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2024/2025 Squirrel Hunting Thread...........

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Back in the day when lead was OK for waterfowl I settled on 5. I tried 8 on squirrels and grouse. Squirrels give the raspberry and walk away. Grouse are rendered near inedible.

What about steel in ml scatter guns?
Honestly, Mike. I do not know. Never shot steel shot before except one time duck hunting.
 
First squirrel with a BP Rifle! I used .45 cal Leman with a .440 rb, .015 patch lubed with beeswax/coconut oil mixture. 20 grs of FF powder.

I will say, it took a few hours before I even saw the squirrel or had a good shot on one. But, it was well worth the wait!
 

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First squirrel with a BP Rifle! I used .45 cal Leman with a .440 rb, .015 patch lubed with beeswax/coconut oil mixture. 20 grs of FF powder.

I will say, it took a few hours before I even saw the squirrel or had a good shot on one. But, it was well worth the wait!
Awesome. Congrats to you, Backwoods. Also using a reduced load. Right on! How about a short story of the hunt?

Indeed, this is a game of patience for sure. I concur 100%. It’s well worth the wait. It is not uncommon for me to stand next to a tree for an hour plus looking up into a tree and just waiting for a good shot.

However, that will soon change when squirrel stupid season gets here and the squirrels will be running everywhere on the ground while trying to find nuts to store up on for the winter.

Man, I can hardly wait for that to get here. That’s the time to practice up on offhand shooting.
 
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First squirrel with a BP Rifle! I used .45 cal Leman with a .440 rb, .015 patch lubed with beeswax/coconut oil mixture. 20 grs of FF powder.

I will say, it took a few hours before I even saw the squirrel or had a good shot on one. But, it was well worth the wait!

Excelente! Please post a full left and right side beauty shot of your Lehman! Is it an original? Weight?
 
Excelente! Please post a full left and right side beauty shot of your Lehman! Is it an original? Weight?
It is not! It was made in the '70s. It has a Bill Large barrel and a H.W. Robbins Lock. I actually bought it from Big Sky Rambler. I'll send pics tomorrow when I get a chance! It's 9 lbs.
 
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Awesome. Congrats to you, Backwoods. Also using a reduced load. Right on! How about a short story of the hunt?

Indeed, this is a game of patience for sure. I concur 100%. It’s well worth the wait. It is not uncommon for me to stand next to a tree for an hour plus looking up into a tree and just waiting for a good shot.

However, that will soon change when squirrel stupid season gets here and the squirrels will be running everywhere on the ground while trying to find nuts to store up on for the winter.

Man, I can hardly wait for that to get here. That’s the time to practice up on offhand shooting.
I'll write one up tomorrow!!
 
I worked up a load for turkey using #4's, but that load would make squirrels pretty much unfit to eat. The #6's work good for me in my particular load.
No doubt it’s better to feed them what they shoot the best. Sounds like you found it.

One year in TN, (I believe it was 1982) I killed 78 squirrels, all with a scatter gun and most of them with number 6 shot. That’s all I had back then and I have since moved on to a heavy load of number 5 shot, due to better results, but number 6 shot will definitely do the trick for many shots on squirrels.
 
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One of the funniest things I ever saw a squirrel do was run with a small apple in its mouth. Was a young little fella, he must of been in too high a gear, cause he face planted, did a front flip then continued on. Never dropped that apple though.
😂 Those little fellas are amazing. I absolutely love squirrels in most every aspect. Definitely one of Gods greater inventions.

One year (about 1988) in TN, I was up in my climber stand bow hunting. It was early morning and calm. Squirrels were scattered around doing their fall nut finding thing. I could hear some turkeys down the steep hillside from me slowly working their way towards me.

After perhaps 30 minutes or so I saw those turkeys as they were getting closer. There was this one squirrel that was digging so hard in the deep, freshly fallen leaves that the only thing I could see most of the time was his hind end and tail sticking up. He was really going at it his morning mission.

A few minutes later that squirrel hopped over a little ways and once again began digging in the leaves head down. He was definitely not paying attention to his surroundings. I’m sure he never saw those turkeys.

As the turkeys got real close to the squirrel he just happened to pop his head up from out of the leaves and saw those turkeys that were almost on top of him. Talking about a squirrel turning inside out! It startled that squirrel so much that he took off running so hard and so fast that when he jumped up on the first smaller diameter tree he could get to, I swear that squirrel went around that small tree two times before he stopped. He then peeked around the tree like “what the heck was that”. I sat there and laughed as quietly as I could for a few minutes. I will never forget that.

Squirrels are the most entertaining little critters ever was.
 
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Some years ago I put some seed out on a stump behind the house. The wife works from home, and I figured that she could watch the birds feed on the seeds. Well a squirrel came in and was feeding on the seeds for a while when some turkeys came in the yard. The turkeys started for the seed patch. The squirrel was down on all fours eating, but as the turkeys would get close, the wife said that the squirrel would stand on his hind legs and start moving his front legs like he was boxing. It scared the turkeys away from the seeds, and the wife had a good laugh.
 
Another warrior squirrel. Tail barely hanging on by a thread. The squirrels have really been fighting over food here lately. Been seeing quite a few chases up and down trees trying to run others away from the food source. Hearing a lot of whining noises also, as in territorial fighting.

Also, for whatever reason, I’ve been killing a lot more male squirrels than female. Don’t know what that’s all about. None have had inflamed reproductive organs. This reinforces my thinking that the fighting is territorial fighting over food.

Still finding it difficult to locate an active hickory tree. As I sat there early this morning waiting and watching the woods come alive, I noticed that what few squirrels I saw would jump or run up a certain tree, perhaps stay up in it for a few minutes then move along to another tree. Due to this, I was not interested in chasing after just one or two squirrels that I knew would be moving along before I even eased up within shooting distance.

Finally, by pure coincidence, I stumbled across a couple of smaller hickory trees next to each other that had several squirrels up in them. With moving only a few feet to another tree, I was able to get 3 down within about 45 minutes or so. Two fell about 3 feet from each other but was shot from a different tree I was using to take a rest off of.
 

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