Squirrel head vs body shot

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PerkyVal

PerkyVal

Member
Nov 22, 2017
862
24
Wisconsin, United States
Yesterday I went through mounting my new Hawke ED and No Limits rings (lapping, leveling, plumb line), and zeroing.

This morning I hit 2 squirrels, one at 73 yards, and one at 48 yards.

Normally I go for heart/lung shots because I really dont want to see the squirrels flop around. Not only does it freak me out a bit (sometimes I'm pretty girly), but I'm always afraid it was a bad shot and the squirrel is suffering. I know this isn't normally the case usually, but one time I had a bad experience.

At any rate, this morning the smaller squirrel pictured here was a 73 yard heart/lung shot, and was the first one shot this morning. It dropped dead where it was.

Now, the second squirrel was at 48 yards, and he wasn't all that nervous. I cranked my new Hawke up to 50x, checked chairgun, and hit him right behind the eye.

No flopping at all. Stone dead right there, and I dont get it. Granted I dont usually do head shots on squirrels, but I never seen one that didnt flop some.



1538315166_5314518425bb0d39e3bb9a8.74008581_20180930_081809.jpg



 
Great work. 

Please elaborate on your scope, and your after-market gauges.

Addendum: A few days ago, I had an experience similar to your description of your second kill.

I hit this squirrel (head shot with Impact .25 cal, 34 grain at 860 FPS) on my bird feeder -- 12x12 -- the squirrel fell over in his tracks, motionless and did not fall from the feeder like every other shot before and after that.
 
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Great work. 

Please elaborate on your scope.

Addendum: A few days ago, I had an experience similar to your description of your second kill.

I hit this squirrel (head shot with Impact .25 cal, 34 grain at 860 FPS) on my bird feeder -- 12x12 -- the squirrel fell over in his tracks, motionless and did not fall from the feeder like every other shot before and after that.
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It's a Hawke ED 10-50x60

I was shooting a 34 grain mk2 at 848fps

I just got another too..lol

My concerns about using that scope at short ranges has been somewhat aleved. The tailless squirrel I just shot was only at 16 yards, and I had no problem keeping it in the sight picture
 
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I will check out that scope. Sounds like something I would be interested in.

May your freezer runneth over.

Don't run out of ammo.
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I have a lot of ammo, but I'm afraid I may have run out of squirrels.

When I wipe them out.like I have over the last couple week, it takes a month or two to repopulate, assuming I can control myself during that time....lol
 
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Wow so timely. Last week i shot a red squirrel in the heart lung area. It was a close range (15 yards) and that thing flopped around so much I thought I had winged him. I actually tried a second shot (missed cleanly as he was really jumping around). I ran over to dispatch him with a stick and he flopped on more time and was still. He bled out pretty bad and there were chunks of lung hanging out the hole so I know it was a good clean shot. The next day i got another one with a head shot and he was stone cold still when he hit the ground (he was 40 ft in the air when hit). Yesterday i got a 3rd one with a head shot and he ran 35 ft. before just flopping over. I was sure I had winged him also and hit him with another follow up head shot. I am convinced the squirrels in my area are a lot tougher than normal squirrels.
 
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The bad experience I referred to was 3 years ago. I was using a .25 Marauder with a Hawke Sidewinder, zeroed at 50 yards.

The squirrel was 15 yards, but I got my holdover wrong. It was still moving a bit, but I knew I had hit it.

When I went to collect it, I saw it wasn't dead, and to my horror I saw that I had shot the top of its skull off, and i could plainly see its brains. It actually tried to get away from me. I had left my gun on the table and had to use my knife to dispatch it, while it was trying to get away.

I did not shoot anything for a month after that, and when I started again I only took heart/lung shots for a very long time, and since then I have never gone to collect a kill without gun in hand.
 
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A few random observations on this. 

Seen them behave in different ways since I have been pesting out squirrels. Don’t think there’s a hard rule to how they react each time. But my guess is that it may have to do with exactly what the pellet takes out. For example, if you sever the spinal cord, there may be no movement period. 

Some girls have a very tough stomach for these things. They can see the brains splattered, smile, apply lipstick, and take a selfie. So perhaps girlie is not the term you are looking for. 

Ditto on the having no squirrels to shoot anymore. Weird how I “hope” to see one, yet the reason I shoot them is because I don’t want them around destroying my property in the first place.

Great shooting man! I don’t have the luxury to take shots much past 30. 

When in doubt, I go collect my “kill” with my HW30 in hand, just in case. 
 
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A few random observations on this. 

Seen them behave in different ways since I have been pesting out squirrels. Don’t think there’s a hard rule to how they react each time. But my guess is that it may have to do with exactly what the pellet takes out. For example, if you sever the spinal cord, there may be no movement period. 

Some girls have a very tough stomach for these things. They can see the brains splattered, smile, apply lipstick, and take a selfie. So perhaps girlie is not the term you are looking for. 

Ditto on the having no squirrels to shoot anymore. Weird how I “hope” to see one, yet the reason I shoot them is because I don’t want them around destroying my property in the first place.

Great shooting man! I don’t have the luxury to take shots much past 30. 

When in doubt, I go collect my “kill” with my HW30 in hand, just in case.
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Oh, I have no problem at all gutting, cleaning, skinning, or killing anything, but there's something about watching squirrels flop about that gets me.

Perhaps it's my fear of injuring an animal needlessly, or the fear that I'm just not a good enough shot to be engaged in hunting, despite 50 some years of doing it. 

I absolutely go for head shots on any other mammal, including rabbits.

I dunno, must be a Blonde thing.
 
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Great shooting , beautiful AG n one DRT squirrel .our CA ground squirrels are tough, I swear they have extra skin.ive had the same experience, torso shot through the vitals DRT n then head shot flip flopping around n find a hole to slide down, n vice versa. In my opinion they've been hunted so long, they're instinct to keep fighting kicks in. .

I'm shooting a .22 Flash QE n if I have the opportunity to hit torso I do .Most of the time all you see is the head popping out of the hole. As long as I can make a confident shot, I'll take it .I wldnt want to be wounded, with no med aid. 

Keep your mags full n tank filled.

Jon
 
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I second the neck shot placement. I don't take time to range every shot, so taking the average between head and heart, gives me more room to range errors, and the neck is narrow, making errors in windage more likely to miss than to surface wound.

I found that pellet shape plays a roll in impact effect. I have a video of a ground squirrel that I hit with a pile driver slug. The squirrel did 3 ranger rolls and dove 2 feet back into a burrow. He was fatally shot, just not dead right there. Flat point and round point slugs do not dump energy into a target as well as diabolo pellets or hollow point slugs.

Some hits are right on the "off" switch, and some are on the "dance" switch. I will keep on pushing those switches as often as I can.
 
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The only downside I experience with heart/lung shots is the loss of meat. Although it's usually just the front legs, unless shot at an angle. At least with a .25 cal

There's not a lot of waste, but when the freezer is getting empty, and it's more than just me eating, I cant cook a half a squirrel the same way I prefer to.

Stuff em with grapes, wrap em in bacon, and bake. 






 
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