Coffey and Little Stubby with a day's worth of squirrels on the tailgate. (Colin Moore /)
“If that dog trees, you can believe there’s a squirrel up there somewhere.”
Harold Knight sounds convinced as he heads toward the source of the commotion. Voicing an unbroken series of chopping barks, Little Stubby, a mountain feist squirrel dog, is standing on his short hind legs with his forepaws leaning against a tall white oak. He followed a gray squirrel’s scent line or he saw it scamper up the oak. Either way, he’s positive.
More frantic barks implore the hunters to hurry up. Ronnie Coffey and Jeff Cochran are armed with 20-gauge shotguns loaded with high-brass No. 6s and Knight with a very deadly .17 HMR bolt-action Savage. Coffey and Cochran handle the runners and jumpers, while Knight takes care of the bushytails that decide to hunker down.
Little Stubby continues to fidget around the tree as Cochran arrives and begins to shake a grapevine trailing down from the oak. The ensuing commotion in the leafless canopy causes the squirrel to scramble upward a few more feet. This squirrel’s gray coat plastered against the trunk isn’t easy to spot, but Knight finds it through his scope. Knight yells out that he sees it and draws a bead. The rifle cracks and the bushytail tumbles down through the branches.
Harold Knight taking a shot at a squirrel. (Colin Moore /)
Hunting Squirrels in the Winter