Squirrel Hunting with a ML

[bama backwoodsman]

Hunting small game with your ML, there's nothing better to fill in time waiting on deer season for me.I have a Hawkins that has green moutain replacement barrels in 32 cal for squirrel and Yes even Turkey. Very accurate. I have been invited to coon hunt with friends the fist time they saw it go off at night they were all sold on black powder also. One peice of advice that I still am working on "PRACTICE"

 

[roundball]

Havn't squirrel hunted since the 60's...but will be going after them next month (October) with a .45cal TC Hawken flintlock (smallest I have) and I'm really looking forward to it...

 

A friend and I hunt squirrles every year. He uses a .50 CVA Hawkens and I've got an old Traditions .54 that I use for deer. I like to use the .54 on squirrles before deer season. It kinda gets me in shape for the deer. Just shoot a little low under the belly and viola, squirrel field dressed and ready to take home in one shot.

 

[Don]

How many of you guys hunt squirrels with a .32 or .36 cal ML. I love to squirrel hunt but I usually do it with a shotgun. Whats been your experiences with a small cal ML on squirrels?

 

[weasel]

I use a traditions crockett in .32 caliber and a t/c cherokee in .32 cal both are excellent the 32 punches a hole clean thru and does less damage than a .22 long rifle I have switched to pyrodex "p" over black powder I get a little less fouling than with black powder. Early season is tough with the leave cover but a drizzly rain will find me out there as the squirrels move all day long weasel

 

[musketman]

I used a t/c cherokee in .32 cal for many years.
I had to sell it, back in my yester-days.

Many regrets, still wished I had it.

 

[Rancocas]

Went out this morning at daybreak, right behind my house. Not with a rifle, but carrying my .62 smoothbore, flintlock fowler, loaded with number 6 shot.
Pussyfooted down the trail. After I had passed, a squirrel started barking at me. I went back to try and find it. While searching the tree tops for the noisy fellow, I spotted another gray squirrel as it silently clung to the side of a big oak.
Flash-bang. Cloud of smoke. Squirrel thumps down on the ground.
Barking squirrel is silent.
While I reload, the noisy squirrel starts scolding me again. I slowly move around, and finally spot the little guy. He is high in a hickory tree.
Flash-bang. Cloud of smoke. Squirrel thumps down on the ground.
Two young, tender, gray squirrels for my lunch today. Enough.
These squirrels were the young of this year. Uneducated in the ways of man. The squirrels will be getting an education as the season progresses. The late season survivors will be rather wary, but that just ads to the challenge.

 

[Randy]

I use a 36 cal Tennessee style rifle that I built around a 42" Green Mt. barrel. It shoots better than I can hold, and a lot farther than I can see. As a result, I get a few fuzzytails whenever I try hard. Even If I come home empty the time spent out in the October woods on a quiet sunny morning is unequaled. If I ran out of powder tomorrow I would probably still carry that gun out to hunt for squirrel.

Horse Dr.

 

[Don]

I love it! I can't tell you how many strange looks I get when I tell people I hunt squirrels. I guess folks up here in NH are big game snobs and havn't figured out that bushytails are fun and tasty. Thanks for the replies!

 

[JesseJames]

Here is Jersey we can hunt squirrels until February 16th with 32 & 36 cal. I use a 32 cherokee,30g's pyrodex. Cold as h--- up here,squirrels not moving too much,as a matter of fact,nothing is movng. I even set a little corn pile back near my trash to get the critters that are tearing up the trash with the air rifle,even they are not coming out,corn still there.

 

[musketman]

quote:Originally posted by Don:
I guess folks up here in NH are big game snobs and havn't figured out that bushytails are fun and tasty. Hunting squirrels will also sharpen your huntin' skills, the small, fuzzy woodland critter is about 1/100th the size of a deer...

So, if you can zero in on a squirrel that's jumping from branch to branch in the tallest of oak trees, then a full grown white-tail on the ground should be no problem...

 

[Haggis]

I had rather stalk and kill a limit of wiley grey squirrels than sit on a stump until a legal deer comes by to fill my tag, and unlike deer sitting, a squirrel hunter may have his or her sport for months of each year. IMHO of course, becomming a competent squirrel hunter is the greatest level to which a muzleloader enthusiast may aspire.

 

If it hadn't been for squirrel and rabbit the wife and I would have starved to death the first couple years we were married.....well, not really but we ate a bunch of them and it did help on the grocery bill. It was serous meat hunting then and weapon of choice was a 22. Nowadays, and for several years (except for the years I spent in Wyoming) it's a 36 cal. Mowery, Ethan Allen. PRB over 20 grs of 3F, head shots only. And they're still delicious and one of my favorite meals.

Vic

 

[Haggis]

My 5 kids used to think that the word for meat was "squirrel". Lord knows they ate a bunch of 'em when my wife and I were young and hadn't yet gone to college. From August 15, to the end of February I'd bring in squirrels just about every day; either from hunting or my trap lines.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Ain't it the truth. I got married two weeks out of college and worked an 'entry level' job and a second part-time as I finished up my bachelors at university. Money was a bit tight. Squirrel: it's what's for dinner. We have a semi-enclosed back porch where we would dry sunflower heads, and any squirrel found on the premises was apt to get a lecture from Brother Benjamin de Pistol and be invited to supper the following night - regardless of the season.

I don't drive $200 pick-ups anymore, but I still keep my hand in at squirrel hunting. I just take a lot fewer shots. Raised geese & rabbits, but I never did get used to hand-killing the rabbits. I much prefer shooting them. I don't think my wife, a school teacher, misses her 100 x 100 ft 'garden' much, either. We used to raise/shoot/catch about 90% of our own food.

Anyway, I had a T/C Seneca in .36 that was a joy to squirrel hunt with. Fool that I am, it is one of the former firearms that I wish I had kept. Never owned a .32 M/L, but I imagine it would be ideal for tree rats. In truth, my preferred weapon in the 'old' days was a pump .22. I have a Model 12 Remington (Grandpa's) and a M92 Rossi. The Seneca came in late in the war, but was my preferred method until I got into my traditional archery kick (last 15 years or so). After that, killing squirrels using ANYTHING with a trigger seems relatively easy. You just gotta wait the shot out.

 

[BrownBear]

I hunted Western gray squirrels for many years, mostly with a S&W K-38 with 6" barrel and wadcutters. It was easier to carry at all times than a rifle, so that's what I had with me. Raised a couple of tall, strong girls on wild meat, and to this day they don't care much for store meat of any kind.

No squirrel hunting where I live in Alaska, and I sure miss it. That probably has a lot to do with my love affair with snowshoe hares. Since getting a 36 caliber, I'm dying to go squirrel hunting and seriously considering a sqirrel safari this fall to some state south of here. Is that nutty or what!

 

[musketman]

Squirrels, the other white meat...

Well, sort of...

Too bad we don't have flyin' squirrels here, we could shoot them like skeet...

 

[Chuck Deaton]

Where we grew up and given our numbers "shooting" a squirrel was a last resort. We trapped them and knocked them in the head with a club.

Chickens, cows, beef and milk, hogs and a garden with fish and squirrels thrown in will keep you fed. We ate a lot of corn bread, cured pork, eggs, chicken and vegetables, peas and beans.

Usta drive from South Dakota to Aunt Ola's in Arkansas for Peach Cobbler. She made cobbler on the same stove, in the same kitchen, in the same pan for 40 + years.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Hey BrownBear!

If you make it to NY I'll be your squirrel guide. Them, I can find.

I have a 1950 something 6" M-14 Target Masterpiece (K-38) S&W .38 Spl. double-action (some were SA only). I wouldn't part with it for love nor money. I used to shoot PPC with a local sheriff's dept. and a few of the 'Barnies' would offer all kinds of cash for it (so they could qualify - some of them boys flat couldn't shoot). As they also carried ticket books and I drive 'enthusiastically' I never told 'em "it ain't the gun."

When I go grouse hunting with my double 20 ga. I strap that on for holding bunnies. It's taken a passel o' squirrels, too. I'd tell you some of the slow-fire groups I've fired off hand at 25 yards with it but you'd think I was braggin or lyin.

 

[Rocky Johnson]

Cold here to day 10% w. wind snowing a bit, lake effect stuff, and on the way back from town I seen two tree rats out trying to get hit in the road. JesseJames said they didn't cone to his bait pile when it was cold? Michigan has exstended the Squirrel seasont this year till March 1. I think they will have young in the nest at that time. I hunt them with a 32 cal. 22 gr. Pyrodex P or fff BP and prb. Rocky

[ January 29, 2004, 06:05 AM: Message edited by: musketman ]