Milestones
I GOT A SQUIRREL!!
That's the text I sent my wife shortly after crossing this milestone. Here's the story...
I drive a school bus, and thanks to COVID I have Wednesdays off. Monday and Tuesday sees half the elementary students go to school, and Thursday and Friday the other half goes. They all do distance learning on Wednesday. So I decided to get up early and hit the woods.
I went to the second parking spot on the back road we had scouted on Saturday. It was the end of the road and the beginning of the path leading into many hundred acres of game reserve. The sun was barely up and the weather was delightful!
Before I go into the woods, or on any adventure really, I say a little prayer. Now, a little history... The first hunt I ever went on (as an observer) was a buffalo hunt with my Lakota friends in South Dakota. They offered up tobacco before the hunt and after the kill and basically prayed and thanked throughout the whole thing. So three years ago when I started to learn to hunt, I bought a pouch of pipe tobacco and always offered a pinch along with my prayers.
This morning, I offered a pinch and prayed for a good hunt and a hope to see some game. My plan was to head deep into the woods, hunt all morning, come out for lunch, and try a new spot in the afternoon/evening. There were no cars in any of the parking spaces anywhere, so I knew I'd find a spot after lunch. I headed off down the trail.
I was only about a hundred yards in when I heard squirrels chittering off the beaten path, so I took a sharp left and headed into their area. I found a nice tree to lean against and started getting settled in to wait.
Just as I got comfortable, I heard rustling off to my right. See that slightly curved branch kinda paralleling the ground in the picture above? As I turned my head, a squirrel hopped up that branch coming right at me with two little acorns in its teeth. I looked at it with surprise, and I'm pretty sure it was JUST as surprised. We both froze. I hadn't been in my spot for more than a MINUTE when it popped out. I was exactly opposite of in a good firing position, my rifle pointed in the direction the squirrel was heading.
We sat and looked at each other for at least a good twenty seconds, though it seemed like hours. I figured I had nothing to lose, so I spoke to the squirrel.
"Hello." I said. It didn't move.
"Are you for me? Stay right there for a minute."
It only moved when I slowly turned around to get into position. I thought it would vanish, but it hopped up a tree juuust out of frame on the left there, no more than twenty feet away, climbed onto a branch in full view of me, and waited.
I couldn't believe my good fortune! My heart was pounding. I raised my rifle and looked through the scope...
So, I have an adjustable scope that zooms from 3 to 9 so I can sight in on both near (3) and far (9) things. Saturday I had zoomed way in to check out what I thought was an owl (it wasn't. See previous post) So when I peered at the squirrel twenty feet away with a zoomed in scope, all I saw was a blurry grey blob filling the sight picture.
I swore under my breath and did exactly the WRONG thing. I figured that it would bolt soon, so instead of dialing the scope back, I panicked and decided that if all I could see was grey then I couldn't miss. I squeezed of a hasty shot.
The squirrel flew out of the tree and scampered away down the hill. The grey blur I had fired at was the branch next to the squirrel. Stupid mistake, not being certain of my target. I was trained better than that.
I swore again and gave chase. But it was up a tree before I had reloaded, and we played the circle game for a few minutes before it leapt to a different tree, then another, then another, and out of my life.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
I went back to where I was sitting, plopped down, and listed off my mistakes.
Squirrel appeared and I was out of position. Next time instead of getting all flustered and flopping around to get into a firing position, just sit still and observe. I was so desperate to get that first squirrel that I HAD to get a shot on it. Dude. Chill. It will happen some time.
Be patient.
Sighting in and realize my scope isn't properly adjusted. Next time instead of continuing to be flustered and blazing away, readjust the scope. If the critter vanishes before that then it wasn't meant to be.
Be patient.
As I sat there, I found myself swatting at mosquitos left and right. Since I was frustrated, swinging at bugs, and having polluted the area with the boom of the gun, I decided to head back to the car to get some bug spray, breathe, and start over again.
As I was putting on the mosquito defense, I thought that as long as I was calling a Mulligan, I should say another prayer and make another offering. This time, instead of just a pinch of tobacco on the ground, I did what my Ciye Will taught me to do and made offerings to all four directions, the sky, and the ground. And I prayed...
"God... I just want one. Just one squirrel today please. I'm not sure if every shot I've taken at one has missed because I'm a bad shot, or because I subconsciously don't really want to hit them, or what. But I want to KNOW that I can hit one. Just one so I can cook it up and KNOW what it tastes like. Just one today so that I can finally do what my father and grandfathers and relatives from every generation have done and make meat for my family. Please. I promise not to make the mistakes I made this morning, or every other time I've been out. I promise to do my very best for a quick kill and to use every part I possibly can. Please. Just one squirrel today. Amen"
I headed back down the trail and left the mornings mistakes and failures behind. It was do over time.
I decided to head to a different spot, so left the trail early. But after a while, I found myself in the exact same spot I had just been in. This wouldn't do at all, so I walked deeper into the woods until the land started angling down into gullies and fingers. I found another nice tree in a mess of oaks and sat down to wait.
For the next hour, I could hear squirrels out of range chittering, and could hear them hopping through the brush, but couldn't see them. Then suddenly I saw movement.
Again it was to my right. Again I was out of position.
This squirrel though was hopping along, checking things out, hopping some more, and didn't seem to register me moving around slowly to try to get in position.
No rushing this time, I told myself. Be patient.
It was angling away from me as I stood. I moved to a different tree with a better view of the area it was heading towards and braced myself against the tree for stability.
I checked the scope before I raised my rifle, even though I had checked it multiple times in the past hour. Don't rush. Be patient. It was still on 6.
I sighted in on the squirrel. My heart was pounding again.
Breathe. I told myself. Breathe and squeeze.
I breathed. The squirrel hopped.
Sight in and breathe and...
The squirrel hopped again. Farther away.
Zoom in the scope a bit. Sight in and... hop. This time behind a fallen branch.
Wait for it to emerge. Breathe and... hop.
Zoom in a little more, sight in, breathe and hop.
This went on until it was so far down the hill that there was too much brush and leaves and branches obstructing the shot. I lowered my rifle and watched it disappear.
With a sigh, I returned to my sitting tree.
Relax, I told myself. It's a little before nine in the morning. You've got all day.
Just as I was getting ready to chill, I heard another squirrel - off to my right. When I looked over, the first thing I saw was the tail. The sun was such that the light broke through the trees, hit the tail, and lit it up like a furry torch. If you imagine a squirrel eating a nut viewed from the side, that's exactly what I was seeing, except the tail was a lit up little question mark.
Once more I slowly moved into position. Rifle up. Guess what? It was zoomed in too far. I could have taken the shot. It was only slightly blurry. Definitely clearer than squirrel number one today. But no. Relax. Be patient.
The squirrel hopped off as I was adjusting the scope and for a moment I thought it was gone. But then it appeared on a nearby branch of a fallen tree. I sighted in. My heart was pounding.
I couldn't see the head, as a leaf somewhere between the squirrel and me was blocking it, but I could clearly see the body and the tail.
Breathe. Relax. Squeeze. Don't jerk the trigger. Aim small, miss small. Aim for just behind that little front elbow thirty or forty yards away. Gentle squeeze as I exhale. I'm almost completely exhaled. Gentle squee...BANG.
Every time that I have shot at a squirrel, I have been able to see -through the scope- the shocked jump of the critter, most of the time watching it run off as I lower the rifle. This time I saw it twitch ever so slightly and drop right off the branch and out of sight.
I lowered the rifle. Nothing scampering away. No movement. Just silence.
"Did I just get a squirrel?" I said out loud to nobody. I stood.
"DID I JUST GET A SQUIRREL?!?" I said even louder.
I looked again at the branch it had been sitting on, committing it to memory so I could hike over to it.
My feet finally started moving.
"DID I JUST. GET. A. SQUIRREL?!?"
Yep, the whole hike over I kept repeating this. I guess I was excited.
Here was the branch, in the midst of lots of other branches on this fallen tree. At first, I didn't see anything.
"Seriously?" I said. Then, as I was thinking to myself that I really suck at this, I saw a bushy tail emerging from under a branch/fern/leafy pile. It wasn't moving. I let out a whoop. Then I grabbed a stick and gave it a quick poke to make sure it was dead. As it rolled over, it was very evident that it was. The bullet had hit the elbow a quarter inch from where I had aimed, went through the heart, and exited the back having snapped the spine in two. It was thankfully a quick kill, and I sent up my first thank you. I did a short ceremony similar to what my Lakota friends had done after the buffalo kill. Prayers up, offerings down, many thanks to the squirrel for its sacrifice and for the meat it would provide, and a promise to honor its death by caring for their home and family as best as I could.
Then I texted Karen and the kids with my excitement, bagged the squirrel, and thought...
"It's only nine! I have lots of time to get more!!!"
Then I stopped in my tracks.
Nope. I prayed this morning for Just One Squirrel Today. Just One.
It seemed like the exactly wrong thing to do to go back on a prayer. I had made promises in that prayer that I would relax. Do things right. Be patient. For Just One Squirrel. I had to honor my promise. So I unloaded the rifle, slung it over my shoulder, and started the hike back to my car.
As I hiked... Squirrel... off to the left. Another to the right. Chittering behind me. More over the finger next to me. Nope. No more for me today. I promised and was given my squirrel. But I know where they are for the next time!
Hiking out, I cleaned up after the folks that had been there on opening day. Newly dumped beer cans and candy wrappers. IF they were hunters, they should know better. If not, same thing.
Jerks
On the drive home I reflected on how I felt about all of this. I have wondered if I would feel some guilt or too much sadness or something different, but honestly, other than being a little sad at taking the life of a healthy animal, I feel pretty good. I think it's because I know I will use as much of the animal as I can. Because I am thankful for the teachings from this squirrel. Because I know that if I don't like the taste, I'm not going to be hunting squirrels again until I have to.
When I got home, I set about skinning and getting it ready for cooking. If you've read other posts here, you know that I've had a little practice with skinning a squirrel that I found frozen last year. So I felt confident when I started. Big Mistake. I won't get into it, but it was a mess. I was able to salvage both back legs and a front leg, which is most of the edibles anyway, but it wasn't pretty getting to them. They're currently soaking in buttermilk waiting to be fried for a lunch tasting tomorrow.
When I was done, I left the remains down the yard where we usually leave food out for the crows and foxes. As I was about to head back into the house, a familiar neighbor from down the street called out a greeting and I stopped for a chat.
He was wearing a t-shirt of a local squirrel hunting group, so I mentioned that I had just bagged my first squirrel. That got us to talking about hunting. Which led to him mentioning that his family has a farm of around 4-500 acres in Wisconsin about an hour and a half away. Which led to ME mentioning that I'd like to learn to hunt deer. Which led to him offering the use of his family farm... which is very lightly hunted... and needs deer control. Which led to me getting VERY excited!
So sometime before deer opener in November, we're going to caravan over there (because we're both COVID wary and responsible adults) so he can show me around. Then, he says, whenever I want to hunt there I just need to let him know when I'd like to go. He's got stands, food plots, knows where to set up for finding deer, the whole nine. And he's willing to show me the proverbial ropes! I'm. So. Excited!
It occurs to me that if I had ignored my promise and stayed in the woods, I would not have crossed paths with him today. Wearing his squirrel shirt. Which led to a deer hunting opportunity. It pays to honor your promises, eh?
Get a plain 4 power scope.
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