Hunting squirrels during a drought might be the ultimate test of woodsmanship.
While the Ozarks have gotten more rain than south-central Arkansas the past few months, the woods of Johnson County were as dry as Nick Saban's wit last week during the annual Crutchfield Family Squirrel Hunt near Ozone.
This year's hunt was different because it was the first year that none of our children attended. The lineup consisted of Wayne Crutchfield, Paul Crutchfield and me, which meant we had to do all of the hunting. In the past, that mostly fell to our teenage sons. They quit coming years ago, so the past few years have been more of a camping trip for my daughter Amy and Paul's daughter Sydney, with a little hunting on the side.
This year it was totally our responsibility, but not until after we resolved a dose of camp drama. It actually started on the way to Ozone when Wayne had to stop three times on Interstate 40 to change flat, dry-rotted tires on his camper.
At camp, a blown fuse knocked out all of the camper's electronics. Replacing one fuse restored everything except the water pump. Maybe it was on an independent circuit with a separate fuse, but we couldn't find it. Worse, maybe the pump burned up when Paul tested it by jumping fire between its contacts.
This operation also resulted in destroying the water pump's on/off switch. In practicality it probably wasn't all that big a deal, but it irritated Wayne to the point of obsession.
At the other end of the campground was a couple that said they'd come to Arkansas after a forest fire burned down their home in Montana. They were stranded at the campground until Oct. 1, when a fresh infusion of funds would enable them to continue south to Hot Springs.
After we'd fiddled with the water pump all day Friday, including trips to Clarksville to get parts, Wayne joked that the Montana guy was probably an electrician.
So I asked him, and guess what? He was! It took him about 10 minutes to find the water pump fuse, and then he fabricated a new switch. We had running water in a half-hour.
"There's always 'one more' place to look," he quipped.
It toasted Wayne to a crisp.
He paid the Montanan for his trouble and muttered, "I'd have found it eventually."
We devoted Saturday to hunting. Unlike the previous 10 years, there were lots of squirrels. They were cutting acorns all over the hillsides. They did a lot of barking and fussing, and we saw them rattling branches.
However, the woods were so dry that the slightest step sounded like crinkling cellophane. The squirrels mostly stayed in specific trees, so it was strictly spot-and-stalk hunting to get near them. Each stalk took 35-40 minutes in order to stay silent. One cracked twig or a crunchy footfall shut them up and often made them retreat.
I had just the medicine for that situation. I brought a Remington VersaMax with a full choke tube and a box of Remington Express Long Range High-Brass No. 6 loads. That combination throws an intensely tight pattern. Its effectiveness on distant squirrels suggests it would be doubly lethal on turkeys.
The three of us started the morning by converging on a group of squirrels chattering in a cluster of oaks. Wayne and Paul each got one before I was in position.
We split up, and I stalked another squirrel in a narrow ravine. I hate that kind of approach because the squirrel might be just a few feet above eye level when you shoot it, but it will fall 60-80 feet down into a thick tangle of rocks and logs.
The squirrel went silent and still, but I pinpointed its tree. I approached as close as I dared and waited. I finally saw some leaves shudder, and then I saw a flash of movement along a branch. It was a gray squirrel that started down the tree trunk and stopped. Its tail twitched like rippling water.
The muzzle blast roared across the hollow like thunder and seemed to reverberate forever. It was a clean kill and an easy retrieve.
We finished the morning with three hard-earned squirrels and then repeated the performance in the afternoon. It was some of the hardest hunting I've ever done, but it was also some of the most satisfying.
Seven squirrels among three hunters in a day doesn't seem like much, but it's exhilarating to sneak up on game that has such a lopsided home-field advantage.
Sports on 10/08/2015