I really wanted to clear out those squirrels that sound like deer.
It happens to everyone, more than once a season. You're sitting in your tree stand and you hear movement. Leaves rustling and scraping. So loud that it has to be a deer, right? Then out hops a squirrel. Well, now it's payback time.
The first thing I learned about small game hunting from a tree stand is that when it's 85 degrees out, sitting in a tree stand instead of busting through the bush is the way to go. Letting the tree rats or an unlucky bunny come to you when it's hot let me stay in the woods longer. On the other side of the coin, when it's 85, you don't want to sit with squirrels cooking in the sun, just because you can sit longer doesn't mean you should.
Small game hunting from a stand is deadly effective; you can see a lot more and a lot further. The problem I found is that I'm used to picking up the squirrels shortly after I shoot one. When you're in a climber, that's not exactly feasible. The next time I try this technique out, I'll wait until later into the season.
Make no mistake: just like when you're deer hunting, you're going to see squirrels. Sometimes they aren't in range, actually most of the time they aren't in range. If you can use your .22 to reach out and plink those squirrels. You can look back through my articles and see that I'm a fan of using a shotgun in the early season, but not in this case.
Finally, check the rules and verify that this is legal where you live. For instance, in Michigan it is legal to hunt small game from a tree stand, but only with a shotgun. So unfortunately I can't follow my last piece of advice.
NEXT: I TRIED PLANTING KALE IN A FOOD PLOT AND HERE'S WHAT I LEARNED
