My ol' reliable Remington 552 Speedmaster with CCI HV short hollow points still works great. Very quiet, very deadly. Two head shots in 80 ft pine in my front yard in past 24 hours. Also, cannot say enough about the $100 Hawke 3x9 scope on it. What's your choice of firearm?
JR

Right now I run a Ruger American Heavy Barrel, 4x12 Bushnell scope, RWS subsonic Hollow points and a suppressor. I lazed my bird feeder and its exactly 17 yards to the tree. so I zeroed at 17 yds. I can shoot their eye out . The RWS is super accurate and suppressed is quieter than an air rifle.

my next one that I have to get set up and zeroed is a Vudoo Model Sinister 22 Bolt action, HB, with Vortex 5x25 PST II scope and suppressor. initial testing indicates one hole at 50 yds. better be for the price they get for them

Anschutz 54 sporter with Kahles rimfire scope. Extremely accurate gun.

My Remington 541 with CCI Quiet LR length will hold a red squirrel brain size group out to 25 yards. That is the maximum range required. These will also penetrate a half-inch piece of plywood at that range and are as titled, quiet.

While it has a terrible trigger, I will offer that Aguilla 60 grain subsonics will cycle in a Ruger 10-22, but with the trigger, as it is I haven't figured out a purpose.

Just to maintain my status here on the board I'll mention too that red squirrels are good eating and much easier to skin than greys.

I use a Hamilton boys rifle, a water bottle, and cb caps.

The most amazing thing I've seen lately was a rifle a friend, who was visiting here from Biloxi, brought with him .......a Huben semi-automatic air rifle. It is a 19 shot and has a range compensating scope. He head shot three squirrels at 75+ yards without a miss. Deadly ......... but with a serious price.

Unless I am mistaken, John, I gave you a recommendation on the 552, long ago, on the old Shooting Sportsman board. My copy, a BDL version from perhaps 1975, is at least as accurate as my 581 Remington .22 bolt gun. Shooting standard velocity Eley solid points, the LR version, yields very satisfying accuracy.

Dad’s (now, my son’s) Remington 241 is an also ran compared to the other two, but, as a takedown gun, it is accurate enough to pot bunnies and squirrels. I’ve done it, just not recently.

70s vintage K4 on the 552. Same vintage 4X Marksman on the 581, and a Bushnell 1.5 X 5 on the 241. The scope is no longer optional for me.

My 552 replaced a Ruger 10-22, and, at the time, the Remington was a revelation. Full sized, good trigger, truly able to eat any ammunition I had, and, as a kid that was a motley collection of garage sale and end of season closeout stuff from Target, or, the Holiday gas station.

Target used to sell ammunition.

Best,
Ted

Lots of squirrel guns to choose from. Here are some favorites






And of course, the King of Squirrel Rifles

I was using an air rifle (GAMO Whisperer) but the scope on it became problematic so... I reverted back to a low end Mossberg single-shot and sub-sonic .22s. Need to work on that air gun.

I live in the city limits of a small town and have around 20-30 acres of woods behind my house.
I have a bird feeder 18 yards out me back door, I quit counting at 400+ squirrels killed a few years ago.
My weapons of choice are air rifles, several break barrels, but my killing machine is a .22 PCP, it is very very accurate and whisper quiet.

I'll go with a little different twist on it, Ground squirrels can be a high volume shoot. A mildly gussied up 10-22 with a bunch of preloaded mags fits the bill. It has a short barrel to get in and out of the truck window without hanging up, and a decent 1-8x scope that I can shoot like a red dot when it's low or out to about a hundred and twenty-fiveish yards, consistently, with good but not too expensive ammo. I usually forget to put the brass catcher on, and it takes a while to pick up empties off the truck floor. Who knows how many cases are in the dash vents. I'll have other 22LRs along, maybe one or two bolt rifles, usually an old single shot, almost always have my favorite revolver ready to go, but the little Ruger gets the nod.

Can you recommend some models that have a good trigger?

So many airguns don't.

My 1948 era M63 Winchester 23" barrel, Weaver 4x scope and CCI mini-mags-- as we used to call accurate rifles in the USMC, it's a "dinger" Old bit of wisdom- "If you want to be a good deer hunter, first become a very good squirrel hunter. RWTF

Yes you did, Ted. Thanks again.
JR

Remington model 12C with a Lyman peep sight. I am starting to need more than a simple peep sight and have a period scope being rebuilt. Once returned I’ll put it on another model 12 C. I love those octagonal barrels. Not a tack driver, but under 50 yards a still squirrel, is a dead squirrel. Mine shoots standard velocity rounds the best, with dime size groups at 25 yards with a Lyman peep sight.

Livermore do you mean the tiny red squirrels or what we call Fox squirrels that are the same size or even a bit bigger than grays? Both are fine eating.

You HAVE to use an air gun specific scope on an air rifle. They will destroy a typical rifle scope in short order. Do no try to cheat this.

Best,
Ted

As I understand it, you're absolutely right Ted. But this one came with the gun as part of the package. Not sure exactly what happened but it began spraying shots all over the target, so I abandoned it for the iron sights on the gun. That worked well-enough, but as Stan also mentioned, the triggers on these air-guns can be pretty spotty too. Moreover, this Spanish .177 caliber unit also can be very destructive to whatever the critter happens to be on or next too (like the siding or tiles on my home) thus my present abandonment for the sub-sonic stuff or even the far-noisier birdshot.

Looks to me like this is what one needs for arboreal rats --

Umarex .22 caliber pellet rifle. 1050fps with 25 grain pellets. Suppressed so very quite for neighbors and deadly. For the really BIG Vermin .30 caliber Umarex 44 grain pellets 950 fps. Not so quite but great fun.

Hal, I mean the ones that destroyed my shed and people hate getting in their attics. They will also eat the wiring harness of your vehicles.

https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Mammals/Red-Squirrel

I have a Daisy Powerline BB/pellet gun, not sure of the model, but, it has a rifled barrel. They come, or, came, either way. The 552, loaded with CB caps, is quieter. No, they don’t cycle the action, but, dead varmints don’t notice that from what I can see.


Best,
Ted

One reasons chipmunks and red squirrels eat the coating from electrical circuit wiring is that the coatings are made from a soybean extract-- the little buggers are attracted to that--RWTF

I’ve got a squirrel hit man. I watched the Neighbor hood Bobcat take up a tactical position behind one of the feeders and make quick work of a fat Fox Squirrel that had his mind on having breakfast.(not being breakfast)Very entertaining!

Up until a house went in near me this Spring a couple of CZ's, Varmint and MTR.





Do have a bunch of caps and shorts but mainly shoot subsonic target ammo



Silencer is still in BATF jail has been for more than a 100 days now so much for the e-file speeding up the process.

Got tired of the springers so earlier this year when the house went in finally broke down and got a Benjamin PCP Kratos 22 and HP compressor. Should have done it years ago, first seen them at the 96 Olympics at Atlanta. I give Grays a pass but reds and chippies are fair game. All have been head shots and anti dramatic with DRT and no fanfare, they expire on the spot.

Took an adjustable leg sawhorse and cut a bench top out of a piece of 2x4 plywood and shoot off the deck most nights at a Benchrest target.



Haven't cleaned the mean green target yet but that is on me, not the gun. 60 yards is about my max range this time of year with vegetation come winter that will increase a bit.

Friend of mine jumped on board couple of months ago with a FX Crown after hearing me talk about how much fun the PCP is. Yesterday he sent me a picture of 20 shots at 100 yards with his Crown.



Mine is plenty of gun for my needs however in a year or 2 when FX gets the slug thing tuned I might end up with a 600mm Impact. Just because, can't say I really need it over what I currently have. But the same could be said for my shotguns in the safe. And closets. And corners of the house...

Nice pictures C I. I have a different version of the CZ 457 that's become my 22lr fun bolt rifle by a mile. Right now it has too much scope on it, fun for the bench but bulky. I have stashes of good ammo, but I pretty much shoot that red box SK, and CCI standard velocity. Aguila standard velocity though has surprised me as being similar to the CCI and may throw less fliers for me, when it comes to cheaper ammo.

And field mice. Out West guess Pack Rats as well.

2 weeks ago picked up my Polaris Ranger Northstar Trail Boss that was ordered in Oct. of last year. The business manager tried to sell me an extended warranty and went over everything that was covered. When he finally finished I asked what wasn't covered and he said damage caused by rodents because that was neglect. I told him BS the damage is caused because they are putting food on the wiring and Polaris (and other manufactures) is at fault. I declined the extended warranty. I guess some insurance policies will cover it but then of course your premium will go up.