| July 29, 2008 |
| Squirrel season opens Friday |
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The glory days of squirrel hunting are past. Sort of. In terms of numbers of squirrels shot and numbers of hunting chasing squirrels, bushytail hunting is in a steady decline in Illinois. Friday’s season opener in the state will probably be met with little excitement in most circles. Last year an estimated 50,276 hunters stalked fox squirrels and 43,992 went out after grey squirrels. That’s down markedly from 1991 when 127,558 hunters spent time in the timber hoping to bag a fox squirrel. The harvest in 2007 was 348,791 fox squirrels and 395,401 grey squirrels—down from 1.2 million fox squirrels and 713,000 greys in 1988. But that trend is a bit deceptive. Because there are still plenty of squirrels to hunt in the timber of Illinois. The reason for the drop in participation is partly because hunting has changed overall. Nowadays everybody is a deer hunter. Or a turkey hunter. Or a duck hunter. But there are fewer and fewer folks in the sport who spend time chasing small game like squirrels. Part of the reason for that is that it’s harder to find places to hunt as more and more ground is leased or spoken for as “deer ground.” Bow season is still two months away and while a few squirrel hunters on the property probably won’t drive all the deer away, many are unwilling to take that chance. Or they are too busy getting ready for deer season to spend time stalking squirrels. Either way, Friday’s season-opening turnout will probably be light. But for those who still enjoy bagging bushytails, here’s a reprint of a September 2005 story about Farmington small-game hunter Brian Efnor. Carrying on a small-game tradition ASTORIA - Leaves moved above us and the sound of claws scratching tree bark grew closer. Moments earlier, Brian Efnor (pictured above scanning for squirrels in a Fulton County forest) had positioned me perfectly with a series of hand motions. When the squirrel finally showed itself, all I had to do was look up and squeeze the trigger. Five minutes into our hunt I had my first gray squirrel. And Farmington resident Efnor had the same grin he wears whenever he discusses bushytail hunting. Unlike most of his peers, Efnor is first and foremost a squirrel hunter. That he also owns a beagle and chases rabbits makes Efnor, 38, even more of a throwback to a style of hunting that is steadily disappearing. While participation in turkey and deer hunting increases, the exact opposite is happening in the world of small game. Once the backbone of Illinois hunting, squirrels, rabbits, quail and pheasants are forgotten species pursued by an ever-dwindling number of hunters. And while small-game hunting participation bumped up a bit last year, few expect that trend to continue. In the case of quail and pheasants, much of that decline can be explained by a concurrent decline in bird numbers. To some extent that’s true even for rabbits. Not so for squirrels, as Efnor proved on a recent September morning. Hunting an old oak-hickory timber near the border of Schuyler and Fulton counties, we heard squirrels almost everywhere we stopped to listen. The same thing is true in timbers all over Illinois. Squirrels are scurrying about in ample numbers. Squirrel hunters are not. Efnor knows only a handful of fellow bushytail chasers. “And most of them drop squirrel hunting once other seasons come in,” Efnor said, shrugging his shoulders. “I’m kind of glad a lot of people aren’t in on it. There’s more room for me.” Most years he chases squirrels from Labor Day through January, skipping the first month of the season because of the heat. At 6-foot-7, Efnor has an advantage when it comes to searching tree tops. Over the years he has also perfected his calling technique. During our hunt he and an angry gray squirrel chattered back and forth at each other for nearly 15 minutes. “That’s why I hunt,” he said. Season length is another reason Efnor enjoys squirrel hunting. So is tradition. He started squirrel hunting as a youngster growing up outside of Bradford, where he also played basketball, trapped and ran bank poles along the Spoon River. “Before any of us were old enough to drive we’d grab a .22, walk to the nearest lot, shoot a few squirrels and walk home,” he said. Back then, Efnor had plenty of company. In 1978, the state estimates 160,905 hunters chased fox squirrels and another 102,000 hunted grays. By last year there were 77,000 fox squirrel hunters and 64,000 who stalked grays. Part of the problem is tradition. Hunting squirrels was once stressed to youngsters, but that’s no longer true. Finding hunting land is harder, too, since many who lease or buy land for deer and turkeys do not welcome squirrel hunters. “You can’t make money off a 15-inch squirrel. But you sure can off a 15-point buck,” Efnor said. “Everybody wants to deer hunt. My daughter even wants to deer hunt.” Eventually, 10-year-old Avery Efnor may get that opportunity. First, dad wants to teach her the ways of the squirrel woods. He wants her to learn how to listen for the sound of nuts falling and branches being cut. How to wait patiently under an oak tree. How to walk quietly through the woods and finally how to shoot accurately. With that in mind, he recently purchased a 20-gauge shotgun for his daughter. While he shoots a .22 rifle after the leaves fall, Efnor uses a blackpowder rifle loaded with No. 6 shot early in the season. During our hunt, he fired his muzzleloader once, letting me take the other shots. Watching smoke billow around Efnor after that shot was one more reminder of his status as a throwback.
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Read the full story at Prairie State Outdoors
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