels bark but often those 100 yards or more away. After hunting only a few hours, Talkington and I had almost a limit of squirrels. We even walked past gray squirrels, preferring to take barking fox squirrels. We quickly and easily limited out on squirrels in only about four hours and opted not to shoot many of the squirrels we spotted. "The Mr. Squirrel whistle is the most productive in the morning from about 9:00 a.m. to about 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon when the squirrels have already gone into their holes, and most other hunters have left the woods," Talkington advised.

TOMORROW: BARK THEM OUT