when I was a kid guys would swear and be dammed you had to have a full choke and 1 1/4 ounce high brass 6s to shoot squirrels. Sort of like saying shooting elk requires at least a 338 I guess.
Uh no, not really. An IC choked shotgun will kill squirrels dead inside 25 yds. but that's about where it ends with 1- 1 1/4 oz. non premium loads. Push it much beyond that and you'll start losing hit but only wounded squirrels. Sure you'll still knock some out of the trees at 30 - 35 yds. but many will hit the ground running and you'll lose them down holes and under logs and blowdowns. I've seen schitloads of them blasted out of the top of a tall hickory, free fall 90', hit the ground with a solid "thud" and be up and running in a flash. The problem with killing squirrels with a shotgun is that they're so damned tough that it's imperative to get pellets through the brain, heart and lungs in order to kill them quickly and those vital organs are mighty damned small. Unlike grouse or cottontails, a few pellets in the front and hind legs, guts and non vital meaty areas just ain't gonna cut it. And you can't switch to smaller pellets to increase pattern saturation either because 7.5's or 8's don't penetrate to the vitals through their boot leather tough hide at extended range. Nope, what you need is a load/choke combination that will consistently poke #5 or #6 pellets into the golf ball sized chest cavity and quarter sized brain cavity at whatever range you expect to kill them cleanly/consistently and IC just doesn't cut it much past 25 yds. in my experience.
