Virginia Gets Springn Squirrel Season!

[dovehunter]

I just read in the May issue of "Virginia Wildlife" magazine (pubished by the Va. Dept. of Game & Inland Fisheries) that, starting this year, we are going to get a spring squirrel season. It will run from June 3rd thru June 23rd. That's the good news. The bad news is that it is going to be limited to the Department's own Wildlife Management Areas (and only selected ones at that) - in other words it will be illeagal on private or other public lands. Oh well, maybe now that we have a token spring squirrel season it will be expanded later on.

A bill to allow Sunday hunting also went to our General Assembly this year but never even made it out of committee. Sometimes this overly conservative thinking (at least as it relates to hunting) here in Virginia can be a major pain in the butt!

[Purebred Redneck]

I don't know why many states limit the squirrel season to fall only. There's so many squirrels out there that summer time hunting won't hurt the population at all.
Our season opens may 26th and the first few weeks there will be a few people hunting but after that it's too hot and no one does it anymore (except me).

The only reason I can see for not having the extended season is if the state's conservation lands have quite a bit of traffic on them (hikers, backpackers, primitive camping, horses, etc). It is kinda of a dangerous time of year since the hunter's best option is to walk the established trails to avoid making noise. That's the way you got to do it.