Took my oldest on her first squirrel hunt

[HogBiologist]

Took my oldest squirrel hunting today. We spent the weekend at my wife's fathers house in Mena. He has 7.5 acres surrounded by woods and neighbors who hate squirrels. The hate the little wire chewing house destroying rats. I went out Saturday with his .410 O/U. I spotted one in a tree and popped him. Another one was in the tree and I popped him too. There were 4 in that tree. I walked back up to the house with those 2 and set them down and went to the other side. I was able to get one more. Last night my 8 yr old was begging to go this morning with me. This morning we woke up as usual (5 am for her normal internal clock). At daylight we went back toward the tree in the west side of the house. I saw one way past that tree. As we crept toward the squirrel I looked up and saw one above us. I popped him and when he hit the ground she ran to him and picked him up with a cheerful giggle. We walked the trophy back to the house. We then walked to the other side of the house. I spotted another rat and we were in hot persuit. We got that one too. We walked back to the house and showed off the second trophy. She watched me skin them both. I gave her one of the tails for a souvenir. Unfortunately on of granddads German Shepard's got the tail and ate it. I did what any good dad would do. I went back out and killed a couple more. She had been watching the first time I skinned the rats, so I asked her to tell me what to do. She knew exactly how I did it. She was also asking about the organs. Makes a biologist proud to see his kid interested in biology. Maybe she will follow in my footsteps. She wants to go deer hunting again soon. I can't wait.

[Deputy 14]

Thats cool. Always good to get the little ones out.

[Devastator]

 

[mgm1955]

Great story. Thanks for sharing it. Nothing better than having your child as a hunting buddy! Congrats!!

[stone road turkey calls]

Glad to see your young daughter join you hunting, I hope the bug bites her and she becomes a outdoors person. keep her thinking biologist, i don't know what we would do without you guys. my grandson may need her help in the future.

Gary

[tomstopper]

Thats cool. Always good to get the little ones out.

[Tail Feathers]

That's great!  Making memories.

On a side note, I've been hearing that our squirrel population seems to be off by a huge margin.  A big annual hunt in the river bottoms here yielded 38 squirrels for some three dozen hunters when they usually average 200 or so.
The handful of guys I know who hunt them with a passion saying their harvest is about 10% or normal this year.  Everyone wonders what's up?

[HogBiologist]

 Squirrels run in cycles. It depends on various things. Predators and food sources affect the pop size. If the mast crop is good this year, and the mild summer we have had in areas, the population should bounce back.

[J Hook Max]

 That's great. Squirrel hunting is a great way to teach kids to slip around in the woods. It will make them better deer and turkey hunters later.
Last year, my youngest Grand daughter killed her first squirrel. She had already killed a couple of turkeys. Funny thing, I had probably killed 100 squirrels before I killed my first turkey.

[beagler]

Nice!