doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Much ado about one squirrel

My favorite squirrel gun is a CSMC Ansley Fox F Grade .22 long rifle with a Leupold 2 1/2 X 8 mounted in custom claw mounts and standard velocity solid bullet loads. Unfortunately, I don't own this gun, but would like to. In the meantime, I am using my RWS Diana .177 with Redfield 4X scope.

My favorite squirrel rifle is a BSA Martini .22 single shot, metal work by Brian Burgin, engraving by Ken Hurst, topped with a Leupold 6x scope. Lovely little piece.

Shoot them with anything you have. You can put hair on a rat's tail, but it is still a rat.
Mike

They can be vicious when in a pack



Gun of choice



Knock 'em outa the tree with them 42" barrels

A young fried squirrel is some very fine eating. For years I hunted them diligently. My favorite was a good .22 shooting sub-sonic LR solids. Hollow points to me were too destructive of the meat & unnecessary for clean kills. The sonic crack from High Speed shells will clear the woods far, far quicker than the report of a 12ga shotgun. I have killed quite a few with shotguns as well. Here I prefer anything from 12 to 20 with either 1oz or 1 1/8oz of either 5's or 6's. At one point in my youth I owned an 870 pump with Poly Choke. It was a great squirrel gun but was absolutely the only thing I ever liked it for. It didn't "Point" like a double but more "Aimed" like a rifle which was fine for squirrels. It was generally loaded with the old heavy field load of 2�de-1oz-6. Certain members of my family thought squirrel brains a delicacy & preferred me to use the shotgun as when shooting the .22 I insisted on head shots. Personally the back was my favorite piece. A lot of folks like Squirrel & Dumplings but to me if it was too old & tough to fry it wasn't worth eating.

When I was a kid in Illinois I hunted them illegally with a .22 the state required shotguns only. Finally, I found a muzzle loading 20 gauge single shot shotgun that was great for squirrels.

Steve

Head shots with a .22 are best for meat hunting squirrels. Pest squirrels in residential neighborhoods can be eliminated with a good. 177 pellet rifle and brain shots. But where any shooting is a problem, squirrels absolutely love D-Con mouse poison mixed with just enough peanut butter to make it tasty. Then they eat enough in one meal to get a lethal dose. Raccoons also find it irresistible. Of course, you can't place it where pets can get to it. I'm lucky enough to live in the country where I can shoot most anything right out of my house.

Annie my French Britt has killed two squirrels and the odd thing is that both could have escaped and both chose to fight.

Good for your Brit! Mine is gone now but for her entire life she endeavored to get a hold of the squirrels in my sister's yard which are there in good numbers for her generous bird feeder. The Brit never got one as no matter the approach she chose the squirrels had too much early warning and a very short distance to a tree or tall wood fence. She did unfortunately mistake a black and white animal with a similar appearance to a squirrel only to get "skunked" at point blank range.

Setters vs. one wily Kansas squirrel