Barking Squirrels

[wilded]

I have found that making a sucking noise on the back of my finger which squeaks like a young squirrel in pain works great at getting squirrels to show themselves. My .32 crockett will drop them like a rock. Only problem is I now want to try a flinter. Dang this stuff is an addiction. Is there a program to get off this white smoke.

It requires that you go cold turkey. You have to get rid of all your equipment at once, or what you keep will act as a starter sprout and soon you will be up to your eyeballs in it again. I will PM my address to you so that you can send it all to me as the first of the twelve steps. :haha:

::
I already tried that 30 years ago. It didn't work.

 

[flaming canvas]

Try again. ::

 

[pepperbelly]

When I was young I used to hunt squirrels with a Marlin .22 on land that is only primitive weapons now. My Hawken should be perfect. I used to get a squirrel to stick his head up by lightly scratching the checkering on the stock.
Squirrels are curious. If not startled they can be coaxed out.
Jim

 

[Protrucker]

I don't know how it works on squirrels, but the buck I shot at today didn't even slow down(actually he went faster)when the bark flew off the maple tree I hit. LOL

 

[Evilleramsfan]

The story of 'barking squirrels' at very least goes back to the writings of John Audubon. While travelling throughout the US in search of birds to hunt (Audubon usually shot the birds, studied them, and then sketched/painted them). He met Boone (I don't remember the circumstances of how or where they met). He had the opportunity to see Boone 'bark' a squirrel at a long distance with a large caliber rifle. The key is to shoot the bark off the tree (hence the term 'barking'), cause a concussion to the squirrel (which will usually stun it), at which point, you walk over and dispatch the squirrel with your knife.

On a finer point, are you actually squirrel hunting? You are, after all, aiming and intending to hit the tree, not the squirrel........ ( I still wouldn't suggest you try that argument with a game warden.....)

 

[jackc]

I have successfully barked one squirrel in my life. I can't tell you how many times I have attempted it. The one time it worked the squirrel was sitting tight on top of a thick cottonwood limb. I was probably more surprised than it was when the ball struck just under its chin and sent it cartwheeling in the air and to the ground.

I stepped on its head before picking it up just to make sure I wasn't picking up a squirrel merely stunned. Stumpkiller's comment about it working better in cold weather is somewhat of a revelation: It was well below freezing that day and there was a skiff of snow on the ground. Cottonwood is a decidedly soft wood but I wonder if the cold contributed to the effectiveness of "barking" the little critter.

Anyway, I don't even try to do it anymore as head shots are much more reliable.

Rocky Point Jack

 

Audubon definitely wrote the story but I can't recall what book it is in. However, historians are pretty sure that it never happened. Audubon wrote the story as having ocurred in Kentucky and at that time Boone was living in Missouri. Boone swore he'd never return to Kentucky and his son Nathan and his wife both stated emphatically that Boone held to his oath while he was alive. Sure makes for a heck of a good story tho!!!

Vic

 

[The Kansan]

I've never "barked" a squirrel, but I did limb one several years ago;

Back in my smoothbore days, I was on a trek/deer hunt and critters were pretty scarce. I had loaded a .680 patched roundball over 120 grains of powder and just wasn't seeing any deer. What I finally did see was a squirrel up in the branches of a small cottonwood.

Thinking I'd get a good head shot, I steadied my long gun against an ash tree, took careful aim and... BOOOOOM! Hit the limb just in front of his nose! Limb and squirrel both went flying! I walked over, picked up the squirrel (which was quite dead!) and turned to my partner, who was laughing his @ss off. Straight faced, I told him - "That's how you hunt squirrel with a .69!" If anything, he laughed even harder!


...The Kansan...

 

[3 stinky dogs]

I had herd of it and never beleaved it could be done until I saw it with my own eyes.When I was in Iowa I was staying with family frends who made sure I finished school.The head of the house told me about barking squirls and I sed he was crazy.He took a .22 and we waited.As usual the squirl thinking he was slick came out on his limb and Cleo let him have it.He wasent stunned he was dead.If you can hit the squirl's head then you can bark a squirl.I have also read som styuu from Sam Fadilla about how he uses a 30/30 and M/L's for squirl and grouse With reduced loads so yoe normal people can do it.

 

[shmrck1]

In my experience it is much easier with the large red
Fox than the grey or red tree rats. Barking will not
bring them to you but it will make their location
known. The fox rat is in my opinion a much more
aggesive critter and will run grey out of their
territory. :results:
snake-eyes :m2c:

 

[3 stinky dogs]

Barking Sorey I thatugt you ment shooting them.Has anyone herd about or used the method where you rub two coins together ?

 

[CrackStock]

<<< It's best for the squirrel that flattens himself on a branch to hide. Aim to hit the tree limb jest under 'em, & the percussion bounces them up in the air and kills 'em dead. >>>

This is also my understanding.

We used to tie a sting to some brush over on the other side of the tree and sit on the side where we wanted to take the shot. We would then tug the string to make some sound which causes the squirrel to move away from the sound. This generally gives the shot that you describe.

We jokingly refered to this as a Cajun squirrel dog. ::

I just go for either a head or center body shot. The head shot it harder, but center shot is not so bad as it blows him in half leaving front and rear pretty usable unless you stoked up a large bore.

CS

 

[flintlockmdj]

I don't know. Never wanted to get off of it.

 

[Runner]

Not coins, but I have picked up two rocks and rubbed them together to imitate the sound of one cutting a hichory nut. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I carry a call not that has a piece on the side and a striker for making that sound. It also has a bark and a distress call. Sometimes they come running to the calls and other times they don't. Often you can get one that has run up and flattened on a limb to move enough with one to locate him.

 

[roundball]

<<< It's best for the squirrel that flattens himself on a branch to hide. Aim to hit the tree limb jest under 'em, & the percussion bounces them up in the air and kills 'em dead. >>>

This is also my understanding.

We used to tie a sting to some brush over on the other side of the tree and sit on the side where we wanted to take the shot. We would then tug the string to make some sound which causes the squirrel to move away from the sound. This generally gives the shot that you describe.

We jokingly refered to this as a Cajun squirrel dog. ::

I just go for either a head or center body shot. The head shot it harder, but center shot is not so bad as it blows him in half leaving front and rear pretty usable unless you stoked up a large bore.

CS

I hit the bark under a squirrel last November that had come down a tree and he was at a 45* angle on a flared out section of the tree's base as it went into the ground...I wasn't trying to 'bark' the squirrel, I just plain missed him right underneath.

However, I thought of these 'barking' discussions because at the shot he disappered backwards off the slanted section of the tree base, out of sight down in the leaves and I thought I'd got him...but while I was standing up beginning to wipe/reload, all of a sudden the squirrel comes racing out from behind that tree base, up onto an adjacent tree and up out of site...often wondered if he had been dazed momentarily...I later checked around the tree and found no dead squirrel so it had to be him...interesting...it was a .45cal at about 30yds

 

[olgriz]

I never have barked a squirrel, but I rocked one once. Hit the rock just below where he was sitting, broke off a chunk of rock and that piece rock was sticking out of the squirrel just like a arrow. I've seen Mike Nesbitt shoot an apple out of a squirrels mouth at 80 yards. I don't remember what gun he was using, but I think it was his caplock Hawken. I reckon that critter thought he was packing a hand gernade.

 

[CrackStock]

AN APPLE from a squirrel's mouth? :hmm:

Was William Tell or Mike Nesbitt shooting the Captain?

Tell ole Shoot Sharp "Hello" for me. :thumbsup:

CS