Let's hear your squirrel stories !!

[Doc C.]

Squirrel season just closed for us here in Arkansas. Since I cannot hunt them, how about some interesting stories. The amazing long shots, the big harvest, the one(s) that got away, and the rest. I will begin.

2 weeks ago my son was home on leave for a few weeks from deployment. He was really excited to try out the new Revere. We always shoot a few tree rats with the springers whenever we can. There is a large oak "den tree" near the edge of the yard. He shot one near the top, but it ran into a hole and we were sure it was lost.
We circled the 17 acres we live on and came back by the same oak to find the squirrel laying dead below the den hole it had escaped into. In my 50 plus years squirrel hunting, I have NEVER recovered a squirrel that ran into a den. I have to wonder if I had made it a point to return the each one, would I have recovered some of them.
Lesson learned.

 

[jawshunting]

I have a pile of high dollar .22 LR powder burners. Two seasons ago I started squirrel hunting with an FX Crown in .25 and .30. The “thud” that the pellet makes when you hit them in the head is addictive. Not sure I will ever squirrel hunt again with anything else.

 

[Rawroots]

Approximately 55 years ago and my first bb gun, it may have been a daisy, it looked just like a winchester 94 30/30, my hunting buddy and i were making our daily hunt thru the back woods, and theirs a nice fat red squirrel perched perfectly about 40 yards up high, didn't use sights because it was too far, but placed the stock under my arm pit, pulled trigger and that bb arked perfectly to thump that squirrel , unfortunately it dropped only a couple feet and ran the tree branches out of site, funny i can still see that clearly in my memory. Good times.

 

[cea1960]

There was a huge stand of woods that a local doctor lived owned and let us hunt and camp on. I had just turned 14 and we were camping that winter and squirrel hunting. I with my slingshot and Tom with his bow. I hit a fox squirrel on the side of it's head with a steel ball and it dropped "DRT". It was our 3rd of the afternoon so we headed back to our camp. I laid it on a log and started skinning it. I had removed all the hide from the center of the back to the legs when the "dead" squirrel started kicking and biting at me. I fell on my butt and started pushing myself away, all the time my buddy laughing at me. After that experience I always play the big game hunter and poke what ever I shoot with the muzzle of the rifle, or a stick.

 

[scubajeeper]

Sorry I didn’t take a pic to show you but a couple of buds of mine have squirrel dogs and we went February 28th, the last day of the season. One had a rimfire, one had a shotgun and I took my Impact .22.

The dogs tree’d a fox squirrel in a big oak that forked at about thirty feet and the squirrel was at the fork. I had a perfect shot at his head so I called the shot. My Impact is dead on and I have complete confidence in it. I took the shot and the squirrel flinched but didn’t run. I shot again and he didn’t move. Now I’m thinking something is wrong with the gun, I shot again and he jumped and went around the other side of the tree where he met the load from the 12 gauge. Upon close inspection of the now deceased rodent we found a .22 size hole through his ear and a graze above his eye that removed the hair from his scalp. Clearly two of the shots I made. Apparently the first went through his ear, the second missed and the third grazed his scalp.

 

[AmosBurton]

An fireside tale, or is it tail, of the inside squirrel...
This happened about 20yrs ago when I still lived in a log cabin off the grid.
I'm not sure on how it got in the house but at some point during a nice quiet evening my girlfriend screamed there's something on the wall in here.
I go in to check it out and it's a flying squirrel. It was pretty freaked out from my girlfriend screaming and the fact that now the dogs and cat were on the case/chase. I tried a bunch of times to capture it and failed. Finally I went and grabbed my dad's old Daisy pumper. IIRC I opted for 6 pumps of 10 maximum. I made the perfect vitals shot and then the squirrel launched through the air pumping crimson, from both sides, the whole way across the room until it landed on the log wall and bounced off dead. I still have one piece of furniture(I had just assembled it and it needed finish) that has a huge blood stain on it.

Takeaway? Head shots only inside, lol.

 

[JimD]

The last one I took with my 177, back in December, was a bit unusual. It was pretty high up in an oak at the edge of my property. I could see part of the body, enough to figure out it was looking away from me at an angle. I lined up the shot and was pleasantly surprised when it fell immediately. My dog ran to it but I was moving much slower because I didn't have shoes on. When I got there, it was about 10 feet up a different oak tree looking at us. I didn't bring the gun, I thought from the way it fell it was DRT. Apparently when it saw her coming it had enough left to get a little ways up the other oak. It didn't stay up long before falling and she grabbed it. She didn't get it in the middle but was more towards the front and it was biting at her so she dropped it and immediately got it in the middle. She gave it a good shake and it was over.

When I cleaned it there was a hole through one of the front legs but the main damage was a hole in the throat. I was trying to put one in the head but my placement was not so good. I don't know if the leg hole is from the pellet or my dog's teeth. If it is from the pellet that is the first time I've had a squirrel climb a tree when shot through a leg. I've only taken 5 squirrels with my 177 but the two I did not get in the brain both got finished by my dog.

 

[Sqwirl57]

I was sitting there following a squirrel with my Dreamline waiting for him to take a breather or find some food. He got to a tree about 60yds out and up and around he went. About 5ft off the ground I saw just a sliver of his head poke around from the back of the tree. Took a peak at my wind flag and sure enough, a slight left to right wind. I could sneak one in on him. I reached up, hit the record button on my sideshot, lined up by crosshairs and *poot*...*THWACK*... knocked him right in the noggin. I must have slipped that pellet through a 1/4" window at 60yds for that shot. AND I GOT IT ON CAMERA!!

I put the gun down, pulled my phone out of the Side Shot mount and what do I see on my screen?

Camera Failed. Motherf.....

 

[delooper]

Its interesting you have an official season for squirrels. What's the rationale behind that?

I suppose it's almost like that here, but in practice there's really no season or limits. The most common squirrels here are the big grey squirrels. They're invasive and there's no limit on killing invasive species. The native squirrel is the red squirrel, but you almost never see them anymore. I believe those have some protections.

 

[AirNGasman]

I was hunting in Dallas along White Rock Creek about a quarter-mile north of White Rock Lake and stopped to take a whiz ("it takes both hands to handle The Whopper"). Heard a squirrel barking at me and looked up to see a very pissed-off boar squirrel cussing me at 25 yards for marking HIS territory.

Zippering the matter at hand, I eased my scoped Crosman 150 Co2 pistol out of the shoulder holster while pondering shot-placement. Due to the presentation angle, his eyeball seemed the perfect aim-point for a clean brain shot. The off-hand shot was not only perfect, but perfectly burned this epic memory into my brain for vivid reply on demand.

By the way, that BAD-ASS boar squirrel was better hung than me!

 

[Gerry52]

Last year I was hunting/pesting with my friend Tony (Pesty3782) when I picked off a juvenile ground squirrel (small target) @ 175 yards with my FX Boss. I've had MANY memorable moments schwacking ground squirrels but that was the first that came to mind. (2 minutes later I nailed a Rabbit @ 178 yards but that's off topic )

 

[Doc C.]

Its interesting you have an official season for squirrels. What's the rationale behind that?

I suppose it's almost like that here, but in practice there's really no season or limits. The most common squirrels here are the big grey squirrels. They're invasive and there's no limit on killing invasive species. The native squirrel is the red squirrel, but you almost never see them anymore. I believe those have some protections.

I know. Weird. But there is a lot of sentimentality that goes with squirrel hunting here in the South. First hunts with Dads and or Uncles is usually a squirrel hunt down here. There is local squirrel hunting contest sponsored by merchants and organizations, that include largest bag and even biggest buck squirrel.
No kidding. There are prizes and trophies. There are actual squirrel camps in the spring. A rite of passage for young hunters with all the fried squirrel and okra you can stand. A prequel to deer camp and learning the etiquette of the hunt.
For the dog lovers, there are hunting contests and even field trials for the braggin rights of owning the best treeing dog. We have "strikers", who spot them, and then there are the "trackers" who trail them to a tree, and of course the "treeing" dogs that hold them in the tree. Some dogs do it all.

So, my friend, the idea that I could hunt them year-round with no limit is very appealing.

Doc

 

[delooper]

I know. Weird. But there is a lot of sentimentality that goes with squirrel hunting here in the South. First hunts with Dads and or Uncles is usually a squirrel hunt down here. There is local squirrel hunting contest sponsored by merchants and organizations, that include largest bag and even biggest buck squirrel.
No kidding. There are prizes and trophies. There are actual squirrel camps in the spring. A rite of passage for young hunters with all the fried squirrel and okra you can stand. A prequel to deer camp and learning the etiquette of the hunt.
For the dog lovers, there are hunting contests and even field trials for the braggin rights of owning the best treeing dog. We have "strikers", who spot them, and then there are the "trackers" who trail them to a tree, and of course the "treeing" dogs that hold them in the tree. Some dogs do it all.

So, my friend, the idea that I could hunt them year-round with no limit is very appealing.

Doc

In the prairies in Canada, mostly you hunt gophers as a kid. Maybe rats if you're in one of the few places that has many. But for me I started hunting gophers, mostly in the 60-120m range with a .22 rifle and handgun, but mostly with rifles. I live on the west coast now, so grey squirrels and raccoons are the most common pests.

 

[qball]

One day a year or so ago i was playing with the kids, from corner of my eye I saw a fat squirrel on my backyard tree. Casually I excused my myself and grabbed my DreamTac compact from the garage. Went to my usually corner of the house and put the center dot on the forehead of the squirrel….thwack! Went back into the house after picking up the squirrel, I was greeted by wife’s stink eyes. Apparently kids saw the squirrel doing the death dance and wife has to make up the story of the squirrel is just playing on the ground.

So, no more headshots on them tree rats!

 

[JimD]

#33 is kind of a lesson in what not to do. He was a little 9 ounce male I shot 2/23/22. I did not have my P35-22 or P35-177 so I was enjoying my P35-25. He showed up in an oak tree pretty close to the house but there were twigs in front of his body. I decided to try it and I just scared him. He tried flattening himself against the tree after running a little in the tree and I shot again. Missed the body and head but the shot went through a front leg. That really got him moving but he was not jumping between trees normally due to the leg injury. My third shot missed. I had a bad angle but he was sitting still high up in a different oak. I don't think he moved after that miss. I moved to where I had a better angle and shot him in the head. That did it. He was then DRT. Both hits went through him. I've never had good luck shooting through twigs.

 

[Harv24]

No Sh*t...There I was...Knee deep in acorns...Squirrels everywhere.


Thats how you start a story....

 

[Stan’s boy John]

The wife and I have lived in this house for over 30 years and there is a section of the attic where the flue goes through the roof that I'd never been able to get to. One day I got a call from my wife saying that "something had gotten into the attic of the house and had fallen behind the fireplace" and the metal insert, which is centrally located in the house in a corner of the living area. The fireplace is brick floor to to 10’ ceiling and drywall in the back side in the kitchen. We had no way of knowing what kind of critter had gotten in there the first time it happened. We'd had a rat problem the year before and had seen some lizards around the outside of the house and just assumed that's what it was. Maybe it’s a bird? We'd hear scurrying and scratching. Then it would get quiet for hours. I had no way to get in behind there without destroying a wall in the kitchen - a wall that I'd just recently wallpapered and painted. The fireplace insert is bricked in and can't be removed without significant labor. I made a few calls to exterminators and no one wanted to tackle this. Finally after a few days it got quiet. Uh oh. I hoped it had found its way out. Nope. It, whatever it was died back in there. Oh man...the stink was unbearable. We tried everything to block off the fireplace and burned cinnamon candles to cover the odor. Finally it stopped stinking.

About 2 years later we heard some scurrying back there again. Oh No... This time I searched for someone who could get whatever it was out of there. For 2 days I called the city, exterminators etc. No one was interested in tackling it. Finally called Ellis County Pest Removal Services. They sent 2 guys right out. We could hear it moving around back there. Then it would get real quiet. Crap not again. The guys decided that we were going to have to go in through the drywall on the back of the fireplace. We set up a cardboard barricade to try to funnel "it" through the back door using some cardboard. Fine lets do it. I told them I had a pellet rifle. Guy said he didn't think we'd need it. We were not ready for something to die and decay back there again. So, they cut a hole in my wallpapered wall and you wouldn't believe what we found back in there. 2 petrified squirrels, bird skeletons, feathers, pepsi bottles, pieces of drywall, cardboard, other trash. We fished as much of it as we could out of there and then run my shop vac hose back in there. No live animals... We waited. Listened. Nothing. The guys shrugged and sealed the hole up. Just as they were getting ready to leave, one of the guys said he could hear it trying to go up the wall. The other man ran up into the attic. The guy in the attic screamed "GET THAT PELLET RIFLE QUICK!!!" I ran up there with My R9 .20 Cal. There was a squirrel trying to escape out through a hole the Direct TV guy had hacked in the vent in the pitch of the roof. It couldn't seem to find the hole to escape... it calmed down a second and I shot it in the head. Game over. A few days later my son and I went up there with some hardware cloth and sealed up the hole and took down the Direct TV antenna. The critters had been following the cable into the attic and couldn't get back out. Fingers crossed we haven't heard anything since.

Side note. We can't stand the smell of a cinnamon candle to this day.

 

[JimD]

I can't top John, I have no "squirrels in the house" stories. How about a squirrel without a tail?

#16 was what turned out to be a female squirrel that weighed 19 ounces, the biggest I've taken. I saw her running around the neighborhood and wasn't sure at first it was a squirrel. But it climbed trees and ate acorns like one. Then I got a scope on it and it was obviously a grey squirrel. But it was very nervous and didn't sit still long enough for me to get a shot. Finally it messed up and I put a copper plated FTT diagonally through it's head and then the shoulder on the other side stopping under the skin. I was using my little Prod tuned to about 18 fpe. When I skinned it I found a plastic tipped 177 pellet under the skin in the rear end muscle tissue. The skin was healed over. Did somebody shoot it through the tail causing it to fall off? After passing through the tail the pellet stopped in the rear end? I don't really know why it had no tail or how that 177 got into it's body. The 177 pellet explains why it was so nervous, I think.

 

[jhrober]

My Story:
Squirrel trying to chew into an occupied birdhouse.
Stopped to look right straight at me.
.177 8.4 gr... EXACTLY between the eyes.
End of Story.

 

[Stan’s boy John]

My next door neighbor, Karen, has a squirrel nesting box in her yard. Isn't that special?