To use squirrel calls effectively, find a hot food source like hickory nuts, black gum trees or acorn trees on which the squirrels are feeding, go there, and use your calls. Call them up, using these tips.

Squirrels will give away their positions when you use a squirrel barker. The call is a small bellows-type model that you pat with your hand, bump on the side of your leg or shake to make the sounds of a barking squirrel. Most squirrel hunters slip into an area where they expect to find squirrels, begin to bark and wait for the squirrels to bark back before they stalk the bushytails.

Know when to bark and when to use the distress call. Although squirrel calling works at any time of day, barking is most productive early in the morning and late in the afternoon. Use a distress call between 9 am and 3 pm. When squirrels hear a distress call, they will leave their hiding places and bark, giving the hunter the opportunity to move in close and take a shot.

Chatter is rapid-fire barking that squirrels do when they spot a hawk, an owl, a bobcat or a fox to let the other squirrels in the area know that there's a predator nearby. Begin by barking when calling squirrels. If you don't get a response, give them the chatter call by holding the plastic tube part of the barker and shaking it back and forth to create a chuckle.

A cutter call sounds like squirrels cutting nuts and uses a plastic screw with a small plastic paddle. Pull the paddle down the threads of the screw, so that the sound resembles short- and high-pitched pops and snaps like a squirrel's cutting an acorn.