Squirrel Memories

Squirrel season’s Saturday start (Sept. 9) stirs up some interesting memories. The earliest of these are ones with my dad.

When rabbit hunting went downhill and he closed his kennel of beagles, Dad decided to introduce me to hunting by chasing squirrels locally. We generally took two sporting arms: a .22 rifle for shots at stationary squirrels and a 20-gauge shotgun for shots at moving targets. Dad was essentially my “gunbearer,” as he tried to set me up to do all of the shooting. The first squirrel I ever shot was with the .22. I was pretty wobbly, and Dad had to steady the rifle so...