My Perfect Hunt Is Sneaking Up on Fox Squirrels — Barefoot

This story, “Fox within the Treetops,” appeared within the July 1977 situation of Out of doors Life.

For years I stored two squirrel mounts on the mantel over the hearth in my den. One was a crimson squirrel, or “boomer” in Southern mountain lingo.

I took it from the very prime of Mount Mitchell in North Carolina on a certified gathering journey. It got here from the best acre of floor in japanese North America. The opposite was a big fox squirrel that I acquired close to the mouth of the Suwannee River in Florida, which is as little as you will get east of the Mississippi until you wish to drown.

These trophies had been two of my greatest dialog items. Many guests would ask questions on them earlier than they even seemed on the Dall sheep head on a close-by wall, the large mule-deer rack in velvet, or the grizzly and polar bear rugs on the ground. The squirrels appeared to have a particular allure.

They’d for me. After I checked out a bit boomer flattened towards a limb, I may nearly odor the perfume of spruce timber. The fox squirrel, sitting upright on a bit of driftwood with a pecan in its paws, took me again to a protracted sweep of the decrease Suwannee with limpid black waters, forests of pine and magnolia timber, stay oaks, and wild pecans.

Although I lived a whole bunch of miles away, I spent many days on the Suwannee, most of them with J.L. Stephens, a lifelong out of doors good friend and associate. Each­ physique calls him Steve. Presently, we had been close to the tip of a float journey by canoe from the Okefenokee Swamp to the Gulf of Mexico. It was fall and squirrel season was on, so sometimes we had been in a position to fluctuate our eating regimen of fish with a pot of squirrel stew cooked over the campfire.

We loved gathering the substances for these stews, and to make the game more difficult we devoted our consideration to fox squirrels. They weren’t almost as plentiful because the grays, however one massive fox was all we would have liked for a meal.

We went about it the exhausting method. We hunted for the massive fellows with a .22 rifle, and we did it from the bow of a shifting canoe. In these days, we had been much more correct with a rifle than we grew to become in later years, and immodest sufficient to suppose we may shoot each squirrel within the head.

However inside an hour of tenting time that afternoon, we hadn’t picked up a single squirrel for the pot. It was starting to look as if we’d must seaside the canoe, go ashore, and be happy with a grey squirrel or two. It was my flip on the paddle.
Steve was within the bow, casing the timber ashore.

“Maintain it proper right here,” he stated quietly. “There’s the top of an enormous fox sticking over that second contour of the river financial institution. He’s proper past the pecan tree.”

I didn’t see it till my paddle flashed to dig in and maintain our canoe towards the present. My motion startled the squirrel, and I watched him lope away to the bottom of a pine greater than a dozen yards behind him.

“Now if that ain’t identical to an previous grandaddy fox,” Steve stated. “A grey will take to the closest tree and file his flight plan by way of the air. A fox sticks to the bottom wherever he can. We’ve acquired him now, although. He’ll go plumb to the highest of that pine.”
The squirrel hit the bottom of the tree, swung to the aspect away from us, and we heard the rattle of bark as he climbed.

“We’d higher go get this one,” Steve stated.

I beached the canoe on a sandbar. We stepped ashore, climbed the financial institution past the bar, and moved round till we had been in a position to spot the squirrel. It had squeezed by way of a curtain of moss within the dense higher crown of the tree and flattened it­ self on one of many topmost limbs. We may see solely part of its head and the higher contour of its physique.

“Attempt him,” Steve stated.

I lined my sights on what I may see of the top. Then out of the blue I wasn’t wanting on the squirrel anymore however at a blur of motion. A small blue darter hawk shot by way of a gap within the tree and hit the squir­rel with such drive that each fell into the material of moss.

I lowered my rifle, eager to see the result of this little drama. I by no means had an opportunity to seek out out. Steve’s gun barked nearly in my ear, and the sound introduced that treetop skirmish to a sudden conclusion. The hawk was the primary to get well. It tumbled out of the struggle, perched momentarily on a limb, after which was gone past the heavy crown. The squirrel scrambled again to its perch, stopped there as if confused, and Steve’s second shot despatched it tum­bling to the bottom.

“Why didn’t you wait to see the remainder of that present?” I stated.

“That hawk was on the brink of carry off our supper,” he replied.

We examined the squirrel. It ap­peared that each creatures had been in a struggle for survival. A number of the hawk’s feathers had been clogged beneath the squirrel’s claws. The squirrel’s again was punctured by way of the pores and skin, however the talon marks weren’t deep sufficient to have been deadly.

I skinned the squirrel fastidiously, rolled the disguise in salt, and later had the mount made. That was the fox squirrel I stored on my mantel.

Fox vs. Grey Squirrels

The fox squirrel has lengthy been considered one of my favourite small-game animals. I like him for a lot of causes. One is his allure. At instances this prince of the treetops appears to be nearly un­ actual. His actions are majestic, by no means as nervous or fast or fidgety as his small cousin. He’ll take most of the identical precautions, resembling go­ ing up the unsuitable aspect (for me) of a tree and protecting the trunk between us after I’m making an attempt for a shot. He appears to be nearly nonchalant about making such choices.

In comparison with the grey, he’s clumsy within the timber and appears to pre­fer to remain on the bottom in additional open woods. Presumably he feels safer with strong earth beneath his ft, for he’s giant and heavy. Some might weigh as a lot as three kilos, however the common fox is smaller.

The grey hoards his meals, making caches of acorns and different nuts or burying them within the floor. The fox, at instances of yr when meals is plentiful, stuffs himself till he builds a heavy layer of fats as a re­ serve towards the chilly months. He’s fats within the fall, and that’s one motive many gunners dedicate their searching days to him, and why there’s such an amazing kill every year. Sport males depend the absorb tens of millions.

Some sources listing 10 kinds of fox squirrels, such because the Southern, Northern, Mangrove, Bryant, and Texas. Others say there are solely two, the Japanese, and the Apache that lives within the Chiricahua Moun­tains of southeastern Arizona and in Mexico.
The subspecies of the Japanese cowl an enormous territory. They vary from western New York and Penn­sylvania to western North Dakota, and from there usually southward to the Rio Grande in Texas, the place they spill over into Mexico.

The fox has a good bigger vary than the grey, however inside it are many areas the place the fox is uncommon or doesn’t happen in any respect. However even in these areas he appears to be turning into extra quite a few. Nobody remembered ever seeing a fox squirrel in my residence county in mid-Georgia till a number of years in the past. Now fairly incessantly some hunter brings one in.

The Latin identify of the fox squirrel is Sciurus niger. Niger means black. Presumably the one fox squirrel the botanist Linnaeus, who gave this squirrel its Latin identify, ever noticed was the black section. If that’s the case, he missed quite a bit. The fox is available in quite a lot of shade starting from mild grey by way of a number of shades of crimson and yellow to strong black.

Fox Squirrel Searching

One of the crucial fascinating after­noons I ever spent with fox squirrels was after I hunted on the rim of the Altamaha Swamp in decrease Georgia. An outside associate had informed me a few small, deserted farm there that had some pecan timber on it.

I had parked my camouflaged carcass in a good spot to cowl the timber with a .22 Lengthy Rifle ball. The primary squirrel came visiting a bit bluff and poked round on the bottom for pecans. When he was close to sufficient for a certain kill, I put my sights on him. A motion off to the best prompted me to shift my eyes in that path, and I noticed a second fox. He was in a patch of daylight, and the best way the rays hit him made him shine like gold. I lowered my rifle to attend till he was inside vary. He was adopted in minutes by a big russet-colored animal that might have been a small crimson fox with a big brush.

Inside half an hour, seven squir­rels had been feeding within the previous pecan grove. One was strong black, one grey with a black nostril, and one nearly orange coloured. This was the most important focus of the massive squirrels I’ve ever seen. I used to be so fascinated with the scene that I didn’t disturb it with a rifle shot.

A lot of my looking for the massive fox has been in Georgia. Presumably the state’s greatest populations of the squir­rels are on the coastal islands, the place they’re comparatively undisturbed and acorns and different mast are plentiful.

In my youthful years, a lot of my most pleasant searching days had been spent alongside the backwoods creeks and rivers of the decrease coastal plain. A number of the swampland bordering the streams was spongy, miry, or lined with shallow water; a lot was flat lowland, usually dry ex­cept in time of flood. The forests of oaks, gums, and different blended exhausting­ woods, with scattered pines, grew to magnificent girth and top. In cer­tain locations the cover of tree crowns was so dense that solely splotches of daylight may penetrate it, and the understory of vegetation was negli­gible. This was the sort of setting fox squirrels appreciated. Grays had been usually nearer to the sunlit edges.

Many of those selection spots have been sacrificed to man’s greed. Clear streams had been transformed into muddy ditches. The forest giants went down earlier than the noticed and ax, and something left was bulldozed to the bottom in order that pine timber may be planted for pulpwood.

Shortly after daybreak you would possibly sit quietly beneath a hickory, oak, or den tree across the fringe of a swamp or lowland and fill your searching bag with grays. Not so with foxes. Every fox had his personal tackle, and the dens or cumbersome leaf flats may be a whole bunch of yards aside. You needed to stalk to seek out their oc­cupants.

I spent many hours strolling a step or two, then pausing lengthy seconds to look and pay attention. This labored fantastic when the bottom was smooth or damp and I may transfer noiselessly. However I couldn’t do it usually. Most instances I needed to transfer throughout a carpet of dry autumn leaves, and doing so was about like making an attempt to sneak throughout a mound of potato chips.

Steve taught me the best way to journey soundlessly by way of the lowland wilderness.

One brisk November afternoon after we’d are available in from a day with bobwhites, he requested if I’d wish to go after just a few fox squirrels within the morning.

“I’ll be prepared at daylight,” I stated.

“It is best to know higher than that,” he stated. “The previous fox is a gentleman of leisure. If it’s a bit chilly, he gained’t be stirring till the solar is effectively up.”

“The place’ll we hunt?”

“I’ve acquired a creek swamp on the again aspect of the place,” Steve stated. “It’s not very large, however filled with tall scattered pines. It’s simply the kind of territory an previous fox likes. I wish to hunt it bare-footed however you’d higher put on these rubber boots.” He tossed them to me.

“Barefooted?” I requested.

“The quietest method you’ll be able to undergo that swamp,” he stated, “is by wading down the little creek. You don’t make any noise. For those who transfer sluggish sufficient, you’ll be able to generally get near one of many foxes earlier than he pays any consideration to you.”

Steve began on one fork of the little department and I took the opposite.

I put Lengthy Rifle cartridges into the journal of my rifle and jacked one into the chamber. I’d introduced alongside my Marlin, mounted with a 4X scope.

I may really feel the chilly water by way of the boots. However the stream was solely inches deep and ran over strong sand, so there was no drawback with foot­ing. I moved downstream, inserting one foot in entrance of the opposite so fastidiously that I barely made greater than a ripple.

The solar rose above the timber and splotched the swamp flooring with patch­ es of golden mild. I noticed my first squirrel on the bottom about 50 yards away. He was humped over, digging at one thing within the leaf carpet. I moved slowly forward till he straightened up, then I finished. When he went again to digging, I moved forward once more. We repeated this till I used to be lower than 20 yards away. Then he caught my motion, stood for just a few seconds on his hind legs, after which moved gracefully to the trunk of an enormous longleaf pine. He didn’t appear hurried or afraid. When he stopped 20 ft on the close to aspect of the pine to recheck my place, I used to be prepared. I put the crosshairs on his head and squeezed the set off. I didn’t know the way lovely a speci­males I had collected till I had the squirrel in my hand. It was the colour of a penny and had white ears and a white nostril.

I handed up a fox that was grey and had a black head. I imagine I may have taken it, however I used to be look­ ing for one thing extra putting. Round midmorning I noticed one which was strong black apart from the mark­ings round its head. I studied it by way of the scope and determined that getting it will make an ideal finish of an ideal morning hunt.

The squirrel had different notions. Apparently it had seen me first. It appeared to face on its tiptoes for a protracted minute till I moved. Then it turned and headed for a stay oak on the sting of the swamp. No different tree grew close to sufficient to supply an aerial passage from the oak to bigger timber. Mentally I put that ebony trophy within the bag.

Protecting my eye on the stay oak, I stepped out of the creek and walked slowly towards the place I had final seen the squirrel. I circled the tree, examine­ing each limb, each clump of moss, making an attempt to see an ear, nostril, foot, or tip of tail. I noticed no hole or different opening into which the fox might need gone. No unfastened bark fell to in­dicate that it was circling to maintain the tree trunk between us.

I spent half an hour at this, then sat down for an additional half hour. By that point, had he been there, he would have moved. When little doubt remained that I’d been outfoxed, I moved right down to the junction of the forks the place I met Steve. After I informed him concerning the black, his eyes crinkled.

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“I do know that one,” he stated. “I attempted him myself just a few instances till I fi­nally realized how he will get away. He pulled the identical stunt of going to the massive oak, and I’d by no means see him once more after he reached it. Then sooner or later I had a sudden notion. After he disappeared, I made a beeline towards the tree and ran just a few steps to at least one aspect. I caught a glimpse of the squir­rel on the slope behind the oak. He was making for an enormous pine, which I later realized was his nest tree. What he does is go round that stay oak, put it between you and him, after which keep out of sight till he will get to his house.”

“Do you suppose fox squirrels are that sensible?” I requested.

“That one is,” he stated.