Hunting Squirrels w/Big Bore...

[Preacher]

Do any of you squirrel hunt with big bore guns (/< .58)? My only smoothbore is a .745 (12/11ga). If you do, what is your charge, and if you don't, what is your suggested charge? I use Swiss 2Fg.

I have smaller smokeless guns I can use, but would like to know how this gun would fit in squirrel season.

Thank you

 

[tenngun]

Now I have a 20 bore, but used to hunt Buggs and Thumper with a sawn off ‘canoe gun’ Brown Bess
70 grains powder and 1oz shot

 

[Flintlock]

Try a 50gr. FFG load in your .58, maybe even 45grs. if your patch bal combo is not overly tight. Practice chasing chipmunks and the like. A slow moving heavy ball will waste less meat than a fast .36 or .40. Besides it's more practice on head shots and conserving powder.

 

[Brokennock]

Two different 20 gauge flintlock.
For squirrels I use the same load in either gun.
About 60 grains 3f or 65 of 2f and an ounce to 1 1/4 ounce #5 lead shot.
I usually use the heavier load early in the season when there is more foliage to potentially deflect shot.
Mostly use the shot in premade paper shot cups/cartridges.
One thin card or 2x1" strip of brown paper bag folded to 1x1", on the powder, then a lubed wad of either felt or faux-tow, shot load, then a thin card to hold it in.

 

[recurvebill]

Do any of you squirrel hunt with big bore guns (/< .58)? My only smoothbore is a .745 (12/11ga). If you do, what is your charge, and if you don't, what is your suggested charge? I use Swiss 2Fg.

I have smaller smokeless guns I can use, but would like to know how this gun would fit in squirrel season.

Thank you

Well , with that bore size , all you gonna have left is a "hank of fur , and a piece of bone " , but it ain't gonna be no "honeycomb" , me thinks !!

 

[sheriff john]

What you gotta do is "bark the squirrel" with large calibers - as writers years ago claimed legendary hunters did. To "bark" a squirrel, you shoot the bark beneath the squirrel not the squirrel itself. When the large caliber ball strikes the bark, it sorta explodes and splinters of wood and bark kill the squirrel. Saves meat, you see.

My old and smooth brain cannot recollect which account of what frontiersperson that came from - Davey Crockett, Daniel Boone, Disney cartoon, or some bib overall wearing old guy at the New London Phillips 66 station.

 

[.36Rooster]

I have seriously considered using my .54 plains rifle...it is accurate enough for head shots...and im really fond of the gun

 

[Flintlock]

Well , with that bore size , all you gonna have left is a "hank of fur , and a piece of bone " , but it ain't gonna be no "honeycomb" , me thinks !!

Head shots, light loads. Could never understand why some can't get this.

 

[Hermit Tim]

What you gotta do is "bark the squirrel" with large calibers - as writers years ago claimed legendary hunters did. To "bark" a squirrel, you shoot the bark beneath the squirrel not the squirrel itself. When the large caliber ball strikes the bark, it sorta explodes and splinters of wood and bark kill the squirrel. Saves meat, you see.

My old and smooth brain cannot recollect which account of what frontiersperson that came from - Davey Crockett, Daniel Boone, Disney cartoon, or some bib overall wearing old guy at the New London Phillips 66 station.

Back in the late eighties I got barked twice when two rifle rounds impacted the tree I was hunkered next to. Head level. Never tried it myself but, after that, I believe it would in fact be a possible method for taking tree rats. And they don't shoot back...

 

[Hermit Tim]

Do any of you squirrel hunt with big bore guns (/< .58)? My only smoothbore is a .745 (12/11ga). If you do, what is your charge, and if you don't, what is your suggested charge? I use Swiss 2Fg.

I have smaller smokeless guns I can use, but would like to know how this gun would fit in squirrel season.

Thank you

Check out last year's squirrel thread. I believe James T. started it. Seems like a few guys were showing pics of there hunts using .54 rifles. Download the powder and give it a try. Watch your backstop though.

 

[.36Rooster]

Back in the late eighties I got barked twice when two rifle rounds impacted the tree I was hunkered next to. Head level. Never tried it myself but, after that, I believe it would in fact be a possible method for taking tree rats. And they don't shoot back...

This year, i "missed" a head shot with a .44 roundball through a handgun, and upon skinning him, i realized there was a network of inch long splinters embedded through his chest and no hole from the ball. I had missed his head and hit the limb he was sitting on, the ball had glanced slightly and embedded in the trunk that i was using as a backdrop for my aim...

I would say the same can be done with any large bore rifle based on that...i just haven't tried much.

 

[Ben Meyer]

I believe it was Audubon, talking about hunting squirrels on his property with Daniel Boone. Boone would bark squirrels, which amazed Audubon.

What you gotta do is "bark the squirrel" with large calibers - as writers years ago claimed legendary hunters did. To "bark" a squirrel, you shoot the bark beneath the squirrel not the squirrel itself. When the large caliber ball strikes the bark, it sorta explodes and splinters of wood and bark kill the squirrel. Saves meat, you see.

My old and smooth brain cannot recollect which account of what frontiersperson that came from - Davey Crockett, Daniel Boone, Disney cartoon, or some bib overall wearing old guy at the New London Phillips 66 station.

 

[Stykbow]

I used to squirrel hunt around my house with a 50 cal CVA Hawken. Made for good pre-deer season practice. I shot a conical then, but it didn’t destroy the squirrel like you’d think. It just punched a 50 cal hole straight thru. I don’t think a squirrel has enough mass to start any meaningful expansion.

 

[Sidney Smith]

.62 caliber smoothbore using 70 guns 2fg with paper wadding under and over 1 1/8 ounce of number 6. Does the job down low. I've not been able to drop any from high up in the treetops. Pattern seems to open up pretty fast on those high angle shots.

 

[Des52]

I use 60 gr of 1.5F and 1 1/8 6 shot in my .75 smoothbore for squirrels and bunnies. Lots of fun

 

[Danny Ross]

What distance do you guys sight in for with light loads say for a 50cal, 25yds?

 

[Preacher]

Yes, 25, and then 40, because that's all the room I have at home, or 100 elsewhere if I want to sight in at 100.

 

[Ben Meyer]

Wrong thread sorry

 

[sheriff john]

A man can shoot shot charges out of most anything. Close up. Problem comes with rifled bores, your pattern might look like a doughnut as rifling may "Spin" part of the shot charge outward, leaving a hole in the middle. Fun to pattern at various distances.

 

[Stony Broke]

Not much meat on the front end of a squirrel anyway......if you don't shoot em' in the butt...no problem !!