Barkin' 'em

[Zip]

Do you guys with .50s and .54s out deer hunting try barkin' squirrels if the opportunity arises? Tree squirrel season opens during deer season in parts of the state. I only have (for now) a .50 TC Hawken. If you do bark 'em, where abouts to you aim for or does it matter? :hmm:

 

[rawhide]

most will aim right undr the head of the tree rat. try to hit the branch it's on. the idea is to kill it or knock it out with out destroying it! the bark and wood will hit it under the chin then it's lights out.

 

[Rat Trapper]

The Seneca should have a blade front sight and a square notch adjustable rear sight. Call TC and ask them if they have the proper front sight. They still have some parts, I got a bead front from them a while ago for free. If that fails call Track of the Wolf and see if they have an after market sight.

 

[Pete Gaimari]

Why shoot a tree?

Hit them in the head. :idunno:

 

[George]

Do you guys with .50s and .54s out deer hunting try barkin' squirrels if the opportunity arises?

I don't think you will find any experienced squirrel hunters who believe barking is a realistic way to kill squirrels, or ever was.

Spence

 

[Skylinewatcher]

I carry a sling shot with me. While its pop will cause problems in the immediate area, you can move around and still hunt deer. I usually don't try for everyone I see, but I let go on the ones who are just asking to sleep with the taters.

 

[rabjr]

I think barkin em came about from the first guy who turned an almost miss into a great shot... :hmm: :haha:

 

[Zip]

Like Rawhide said, I thought barkin' was a method for shooting squirrels with a deer gun and still having a bit of something to chew on. Just figured the tree limb made for a bigger target than the head itself and that the near-impact would be enough to go lights out for the fritter critter.

 

[rabjr]

I actually barked an ermine once when I was a kid, while deer hunting. Came runnin by me and went into a hollow tree, stuck his head out a hole in the tree. I aim just under his head with a 30-30 and a splinter of wood from the inside stuck him in the throat. When I brought him back to the cabin, thats when I first heard about "barking".

 

[roundball]

I think barkin em came about from the first guy who turned an almost miss into a great shot... :hmm: :haha:

Amen...can't imagine doing that intentionally but I guess if someone is that good of a shot they 'could' do it and I've seen first hand that it might work.

I took a .45cal PRB shot at a squirrels head that had come down a tree and stopped on a big round root that tapered out from the base of the tree...almost like it was a limb.
After the smoke cleared and I couldn't see him anywhere I figured he fallen off the back side of that big root...I stood up, wiped & reloaded the bore and I guess a good 3 minutes had gone by before I started walking towards where he was.

Halfway there I noticed his tail flipping a couple times up from the other side of that big root...and then all of a sudden he went tearing across the leaves and up a different tree...obviously I had missed him clean and he wasn't hurt in the least.

When I stepped over to look for any blood, I saw where the ball had gouged through the top 1/4" of the root right under where his head had been and assumed there must have been enough concussive/shock force to have stunned him a couple minutes...but he definitely wasn't hurt...and may STILL be high tailing it out of that area
:wink:

 

[heraldj]

Realistically I don't see much loss of meat from a "thumb" sized round ball???
Chasing Crow

 

[tg]

I used to choot 'em in da middle, not much meat to loose there anyway, a bit more messy but what the hay, anymore I use shot as I have no rifles left in the house.

 

[Macon Due]

Chasing Crow
HaHa..........did ya ever actually shoot a squirrel? A .45 blows em in half [but then even a .36 or .32 does em no good in the middle]. Head shots are best but sometimes not possible.
Macon

 

[outdoorman]

I can't even begin to count how many times I have been tempted to shoot a squirrel when there is nothing going on deer-wise on a deer hunt. But so far, (38 or thereabouts years), I have not done it.

For me personally, I am there to shoot deer. I can't talk myself in to ruining a potential shot at a deer by shooting a squirrel. Even though I have not seen one, there has to be one "close by" spying on me. :grin:

I have read that "barking" a squirrel was practiced on the frontier because lead for round balls may have been in short supply to the hunter. When a squirrel was low enough on a tree, the shooter shot at the tree instead of the squirrel so they could dig the lead out of the tree to be melted down again for another bullet.

I've tried "barking" squirrels a few times. No success except for digging the ball out of the tree to be melted down another day.

I'd leave the squirrels alone during deer season unless I was very hungry.

Good luck,
Outdoorman

 

[Stumpkiller]

Found it was easier to just shoot them. Pine trees absorb the ball and other trees seemed to be iffy. And when the squirrel has his back to you or is on the ground? Shoot for the head.

I use 42 gr FFg in my .54 and it's on at 25 yards to my hunting zero.

 

[CrackStock]

I agree with TG. A shot in the middle is not all that hard when compared to a head shot. My .50 is capable of dropping them and the shoulder and rump are still cookable after a ball passes through the mid section. Did this at Slippyfoot's place a few years back. Was a good thing that I took the shot because I missed a buck later with my smoothbore and that was all the meat that I shot. On the other hand, he took care of me with some venison from his kill. Nice fella.

CS

 

[Pete Gaimari]

You haven't seen our scruffy squirrels.

A shot in the body would blow it into the next county.

 

[Skychief]

I usually shoot them on the end of their chins. Killed this way, they are not a mess to clean, I can still eat the brains, and, it is friendlier to the trees. :wink:

 

[twobarrel]

FINALLY,someone else who knows the best part to eat. I cringe when everyone talks about head shots. :thumbsup:

 

[George]

Be careful out there:

"August 1997

Doctors in Kentucky have issued a warning that people should not eat squirrel brains, a regional delicacy, because squirrels may carry a variant of mad cow disease that can be transmitted to humans and is fatal.
Although no squirrels have been tested for mad squirrel disease, there is reason to believe that they could be infected, said Dr. Joseph Berger, chairman of the neurology department at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Elk, deer, mink, rodents and other wild animals are known to develop variants of mad cow disease that collectively are called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies.
In the last four years, 11 cases of a human form of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, have been diagnosed in rural western Kentucky, said Dr. Erick Weisman, clinical director of the Neurobehavioral Institute in Hartford, Ky., where the patients were treated. "All of them were squirrel-brain eaters," Weisman said. Of the 11 patients, at least six have died."

Spence