A Washington County gun club tries to rekindle the tradition of small game hunting
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Before anything else, I learned how to walk in the woods — heel to toe quietly rolling slowly over sticks, dead leaves and crunchy snow. I learned to use peripheral vision and all of my senses, not just my eyes, to probe surrounding habitat for movement, colors, shapes, sounds and smells. I learned how a stop-and-go gait could coax unseen animals to run, and the invaluable skill of staying still and silent.
I learned all of that, and probably more, while training to maintain muzzle awareness, being certain of what’s behind my target and instinctively holding my finger on the trigger guard until I intend to fire.
Through direction and example my dad taught me the basics of safe and successful hunting before I squeezed off my first shot at a squirrel with my single-shot 20gauge. Back in the day, small game hunting with beginner sporting arms was a rite of passage for young hunters, required in many outdoors families before being allowed to carry a highpowered rifle on a big game hunt.
At 58, Norm “Junior” Anderson of California, Washington County, said he remembers learning, and earning, his way into deer camp by proving he could safely hunt for cottontail rabbits, grey and fox squirrels, ruffed grouse and ringnecked pheasants.
For 24 years he’s tried to keep that tradition alive by promoting the California Hill Gun Club’s Small Game Hunting Classic. But in that time, he says, things have changed.
“There are no more younger kids coming up to hunt and the old guys passed away. Most kids don’t even hunt anymore and those that do just want to shoot deer,” he said. “I don’t think kids want to kick through briars — they’d rather talk on the cell phone. They don’t need the food — they’d rather go to McDonald’s. They get bored easily.”
Nevertheless, Anderson said he hopes this year’s Classic, held Jan. 20, will inspire hunting mentors to take their young charges back to the basics of squirrel and rabbit hunting.
Pennsylvania’s late small game seasons present challenges and opportunities that don’t exist in October and November. Reopening after Christmas and running through Feb. 28, the squirrel and rabbit hunts occur during the year’s coldest weeks — this year the seasons opened in an historic blizzard that dropped temperatures below a frosty 10 degrees.
The state no longer schedules a late grouse season. The bird was dropped from this year’s Classic.
“With tracks in the snow you know where the dogs have chased the rabbits, and you can get in place for them to come back around,” said Anderson. “But when it’s cooler it burns the dogs out quicker, so you have to be careful of that.”
Eastern cottontail rabbits live in roughly circular and overlapping home ranges that can expand and contract with food availability and weather trends. When chased by dogs, they’ll usually stay within their ranges — recognizing those running patterns can help hunters to stay on rabbit hot spots. Mean temperature is believed to control breeding more than diet, and in Pennsylvania rabbits tend to breed later at higher elevations.
Fox squirrels and their smaller cousins, gray squirrels, are found near hard mast, of course. Acorns and walnuts are favorite foods. But squirrels can fill up on tree buds, pine seeds, bulbs and roots, insects and fungi. Particularly in winter find them near corn fields where they gorge on harvest wastage.
The absence of foliage makes late-season squirrels easier to see, and tracks in fresh snow can give hunters an idea of population density. Both species spend their entire lives in home territories of a few acres, and territories can overlap even among fox squirrels and grays. So unless a major food source is eliminated hunters can return to familiar spots.
Squirrels of both species breed twice a year, generally from December through February and May to June. The first litter is born during the height of the late hunting season in February; the second arrives from June to July.
Anderson said it’s getting harder for Classic participants to find game.
“Problem is, rabbits aren’t around as much as they used to be, and squirrels, too,” he said. “These protections they have now on hawks and eagles and owls, stocking fishers, not controlling coyotes and stray cats, that all cuts into small game because they’re the first thing on the food line.”
Anderson blames the state Game Commission, claiming that by reinstituting predator populations the agency has mismanaged its oversight of small game species.
A Game Commission spokesman was not available for comment.
For decades ecologists have cautioned that while predation is a factor, Pennsylvania’s wildlife populations are falling victim to habitat loss directly related to urban sprawl, resource harvesting and improved farming methods. Pheasants, once an exotic smallgame staple, can rarely find the 2,000 contiguous acres of good habitat needed to maintain a reproducing population. Losses of dense woodlands have depleted grouse numbers. Squirrels relocate when hard mast is removed, and cyclical trends in rabbit reproduction routinely impact ecosystem food cycles.
For 100 years or more, however, science has understood that hunting pressure generally has little long-term impact on populations of small game species with sky-high reproduction rates.
“I just hope some of these young people can get out and experience a good rabbit hunt or take a few squirrels,” said Anderson. “And the older people, they come in and talk about the old times.”