Thank you for sharing the story of how you learned, to your regret, the limitations of hunting with a shotgun. Both distance, and size of shot, along with choke or the lack of it, determine whether you can reliably kill a tought little animal like a squirrel. I have known many men who were shocked to learn that squirrels are harder to kill than rabbits- until I skinned a rabbit for them, and compared the two hides with them. Rabbit hide is paper thin. Squirrel is much thicker. Small shot just won't do.
Please remember that regardless of choke, or powder used, ALL lead shot loses a lot of velocity in the first 20 yards. 60 feet is a long distance, when you think of it, when it comes to getting close to a rabbit or squirrel. Come on- I showed my second wife that we could walk up to within 6 feet of a sitting rabbit on a neighbor's lawn before it got nervous enough to slowly hop away to some bushes. That's an easy pistol shot distance.
Lyman has a Shotshell Reloading Manual that contains tables that give you MV, Shot size, and then down range velocities, time of flight, drop in flight, and retained pellet energy for all the bird shot sizes. Yes, the manual is for modern Shotguns using smokeless powder. Yes, the figures are for velocities you can only dream about with BP loads. But, the data is given at muzzle, 20, 40, and 60 yards. You can find a comparable velocity that is similar to your MV somewhere on the chart, and go from there to figure out how much velocity will be lost in the first 20 yards out of the barrel.
The hottest loads on those charts lose enough energy in the first 20 yards that the velocity is below the speed of sound. Actually, loads that begin below the Speed of Sound actually retain relatively More velocity over that first 20 yards.
When you examine the chart, it becomes very obvious that the only way to retain sufficient pellet energy at 20 yards is to use a larger sized Shot Pellet in your CB gun. And, actually dropping the powder charge will help keep the pellets closer together for a better, denser, pattern at 20 yards, and more pellets hitting the squirrel.
I have seen squirrels killed cleanly with #8 shot loads, but only when a pellet hit the head.
#6 shot is probably the most common shot size used on both squirrels and rabbit. I prefer using #5 because of the added retained energy. I do have to find a supplier who has #5 shot, and always look for it when visiting a new gun shop, or attending a Registered Trap shoot where someone is selling components.I only use the #5 shot for hunting, so I don't go through lots of bags of it.
It is much better for all of us to learn from someone else's mistake, than to have to learn that same lesson from our own. I thank you for sharing the learning experience. I think a lot of readers of this forum will be much wiser in choosing what gun they shoot, and what loads they use when hunting squirrels.
And, they will also pass on longer shots, which is perhaps the hardest judgment to teach shooters to make in the field. Making that judgment has to do more with hunting ethics, than laws and regulations. Ethics are the principles you use to guide yourself when only God, and you, will know what you have done.
