Missouri's squirrel season opened a week ago and I have been diligently trying to thin the herd with both recurve and flintlock. My house butts up right against the woods so I have a target-rich environment close by, especially near my bird feeders. To make the activity more sporting, any rodent I can see near the porch is in a "bow-only" zone. We have sliding glass doors in our kitchen and living room and I can ease those open and shoot my bow from the comfort of the house. Camo is completely optional and the only time I need to worry about ticks is when I have to retrieve arrows that have missed their mark. Our daughter finds my antics endlessly entertaining and has made more than one comment to the tune of, "You may be a redneck if..." I don't care. I have fattened these little devils up all winter on high dollar sunflower seeds so now it's time to reap what I have sown, so to speak.

Darren

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My house also butts up against the woods and I have plenty of neighborhood squirrels. I can't make much of a dent with the bow as I have them fairly terrorized if not damaged physically. They can sense the sliding door opening on a windy day even with a big Allis Chalmers going past the house. Alas, I'm stymied … at least until shotgun season opens in October this year.

I like your setup though and even your camo.

Tree rat is good eating enjoy and nice shooting

Great way to sharpen the skills. We have some squirrels here as well, but not enough to cause any disturbance.

-Bones

Leave the door open a little with a piece of plywood half way up. They sure get wise to the door being opening. It sure is fun shooting at them and killing a few with the longbow or recurve.

They may simply be seeing the door open, not hearing it. My dad has a bunch of pecan trees in his front yard and solved this problem by hanging some camo netting from the rafter at the edge of the porch. With this up, he can open the door and ease his 12ga around the netting and pot them without them getting alerted. It also helped him get a fat doe last year, so its a pretty good setup despite the redneck factor.

Interesting, here in Iowa we can't hunt them till September.

That is one fat big gray squirrel!!! It looks like he has been eating the high test stuff for some time. Virginia has a spring, fall and winter squirrel season, as do many states. I have the same problem, but not right at my house. Every where I bow hunt they are the main animal I see and drive me nuts when I am in a tree stand. Good hunting!!!

I gave tons of them in my back yard as we have a row of pecan trees separating our lot from our neighbors. The downside is if I miss ,the arrows land in the neighbor ‘s yard. Maybe I can shoot them when they are in on the ground.. Hope you have a good recipe for fried / baked squirrel!

Wow wish we had early seasons like this. Actually should be no closed season on these rats. Garden destroyers. Roofers friends. Whatever name you want they are a nuisance.

Good hunting practice! I do the same, and you’re right they do seem to wise up quickly to the opening door!

Guess the old wives tale of "you can't eat them until the first could frosts " due to warbles is out the window with all of these early seasons

There are states that have open season in the spring for squirrels?

We have a hunting season, but I blast them when they become destructive and they eat our goose food and the guava off the trees, they can completely strip all the fruit off the tree in three days.

They are not good to eat in the hot summer months.

I just tell the wife to go work in her sewing room then I take my 22 cal pellet gun and pop them, I can't take a chance on a ricocheting arrow hitting a goose or my goose will be cooked.

I have a 22 cal air gun I charge up with 2200 lb charge from a diving cylinder and I have a range finder scope. Nothing is safe, I pop rats from 100ft. I have gotten squirrels at 250 ft. I would rather arrow them, but too much live stock where they hang out.

I do everything I can to deter them, but we have too much to eat.

I was wondering about the warbles myself. I've always heard only hunt rabbits in months with an R in them due to warbles but not sure if that applies to squirrel. Anyway, great shooting!

No season till mid September here in Minnesota. Usually same Saturday as archery deer, grouse, and rabbit. Live in "city limits" so no "Redneck" hunting allowed!!

Yes sir, several states have a spring squirrel season. Virginia being one of them. Warbles, wolves, whatever you call them aren't necessarily in every squirrel, the real name is bot fly larvae. They also don't hurt the squirrel meat, but I wouldn't eat one that's infected. I am not sure if the "first frost" or any frost kills them. Squirrel or rabbit fur wouldn't be too effective in the cold if an animal under it died as a result of being "frosted" to death. I have never seen any definitive information regarding the first frost thing killing them off. I guess it could be real, but appears it might just be one of those urban legends that get repeated until everyone believes it.

Missouri's squirrel season always opens the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and for years went to the 15th of January. Sometime in the recent past it was extended to the 15th of February. I have been killing squirrels for over 40 years and I can count the number of them that had warbles easily on one hand. The young-n-tenders are out running around now and those are the ones you want to wade off into a hot skillet of grease. You just have to be brave enough to fight the ticks and mosquitoes and/or shoot them from a climate controlled environment like I'm doing.

Darren

Arkansas had a squirrel season that opened in early June, when I was stationed there in the late 80s. Didn't see any more warbles then than I had in October or November in West Virginia, but I learned quickly that I didn't enjoy hunting squirrels as much with temps in the 90s, and, high growing vegetation in peak snake season.

Darren, that was spoken like a true Missouri squirrel hunter. I have only seen one warble in my experience and I have skinned a few. Rabbits get them more often around here, but it’s tularemia that most people warn about when eating rabbits. Bot fly larvae do what most larvae do, mature. They emerge from the skin of the host as an adult and fly off looking for another rabbit or whatever. My plant taxonomy professor had one above his belly button from Peru. He preserved it with formaldehyde and showed us it and the scar. The native people had a jar of Vick’s vapor rub that they kept just for bot flies. I found that most interesting. They smothered the larvae and pulled it out whole with bamboo slivers. The Vick’s made them stick their breathing tube out of the skin far enough to grab. In temperate climates, they don’t live very well in cold seasons so it’s just a function of the flies not being there to lay the eggs on the rabbits during winter. A good frost kills more than just skeeters and ticks. Nice shot by the way! PS If Missouri didn’t let you shoot squirrels almost all year my brothers and I would have starved as kids

I hear what you're saying, Tyler! We, too, ate a passel of them growing up. In fact, my sister swore that once she left home she would never eat another squirrel or rabbit and I think she's made good on that promise. Not me! Them things are good to eat and easy to come by. And besides that, they are just fun to hunt!

Darren

Yes squirrels are great eatin, my favorite is slow cooked squirrel stew and dumplins.

during the hot summer months the rabbits and squirrels get these very large growths on them and they look like they have cancer or something, it may not be harmful to the meat, but I don't want to eat one like that, cooler months they look like a picture perfect little tree rat. Not all get these growths but enough of them as not to hunt them.

Nice shooting! More fun than a new gaming system.

Kill them vermin. I have killed a few myself they can do alot of damage.

Arkansas season is may 15-february 29th this year,,, usualy the 28th.

Some good shooting there Darren and nice camo too. I’m fixing to try to get after them. I’ve been hunting squirrels for more than 50 years here in Missouri in the summer and fall. We have a generous season. In all those years I can’t recall any I’ve killed with warbles or anything. Summer squirrels are delicious, especially those young ‘uns

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