LITTLE ROCK — It may be a few months from the opening of Arkansas’s duck, dove and rabbit hunting seasons, but there’s another reason to keep the shotgun handy now — Arkansas’s squirrel season opens May 15 and it’s a fine time to bag a few bushytails before the summer heat kicks in.
Spring squirrel hunting has been an Arkansas tradition for decades, and typically was available from mid-May through mid-June. In 2013 the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission voted to extend the season for those who wanted to continue pursuing squirrels from May 15 to the end of February, making it one of Arkansas’s longest hunting seasons. Hunters can harvest up to 12 squirrels per day.
Spring season hunting revolves around the food, but instead of searching hickory trees and oaks for nervously twitching tails and listening for the sounds of rodent incisors on acorn hulls, the focus needs to be on the fruit, particularly red mulberries.
It’s not uncommon to find squirrels in spring that have chests and chins stained purple from all of the red mulberries on which they’ve gorged themselves. The key to identifying the trees that hold these magical mulberries is to focus on the leaves. Mulberry trees will have broad, pointed leaves that resemble a heart shape with a flat base. But the leaf also may have a depression in its margin that creates multiple lobes. In fact, a red mulberry tree is one of the only Arkansas trees that typically have a few unlobed leaves, a few leaves with two lobes and other leaves with multiple lobes all at the same time. The mulberries themselves look similar to small blackberry fruits.
Spring squirrel hunting is made for the shotgun. Instead of walking over crunchy, newly fallen leaves, you’ll be walking over spring growth, which is much quieter. Those leaves on the trees make it harder to get a clean shot with a rimfire rifle, but they also let you get much closer to your squirrels than in January when the bushytails can see you a mile away. The shotgun’s limited distance also offers an added bit of safety when the leaves obscure your target’s background in the distance. A 12-gauge or 20-gauge shotgun with a pocketful of shells loaded with No. 6 shot is all it takes to harvest fox squirrels and gray squirrels in spring. Be sure to bring your empty shell hulls back home with you and dispose of them properly with the rest of your trash from the day.
