September Squirrel Hunting Tips: Early-Season Tactics

September squirrel season is open across much of the country, and for hunters who like action without the crowds, it is the best small-game hunting of the year. Early-season squirrels are active, edible, and spread through every hardwood stand in America — but hunting them in September is different than hunting them in November. The leaves are still on, the woods are warm, and the squirrels are keyed on early mast. Adjust your tactics and you can fill a limit most mornings.

Start With the Early Mast

In September, squirrels are feeding on whatever is dropping first, and that changes the whole setup. Hickory nuts, pecans, and early white oak acorns are the top early-season foods across most of the South and Midwest, so find those trees and you find the squirrels. Look for hickories and pecans along creek bottoms and field edges, and check white oaks on ridges where the first acorns are falling.

Listen before you look. A squirrel cutting hickory nuts sounds like a light rain of shell fragments pattering through the leaves, and you can often pinpoint a feeding squirrel from 100 yards away by the sound alone. When you hear cutting, mark the tree and ease in — the squirrel will usually be sitting on a branch or in a fork working a nut.

Still-Hunt the Leafy Woods

With the canopy still full, you rarely see a squirrel until it moves, so September hunting is mostly still-hunting: take a few slow steps, stop, watch, and listen. Move into the wind and use the cover of trunks to break up your outline. In thick timber, sitting still against a tree for 20 to 30 minutes near a known feeding area produces more shots than walking all morning.

The first two hours of daylight and the last two before dark are the prime feeding windows, but September squirrels also move through the middle of the day on overcast or cool mornings. A warm, still afternoon is the toughest time — use it to scout new woods or to squirrel hunt with a small-caliber rifle from a comfortable seat where you can watch several trees at once.

Gear and Shot Selection for Early Season

A scoped .22 rifle is the classic squirrel rig and gives you head-shot precision in open timber, while a 12- or 20-gauge loaded with #6 shot is the better choice in thick cover where shots are quick and leaves blur the sight picture. Early-season hunters should also pack light — bug spray, a small daypack, and water matter more in September than heavy camo, since a seated, motionless hunter in muted clothing blends into the woods just fine.

Keep your shots low and take only broadside or quartering shots at squirrels in a tree. A squirrel shot high in a leafy oak can hang up in a fork and be nearly impossible to recover, so wait for a clean angle.

Calling, Barking, and Stalking

Squirrel calls work better in September than most hunters realize. A few soft barks from a handheld call will often pull a curious squirrel out of a den or across a limb for a look. The trick is calling sparingly: two or three barks, then silence for five minutes, repeated while you sit tight.

Stalking cutting squirrels is the other reliable pattern. When you hear one feeding, freeze, pick a route that keeps a tree trunk between you and the squirrel, and move only while it is chewing — the chewing masks the sound of your steps. Squirrels have sharp eyes, so stop whenever the cutting stops.

Know Your Season and Limits

Squirrel seasons, bag limits, and license requirements vary by state, and September openers differ across the country — some states have been open since late May, while others open in September or October. Before you hunt, check the dates and daily limits for your state in our squirrel season dates rundown and confirm the current rules with your state wildlife agency. Most states require a small game license, and many require hunters to wear hunter orange only during firearms deer seasons, so a September squirrel hunt is usually a light, informal affair.

Early-season squirrel hunting is the perfect warm-up for the fall — it sharpens your woods craft, patterns the timber before deer season, and puts meat in the freezer. Find the hickories, sit still, and listen. The bushytails will come to you.