456 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March 21, 1908. 
Squirrel Shooting. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
To those sportsmen who have hunted big 
game the account of such a thing as a squirrel 
hunt will be of little interest, but to those who 
like myself do not have the opportunity nor the 
wherewithal to go quite a distance for game of 
the larger kinds, this article may be a trifle in¬ 
teresting. 
On the day after Christmas, wishing to- give 
my boy Peleg a little instruction in squirrel 
hunting besides having a little sport myself, we 
started for a swamp four miles from Asbury 
Park. The swamp is almost inaccessible on 
account of brush, prickly and twisty vines and 
standing water, so much so that hunters rarely 
go in there. It is very heavily wooded with big 
gum trees, swamp white oaks and other species 
of trees indigenous to lowlands. Peleg took 
along the shotgun and I the .32-20 caliber rifle. 
That kind of a rifle is not the ideal one for 
squirrel shooting, for the flat nosed ball is very 
apt to mangle the game if shot through the 
body. The rifle that I generally use for that 
purpose—a .32 caliber rim fire—was at my board¬ 
ing place in Milhurst, N. J. 
Having reached the swamp and given Peleg 
some points on hunting the game, one of which 
was that he was to keep perfectly still, and an¬ 
other that under no circumstances must he 
gather the squirrels until we were ready to leave 
the swamp, or that part of it, I left him seated 
upon a little mound at the foot of a gigantic 
gum tree, and having gone two hundred yards 
beyond, and selected another big gum with a 
mound at its base, I placed a few dry sticks 
there, and putting my waterproof game bag on 
them and donning my thick overcoat, I seated 
myself with rifle across my lap and waited 
patiently for game. 
After half an hour I saw two large squirrels 
near the top of a big oak to the right of me, 
and as I had to change my position a bit in 
order to get a bead on them the sticks under me 
cracked and that sent the squirrels out of sight 
in a jiffy. Waiting a little while after having 
•changed my position I saw a head just peep¬ 
ing above a limb near the trunk; then the old 
rifle cracked and the squirrel tumbled, shot 
through the head. Not long after I saw the 
other crawling up a limb near the top of the 
tree. Soon he lay still on the upper side of 
the limb, which was about the size of one’s arm. 
Knowing that a ball would easily go through 
that branch I let drive and he came sprawling 
•down, shot through the body. 
After waiting quite a while I saw another 
squirrel perched near the top of a hollow gum 
thirty yards or more to the left and a splendid 
shot he was. Taking deliberate aim I also got 
him with a ball through the body. 
At intervals during this time I could hear the 
bang of the old gun and thus felt sure that game 
was either quite plentiful off there or else the 
boy was doing some loose shooting. As it was 
then getting late in the afternoon and seeing 
two big fellows off in a tall swamp white oak 
I concluded we would try to get them and then 
start for home; so whistling for the boy to come 
I motioned for him to go around the other side 
of the tree. 
No sooner done when he fired again and down 
came one of the squirrels. Just then the other 
near the top flopped round on the side of the 
tree nearest me and in plain sight. With a well 
directed shot I brought him to the ground. 
After having gathered the two we went back 
where we gathered the others, in all nine good 
sized ones, he having shot five of them with 
six shells, and I the others—a good afternoon’s 
work. 
A much prouder lad I never saw than was 
Peleg as he shouldered the bag of game—he 
wanted to carry the whole business—and started 
for home, which we made along in the early 
evening. 
In squirrel shooting, hunters and even boys 
will tell one just exactly how to get the game. 
They will say, “Go very early in the morning 
or toward evening to a good place for squirrels 
and keep perfectly still; then the game will show 
up and one will be quite sure to get some.” But 
how many do so? Not one in a dozen. This 
is the way they generally do. Go out toward 
night—seldom if ever in early morning; they 
do not get up in time—get a good place perhaps, 
keep perfectly quiet for a little while, and see¬ 
ing'no squirrels the hunter then goes to another 
place, tries the same tactics there, and so on till 
nearly night, then shoots into three or four 
nests, empty ones generally, and at last starts 
for home minus game and vowing there are no 
squirrels in that woods. 
Most squirrel hunters, boys especially, who 
use the rifle, have a very light magazine .22 
caliber, and in the greater number of cases, 
even if they made a good shot, the game, unless 
hit in a vital part, will get away, as the ball is 
too small; whereas a .32 caliber rimfire is just 
about right, and if the game is fairly hit it is 
generally secured. 
From boyhood to the present time I have been 
accustomed to using a heavy rifle, having owned 
in youth a long heavy muzzleloading Kentucky 
arm, and the two rifles I now have are both 
single shots and each is g l / 2 pounds in weight. 
I have had them both over twenty years and 
even now would not exchange them for any 
others I know of. 
During my life at many different times I have 
put in quite a long time each day at still-hunt¬ 
ing in the woods without getting even a shot 
at game. I never count the time as lost by any 
means, for I, like other lovers of nature and 
woodsloafers, can learn more or less of her in¬ 
animate secrets and also can learn much of the 
ways of her little wood folk by getting a good 
spot in the right place and keeping perfectly 
quiet. A. L. L. 
The Campfire Club. 
At its annual dinner last week the Campfire 
Club of America elected as governors William T. 
Hornaday, William E. Coffin, Edmund Seymour, 
Irving Bacheller and Dan Beard, this board to 
serve for three years. 
Gifford Pinchot, National Forester, told of the 
work his department is performing. Mr. Horna¬ 
day talked on the importance of forest and game 
preservation, and President Anderson reviewed 
the work the members of the club are endeavor¬ 
ing to perform along similar lines. Dr. T. K. 
Tuthill told of the efforts of members to obtain 
reliable information regarding hunting resorts 
and guides, and to enlist the services of the 
guides in assisting to preserve game and forests. 
Protection in North Carolina. 
Raleigh, N. C., March 14. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: The hunting season ended all over the 
State Feb. 28, except in a few counties in which 
it ends March 31, Mecklenburg being one of 
these. Returns from the wardens in various 
sections where quail are hunted show that less 
than the average number of birds have been 
killed, and that the number exposed for sale in 
the markets has been smaller than usual. It is 
certain that there was a big crop of birds when 
the season began, and that many are left over. 
One warden says that within the past few days 
one hunter found in the course of a morning 
seven large coveys, from which apparently no 
birds worth'speaking of had been taken. 
The number of hunters from outside the State, 
who are required to pay the $10 gun tax, has 
been from 30 to 40 per cent, less than it was the 
previous season. A great many sportsmen in 
the North who have been in the habit of com¬ 
ing here wrote to Secretary Pearson of the 
Audubon Society or to various wardens, saying 
that the money troubles kept them away from 
North Carolina, and that they deplored this 
fact. Nearly all who thus wrote spoke in very 
high terms of this State as a remarkably good 
one for quail. 
The weather has been cold and rainy since 
mid-January, and the amount of hunting has 
been much smaller than usual. Some of the 
wardens say the Audubon law has been well 
kept. 
As the falling off from revenue by the gun 
tax has been so marked, the Audubon Society 
has tried hard to secure contributing members, 
and during the summer and autumn, an effort 
will be made to create sentiment for the enact¬ 
ment of a law by the next Legislature in favor 
of a license tax of $2 by local hunters in towns; 
this not to be paid by landowners. Gilbert 
Pearson has found the city and town sportsmen 
more and more inclined toward this plan, as 
they think it will tend to further • eliminate the 
pot-hunter. The latter has come to be very 
much disliked by the farmers. 
Most sportsmen who come to this State from 
other points have an idea that more birds are 
to be found west of Raleigh than anywhere else, 
but Elias Carr, of the Agricultural Department, 
says he has never seen them more abundant 
than they are on the great plantations in Edge¬ 
combe county, east of here. 
Governor Glenn is always prepared to do 
everything he can to aid in the movement. 
The reports of wardens make a good showing 
as to work done during the past twelve months 
in care of song birds, etc. Robins have usually 
appeared in the State in large numbers in late 
February, but so far none worth speaking of 
have shown themselves. In South Carolina and 
Georgia vast numbers of doves are baited and 
killed, in some cases thousands in the course of 
a day, but this has never been done in North 
Carolina. If the robins come later they will 
escape destruction, since the season in which 
they ate allowed to be killed ended Feb. 28, 
they being included among the protected birds. 
The most interesting thing perhaps, in all this 
matter is the fondness for birds which has come 
to the farmers. It required some time to edu¬ 
cate them, but a great deal of the good result 
is due to the public schools and to the circula- 
