Is it hard for anyone else to kill squirrels with .22 calibre?

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MoeHofer

MoeHofer

Member
Dec 12, 2015
365
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SD, United States
Hi everyone, I live in a little town in northern S.D, where the red squirrel has kind of taken over, there are dozens of them, and they are causing a lot of problems and emptying a lot of bird feeders, etc... So I decided to do the whole community a favor by thinning them down a bit.....

Enter the .22 cricket standard, 18.1 grain @ 895 fps. Surely with 30 foot pounds I should be able to kill a squirrel!!

I have shot perhaps 100 rabbits with same gun 1 30 pound coon, and easilly 200 plus pigeons, And I tell you this gun is absolutely deadly! ragged five shot holes at 50 yards,
So when I decided to take on the squirrels, I was in for a tremendous surpirse! 

I lined up with first squirrel at fifty yards, and popped him right in the head, he fell off the tree, and started crawling back toward tree, I shot him in the chest area, and he started to go in circles, I shot him again and he finally stopped, but he kicked and squirmed like a maniac so I shot him again, and he finally died.

This is disturbing to me, I am used to taking out pigeons and rabbits at 70-100 yards with the same gun with a single shot, but these things JUST DONT DIE EASY!!

I shot another on this afternoon at 51 yards, right in the head, about 20 degrees up, froze and clung to the tree, I waited for ten seconds and shot him again, right in the chest, he kept hanging on, so I shot him again, in the chest, he kept hanging on, so I shot him a fourth time, and he finally fell out of the tree,

FOUR shots later!! I took him inside and laid him on the counter and went to put my gun away, My four year old boy comes running, "Daddy, the squirrel is still Alive!!"

NO!!! I came running and sure enough that thing was laying on the counter and wheezing away and squirming its legs!! 

I quickly grabbed my gun stuck the squirrel out the window, and shot him point blank in the head!! He started to squirm like crazy and 30 seconds later, FINALLY DIED!!

after 5 shots, 2 in the head and 3 in the chest.

Now I know what you guys are thinking, "Your just a horrible shot!" 

Well, I happen to know I am an excellent shot, all my shots were right on the mark, on both squirrels, I found the entry and exit holes, they are just tougher than all get out!!

Or are they?? I'm really concerned, I am not comfortable shooting any more squirrels with my .22 past 40 yards.

Is there any helpfull input from you fellows out there? Do I need a .25? Is fifty yards too far for 30 fpe? Am I hitting them wrong? What's going on??
I should add I have shot about 10 squirrels and most come down a little easier than the two mentioned above, but rarely will I get them in a single shot, usually I need at least one quick follow-up shot.
 
Squirrels can be tough to kill, but can easily be killed with very little fpe. I have killed countless numbers with a 17fpe .22 as well as .177's from as low as 12fpe. Shot placement is very critical and keep in mind that squirrels tend to have alot of nerve movement for awhile even when they are stone dead. Very few squirrels shot with an airgun just fall over dead from head shots. They typically flip and flop for what seems like eternity, yet were dead the instant the pellet struck.
 
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Well, this hits a nerve. My friend and I have a permission to clear out ground squirrels on a horse ranch. We have 30 ftlb airguns. We always try the head shot- nothing like “lights out” when shooting. We too, are frustrated at the resiliency of these rodents
I watch the British squirrel videos on YouTube- those tremendous culls they do with their sub 12 ft/lb guns. They’ve videos of squirrels with the skin removed from their head, so you can see how small the brain area is- hitting them in sinus’s will hurt, but not incapacitate the little brown critters. Don’t get me started about a gruesome shot to the jaw- it’s not going to anchor the beast.
We’ve noticed the following: many headshots did not kill the squirrel out right. In the brain bucket, it does seem to stop them cleanly, but the nerves keep firing.
Some body shots will kill them cleanly. 
I can enumerate countless shots that have “stoned” the squirrel, only to have it snap back to life in 20-30 seconds and escape into it’s hole.
We always take two shots at every squirrel now- at least one in the head, to insure a clean, responsible kill. I don’t count a squirrel a kill unless I can see the “helicopter” tail- the rapid rotation the tail makes as the final energy departs the animal.
I also have a .25 cal, 40 ftlb air gun- the results are similar- both the .22 and the .25 just pass through the squirrel, not putting all of the energy into the animal.
Polymags have helped, but even then, I’ve gutted a squirrel with the mags, and with intestines leaking from the belly, & I still have to put a couple more pellets downrange to stop the animal.

https://imgur.com/DS4Zc6u


I attached a photo of a squirrel from this summer. If you look at the stomach, you can see that this squirrel had been “burned” or worse, from a pellet in the past.
In summary, squirrels with .22 air rifles are a challenge!
 
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Squirrels are very tough little creatures.... I shoot them regularly with a Crosman Ratcatcher and they do the usual twitch, and flinch when you get a good headshot. It is all about shot placement. If you place the pellet to make a triangle in the middle below and between the eye and ear, it will go down. Now think about that same area looking from the front or back or quartering too, or away. It is a VERY small area. It hit one just recently it was the to the right of its left eye when slightly facing me. I was aiming for the diagonal path to the brain. It was a solid hit at 10 yards with a 9FPE .22 gun, and the squirrel jumped 3 feet into the air, and did the breakdance special for what seemed like a minute. It was absolutely a lights out shot though. Some might say this was too low an energy gun to go after squirrels, but 3FPE will kill a squirrel if the pellet is placed correctly. So I will continue to use this small compact platform which is moderated, and is super quiet for my backyard use and no neighbors will ever hear it unless they were out in their yards.

I do prefer the side on head shots best though. I get complete pass through with JSB's 15.89's and they usually do the minimal breakdance and may be a rear leg stretch/shake, but they stay anchored.
 
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I use a P-rod that's only a 13-14 fpe gun and I've one every had to shoot a squirrel twice less then a handful of times I did learn about head shots though if you don't hit the right spot they will keep rucking for a few minutes till they bleed out and I found a chest shot is vary tricky as you'd need to hit the heat and lungs .. a friend of mine shot a squirrel threw the eyes you'd think the shock of something like that would drop it but it just tried to run away blindly really need to precise on where in the head your hitting
 
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Red squirrels are on the small side and we have tons around here in MT. I take them all day long with my BSA S10 shooting 10.9 fpe @ the muzzle. They drop stone dead with brain shots every time out to 50 yds. I have also shot allot of columbian ground squirrels with my S10 out to 40 yds and again they are stone dead with brain shots. I use my 30 fpe S510 but they are just as dead as with my S10. When I shoot tree squirrels or ground squirrels I go for the brain every time. I have never had any animal even come close to surviving a solid brain shot but I have had the unfortunate experience of being just slightly off on the shot and not cleanly hitting the brain a couple times. That will cause the animal to not immediately die and requires a quick clean shot to finish. If the animal is not immediately brain dead with a brain shot it was not a clean hit and thats all there is to it no mystery or voodoo involved. I know some will try to argue that it was a clean hit but thats not possible. No animal will survive a clean brain hit that destroys the brains function. The target is very small and the pellet only needs to drift slightly off to cause a partial brain injury instead of complete shut down.
 
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Piling on what others have said. Its about the shot placement.

Not all headshot are equal though. Early on, before I knew better, I thought a broadside eye shot is sure to be painless and lethal. I learned the hard way that it was not.

http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/uncyclopedia/images/4/40/Squirrel_Anatomy.jpg

This said, there is simply no way for an animal to be alive if the stem of the brain has been destroyed, so I've been aiming appropriately and cleanly taking squirrels with my .22 FX Indy at its lowest power setting (13.4 JSBs, 8 FPE at impact) and my good old HW77 (.177, 17FPE at the muzzle) consistently with one shot. I also has to dispatch a couple squirrels trapped in our chicken coop, and chose a 6FPE, .177 XS-B3 springer for the job (the only rifle I have with iron sights which lets me aim at 2 feet). I will say this again, if the stem of the brain is damaged, the critter travels instantly to the better world. 

There is another point to consider. What constitutes a dead squirrel? In my books, if it is able to breathe after the shot - I screwed up. This happens to me in about 5% of cases, and it is a sad sight. I once pulled a shot and the pellet only damaged the frontal pat of the brain. It was surreal. There it was, a nice chink of the gray matter on the backstop, gaping hole in the scull but the creature still breathing after 2 minutes, and its eyes frantically moving about. Had to club it. Call me a softy, but the scene is still haunting me.

Broadside neck shots also work well if you hot the spine.
 
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Interesting post for me. I've been hunting gray squirrels in Pennsylvania and now here in North Carolina with a ,22 powder burner for years... Last year I started to hunt them with a .17 HMR. Now this season I took my FX Royal in .22 out.

With the .22 I had squirrels crawl off with both head and body hits. With the .17 HMR a head or body shot with the ballistic tip bullets produce amazing results and some meat damage too! Now I took the FX out on the last day of deer season here in NC to see how it would preform.I shot the first squirrel in the head I thought, but it crawled off. I think because in my deer blind I could not read my side wheel distance after ranging. The sun came up higher and the next 5 squirrels were shot in the head and were DRT! I did have one bounce around a bit before settling down for the great sleep.

I could hear the impact hit over the sound from the moderator of the gun. Very impressive, and gratifying sound! The only difficulty I had was trying to find the squirrel in the scope at 30 power on the T-50 Falcon.

Now for my theory....
If you shoot a soda can at 50 yards with the .22 powder burner it produces a uneventful hole through the can where the water just pours out! If you shoot it with the .17 HMR, the can and water make a spectacular explosion!. With the .22 air rifle the result from the .22 powder burner is repeated...

Here is the theroy. At around 1006 FPS the 22 LR punches through the squirrel soft parts and head quickly with little if any expansion, and it does not open soft tissue creating the needed shock that kills the squirrel quickly. The critter jumps around and then crawls off to bury itself in the leaves and detritus in the bushes. The .17 HMR at around 2350 FPS and the ballistic tip creates a massive impact and tissue damage that kills the tree rat rt on the spot, (DRT, or Dead Right There) but destroys the meat as well.

Now the .22 pellet is softer lead and lighter grain wgt then the .22 LR and will expand quicker on the soft tissue like the ballistic tipped HMR and actually seems to me to be a better killer for the squirrel at 50 yds or under. This is just real world observations. But at our deer hunting club, I took more squirrels in one day,then the other guys who used .22 LRs. Any thoughts on this guys? I would like to hear if you think this is sound thinking or just rubbish !!! Paul

Note on the pic of the Squirrels. Look at the one on the far right in the pic. He died so fast that the corn was locked in his jaws! It stayed there through all the cleaning and skinning. When I went to discard the parts I pulled it out of his mouth.
Uploaded at Snapagogo.com
Uploaded at Snapagogo.com
 
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I do not often get a look at the pellets from my squirrel shots ....but the 4 or 5 pellets that I did recover this year were spectacular and showed great expansion and weight retention both of which i find very encouraging ...I also noticed some sharp edges on them from deforming and think that that further helps not only cause more immediate hemorrhaging but also helps transfer terminal shock from projectile to target! ....I am very happy with the 20 or so squirrel shots this fall with my .22 Independence with JSB 18.13 grain pellets! 
I will try to get some pellets pictures up in a bit!
Jonathan
 
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wow i just dont get how our results can be so much different! ...I guess I have shot around 20 or so this year with my pellet gun and only had to shoot 2 with a follow up shot and I will be the fist to admit that the first shot was not a well placed shot! ....I have hit them at 10 yards and 70+ yards and there dead right there!
I think that there is a lot to be said for proper shot placement here folks ...I am judging me first! ..I have learned that when I do my part the gun will do its part every single time but if I screw up it can go wrong and require fast follow up shots to make sure that the job is done right ....having said that I saw a chipmunk take a 525gr sabot at 1900 feet per second to the ass and make it 15 yards to its hole! ....fire power is nice to make up for slightly marginal shot placement but accuracy trumps fire power (for me) ...pellet through heart = dead pellet through both lungs= dead as does a pellet passing through both hemispheres of the brain!
Jonathan
 
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You’re right Jonathon! Shot placement is crucial in hunting! Not only from a humane perspective, but to avoid a long search for a game animal that is fatally wounded. I also am happy to not have to drag a big deer through any briers or up and down mountains..!!! Now that I am 63 and retired, I want quick DRT shots and drive up to the game..…LOLWhen I shoot a deer, it is in the neck and have never had one move off the spot where it was shot. I have shot several does at 30 yds through the heart and lungs and have them both run 60 yds through woods before dropping…. True it was at 30 yds in a blind with a .308 using sp bullets. It went through so fast they didn’t know they were hit I believe. I even shot a nice * point running in the neck with a .300 Win Mag. He just folded up and skidde to a stop. DRT.We don’t always get the best angle om game for a perfect shot, so with squirrels in trees and behind brush, I wait for the clear position. Of course it is not a trophy 10 point buck so I can’t honestly say I would not take the best shot available if no neck was available…. Paul LDP you are also correct and I don't think you are bashing. 30 or 32 FPE with a 18.13 should do it without any problem. If having a problem, the 21.13 Heavy Beeman Kodiaks really will knock them over. Any head shot above the jaw and just below the top of the head should, and does do it for me. also waiting until the squirrels head is still helps. While eating they bob their chest and head up and down fast so timing is important too.... 
 
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+1 on shot placement.

Do a search on "squirrel head anatomy" and double check where everything is. This one went down immediately from a 7.3 grain.177 that left my 10M competition pistol at 500 fps ~4fpe and arrived about 30 feet later at the squirrel (about ~2 fpe). I've found this is right about the best impact spot, maybe a half a pellet lower.

I agree larger pellets / more energy is better (I usually use a 40fpe .22). I think pellet type matters too. My JSB Exact 18.13 always penetrate with a clean .22 sized hole and pass though meaning there is energy still in the pellet that wasn't used on the squirrel. Some of the time the 19 grain hunter extremes don't pass though - which tells me that brain area absorbed a heck of a lot of energy. And if you take the time to get the pellet from one of those non pass throughs, it's a completely deformed expanded mess.

And yes, I've had those that just don't want to stop breathing even with three head shots - 2 point blank.





 
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whew I thought after reading my post that I was sounding a little harsh! ...I hope not as that was defiantly not my intentions at all!
I am like most I would think here to share as much as learn and with my experience in the field and thousands of rounds fired I hope to be able to share what I have learned in my life with you all so that we as a team can all better our selves and our sport! 
Jonathan
 
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