NorthEastern & central Oklahoma here...season was a bit disappointing.

Summer drought conditions here were severe. Very poor acorn crops for the most part, & very few pecans on the trees; i hunted a few times, but not as many times i would have liked. On those hunts i saw far fewer squirrels than normal...still bagged a few , but in all my impression was that i saw about 1/3 as many squirrels as we'd see in good years.

 

The same scenario here in the pine belt of MS. My range buddy carried me several times to Bienville Natl. forest in the northern part of our county and although there were plenty of acorns and other tasties for squirrels we just didn't see very many. He said the past years had been very productive but the past couple of years have been very lean for squirrel harvesting. We bagged about a dozen this year.

 

Late frosts in Western NC in 2022 caused a shortage in mast and shortage of squirrels. Very warm and early spring this year doesn't bode well since the last frost date is around May 10, finger crossed. Apple crop will suffer if we get back to normal weather before danger of frost is over. Plenty of squirrels around my bird feeders.

 

Lots of them on my lawn here in the village where i can't shoot them. Out in the woods where i deer hunt i didn't see hardly any. Been out sitting in my deer stand the last few months and have seen lots more deer than squirrels. The squirrels seem to have moved on.

 

For me, it was pretty sparse in SW Pa. Mostly WMU 2A. Certainly more my fault than anything else. Just didn’t get out enough. Energy was low after a bout with the flu at the beginning of the season. Also didn’t feel like going out alone. At 76 yo, I’m the youngest one left in my group. I may take a few walks just to get out. I might scare a groundhog or two later this spring. Got cataract surgery coming up soon. If it works ok the little guys might be in trouble.

 

Decent on my patch of woods but saw none the couple of times that I went and hunted larger properties.

 

Saw fewer than normal here in NE Ohio

 

Lots of squirrels in western KY. A banner year.

 

Tale of two seasons for me in NE GA. Summer and early fall were excellent. Winter was very sparse.

 

In the areas I hunt in Arkansas, numbers were way down. Hickory’s didn’t make at all last fall. Hoping for a good 2023/2024 season.

 

In northeast Kansas the numbers were down from the past few years. We had a serious drought but the oaks locally were loaded with acorns. On a side note; there has only been 1 squirrel at my bird feeder this fall. Last year we had 6-8 every day.

 

Have Hunted The Ozark National Forest all my life..
Lots of Mast Bearing Trees being cut and Replaced with pine Trees.....
Lots being Burned over which is Good but opens canopy up.. Squirrel,Deer, Turkey can see Father...
We as Hunters have to Adapt!!!
Squirrel hunting make longer Shots instead of 15-50 yards it's 50-100 yards ....
Drought has taken it's toll...But Squirrel move to the Food and Water .
We have to move their to...Hunt slower shoot farther..
We switched to Rimfire..and a Good Scope..CZ
22 long rifle and Savage MK II 17 HM2....
Which brings another learning curve . Finding the squirrel after the shot.. An Orange or Chartreuse Tennis Ball really helps... Finding the squirrel..
We had the best hunting in Years ...
Have Taken over 100 Squirrels with a Rimfire..
1st Time in my 55 years of Squirrels Hunting..
I enjoy Hunting The Ozark National Forest!!
Another Tip cut the squirrel up when you shoot it in these deep mountains....Put in zip lock bags with a bottle of ice water in gamebag or Pack"
Good Hunting ...

 

What do you do with the tennis ball???

northern Indiana squirrels are VERY prevalent.

 

Best year in a long time here in North Central Arkansas. We still have a lot of squirrels, hopefully the next season will be just as good or better.

 

Hunting was spotty, but my backyard is apparently a vacation destination for them and I've not had my feeders out in months.

 

I hate squirrel's they chew up the shed antlers before I can collect them.

 

It's a good source of calcium for the squirrels. GOD made it that way for them.

 

west central ohio. Fantastic squirrel year! Last year sucked, but this year all the squirrels in ohio have moved to my woods. Wife told me to stop,,,she is running out of freezer room.

 

Gift some to needy IF they will use them. Some will say thank you and then throw away wild game.

 

Squirrel hunting is hit and miss here in my home area. Too much development cutting down all the oak hickory and beech forests to build houses.
The squirrel population is way down. Many of them squished in the road by the newcomers in their fancy cars.
I have land 60 miles south of me that is still country. Still not the population of squirrels it always used to be. Pretty good acorn and hickory crop this year too. Hopefully they will recover and be back strong next few years.

 

Squirrel hunting is hit and miss here in my home area. Too much development cutting down all the oak hickory and beech forests to build houses.
The squirrel population is way down. Many of them squished in the road by the newcomers in their fancy cars.
I have land 60 miles south of me that is still country. Still not the population of squirrels it always used to be. Pretty good acorn and hickory crop this year too. Hopefully they will recover and be back strong next few years.

I actually stopped hunting them on private land I hunt for nearly 20 yrs. It took that long for them to over populate. I then started to thin them out. I will soon stop hunting them so I can start again. Over harvesting is another issue.

 

Here in Central Kentucky, our Squirrel population has been dropping for the 7th year. This past 2022 season, I only managed to harvest 4 Squirrels; usually I bag 15 - 25 Squirrels during our long Squirrel Season. Post-season, this year 2023, I see very few Squirrels running about my yard and I haven't seen one Squirrel in my woods. We've had very poor mast production going on for 7 years, which makes me think we actually have Climate change. We've been having erratic weather: becoming too warm in late Winter, which brings out mast which freezes in April - May. This is NOT normal weather for Central Kentucky.

 

It seems like the squirrel populations were generally better further north in the Midwest... Ohio, Kentucky. I'm also wondering if I should have gone back to the Ozark NF around Sand Gap last fall instead of around Mena.

I also hunt with a rifle. The squirrels I saw in the Ouachita NF were VERY skittish... I think they've been heavily hunted and only the skittish survive. I remember the last squirrel I saw. I heard it barking around 70 yards away as I crept along on a forest road approaching a steep creek bottom. He was up in a tree and had evidently seen me (it was deer season and I was wearing hunter orange). I finally found him in my thermal monocular and then through the rifle but there was a lot of growth between us. I tried to maneuver to get a shot at him, but eventually he just took off... went down the tree and took off across the forest floor. He knew that I was trying to get a shot at him and he didn't hang around.

While I have a HMR and also a HM2 (barrel for my CZ 455), I feel confident taking a shot out to 80 yards or further with my .22 rifles (541-S, Kimber 82 SA, the CZ)... if I can get it. It would be VERY hard to get a shot at that distance before mid-December in the Arkansas hardwoods... too much in the way in terms of leaves, limbs, saplings, etc. You'd have to get on a ridge overlooking a bottom and wait... and the squirrel density wasn't there.

Seems like we need a cool spring and a wet summer, or two.

 

Weather was just weather in the past; now “climate change” is pounded every day by the talking heads. If the climate change lingo was never used and pounded every day, it would just be weather. You have to ask yourself, when weather stats are quotes as “tying the 1889 high” highest snowfall since 1923”, etc - what was happening back then. I don’t know fellows, but I do know if something is said enough, it eventually becomes the truth.

 

My Brother studies the weather; he says the Pacific is too cold, while the Atlantic is too warm. These two factors is mostly responsible for our current weather. Also we have La Nina occurring the past several years.

 

Here in Southern Illinois, the 2022 August-October time period when I hunted was full of squirrels. Just hanging around hickory and pecan trees caught squirrels coming in to feed on the nuts. My various .22 CZ rifles brought home many of them. On some of my outings, I took a lawn chair. Might as well be comfortable while waiting for them to make their way to a nut tree.

 

I wonder about the Tennis ball as well. My guess is to toss one where you think the squirrel fell so you can continue your sit before fetching. Helps one "remember" the location of multiple drops. Pretty neat I think.

 

That was my thought also.

 

NE Kansas population is solid. I've had fewer hunts this year owing to loss of access and my geezerly limitations. Have killed many, many squirrels with .22LR, 17Mach2, and 17HMR, just not so many this season.

 

And that is a normal weather cycle, its just the weather.

 

Interestingly, my brother and I took a 250 mile ride on Goldwings Sunday thru miles of hardwood forest. Usually here in the suburbs of Chattanooga and surrounding areas the squirrels are thick. Including all the dumb ones that attack car tires. He commented at one point in our ride that there were no squirrels .....No we are NOT squirrel hunter as we grew up in the wilds of Maine, not much meat on a red squirrel. But we notice things like that. It seemed to be prime habitat and the weather here has been wet the last 2 winters and dry in the summer. Not normal? Seems to be the pattern for the 12 years I have been here.