For fast-action hunting, learn to go where the game is
It was a cold winter day, and you could count on one hand the number of squirrels my friend and I had managed to put in our game bags. Actually, two fingers would do: one gray squirrel apiece.
Jimmy Harris and I had been in the woods since well before dawn. We had stalked all through the oaks and hickories scanning the woods for bushytails, but on this day, ’twas not to be. With the wind rippling the treetops at several knots, the squirrels were staying holed up. It was time to move on.
We weren’t about to be skunked, though. On the walk back to the car, Jimmy stomped through a briar patch on the grown-up ditch bank. A pair of cottontails bolted from their forms in the snow.
“There they go!” Jimmy shouted. I wasn’t quite prepared for the sudden flurry of activity. One rabbit squirted out of the brush at my feet, legged it down the ditch 20 yards and popped back into the blackberry thicket before I’d raised my gun.
A single shot boomed out from Jimmy’s 20-gauge farther down the ditch. Wading like a big stork into the tangle, he hoisted a big cottontail for me to see. “What happened to yours, Sutton? Too close or what?” he chided me.
“Or what, I think,” I said. “Didn’t see him in time.”
Fanning out across the ditch, we were soon treated to similar action. The bunnies were thick as hair on a hound’s back, and we had two apiece before we’d gone 100 yards. Needless to say, we spent the remainder of the afternoon rabbit hunting, and with considerable success. When we headed home, we had a total of 12 rabbits, the two squirrels and three bobwhites to boot.
What’s the point of this whole story, you ask? Hopefully, the story puts into perspective what hunting is all about — bagging game. I guarantee you the six, long squirrel-less hours I spent sitting in the woods were totally forgotten during the next four hours of shooting cottontails. To this day, the memory of that hunt is vivid testimony to the idea that you can bag your supper if you’re willing to change your hunting plan and go where the game is.
Regardless of our primary quarry on any given day, whether it is squirrels, rabbits, quail or ducks, our intention is to bag some game. Sure, the aesthetic part of the hunt is important as well, but hopefully, we’ll fill our game bags while we’re enjoying the great outdoors.
This, of course, is not the way it always happens. There are times when the species we’re hunting for simply refuses to cooperate. But if you’re flexible and alert to the many signs and clues that an area may give you, more often than not, you can put some kind of game in your hunting coat and thus have a successful trip.
These signs and clues to wildlife activity will vary from species to species, but most are obvious when you know what to look for.
One of the most important considerations in finding game is habitat.
A good point to remember, and a principle that is hard for hunters to grasp, is that mature forests and wildlife do not go together. Where you have mature forests, there is very little wildlife of any kind — except perhaps squirrels — because of a lack of food. Most game animals| are creatures of “the edge.”
The edge is where two habitat types come together, such as where grassland or an open area abuts a forested area, or where a pond or stream opens up in a woodland. The edge usually means both food and shelter, important needs for game animals.
Quail and other upland game birds will venture into croplands and open areas to feed, but they nest in the edge. Wild turkeys need mature forests for the acorns and other mast, but they also need open grassy areas where their poults can feed on insects. Every brush row is an edge favored by cottontail rabbits. Where there is edge, there is wildlife.
In this great sport of hunting, even the cottontail rabbit, usually considered a cinch to bag, can humble you. It happened to me just a few winters ago. My friend Gene and I were going to mop up on a mess of cottontails I had located. After he had driven nearly 50 miles, we headed for the spot I had described as rabbit heaven. Alas, I had spoken too boldly of the sins we were about to commit against the rabbit population. Three hours and two rabbits later, Gene mentioned something about how he hated cleaning a bunch of rabbits anyway.
I figured it was time to try something different. It’s hard to admit when you’ve been whipped by a bunch of bunnies, but they obviously were not where they had been previously. I knew, though, of a shallow oxbow lake near the St. Francis River that often sported a few teal or mallards. So we swapped the hillsides for the bottoms and started looking for ducks.
Jump-shooting ducks is popular with a lot of Arkansas farm boys. It is best accomplished in an area where there are numerous shallow ponds or marshes if you’re after the dabblers such as mallards, pintails, wood ducks or teal. But even the deeper ponds and lakes will provide plenty of action for scaups, ringnecks, canvasbacks, redheads and other diving ducks.
The place you choose should have enough cover around the edge so you can stalk within shooting range of the birds before they jump. It should also be small enough that the birds won’t have room to swim away if they see you coming.
On this particular day, we made our approach on the downwind side of our lake, which had a heavy cover of small willows. Wading quietly through the ankle-deep water, we could see six green-winged teal feeding just outside the treeline. When we were within range, on my signal, Gene let out a whoop and the birds flushed. Gene picked his birds carefully and dropped one and then another as the birds came overhead.
“That’s was fun!” he exclaimed. “Let’s see if we can get into some more shooting like that.”
So we did. By skipping from one pond to another, during the next three hours, we managed to take a mixed bag of teal, mallards, woodies and scaup. And in the muddy willow flats around the first lake, we added half a dozen snipe. These seldom-sought but tasty wetland birds were an added bonus on a day that started out to be a bust, but ended with two weary, happy hunters and a successful hunting trip.
Whether it is rabbits, squirrels, doves, quails, ducks or anything else, there is almost always some species of game that is active and huntable if you will give them a try. Just be flexible. And go where the game is.