My ninja skills are improving.

[Boonedocksbear]

Went for a long walk today. I was intent on inspecting some parts of the property I have permission to hunt that I know are rarely visited due to over growth. I always have fantasies of finding some magic clearing in the middle of such jungles, accompanied by a chorus of angels and rays of sunlight shining down as I find "the" hunting spot. I certainly found some very promising spots for ground blinds, 1 exceptionally angry wasp but alas no holy clearing set down on this earth just for me. After about 2 hours of fighting some very affectionate briar patches and honey suckle that could give the local Kudzu a run for its money, I made it to an old logging road near the spot I showed in the very first picture of my picture thread. Old Mr. Squirrel was making his way right down the side of it and failed to notice me exit from the southern jungle, so I proceeded to make a game of seeing how far I could follow him without him spooking. Thus began a game that would have made a good cartoon for kids. The squirrel would scamper along 10-15 yards with me making exaggerated sneaking steps right behind him. He would stop, turn and look at me and I would stand stock still. Even though I was dead center of the road, he apparently found nothing vexing about the 6'4 tree trunk that was keeping pace with him. Now, let me add that I was wearing blue jeans and a blue t-shirt. I'm not sure of the color seeing abilities of a squirrel, but I've always heard that deer can see blue.

That brings me to next part of the story, and the reason for the title of this thread. After 20 or so minutes of inducing schizophrenia in a poor squirrel, I picked up the crunching of leaves in the hardwoods about 40 yards in. I eased up next to an oak tree and began looking, expecting to see another of the 50,000 squirrels that inhabit this hilly area. I spotted a flicker of movement in some low brush. A small patch had popped up on the mostly open hillside and I noticed deer liked to move near or through it during the season. I slid a few more paces as quietly as I could to the next hardwood I could break my outline with. This time I caught a good glimpse of what I was seeing move, it was the tail of a deer flicking back and forth as it browsed. At this point I was a bit shocked. I'm not the most stealthy creature. 6'4 and 300 lbs of man typically isn't considered low profile by any means. Yet seemingly, in my amusing myself with the squirrel, I had managed to get myself within 40 or so yards of a deer. I started paying attention to the wind and realized I had approached from downwind, a blessing since I had loaded up on some garlicky spaghetti for lunch.
Now I was curious. I had always admired my uncle Charles as the man was a ghost in the woods. He can materialize up out of the ground like deer do to me all of the time. Now here I sit, a bright blue unnoticed blob in the woods. Maybe age was teaching me what all the practice in the world failed to in my 20s. So I started easing forward, from tree to tree, to see just how close I could get. It was slow, it was cramp inducing, but it was above all fun. I managed to ooze my way in to about 15 yards out. By now I could see it was 5 deer. 3 larger does and two smaller ones. None where large enough to be am adult buck, so I am making some assumptions here. I watched them for a good 5 minutes before a swirl of wind from the approaching storm clued them in. I smiled widely and waved when 5 heads whipped around in unison to look my direction. The best part is that instead of the break neck run I was expecting, they all turned and trotted slowly away, each looking back occasionally like they couldn't believe it. Who knew an over weight white guy could be a ninja? Here's to you Chris Farley.

[Jack Pine]

LOL! I loved Chris Farley in "Tommy Boy". Boone, the only thing that could have been better in your adventure would have been if the deer had spooked the squirrel and he decided to run up one trunk of the 6' 4" tree standing nearby!

Jack ><>

[Boonedocksbear]

I have had man on squirrel contact twice in my hunting career. The first time was probably about 17 years ago. There is a strip of woods that runs down the side of a highway on my property. Its probably no more than.....30-35 yards wide, a mixture of some old oaks and new undergrowth. It perpetually stays in this state as there are some power lines there and the power company kills the small stuff every few years. I look at the place as a funnel. It allows the deer to cross the road and get to my property without being too exposed. My best friend however views it as "THE" worst hunting spot ever. Nothing I can do can convince him otherwise. I killed a nice 8 point there bout 10 years ago and he jokingly accused me of having shot it else where and dragged it there just to prove him wrong. He in fact has dubbed that stretch "The Outhouse", if that gives you any idea of how he see's it. One morning there I had a squirrel make a jump from one tree right onto my leg. He made his leap of faith from above me, so I never saw it coming. Had I, I might have reacted better. Instead, I did my impression of trying to kick a field goal with a squirrel. That squirrel barked at me for 2 hours straight after that.

The second incident was in a creek bottom about 400 yards from there. In my teens and early twenties I liked to wear a wide brim felt hat when I hunted. Maybe I thought style would fill in the gaps of skill I was lacking. I had already been settled into my climbing stand that early October afternoon for about an hour, when I heard scratching on the bark above me. I knew what that was, and just hoped it was being curious and checking me out and not about to make a fuss for the next 30 minutes. Slowly but surely, the sound crept its way down to right above my head with me trying to not even breath so I wouldn't set off nature's car alarm. Minute after minute passed and I had started to believe that just maybe Ole Mr. Squirrel had jumped to another tree and left me in peace.
*Plop* I felt a weight land on my head. Just.....perfect. I had heard plenty of stories from my dad and uncles about hunters losing parts of fingers to squirrels not as dead as they had first assumed and now, I had a fully viable finger destroying machine ON MY HEAD. So I sat and prayed as hard as I could that God would have mercy on me and the devil tree rat would move on shortly. Of course, I'm not that lucky. The critter poked around the top of my hat for a little bit and then slowly eased forward and peered over the brim of my hat right into my face. This was it, I knew what was coming. It was going to be a scene from one of those comedy movies where the person flails around with a furry critter stuck to their face while screaming, "Get it off! Get it off!". Instead, he purred twice, then clucked once as if to laugh and returned to the top of my head. Turns out squirrels LOVE felt. He came back twice more after that to eat various acorns he had found on the ground. Turned out my hat made a good dinner table/trash can.

[Boonedocksbear]

Those two stories above + every squirrel knowing how to crunch leaves just like a deer walking has fueled my hatred of the tree rats for years.

[Jack Pine]

But they ARE tasty.

Jack ><>

[Boonedocksbear]

Sadly, very few people appreciate that. Even in my rural part of South Carolina. Ton of people will have a rough time if ever they can't go to a grocery store.