Winter Squirrels: Late Season Squirrel Hunting Tips & Tricks

For the average hunter, squirrels are only hunted during the fall season or used as game species to pursue before or after deer season. Unfortunately, this mindset has hunters missing out on prime squirrel hunting opportunities during the winter and later parts of squirrel season.

I actually prefer late season squirrel hunting over the early season because all the leaves have fallen, and the squacks are easier for me to spot.

Late Season Squirrel Hunting Tactics

So, let’s start talking about the focus of this post, which is specific late-season tactics for hunting bushy-tails.

Here are my top tactics for winter squirrel hunting:

• Locate and hunt near a den tree
• Hunt late morning and early afternoon
• Hunt crop food sources
• Extend your range with a rimfire rifle

Let me dive a little bit deeper into each of those topics.

Locate and Hunt Near a Den Tree

One way to significantly increase your odds of seeing squirrels when the weather gets cold is to hunt near a tree that squirrels are using as a home.

A den tree is a tree that has natural holes, openings, or nooks and crannies that a squirrel can use for a home. Holes in trees seem to make the best homes, and squirrels will build a soft and warm nest in the hole.

When the temperatures drop, squirrels will sometimes congregate together in these holes to share body heat and stay warm. I’ve seen as many as ten squirrels come out of one hole in late winter.

By hunting around or near one of these den trees, your chances of finding squirrels in cold weather or snow really increases.

Hunt Late Morning and Early Afternoon

When the temperatures were mild at the beginning of squirrel season, it made perfect sense to be in the woods at first light to catch squirrels as they first started moving around.

But, when it gets cold in the winter months, the bushytails begin to change their routine. Instead of coming out at first light to forage for food, the cold causes squirrels to come out later in the morning after the temperature has gone up a bit. The cold also makes them return to their homes earlier than usual as the sun begins to go down.

With late winter hunting, your best bet is to hit the woods around mid-morning and or mid-afternoon. This is when the sun and temperatures are at their highest, and squirrels are more motivated to come out to feed. I typically try to hunt from 10 AM to 12, take a short break for lunch, and then get back out in the woods until near dark. If I’m only hunting in the afternoon, I try to get into the woods around 1 PM and hunt until dusk.

Hunt Crop Food Sources

This particular tactic is only viable if you have access to hunting land with crops planted. Squirrels will eat certain farm crops if available, especially when their natural food sources, like acorns, start dwindling. Some crops, like corn, they actually prefer to eat over their typical sources of food.

Crops like corn (probably the most popular), soybeans (both harvested or unharvested), and peanuts are the most common crops that squirrels will eat in the winter, if available).

Corn is probably the most common one that I see being available in winter, and most of its availability comes from corn remnants leftover from being harvested or picked. I’ve seen squirrels dig through a foot of snow to get to an ear of corn with a few corn kernels left on it.

If you hunt any land with these types of crops planted nearby, there’s a good chance that the squirrels are using them as a late season food source.

Positioning yourself along the field edge or in a position to intercept the squirrels as they travel from their den or nest to the crop to feed is an excellent late-season hunting tactic.

Squirrels also like other crop or garden items, but most won’t be available in winter. Examples of those include pumpkins, cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelon, apples, and pears.

Extend Your Range with a Rimfire

Once the leaves fall off and the hardwood trees become bare, hunters can see much farther in the woods. This becomes a bit of a double-edged sword for hunters, as you can now see squirrels at greater distances, but it also means that they can now see you from greater distances.

One late-season tip that can dramatically increase your chances of success is to start hunting with a rimfire rifle. Or, if you’re already using a rimfire rifle, begin working towards extending your shooting ranges out to distances of 50 yards or more.

By a rimfire rifle, I mean any rifle that is chambered in a rimfire caliber. While the 22 LR is the most popular rimfire caliber in use (and probably in the US), there are other rimfire caliber options, including:

• 22 Magnum
• 17 Mach 2
• 17 HMR

In my humble opinion, any 22 rifle with a scope that can group 5 shots into a 50-cent piece sized circle at 50 yards is accurate enough to shoot squirrels at distances of 50 yards or more.

The 22 Mag, 17M2, or 17 HMR are all viable rounds for squirrels as long as you realize that those calibers damage the meat significantly if you hit a squirrel in the body. The 17 HMR is a laser rimfire round and more than accurate enough to hit a squirrel in the head at distances well beyond 50 yards.

However, I will suggest that you keep your shooting distances within ranges where you are comfortable or have previously shot, as every good hunter strives to make ethical shots, not shots that just wound.

Winter Squirrel Hunting Tips & Tricks

Since I already covered some of my favorite tactics for hunting winter squirrels, here are a few tips, tricks, and suggestions that also be used to increase your odds of success.

Consider a pair of Binoculars

One way to help you bag more bushy-tails late in the season is to start using a pair of binoculars when hunting. The first time I saw a hunting buddy break out a set of binos while we were busytail hunting, I thought it was overkill for squirrels. However, I soon became a believer as he saw about twice the number of limb chickens as I did with my naked eyes.

I picked up a pair of Leupold compact 8×25 binos, and now, I don’t step in the woods without them in my hunting vest. Over the years, I have located so many more squirrels (and other game) compared to what I would have seen with my naked eye.

Binos make it easier to see squirrels that are silhouetted in a tree or seated on the branch. Binos also make it easier to see the tell-tell bush tail of a squirrel when they are not moving. Plus, they are ideal for trying to locate a spooked squirrel that has tried to hide in the top of a tree.

Now, one could argue that you could use a rifle scope to do the same things that binos can do, and you’d technically be correct. However, it’s much easier for me to pull a pair of binos up to my eyes than unsling the rifle and try to check a tree via a scope.

Consider Hunting Mid-day During Snow or Frigid Temps

I previously mentioned that it makes sense to consider changing your hunting times for winter squirrels, but here’s a tip that may help when the temperatures get really cold. When the temperatures plummet during squirrel season, or there’s snow on the ground, consider only hunting during the warmest part of the day, which is usually mid-day.

In some respects, squirrels are no different than people as they don’t like venturing out in the frigid cold any more than we do. However, squirrels do have to eat, and they may only come out to feed when it is as warm as possible.

Try to be in the woods during the warmest part of the day to take advantage of this new feeding schedule.

Look for Sunning Squirrels

Here’s another tip that pairs nicely with the use of binoculars I previously discussed. Although frigid temperatures will keep bushytails in their dens longer than usual, the warmth of the sun can and will bring them out.

In many cases, they want to warm up when first exiting a den or nest, so they will find a spot to sit in the direct sun.

This is commonly called sunning, and squirrels may sit for hours in a sunning position, trying to soak up as much warmth as possible.

However, since most squirrels are sitting motionless in a sunning position, then can be hard to spot. This is where the binoculars really become helpful as they make it much easier to check a knot on a limb that doesn’t quite look right or a tree branch with a bit of tail blowing in the breeze.

One nice thing about sunning squirrels is that they are generally perfectly still, which gives you time to get set up for a nice, solid shot.

Still Hunt Trails and Paths

If hunting on the move is more your thing, here’s a late season tip that may help. Quietly navigating through the woods across the forest floor becomes nearly impossible once the leaves fall off the trees and become dry. I’m pretty sure I sound like a giant water buffalo walking through the woods across dry leaves, so I’m very aware of how challenging it can be to try to creep through the woods quietly.

One trick that I’ve started doing over the years is using some kind of trail, path, dry creek bed, or logging road as my still hunting path. Typically, these trails, paths, or creek beds are covered in fewer leaves, which offers the opportunity to move and hunt just a bit more quietly.

I’m a big fan of dry creek beds because they offer the chance to move quietly but also potentially hide your presence as you move.

Focus on the Ground

While you may see some winter squirrels in the trees, odds are most are going to be on the ground foraging for food. For this reason, I’d spend more time watching the forest floor versus scanning the trees.

All the tree mast has fallen at this time in the season, so there’s very little food for squirrels to eat in trees. Most will have to come down a tree to hunt for food or try to find a cache of nuts that they buried earlier in the year. In the late squirrel season, I probably see three squirrels on the ground for every one squirrel I locate in a tree.

The areas I watch on the ground are fallen logs or trees, brush piles, or any other object on the ground that would make a good squirrel travel path.

I typically make one or two slow scans of the trees with binos, then focus my efforts on the ground.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the best time to go squirrel hunting?

The answer to that question is dependent on the time of year that the squirrels are being hunted. It comes down to two hunting periods of the squirrel season: early season and late season.

Early season squirrels will start coming out at daybreak to feed and head back to the nest or den between 10 and 11 AM (or earlier). Then they will come back out in the early afternoon around 2:30 to 3 PM and stay out until dusk when the sun starts to set. The best time to hunt them is when they are most active, so I’d try to be in the woods at first light to maybe 11 AM, or, for an afternoon hunt, I’d try to be in the woods by 2:30 and hunt until dark.

Late-season tree rats change their behavior based on colder temperatures and weather. During the later parts of the squirrel season, they will begin to come out later and later in the morning after the temperatures start to warm up and may move around throughout most of the day until the temperatures start to drop as the sun begins to set. For late-season squirrels, I’d shoot to get into the woods around 10:30 AM and hunt throughout the day until the late afternoon (with a short break for lunch).

What to wear squirrel hunting?

Squirrels have above-average eyesight compared to most game species, but their vision isn’t quite as sharp as a turkey.

Very similar to the previous question about when to hunt squirrels, I believe that the question about squirrel hunting attire is a two-part question, broken up by the early and later portions of squirrel hunting season.

The leaves are still on the trees in the early part of squirrel season, so visibility is limited for both squirrels and hunters. During that part of the season, I’ve never felt that wearing camo clothing was absolutely essential. I’ve had situations where an unexpected early season hunting opportunity came up, and I hunted squirrels wearing blue jeans and a dark-colored T-shirt. While I was successful in that attire, I typically wear some kind of camouflage clothing on almost all types of hunting.

However, winter squirrels are a different story as the bare trees make visibility much clearer for both the hunter and the squirrel. Plus, squirrels that have survived that far into the season are probably a bit warier in general compared to their cousins who didn’t survive the predators and early season hunters.

For winter squirrel hunting, I would definitely recommend some kind of camo clothing that will help break up your outline and help you blend in with the surroundings. If you hunt snow-covered areas, then some type of snow-based camo variant can be helpful as well.

In my home state of North Carolina, squirrel hunters must wear some kind of orange gear for safety. I prefer to wear an orange hat with orange-based camo patterns to meet the safety requirements. Besides that, one piece of orange, I generally wear camo head to toe.

All that being said, I don’t want to send the message that you can’t successfully hunt squirrels without wearing complete camouflage because that’s not the case.

Do you have to wear orange when squirrel hunting?

The correct answer to this question will depend entirely on the hunting and safety regulations of the state where you hunt. Some states (like my home state of NC) have specific rules requiring at least one piece of orange while hunting tree rats. Other states may not have that particular requirement for squirrels.

Here’s a free piece of advice that I’d like to mention as I get up on my soapbox:

If you’re sharing the woods with other hunters, especially in situations where squirrel season overlaps another season (especially deer season), I’d definitely recommend that you consider wearing something orange, whether it’s a state requirement or not.

What is the best shotgun choke for squirrel hunting?

There isn’t a single best shotgun choke for squirrel hunting that covers every shotgun gauge. If I had to choose one choke for squirrel hunting, I’d go with a modified choke.

If you’ve got a fixed choke shotgun, another way to extend the shotgun range for squirrels is to move down to a larger shot. For example, instead of shooting #6 shot for squirrels, move down to #5 or #4 shot as it will travel farther and hold a tighter pattern at longer distances.

I’d go to a full choke for winter squirrels with a shotgun and move down in shotshell size to increase the potential shooting ranges.