squirrel hunting

[JesseJames]

Well happen to find this site surfing the net,and I must say,a very good forum. Went squirrel hunting today with my 32 tc cherokee with maxie ball. Squirrels 1,hunter 0. Killed 2 deer deer season with the 45 caliber barrel on the cherokee,60 gr. pyrodex,maxie ball. Have been muzzleloader hunting since the early 80's. I don't even like to take out the shotguns.

 

[Zonie]

jessejames: Ye said ye went squirrel huntin in New Jersey whan Ah'm a seein temperatures back thar what would freeze um afore they hit the ground?

Ye must be usin one o them GinKu or WhakDuck or oh hell, ye know, one o them oriental soundin knives ah'v been ah seein on the TV. Ye knows, the one what cuts thru bricks an rocks an tires an nails an frozen squirrels?

As fer the squirrel 1 and ye 0 ah thin Ah says ye's got that wrong.

The way Ah sees it, its squirrel 1 (he's still a breathin) and you 1 (Ye had the fun o tryin ta get a squirrel fer a day!)

Good luck to ye next time

 

[musketman]

quote:Originally posted by jessejames:
Went squirrel hunting today with my 32 tc cherokee with maxie ball. I had a Cherokee before, best little squirrel getter I owned and it's fun to shoot.

I used only patched round balls in mine, saving the .32 maxi-ball for Squirrelzilla, the king of all squirrels...

 

[tommy b]

MM,
What powder, load, patch, & ball diameter did you use? I just received my .32 cal. percussion IBS for my T/C Hawken and am anxiously awaiting warmer weather to shoot it. Since it's my first venture into .32 cal., I'm accumulating the accessories for it (brass ramrod, patch and ball pullers, jag, fouling scraper, etc.), I'm interested mostly in paper punching, so can you give me a range of powder loads to try. I have heard somewhere on this forum of 1 to 1 1/2 times the caliber which would be roughly 30 to 50 grains. Also, should the powder be ffg or fffg? I'm thinking fffg Goex. Thanks for any info. This is a great forum.

 

[musketman]

quote:Originally posted by tommy b:
What powder, load, patch, & ball diameter did you use? I would use FFFg for all small bore rifles, some large bores shooters (.50 to .62) will even use FFFg, it burns cleaner and more completely...

I used 25 grains of Goex FFFg powder with a .012 patched lubed with #13 solvent/lube and a .310 home cast round ball...

I could knock the squirrels out of the tallest oat trees with this load...

I ran 20 thru 50 grains of FFFg in the Cherokee, though 45 & 50 grains made the little gun jump a bit to much for my liking...

The higher loads (40 & 50 grains) I used for hunting groundhogs and such, whereas the distance of the fields was greater that the trees are tall...

 

[tommy b]

Thanks for the info. Now I got to find .012" patch material. All the stuff I own at present is .018 pillow ticking. I don't think the higher loads will cause me as much trouble since the Hawken is a heavier gun than the Cherokee. And even heavier (by a pound +) with the conversion barrel which is the same 15/16" across the flats with a smaller hole through it.

 

[musketman]

quote:Originally posted by tommy b:
Now I got to find .012" patch material. Cabela's sells pre-lubed pillow tick patches for the .32 caliber that are .010 thick, that will do nicely...

Here is their link:
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jhtml?id=0025429215369a&navAction=push&navCount=3&indexId=cat20819&podId=0025429&catalogCode=IE&parentId=cat20819& parentType=index&rid=&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fcatalog%2Fitem-link.jhtml_A&_DAV=MainCatcat20712&hasJS=true

Track of the wolf has patches too for the .32 caliber...

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/categories/tableList.aspx?catId=2&subId=33&styleId=112&partNum=OX-10-30-L

As for the .012 pillow ticking, I found it in bulk (by chance) at Wal-Mart, marked "thin ticking"...