Squirrel Shooting in 2023

2022 was kind of a bust for my annual squirrel shooting addiction. I went up once in early March, then on April 14th, I broke my leg. It was a spiral fracture of the tibia right above the ankle. Between the surgery, recovery and rehab, my season was over.

The 2023 season is fast approaching. Steve Sandgren and I have planned a trip to Alturas on March 8. We will be driving our shooting trucks up and staying at a local Hotel. Early indications are that the squirrels are late getting up and there has been snow up there this week and last.

We ended up cancelling our March 8 trip, but we are currently hoping to go up on April 5 and stay for 4 or 5 days. The weather has not gotten much better in the last two weeks. We might end up postponing again.

The trip has been re-scheduled for April 5-8. We both want to be home for Easter Sunday. I spoke with our host yesterday, and some of the fields have been worked up, which will make them mostly un-shootable. We will figure it out when we get there.

Shooting was a bit tougher the year. Our host had taken the best field out of production. When we arrived, it had been ripped up. There were still squirrels in the field, but it was almost impossible to see them, We had 2 half days of shooting and 2 full days, Body counts were at about 400 each for the whole time.

Something was missing this year. I knew when I left Alturas on April 8, I would not be back this year. I am hoping I can again get my mojo back and get excited about 2024 in Alturas. We will see....