Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Small Game 2022 Squirrel Season

You can use whatever you want, but shot smaller than #6 tends to just make a mess, unless you are shooting them for pest control and not eating. #6 is fine, but #4 usually cleanly penetrates and will knock them out of the crotch of a tree.

As far as hunting with a rifle, I do that most of the time when I hunt, whether there is foliage or not. But hunting squirrels in thick foliage with a shotgun, especially if you are hunting with fine shot in a game load, is pretty much a ticket to a wounded squirrel, if you hit it at all. I know some people do it thinking they can blast through foliage blindly at a squirrel but fine game loads already don't have a heck of a lot of energy on target and even less when they are poking holes through leaves. Rifles are superior to shotguns in thick foliage due to narrower windows and better accuracy. When the foilage is off, and you have much broader windows, it's pretty much just as easy to hit them with a shotgun when they are still, and way easier when they are moving. The only time I've wished for a shotgun when hunting in full foliage is whgen one bounds past me on the ground when I'm on my way in.

Lots of different opinions out there on what's best.