09/10/2026
A beautiful morning in the squirrel woods💪🏼
A few tips for the beginner squirrel hunters
#1: learn to read the sign: you can go through hundreds of acres of hickory’s, oaks, walnuts and whatever other tree a squirrel may look to forage in but if the sign isn’t there the squirrels aren’t either. I’ve walked through many of spots that looked perfect with hickories dropping but 0 sign of cutting. Same goes with deer, turkey and everything else you hunt. You can’t kill what’s not there. I’m not saying even a blind squirrel doesn’t find a nut every once in a while though😉
#2: Tree identification: invest some time in studying or going with someone who can help you identify the types of trees that will produce food for your target species. No sense in hunting a poplar patch when squirrels are in the next hollow eating on some shagbark hickories. Also pay attention to elevation of the Mass, for example the hickories on the mountain behind my house this year are few and far between BUT the trees that are producing very well are roughly the same elevation.
#3: Environmental factors: you’ll find squirrels in some trees that are blowing like a tropical storm is about to hit you in the face but I have better success dropping off a ridge and tucking into a hollow where the wind is cutting in right above me. You’ll find the squirrels in the trees halfway up and searching for wind blown nuts on the ground.
#4: Use all of your senses: the good lord didn’t only give you a set of eyes, use your ears. If it’s calm enough to hear and you’re constantly hearing either what sounds like the two edges of a quarter together that’s a squirrel cutting on a nut. If it’s high enough you won’t hear it but what you will hear are the pieces of nuts it cutting falling from the top of the tree playing plinko through the forest canopy until it hits the floor. Also, dont pass up a good calm drizzly morning! Nothing more fun then hearing a squirrel jump branch to branch and following the micro isolated shower that comes from him shaking the rain off the leaves!
#5: THE MOST IMPORTANT!: Take a kid hunting. You don’t get this time back with them and before you know it they are grown up and gone. Worse case scenario, they scare all the squirrels away. Some of the most important life lessons are taught in the woods! Patience, stealthiness, dedication and self discipline eventually comes with reward, and how to survive in a world full of unknowns! Don’t forget to take plenty of pictures, one day that’s all they will have.
Good luck my friends and I hope y’all have a great season😁
