First, I have a TVM Early Lancaster ordered in .32 cal. for small game, mostly for squirrels. Would like you experienced guys to post anything that I should know about the sport. Thank you!
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Squirrel hunting how to's
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Don Steele
45 Cal.
Step 1:
Find a place where it is safe to shoot and is loaded up with "sign" of squirrel activity. I like Oak tree groves for example.
Step 2:
Learn to sit still. It's been my experience that squirrels will show themselves at very attractive ranges if you don't move around. A Fall morning in the woods can be so relaxing you may even find yourself napping. :thumbsup:
Some of my best "Squirrel hunts" have occurred when I was Deer hunting. No Deer...but Squirrels were foolishly scurrying into handgun range, :nono: so I still took Dinner home. :grin:
Find a place where it is safe to shoot and is loaded up with "sign" of squirrel activity. I like Oak tree groves for example.
Step 2:
Learn to sit still. It's been my experience that squirrels will show themselves at very attractive ranges if you don't move around. A Fall morning in the woods can be so relaxing you may even find yourself napping. :thumbsup:
Some of my best "Squirrel hunts" have occurred when I was Deer hunting. No Deer...but Squirrels were foolishly scurrying into handgun range, :nono: so I still took Dinner home. :grin:
When you have that rifle shooting to your liking you go and point it at a squirrel :haha:
Sorry bud, your gonna have to just spend some time in the woods, a pleasure in it self.
Enjoy.
B :hatsoff:
Sorry bud, your gonna have to just spend some time in the woods, a pleasure in it self.
Enjoy.
B :hatsoff:
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Move slowly and quietly...find a place to sit where you can take advantage of the terrain....learn to recognize their sign..
Be patient!....let them come to you...
Aim for the head.
Are you a newbie to both muzzleloading and squirrel hunting?
Be patient!....let them come to you...
Aim for the head.
Are you a newbie to both muzzleloading and squirrel hunting?
Black Hand
Cannon
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Sometimes, the squirrel will hunker-down and stop moving. Smack the tree suspected to contain the squirrel with a heavy stick to simulate chopping with an axe - it gets them moving so you can find them...
Take ample time to learn how the gun shoots, what loads give the best results, and develop skills in flintlock shooting in general (follow through being quite important, for instance.)
Mastering your weapon will mean that upon navigating the woods and finding your quarry your skills with it will translate into a successful hunt.
Just getting back into hunting myself, and took two shots at a squirrel, both misses. The first thought that crossed my mind was that I should have spent more time at the range with that particular gun.
And, of course, have fun. Thats the easiest part!
Mastering your weapon will mean that upon navigating the woods and finding your quarry your skills with it will translate into a successful hunt.
Just getting back into hunting myself, and took two shots at a squirrel, both misses. The first thought that crossed my mind was that I should have spent more time at the range with that particular gun.
And, of course, have fun. Thats the easiest part!
Squirrel hunting to me is a stop and go proposition...more stop than go. My reasoning is that if there's not a squirrel where one sits, move on until there is one. Have shot many squirrels on the ground and also have had them go high except when I used a dog. When they went up a tree, a wait will produce results.
My most successful squirrel hunts as far as numbers have been w/ my German Shepherd...his keen eyesight and hearing and excellent nose actually made it too easy. So. at times I have left him home because I wanted a more leisurely hunt.... which was impossible because of his efficiency.
Have had good hunting on drizzly, rainy days on which I took special precautions w/ my flintlock, but for some reason shot many squirrels on the ground.
Some years acorns are plentiful and other years nary a one...so, hickory trees are hunted as well as land bordering standing corn which have produced the majority of fox squirrels. These squirrels don't "squirrel away" their winter food as do grays so their numbers vary greatly depending on how harsh the previous winter was.
If the woods is predominately oak trees, the acorns from white oaks are preferred by squirrels and are also edible for humans. Red oaks have bitter acorns and the scrub oaks are the worst. White oaks have rounded points on the leaves whereas red oaks have pointed ones. Acorns from white oaks are also preferred by deer.
Have also had good results when hunting hazelnut bushes and many were shot on the ground.
Good squirrel areas were discovered when ruffed grouse hunting and on rainy, windy days, the flintlock was busy on squirrels.
Squirrels are good eating and a lot of meat is on their carcasses. Squirrels are the only game animal that I segregate according to age when cooking. Old squirrels tend to be tough and young squirrels are tender w/o a long cook time, so the 2 aren't compatible in the same frying pan.
Actually, I prefer squirrel hunting to deer hunting because in my deer area sitting is mandatory because of the large numbers of hunters....and seeing I'm not a sitter, the stop and go of squirrel hunting has an appeal.
As an aside....I like 6 pieces of a squirrel, so head hits are the only way to go....Fred
My most successful squirrel hunts as far as numbers have been w/ my German Shepherd...his keen eyesight and hearing and excellent nose actually made it too easy. So. at times I have left him home because I wanted a more leisurely hunt.... which was impossible because of his efficiency.
Have had good hunting on drizzly, rainy days on which I took special precautions w/ my flintlock, but for some reason shot many squirrels on the ground.
Some years acorns are plentiful and other years nary a one...so, hickory trees are hunted as well as land bordering standing corn which have produced the majority of fox squirrels. These squirrels don't "squirrel away" their winter food as do grays so their numbers vary greatly depending on how harsh the previous winter was.
If the woods is predominately oak trees, the acorns from white oaks are preferred by squirrels and are also edible for humans. Red oaks have bitter acorns and the scrub oaks are the worst. White oaks have rounded points on the leaves whereas red oaks have pointed ones. Acorns from white oaks are also preferred by deer.
Have also had good results when hunting hazelnut bushes and many were shot on the ground.
Good squirrel areas were discovered when ruffed grouse hunting and on rainy, windy days, the flintlock was busy on squirrels.
Squirrels are good eating and a lot of meat is on their carcasses. Squirrels are the only game animal that I segregate according to age when cooking. Old squirrels tend to be tough and young squirrels are tender w/o a long cook time, so the 2 aren't compatible in the same frying pan.
Actually, I prefer squirrel hunting to deer hunting because in my deer area sitting is mandatory because of the large numbers of hunters....and seeing I'm not a sitter, the stop and go of squirrel hunting has an appeal.
As an aside....I like 6 pieces of a squirrel, so head hits are the only way to go....Fred
I have noticed, on this site, that successful squirrel hunters show their game intact. Makes a good picture, but if you have several, it is a real chore to clean them when you get home. Back when I lived where squirrel hunting was worthwhile doing, I got into the habit of completely field dressing a squirrel as soon as it was shot & then placing it in an empty plastic bread bag I had brought along for that purpose. Then when placed in a game bag, it was kept clean till I got home.
This served 2 purposes. One, it reduced the cleaning chores I had to do when I got home. Two, in the few minutes it took me to field dress the first one, I wasn't moving around much & many times before finishing with the first one, a second one started moving around, so I would have to shoot it before moving on. It doesn't always work that way, but one time I actually shot 3 in one stop. 2 squirrels I probably wouldn't have otherwise seen. Besides, what nicer surroundings could you have to do that chore?
Paul
This served 2 purposes. One, it reduced the cleaning chores I had to do when I got home. Two, in the few minutes it took me to field dress the first one, I wasn't moving around much & many times before finishing with the first one, a second one started moving around, so I would have to shoot it before moving on. It doesn't always work that way, but one time I actually shot 3 in one stop. 2 squirrels I probably wouldn't have otherwise seen. Besides, what nicer surroundings could you have to do that chore?
Paul
Not new to ML. New to flintlocks & squirrel hunting.I have a TVM early Lancaster in .50 cal that I bought this last spring.
hanshi
Cannon
The most squirrels I've seen have been on deer hunts. To hunt squirrels nothing beats "still hunting". Still hunting is when you slowly creep through the woods a few steps at a time then stop and look for a while. If you encounter squirrel activity, either sounds of gnawing, rustling or see them, it's then time to settle in place for a while. Oaks and hickories attract them big time.
Moose in canoe said:
Exactly what I do. If I want a picture, I just take it right away, then get on to the cleaning chores, which are much easier when the squirrel is fresh and warm. I, too, have shot multiple squirrels from one location because they started moving around while I was quietly cleaning another.
work up a load accurate for head shots.
keep your shots in that comfort range.
I'm another clean on spot hunter.
Haversack big enough to carry cleaning gloves-bags wipes-warm beverage-snack.
when squirrel hunting sit-move slow-sit..
a handy folding stool and pad..
keep your shots in that comfort range.
I'm another clean on spot hunter.
Haversack big enough to carry cleaning gloves-bags wipes-warm beverage-snack.
when squirrel hunting sit-move slow-sit..
a handy folding stool and pad..
In the areas I squirrel hunt in, that's a fact. Have never seen a fox squirrel digging around on the ground like a gray. In fact, most of the fox squirrels I've shot weren't initially on the ground....spotted them high in the trees. They aren't "fidgety" like grays and are a bit on the lazy side.
There's a reason for the greatly fluctuating populations of fox squirrels from year to year in the areas I hunt and a lack of standing hard corn is the reason.....a lot of acreage is being planted in soybeans and alternately from year to year in alfalfa.
The areas I've hunted weren't hunted by many....through the years saw only a couple of other hunters, so the gray population remained stable but the fox squirrel numbers always fluctuated and in some years none were even seen and in these years, standing corn was non-existent in the previous year.
Have hunted areas that never had standing corn {county forest lands} and have never seen any fox squirrels....red squirrels and chickarees, yes, but never fox squirrels. Only grays.
Perhaps other areas in other parts of the country have FOX squirrels that have different habits?.....Fred
There's a reason for the greatly fluctuating populations of fox squirrels from year to year in the areas I hunt and a lack of standing hard corn is the reason.....a lot of acreage is being planted in soybeans and alternately from year to year in alfalfa.
The areas I've hunted weren't hunted by many....through the years saw only a couple of other hunters, so the gray population remained stable but the fox squirrel numbers always fluctuated and in some years none were even seen and in these years, standing corn was non-existent in the previous year.
Have hunted areas that never had standing corn {county forest lands} and have never seen any fox squirrels....red squirrels and chickarees, yes, but never fox squirrels. Only grays.
Perhaps other areas in other parts of the country have FOX squirrels that have different habits?.....Fred
Storing food is such a basic trait I doubt it would vary in different areas. Every description I can find of the life style of the fox squirrel says they bury food for the winter. I've never seen them do it, but I believe what the biologists say.flehto said:
Spence
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Red/fox. Grey, black, white, squirrels all the same...At my feeder I have a grey squirrel that crossed with a black squirrel and a grey red cross also down the road is a family of black squirrels...I haven't had a true albino yet, but have some very white squirrels....All bury nuts in my yard and garden...Pulling walnut saplings out of my garden is a yearly chore.
Most of those "crosses", maybe all, are just variations in the color phase, genetic variations, not hybrids. There are, for instance, black 'gray' squirrels and black 'fox' squirrels which are genetically pure gray and fox squirrels. Or white, non-albino.
There's are a lot of folklore surrounding squirrels, much of it untrue. In the late 18th century, for example, it came to be believed that if fox squirrels moved into an area they would displace the resident grays. That's not true, and some people understood that in the day. John Joseph Henry, of Arnold's 1775 Quebec expedition fame, wrote in about 1810:
"Another notion has been started within these twenty years past, that the fox squirrel is expelling the large grey squirrel; but it is fallacious."
Another example is that in the early days even the naturalists believed that older larger males, both gray and fox, would chase down and castrate the younger males to reduce breeding competition. In 1822 William Blane wrote:
"There is a curious fact in the natural history of the squirrel, which I do not recollect to have seen mentioned by any author. Senioribus juniores castrantur. Several of the hunters assured me that they had often seen the old males pursuing the young ones, and then most dexterously performing the operation with their long front teeth. But I myself thought the circumstance so very unlikely, that I did not believe them, until, upon examining the squirrels I shot, I found to my great surprise that many had apparently suffered the above-mentioned deprivation."
That's not true. Squirrels certainly have a strong pecking order and spend a lot of time chasing each other, but the situation is that both fox and gray squirrel males frequently retract their testes into the abdominal cavity at times outside the breeding season, so it's easy to see how that mistaken idea came about. Of course that's not the first case where the man telling the tale swears to have seen something with his own eyes which never really happens. Added evidence to prove his point, I guess.
Even today I've been assured all of these things are true. Bad information is hard to kill.
Spence
There's are a lot of folklore surrounding squirrels, much of it untrue. In the late 18th century, for example, it came to be believed that if fox squirrels moved into an area they would displace the resident grays. That's not true, and some people understood that in the day. John Joseph Henry, of Arnold's 1775 Quebec expedition fame, wrote in about 1810:
"Another notion has been started within these twenty years past, that the fox squirrel is expelling the large grey squirrel; but it is fallacious."
Another example is that in the early days even the naturalists believed that older larger males, both gray and fox, would chase down and castrate the younger males to reduce breeding competition. In 1822 William Blane wrote:
"There is a curious fact in the natural history of the squirrel, which I do not recollect to have seen mentioned by any author. Senioribus juniores castrantur. Several of the hunters assured me that they had often seen the old males pursuing the young ones, and then most dexterously performing the operation with their long front teeth. But I myself thought the circumstance so very unlikely, that I did not believe them, until, upon examining the squirrels I shot, I found to my great surprise that many had apparently suffered the above-mentioned deprivation."
That's not true. Squirrels certainly have a strong pecking order and spend a lot of time chasing each other, but the situation is that both fox and gray squirrel males frequently retract their testes into the abdominal cavity at times outside the breeding season, so it's easy to see how that mistaken idea came about. Of course that's not the first case where the man telling the tale swears to have seen something with his own eyes which never really happens. Added evidence to prove his point, I guess.
Even today I've been assured all of these things are true. Bad information is hard to kill.
Spence
Spence10 said:
The area I frequent has large relative populations of fox squirrels. I watch them bury foodstuffs all the time. In the winter, I have watched many also digging up food caches under the snow. Now, no telling which squirrel buried what another is finding, but I have not seen any material differences in the way Fox and Grey Squirrels act.
And while I've certainly seen squirrels aggressively chase one another, I've never seen one attempt to castrate another! :rotf:
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