Sixteen hunts over three weeks to take her. She was so wiley. Grey squirrel, eyes are dark red with white around edges. She stayed in heavy briars and would run out of trees without lingering. Taken freehand at 35 yards with scope at 7x, .22lr, through a hole in Trifoliate Orange briars. Public land.
Scared to death a hawk would get her.
I've never hunted harder.
Edit: Dang. Albino squirrels have short lives, hawks take them out and they don't live past the first year. This squirrel lived in an island of trees in a field and is likely albino due to inbreeding. The genes are in no way advantageous and are only rare due to the extreme predation they cause.
I regularly eat fish and game that I kill myself. This is the only trophy I've ever taken. Unless you're a vegetarian, I doubt you have the same respect for animals that I do. I've worked in factory farms and understand, at a shit on boots and pants level, the horror involved with most meat that is eaten. Do you?
No, most western folks don't know what it takes to put food on the grocery shelves or into the freezer section. They've no clue to the work involved on the backs of labor and exploitation, and unsanitary conditions/processes all in the name of cheaper labor and higher stock dividends.
Never seen an albino squirrel before. Thanks for sharing!
The attitude is a real shame. It's due to honest ignorance, which is excusable. Being a leftist redneck is lonely.
My girl and I are saving up to purchase a play farm this summer. We plan to raise steers, possibly a hog, yard birds and a deer plot to source all our meat.
Deer, waterfowl, squirrels, turkeys - that's whats here in the Midwest. Hell, if those "super hawgs" come far enough, I'll hunt those as well. At my age of 50+, I'm just now really getting into the "learning" of hunting that I should have done earlier in age.