Trouble squirrel hunting. Spent plenty of time in the woods. no beginners luck?

Spent a few hours a few times in nothing but oak forest. I heard lots of squirrel chatter but havent spotted one yet. i first tried waiting for a good while, then tried slow and quiet stalk. no luck. What am i doing wrong???Trouble squirrel hunting. Spent plenty of time in the woods. no beginners luck?
early season hunting is a little harder because the acorns are still it the tree tops and there are a lot of leaves.During deer season is when you see a lot of squirrels on the ground because the nuts are there. Now I have had a lot of success and I will let you in on my tricks. First remember the squirrels are high and can see good distance( just like me hunting in a tree stand) I sat by a tree and look at distances for movement. You have to sit them out, If there is a squirrel in the a nearby tree it ain't going to move for 15 minutes or so. After you shoot one it may be a 1/2 hour. Also wear camo and a camo face mask and light camo gloves. I cover all my skin so I blend in. I listen for nuts falling, ground leaf noises and they nails scratching on the bark of trees as they move up or down the tree. I watch for leaves moving and acorn shucks raining down. I also listen for the calm growling sounding they make If you hear them barking it usually means they see you and are warning others. I start hunting around 7 am till 10am or 3:30 till almost dark ( I do better in the after noon. Get them leaving and come home. On a clear day I use a 22 mag. Some of the best hunting is when it is raining Then I use a 20 ga. with # 4 shot usually they are on the ground (because they slip in a tree) and you get quick shots. As it gets later in the fall and the leaves are gone and the nuts are down and maybe a little snow the hunting is great for a 20 ga and stalking. Around mid November.Trouble squirrel hunting. Spent plenty of time in the woods. no beginners luck?
Just a thought here. I'm not trying to insult you.. just go through a few suggestions.You might be doing nothing wrong. It's important though to try and find there den tree or nests. Get there well before daylight and sit (camouflaged) within range of where the den tree is and wait. You will need a face net and gloves and if possible camouflage your weapon..tape, burlap, netting or paint (ask your dad if it's ok first if it's his weapon..ok?) will do nicely.





No movement till you know they can't see you before you move your weapon to take aim at where they will be and like hunting deer or turkey..you set and wait to make that shot.








Good Luck
You got to get there ealier, and sit for a while. The chatter you hear is the squirel's way of alarming of your presence. A squirrel will hide on the back side of a tree to keep you from seeing him, look for his bushy tail whiping around. Take a dog with you, let him run around, squirrel's love to tease a dog, allways staying just out of his reach,
Find out either where they are nesting or where they are feeding. You should see nut cuttings, sometimes even corn cobs drug in from nearby fields. Look for old, dead trees with holes or basketball size round leafy nests in treetops. You should hear barking and nut cutting and see movement through the trees if squirrels are active. Be patient, wear dark or camo clothing, and I like to use a mosquito netting head cover to hide


my face.Plant yourself near a den tree before dawn or get between their


nest and food source. Learn to use a bellows type squirrel call. Again, be


patient, be quiet and still, and let them come to you. Still hunting works better than stalking, unless you have a dog or partner.
We got all the uninvited squirrels you can shoot here in West Texas...and it will NOT hurt our feelings if you shoot every last one! It seems we imported them along with some Oak trees and now their out of control. They freaken chew through the power lines. Ya, it's cool to see one explode but it knocks your power out for hours. They built a nest out of wire under the hood of a friends SUV and Mercedes. Needless to say it wasn't cheap to fix...they charged them 125.00 just to have the squirrel removed. I could have shot the thing for .02 using my pellet gun!





Sorry about the squirrel rant, them critters are almost as bad as feral hogs.
Not sure where you are, but I live in the Mid-Atantic region of the USA. It's still too warm and we have too many GREEN leaves on the trees. After we get our first frost, then the little critters become more active in their search for food.





My advice? Wait another 3 weeks before you try to go squirrel hunting again. Fewer leaves on the trees will make it easier to spot them. And, the cool weather makes them gather nuts and run around more. It's too early right now (late Sept). Wait till late October.
Patience! Like where Hangfire lives,we too are overrun with tree rats. They will get used to your presence. I`ve had them steal my sandwhich off the fender of my truck when I turned my back on them for a moment. Just go where you were,hang out, and pretty soon you`ll be able to get a few.
get in camo, buy some deer corn and place it about 30 yards away from you. and what gun are you using? if you are using a air rifle i know a great one. a Tech Force 97 in .22, 750 FPS its on amazon for like 75.00$


good luck
be patient. you just need to sit down for a while and they'll come. i've never used camo, i always wear hunters orange and that doesn't seem to scare them away, safer too.
Try going out before the sun comes up. Pick you out a spot, and sit against a tree. When the sun hits their nest, they will go nuts running everywhere.
Look for nut trees.....they are hiding around the tree on you. The chatter is the warning to others.....Find where they are and sit still and wait.
The squirrel is smarter than you are, that is why it is called hunting.
Rusty,





You are engaging in one of my favorite sports. I have shot a lot of squirrel in my 50+ years of life. I have hunted 4 types, the small Pine (Chicory) Squirrels and Tassel-eared squirrels of New Mexico and currently the Fox and Gray squirrels of NW Arkansas.





I don't have a favorite, but the Pine Squirrel would be least favorite because of its small size. It takes 6 to 8 of them cooked to feed one hungry man. It is however the only squirrel that can be consistently hunted by the stalk and stop method. It also responds well to a call. I can recall once stepping into a small cluster of pine trees where 6 to 8 of them were arguing in the tree tops. As luck would have it I was carrying my scoped .22 that day and not my .410. I managed to get 2 of them, but what an adrenaline filled couple of minutes.





The Tassel-eared, Gray and Fox each offer about the same amount of meat and are less curious than pine squirrels. All three require you to get into a feeding area and just sit and wait. A squirrel sees you before you see him, so stalking only weeds out the truly dumb ones. They love to run around to the other side of a tree and alert others in the area. Good news though, I have found that Gray and Fox squirrels will respond to a call, eventually one comes to investigate, but again this requires patience. I learned to imitate their bark with my mouth, but they sell calls that are just as good. I found this to work best in the evening.





Thus, squirrel hunting requires a lot of patience, which is the hardest thing to learn. On a slow day, you may have to wait a couple of hours for a decent shot. If you haven't seen anything by then, it's time to sit somewhere else.





If you want to speed things up, and stalk, you need a squirrel dog, or a hunting buddy. If there are two hunters you can get on the opposite side of trees forcing the squirrels to reveal themselves. Good luck.