![]() Like my friend’s crossbred dog way back when, I don’t mind having versatile hunting dogs. The following fall, she joined my old Brittany (and the beagle too) pursuing wild pheasants. Due to the timing, I started her out on my farm pursuing cottontails, and she fit right into the task assisting my old beagle. A couple winters ago I took the plunge and purchased a young black and brindle female Mountain Cur, that I named Jilly. In a matter of minutes the feists were on yet another squirrel, and I was thoroughly smitten with using what is termed as a “squirrel dog”. It only bounced once on the ground and a feist had it clamped in his jaws and was returning it to his master. Then I heard the sharp crack of Quinn’s short-barreled Ruger, and I turned in time to see the squirrel come tumbling down out of the tree. Before I could get a shot, my squirrel made an exit into a handy hole in a tree trunk. Both rifles are superbly accurate, semi-auto “.22’s” that will get the job done if the shooter does his/her part. Quinn was using a scoped, customized Ruger 10/22, and I was toting a scoped Remington 597. Quinn and I did the same, with him banking right and me to the left. This didn’t fluster the pair feists any, as each instinctively selected a squirrel and fervently stayed with it. Late season fox squirrels aren’t easy, and these did some tree-to-tree transfers, thanks to handy limbs, in opposite directions once we arrived. Quinn and I headed through the woods towards the source of an obviously treed squirrel, which had us ducking under tubing while we plowed through blackberry brambles.īoth feists were circling, yapping and keeping a visual on not one, but two fox squirrels treed in the treetops. ![]() A recent January thaw had just left the woods with a damp and leaf littered floor that offered excellent scenting conditions, and in no time at all the pair of feists cut loose with sharp “yaps” in hot pursuit. Once Quinn released his eager pair of feists in the woods, they immediately started casting about for fresh scent. We all but had a red carpet waiting for us when we arrived. Squirrels simply love to gnaw plenty of holes in the tubing, much to the distress of the landowner. Quinn and I were hunting in a Thumb area maple sugar bush which used plastic tubing to transfer maple sap. A less observant dog would otherwise be jumping up a tree minus the squirrel. They also don’t just jump about the base of tree the squirrel climbed up, but usually stand back a ways and keep an eye on their quarry that could start traveling from tree to tree thanks to overlapping limbs. All tend to vary a bit in physical description, and come in all colors, but they share one thing in common, which is avidly and vocally locating, pursuing and treeing squirrels by using both scent and sight. According to Quinn, squirrel dogs that weigh 30 pounds and less are called feists, and those over 30 pounds are called curs. It was 11 years ago I got a chance to go hunting with an avid squirrel dog fan, Jerry Quinn of Cass City, and his pair of feists. It also has a steadily growing following in more northern states. It is only natural that dogs would be employed to locate and “tree” squirrels, and using what is termed “squirrel dogs” is a time-honored tradition in the south. Squirrel hunting is popular in many States including Michigan, but it is truly a passionate pastime in southern regions of our country. Our single-shot shotguns also had a good workout that day on a literal grand slam of small game (including one rooster pheasant, two rabbits, one woodcock, two grouse and three fox squirrels) thanks to a versatile hunting dog some folks would simply call a mutt. This was certainly my kind of dog, no matter what was entailed in its lineage. ![]() Sure enough, we found the dog standing back howling and circling a tree and looking up at a plump fox squirrel flattening itself out on a tree limb. When my friend eventually said the dog had a squirrel treed, I believed him. When he said it was a pheasant, sure enough it was, and when he said it was a rabbit, yep, it sure was. The dog happily howled after everything it pursued, and my friend would comment on the tone of the howl as to what the dog was chasing. Pheasant season was in full progress, and being farm kids, any small game we encountered in the field would easily satisfy us, and we were with just the right dog for the occasion. Crossbreds for a fact can often be incredible hunters, and this dog was no exception. This stocky dog weighed about 30 pounds and looked pretty much like a beagle with the black and white markings of a Border collie. I was hunting near the Cass River with a friend the same age as me, and we were using his unique hunting dog that was half beagle and half Border collie. The first time that I ever hunted with what I would call a “squirrel dog” was back when I was a kid.
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