Story by Tom Claycomb III

You know how sometimes you haven’t done something in a long time and when you finally do it again it’s somewhat by chance and find yourself asking, why don’t I do this more often? This recently happened to me.

I had one of the most unique hunts in December 2024 I’ve ever had. Charles Allen, owner of Knives of Alaska invited fellow outdoor writer Ron Spomer and me to come to his ranch in northeast Texas to do some deer and hog hunting.  We were needing more video footage on the Knives of Alaska Professional Boning Knife I’d helped develop.

While there Charles said we’d also do some duck hunting. The knife maker is also a fanatic duck hunter and manages part of his ranch as a primo environment for waterfowl hunting. The Trinity River flows nearby so there are a lot of creeks, flooded timber and sloughs that provide the perfect duck hunting environment!

Then he threw on top of the primary assignment three hunts that included hunting squirrel. There is a lot of thick timber in East Texas and Charles told us he had some excellent squirrel hunting. I didn’t realize what a fanatical squirrel hunter he is.

We had a lot lined up to fill a full week,but for some reason, the closer it got to D-Day, I got more and more excited about squirrel hunting than deer, hog or even duck hunting. Maybe it was because I hadn’t been on a good squirrel hunt since I was a kid some 55 years ago. Then again maybe it’s because it’d be a low-key fun hunt.

Well, I guess a few years ago I did get invited to the first two GAMO Squirrel Master Classics. That was a unique hunt. There were six teams. A writer, TV star and a 4-H kid was on each team. Each team would be hunting with a guide that had a squirrel dog. And these weren’t a bunch of rescued out of the local dog pound mutts. One of the dogs was a six-time World Champion squirrel dog.

The hunt took place at a lodge in Alabama. I didn’t realize what level of fanatic squirrel hunters there are out there!

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