He also told me he bought a new set of those cool electronic ear protectors. When you’re wearing them, you can hear everything that is going on around you, but they block the sound when the gun goes off. He says it’s really cool to be able to shoot a squirrel and still hear the ballistic tip pop the squirrel. A hollow point or ballistic tip entering a furry little body makes a very satisfying sound, but most of the time you can’t hear it over the ear plugs.

The Verminator and I are going squirrel hunting in Wallowa next weekend, and I’ll post how that was when I get back.

SquirrelSniper

But, I did end up killing a couple of squirrels anyway. I was driving along, minding my own business, when into my sight, around a curve in the road, came 3 ground squirrels. One of the squirrels was alongside the road, and the other two squirrels were in the middle of the road; just on my side of the yellow line.

The two squirrels in the middle of the road were facing my left front wheel and doing the nasty at a high rate of speed. (I think the squirrel on the side of the road was either watching or waiting for his turn.) I decided that I should make sure that they practiced safe sex and used birth control, so I gave them a rubber. Unfortunately for them, it was the rubber on my tire, which kind of killed the “safe” in safe sex, since neither squirrel lived. LOL

Back to the squirrel hunting issue though. I think that there are probably a ton of California ground squirrels along highway 97 between Goldendale and Toppenish. I know there’s a bunch of them from Christmas Valley in Oregon all the way to Biggs Junction, so it makes sense that they would have crossed the Columbia River at Biggs and headed north to Yakima. That’s obviously why there are California ground squirrels in only 2 Washington counties; they haven’t had time to spread yet.

I will attempt to get back over there before the end of July when they start to hibernate, but if I don’t, there’s always next year. In the meantime, I should have tape later in the week from a squirrel hunting trip that some guys I know took to Enterprise, Oregon; I’ll let you know.

Hmmm, if my wife’s family could read, I’d be in trouble about now, but since they are all from Idaho, no worries. (Lord, am I getting myself in deeper and deeper or what? I better take my Bushmaster .223 and a 1000 rounds of ammunition just to cover my back side; since the Verminator is my wife’s brother.)

Back to Yakima. Yakima, as a previous post showed, has a concentration of California ground squirrels, and, like all of the other crap moving into Washington and Oregon from California, they need to be shot. (“Shoot a tree hugger, shoot a tree hugger.” Once again sung to the “I’m a wheel watcher” song from the Wheel of Fortune.) (Do you get the idea that I just sit around and watch TV, scratch myself and shoot squirrels while eating Twinkies? Yea, I come across like that don’t I?)

Wow, I can’t seem to stay on topic here.

Lets keep this short and on topic:

• I’m going to Yakima, Washington.
• I’m going to find squirrels.
• I will take pictures of said squirrels (Pause for dramatic affect…)
• WHILE SHOOTING THEM!
• Muuuaaaahhhhhhhaaaaahhhhhaaaaahhhhhhaaaaa!
• I will post the video here next week.
• The end.

SquirrelSniper

If you look at this map on the U.S. Census Bureau’s “Washington County Selection Map“, then you see that the two counties that have the squirrels are Klickitat and Yakima counties. Here is a list of towns in Klickitat County and Yakima County. If you are from one of these areas, please email or post information about how the hunting is and where traveling squirrel hunters should try their luck first. (Pretty Please!)

The map was acompanied with this information provided by Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife:
“California ground squirrels have large heads and stout bodies. Their upperparts are gray-brown with light flecks and the belly is offwhite. A triangle of dark fur on the back contrasts with white-tinged shoulders. Their tails are gray above and off-white below, and can be narrow or bushy.”

“They may be seen in trees, but spend most of their time on the ground, where they run belly to the ground. This species entered Washington in 1912 when bridges were built across the Columbia River. California ground squirrels, also called “gray diggers”, are hunted in Washington; special care should be taken to distinguish between these and western gray squirrels.”

Here are a couple of pictures from WDFW’s Website showing the difference between the Western Grey Squirrel and the California Ground Squirrel.