almost forgot

[charlie cleveland]

well time must be catching up with me..i always take one of my grand children on the opening of youth season week for squirls..it started this past saturday i went to walmart yesterday and picked up a listing of the upcomeing hunting seasons and found out i was a week behind..would have been bad if i had missed opening day of squirl season...yep its this saturday..went out this morning and took the radiator off my geo tracker new one suppose to be in the morning.even had a dead battery on it..this is my main hunting truck its about as good as a 4 wheeler getting around muddy roads..yep hunting season has just slipped up on mehope you fellows are fareing better... charlie

[CraigThompson]

You need to come an stay with me for a year !

My life now is as if hunting season runs year round . Once the normal season here stops one goes thru the cleaning fixing and putting away stage . Then I leave for a few weeks to visit my wife .

I get back and start doing range work with new acquisitions and old problems . About the time I'm done with that the Damage Control Season starts and so on and so on !

[charlie cleveland]

now staying a year and hunting everday would be a dream come true if i were a little younger i dont think old but the old body wants to be old sometimes...i m gonna carry the johnson and johnson 20 ga this saturday hope i aint messing up..one fella s storey i read a few years ago said you needed the power of the 12 ga to get thru all the leaves and stuff in early season he may be right i hope not...got a 410 winchester pump model 42 i want to try out one day soon gotta get me some shells some way or another i aint got nothing but slugs in the 410..gota put a radiator on my tracker in the morning so im outa here... charlie

[Dennis V. Nix]

Charlie,

I know exactly what you mean about thinking young but my body just feels old sometimes. I mostly feel great but occasionally my arthritis reminds me I am not 23 anymore. This year I will be hunting elk at 9000 feet and I know I will be feeling every step I climb. Fortunately I am still able to tell myself I am doing well. Compared to others I am very blessed.

Dennis

[Richard Flanders]

Roger that on feeling old. Spending half the day at a clinic yesterday getting 2-3 yrs worth of Xray dose looking at my lower back convinced me of that....

[charlie cleveland]

well tommorrow morning is the day i dont need to forget to set the old alarm clock its the opening of north mississippi s squirl season..would normally be taking the 8 ga parker but will not be taking it mainly because of a rotor cup in my left arm thats giving me fits..yep i m taking them aleves dont seem to help though...gona take the johnson 20 ga in the morning wish i had a box of no 5 lead loaded up but dont so will use them dove loads of low brass federal 7 1/2 s i ve killed a lot of squirls with 7 1/2 s but the bigger shot is better...will hunt in small bottoms andedge of hills in the morning till the squirls stop stirring which is about 9.30 to 10.00 then will go to meet the fellows for the squirl cookout..i will eat a leg or two and think about everybody while i m doing it.ha don t expect to run into no fox squirls scarse around my parts... gotta get every thing laid out for tommorrow even got the radiator put on my geo tracker so im good to go... charlie

[Dennis V. Nix]

Charlie, I wish you the very best of luck. Just being there in the woods and shooting a few squirrels sounds pleasurable to me. My brother and I started out hunting when we were 14 hunting squirrels but haven't done it for years. We started with Winchester Model 37 20 gauge guns. They worked great too. I wish I still had that gun but foolishly traded it off for some unknown gun years ago.

Dennis

[charlie cleveland]

as far as i know i ve got everything ready for the hunt..gun cleaned and ready shells and gloves in the hunting bag clothes laid out knee boots by the door skeeter dope in sack..drinking water a apple or two in sack..gona be a good day for sure im all fired up and ready for the sun to come up...will give results soon....charlie

[charlie cleveland]

was up at 4.00 am rechecked all my gearwas ready to go only thing was it was 2 hours to daylight.my granddaughter decided she wanted to go so told her to come on by...at 6.10 we stepped into the backyard and eased into the woods set up under a old den tree. was nt long had 3 squirls cutting acorns i tried to shoy katie where the squirls were but she took a while to spot one. she finally shot and missed i then shot and missed too...we eased on into the woods and spotted 2 more cutting beech mass but suddenly they disappeared and we had to move on..this happened several times the leaves were really dry and 2 people make enough noise that the squirls would just run in the timber..finally katie got a good shot but the gun did not fire nope it were nt a parker it was a charles daly automatic 20 ga...them low power shells we were useing just want cycle in that gun... all told we seen 12 squirls and never got to shoot but that one time each and then we missed. we then came back to the house loaded up and went were all the younger fellows had spent the night in a big river bottom...we got the squirls cleaned them other boys had killed fryed them and potatoes chicken poodle sop gravy a big pan of beans and one fellow made a big peach cobbler...i aint even hungary for supper as i ate to much squirl and gravy and of course peach cobbler... i left them boys at about 3.30and come home i then waited till 5.30 and went out and killed 3 squirls one had a wolf in it...all in all a fine day..the little 20 ga parker will kill a squirl away out there even with those 7 1/2 s..i made 2 shots at about 40 yards dead when they hit the ground..and i ll have to say it was a little lighter to tote than the 8 ga... charlie

[Dennis V. Nix]

Congratulations, Charlie, on your 3 squirrels. That meal sounds just scrumptious with the gravy and peach cobbler. I must say you guys in the South really do things up right with lots of camaraderie. Very nice indeed. Can you explain what you mean when you said one squirrel had a wolf in it? I have not heard that term before.

Dennis

[charlie cleveland]

dennis i do not really know where the term wolf came from but the wolf is really a large grub like worm..i m told a certain type of fly bites the squirl and lays a egg in the bite then the egg hatches and turns to a larvae thenlives in the squirl till it finally falls out as a large grub looking worm..i ve seen up to 5 of these grubs or wolves on a squirl very nasty looking holes they leave in the skin but the squirl survives..the wolves fall out when cold weather comes around..many years ago there was no woves found in a squirl or rabbit i am sure even deer get the wolves but i ve never seen one in a deer but i think thats because cold weatheris only time i get to see a deer up real close...they say its ok to eat a squirl were a wolf has been but i dont eat them if they have had a wolf on them.. youre right about these old southern boys we do it up right when it comes to hunting and eating...come on and well show you how its done... charlie

[Dennis V. Nix]

Charlie, I have found worms like that in rabbits before winter comes. They are pretty gross looking. Now I wait well into winter before shooting rabbits. I don't think I ever found one in a gray squirrel I shot as a kid but that was at least 50 years ago. I am sure my dad would have pointed it out to us though if we had found any in the meat of the squirrels.

Dennis

[charlie cleveland]

well i took off about 3.00 and grabbed the johnson 20 ga and hit the woods...was not long i spied a squirl boy was he barking at me i shot but missed some way and never seen that squirl no more..it had rained this morning so it was easy to walk quitely... i eased on and seen another squirl but got no shot...seen something to my left and it was a small doe eating acorns she finally smelt me and took off...i then crossed a ditch i could hear a squirl barking as i got close he quit barking i waited 30 minutes but he had disappered..right before i moved a flock of crows flew over yep you guessed it rite... i then moved to a big hickory tree that was a den tree stayed there for 2 hours i got 2 squirls at this set up..it was getting late an about time to call it quits and i heard some turkeys clucking i counted 10 differant times of there wings beating the air going up to the roost the last turkey flew up close enough for me to see good...i waited till they settled down and backed up and went around them i did not want to spook them... got home and my gradson had come over and skinned the two squirls for me..boy aint life good...the liile 20 ga has got 5 squirls to its credit so far... and i plan to go tommorrw evening if i can find a spot these boys aint bow hunting our bow season starts in the morning... charlie