Oct 15, 2016 4 min read

Yesterday was the first day of the season for squirrel and grouse.

Since grouse seem to be endangered species in Southwestern Pennsylvania, if I were to go hunting, I think I would concentrate on the bushy tails.

If an avid small-game hunter wants to find grouse, they need to head north. I have seen plenty of grouse in McKean and Elk counties while bear hunting. Honestly, I have even seen them walking down back roads, so it might be worthwhile to load the 20 gauge and some shells into your vehicle and head up to the upper tier of the state.

The story with squirrels, however, is just the opposite. These tree dwellers are abundant, and the only thing the hunter faces on the downside is the lack of hunting land in our area.

Safety zones enter the picture with plenty of lands posted. Much of the posting is aimed at deer season and by asking for permission, you can find a place to hunt.

As for safety zones, a lot of our forested land was cleared by gas drilling, which creates nonhunting areas around well sites and roads leading to such places.

You never know how a day afield will go, but I will be out.

Like all hunting, you must find food to find game. While humans can be found gathered at a fast food spot, squirrel will be found around a nut-bearing tree.

I know where there is a large stand of hickory trees in the southern part of Washington County and Saturday will find me there.

I won’t be carrying a shotgun but instead the most accurate .22 rim fire I own. It’s funny, but around my homestead I saw mostly fox squirrels. Near Ruff Creek, I see mostly smaller grey squirrels.

The target is not very large, so the rifle better shoot good groups at 50 yards.

Just a few days ago, I bumped into a fellow sighting in his old and worn squirrel rifle. Like me, he thought the .22 was the perfect rifle and, combined with a quality scope, made the perfect outfit.

I don’t remember his name but he and I agreed on what made for a squirrel gun. My favorite is a 513S – S for Sporter – Remington, while he was shooting a similar vintage rifle, the Winchester 75.

Come to think of it, my friend, Tom Bloom, loves to hunt squirrel and uses the same model Winchester.

Tom lives in West Virginia and bags more squirrel than any other three people I know. I use a Remington and these two both shoot Winchesters but that’s as far as our differences go.

Like it is with most hunting, the best time to target squirrel is early morning and after supper. One of the beauties of this hunting is all you have to do is find a good spot and sit down.

The animals that ran when you came crunching through the woods will relax and start to reappear in about 20-30 minutes. Spotting these critters in a tree is not as easy as you’d think. That’s my reason for the binoculars I carry around my neck.

If the squirrel knows you are there, he will hide on the opposite side of the tree watching and waiting for you to move or go home.

When he flattens against the tree branch, the only giveaway is his tail. It’s almost like the animal forgets it has a tail.

Carry the binoculars.

There are other hunters who do long-range squirrel shooting, including Mike Weber of Scenery Hill. He will carry a heavy barreled .22 and watch the trees at distances of 75 to 125 yards.

How does he do? Well, when I have visited him at this time of the year he is either cooking goose or squirrel.

Denny Frederick, the former president of the Game Commission Board and a local outdoorsman, always says Mike is either shooting something or cooking something.

Squirrel is one of the tastiest animals of them all.

George H. Block writes a Sunday Outdoors column for the Observer-Reporter.