Who is goin out for tree rats saturday??

[87th PVI]

The hubby of a gal @ work went out for Turkey on Friday & came home with one whole squirrel & five tails.
He got 5 squirrels but gave away four & kept one to try since he'd never had it before.
He cooked it alone in a slow cooker & the result was that he & his wife didn't like it. I just think they cooked it wrong.
I'm in that same boat though... I have one in the freezer but don't exactly know what to do with it.
I'm not a big fan of slippery noodle style potpie.
I think I'll do a Brunswick stew. The recipe I have calls for chicken, but I've been told by the historians at Colonial Williamsburg, that Squirrel was the original meat called for in the 18th century version of that recipe.
If I had some venison & rabbit, duck or some other fowl, I'd use the squirrel in a game pie that I once had in Williamsburg made that time with venison, rabbit & turkey.

Back to the coworker's hubby... I asked her why he was shooting squirrels while hunting turkey... I said wouldn't the sound of the gun keep the turkeys away? She said her hubby isn't smart enough to figure that part out LOL.

[Orsogato]

tree rats. I like that.. Never heard it before

[Dredly]

Originally Posted by Orsogato

tree rats. I like that.. Never heard it before

I'm lobbying congress to make them a pest species like mice and rats so we can kill them all year long... DEATH TO THE TREE RATS!


on an unrelated note, there are rabbits ALL OVER Delaware state forest, in the last week I bet we've seen a dozen just driving in from Rt 115 to the top of the hill... just fyi

[krystalzip]

Ok, then my husband and I have got to be doing something wrong. This year we have been all over the Bavington area (far western PA). No squirrel, no bunnies, no grouse, no deer (though I have seen some droppings so don't count the deer to much), no pheasant (when a couple years ago I had a pheasant walk right in front of my car, that's the same day my pup got her first grouse.. several... up in the air).

Think I need to move east.

[soup]

With the exception of the one squirrel I got 2 weeks ago I've gotten jack....

I see them but they are usually out of range with the shotgun. Then when I get into a nice comfy spot and start waiting some people on horseback come though or people start yelling and whistling/making a bunch of racket or like last Fri a few girls decided they were going to start throwing rocks around...

Not sure if my luck is that bad or if these people are doing it on purpose (Not the horseback people, its a horse trail, not so concerned about that) I've tried different locations where I see the little buggers along the creek bed. Somehow I always run into someone walking their dog or playing in the creek...

[krystalzip]

Originally Posted by soup

With the exception of the one squirrel I got 2 weeks ago I've gotten jack....

I see them but they are usually out of range with the shotgun. Then when I get into a nice comfy spot and start waiting some people on horseback come though or people start yelling and whistling/making a bunch of racket or like last Fri a few girls decided they were going to start throwing rocks around...

Not sure if my luck is that bad or if these people are doing it on purpose (Not the horseback people, its a horse trail, not so concerned about that)

We are noticing that too at bavington. Lots of horse droppings and tracks. Even more though, is with the weather still being semi nice there are a lot of mnt bikers going through the area, and the tracks on Friday were very fresh, we're suspecting from that day. We went all up over one of the ridges into a woody area, switched over and started going through some of the large grassy areas, I even sent the dog into the really think thorny, berry areas down in the valley.

Think I need to buy some private property.

[87th PVI]

Are you going to state parks? When I hunted with Fingers on my first time, we saw one couple walking & a few other hunters.
I've only hunted on state gamelands every other time so far & don't see anyone else if I'm out on a weekday but the one Saturday I went there were at least a half dozen other hunters around.

[soup]

Originally Posted by 87th PVI

Are you going to state parks? When I hunted with Fingers on my first time, we saw one couple walking & a few other hunters.
I've only hunted on state gamelands every other time so far & don't see anyone else if I'm out on a weekday but the one Saturday I went there were at least a half dozen other hunters around.

Right now the state park is more convenient for me during the week. On weekends when I can get out I go to the game lands.

[krystalzip]

Originally Posted by 87th PVI

Are you going to state parks? When I hunted with Fingers on my first time, we saw one couple walking & a few other hunters.
I've only hunted on state gamelands every other time so far & don't see anyone else if I'm out on a weekday but the one Saturday I went there were at least a half dozen other hunters around.

Bavington area contains Hillman which is a park owned and run by the state game commission, but up against a state game lands. It is also extremely popular for it's terrain with mnt bikers.

The first year I hunted there (my third season), finding game (turkey, squirrel, rabbit, deer, grouse, pheasant) wasn't hard even for a newbie like me.

Last year, we saw a lot of evidence of deer, but ran smack dab into a rut for feral swine. Didn't take it, had my dog with me so we buggered out.

This year, we've seen nothing. We have all of it in our back yard... in suburbia of course.

What we did see was what appeared to be a lot of coyote tracks/droppings. Could be wrong, but on opening day I kept finding (by kept I mean every few steps) droppings that looked exactly like dog droppings. But it was opening day for grouse and about 7am.

[renegadephoenix]

Krystal, you and your hubby need to come out here near monroeville and a little further east. i'll put you onto some good hunting.