CHENANGO COUNTY – One of the most common stories you hear when you ask someone how they got into hunting, is how they hunted squirrels or rabbits as a kid.
Small game hunting can be a great 'blast from the past' if you haven’t gone in awhile and a great way to introduce new hunters to the sport. There typically are two ways to look at small game hunting, before or after deer season.
Squirrel season is one of the first seasons to open, starting on September 1, each year. This allows you to get out into the woods while the weather is still pretty reasonable. Warm weather lets you take youth hunters who might not want to hunt in the extreme cold of winter. Thinning out the squirrels around your favorite tree stand can be beneficial later during deer season while supplying some meat for delicious stew.
Early squirrel hunting can be a little tricky due to heavy leaf cover on the trees that haven’t even begun to think of falling off. Typically a shotgun loaded with #5 or 6 shot will suffice as it has large enough pellets to penetrate through the leaves with enough kinetic energy to remain lethal. Once the leaves start to fall and the tree tops are more open, a .22 rifle with a scope – or iron sight if your eyes are still good – will allow you to shoot a little farther and more accurately.
A single projectile means you won’t find random pieces of shot in the meat later. When hunting squirrels, pay close attention to your back drop when getting ready to shoot. Especially when a squirrel is up in the crown of a tree.
Once October 1, rolls around, rabbit, ruffed grouse, and pheasant seasons open. Rabbit hunting can be tricky without snow on the ground, unless you have a dog that is trained. Ruffed grouse offer a similar problem but only because their preferred method of escape is to run instead of flying. Ruffed grouse tend to stick around young, conifer-dominated forests. This is why they would rather duck underneath everything rather than try to maneuver through the low tree limbs. A dog that can track them down faster than a person can walk will keep them from running too far before deciding that flying might be a better route. You still need to keep up with the dog the best you can and be ready for a quick, small shot window.
The Department of Environmental Conservation stocks pheasants on public access lands, primarily state-owned property such as State Forests or Wildlife Management Areas. You can typically get a list of what properties are going to have pheasants released right from the NYSDEC website.
Again, a dog is extremely useful to sniff out the birds on the ground. However, a group of hunters spaced apart walking through an overgrown field can kick up any pheasants in the field.
