Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Small Game Hunting Squirrel with a 12gauge

I grew up in the Columbia bottoms of southeast Texas. The geographical area southwest of Houston along the Brazos and Colorado river bottoms. This unique area of planet earth is one of the souths hardwood only forest regions. Comprised primarily of Oaks, Pecan, Ash, and Elms, this is Squirrel heaven.
My mentors were from "the great generation " who were farmers, ranchers, and migrants that came to work the petrochemical industry. I loved these men and loved their stories. One thing that they talked about more than any subject was the Great Depression. They said "if it weren't for rabbits, squirrel and greens we would have starved." The most common firearms in camp was a 12 gauge. Didn't matter if it was deer camp, duck camp or squirrel camp ...12 gauge.The reason was because that was the only firearm many of them owned. The timber in the bottoms is not tall like the piney woods to the east but was covered solid with palmetto's, which restricted movement and made shots sometimes long.
I ran across and purchased a 1958 model 12 Winchester, new in the box, unassembled, cosmolene still on the bolt. My 60th birthday is going to be May 9th 2018, on which I will assemble this treasure and go Squirrel hunting. As I ease into the green bottoms I will reminisce of the days of my youth,my mentors and those that had to leave early.

That area sounds like sw Arkansas before the paper companies moved in, killed all the hard wood and planted pine. My people who lived there during the Depression survived on squirrel, rabbit and greens. The single shot 12 was most common gun. In some areas there was a lot of palmetto, full of rattle snakes. Watch your step.

My Dad bought on of those model 12 three inch mags in 1956? I used it at a turkey shoot once. Back stop was a pond. When they say how tight the pattern was when it hit the water, everyone wanted my gun for their shot at the card.

Long shots were never a problem with that model 12.

Great stories, not too unlike my own memories.

Where palmettos flourish, rattlesnakes abound.

Louisiana Delta hardwoods are a lot like those areas, except some of these old growth hardwoods can be pretty tall.

Early in the season when the leaves are thick, you just about need a scattergun.

DF

I read a story in Louisiana Sportsman about a man and his son who hunted squirrel in a WMA, I believe around St Francis called Cathead Road WMA. Great story. It would be worth the trip just to hunt that kind country.

Great read.. In my youth I killed a few squirrels with a shotgun.. It would have been better if I would have had one of my model 12's or my model 97!!!!!!

My brother and I inherited land on the Red River that our GF bought in 1906. He was a master squirrel hunter, could slip thru the woods like an Indian. He used a single barrel 12 ga and always kept his family supplied with squirrels. I still have that old gun. Those tall, old growth trees formed a canopy that was a haven for fox and cat squirrels. And for young hunters following the old man. Those were the days, wonderful memories. Up before daylight, dripped coffee, biscuits, eggs and fig preserves, then to the woods. Some things you just don’t forget.

DF

When my wife and I first got married squirrel and rabbit was a very welcome addition to our diet. They didn't keep us from starving but sure helped with the food bill.

Dad mostly used a 16 bore which is probably the reason I'm overly fond of the 16. He had a 12 but rarely used it. I evolved to a rifle pretty young and for years my favorite was a 36 cal. Southern Mountain flintlock. These days I usually carry a Thieme & Schlegelmilch drilling in 16 with a 22LR insert in the right barrel and 9.3 X 75R Nimrod for the bottom rifle barrel.

As with "all ya'll" I have fond memories of squirrel hunting with Dad. Here's a little essay I wrote one evening. One of my sister's printed it and framed it then put it out at Dad's funeral.


And so it is....

...that as I turn the pages of the calendar and check off the accumulating years I find it is the simple things I enjoy more. Those blessings from God that are all around us if only we take a few moments to see them. They're hidden in plain sight. The fragrance of the old time heirloom climbing roses, the tug of a big bluegill on the end of my bamboo fly rod and of course those brilliant sunrises and sunsets streaked with purple and red and violet. Then there is the sounds of the forest awakening after a long, dark night. Or, at the other end of the day, the forest preparing for the hours of darkness and the night creatures beginning their foraging.

Those who are supposed to know about such things say the sense of smell elicits the deepest memories. I suppose that's correct but I submit that the sense of hearing can also dredge up long forgotten bits and pieces of our life. Perhaps not forgotten but lying dormant somewhere within our minds.

Now, why do I take such a long way around the barn to say something that ultimately will be quite simple? Just a few moments ago I was outside calling in our two spoiled dogs when off to the west I caught a wisp of a sound I hadn't heard this time of day, dusk, for quite some time. I thought I heard it, then stopped calling the dogs and turned an ear to the west. Sure enough, there it was again, no mistaking it this time. The evening bark of a gray squirrel telling the world whatever it is gray squirrels tell the world at dusk. I've heard that bark thousands upon thousands of times, at all times of the day. Why...why on this particular evening, with the hint of a spring frost in the air, did that unsophisticated bark of a gray squirrel immediately transport me back to one very similar evening half a century ago? I remember it as if it happened last week.

My hero, my Dad, and I were on an evening hunt for squirrels. It was later in the year but I remember a bite in the air, the bark of a gray squirrel, a vividly colored evening sky, perhaps even past legal shooting time but still light enough to see. A boy and his Dad were waiting beneath a tree for the squirrel to show itself. I was carrying a 20 gauge, single barrel shotgun and was ready to prove my mettle. As if on command the gray scurried out on a limb, evidently to survey the forest one last time before heading to its den, and I did what we set out to do. I harvested a part of a meal for our family. It took more than one squirrel to feed the 5 of us but I had done my part. I remember the shot, the jet of flame from the muzzle, the squirrel tumbling to the earth and the sodden "thump" when it landed. Dad and I walked to where the squirrel lay and my shaking hand reached down to pick up the warm squirrel. Mostly though, I remember the grin on Dads face and the pat on my back. It wasn't my first squirrel nor would it be my last but it was done with my Dad as a witness. No one could deny that I had killed that squirrel, not with Dad there as a witness and to confirm my deed. No one doubted the word of a hero. Yes....what a night tonight is.

Squirrels…..simple little mammals. Not particularly intelligent but as wary as a longbeard turkey. Certainly the filet’ mignon of small game and a challenge to hunt with my preferred firearm, a flintlock longrifle. Perhaps more important than that for a great number of us it is a link to our past and our youth.


I suppose I love to hunt squirrels so much because it takes me back to my youth. To grand times and fond memories of when Dad was younger than I am now and I was younger than my sons now are, a lot younger

If you read this far thank you for humoring the ruminations of a man not yet old but certainly not young....and take your kid squirrel hunting, you'll both remember it....for a long time.

Vic

Exactly Vic!

All this talk about Squirrel hunting made me grab my model 12 16 gauge and go shoot a few. I guess I should have titled this tread "Squirrel hunting with a shotgun"

Here is My 60th birthday present. I won't assemble it until then on May 9th 2018

It's a 1958 model also.

NIce.

I remember mine, a 28" Mod that cost $82 wholesale in 1961, retail was $109. I picked up pecans to buy it, was in high school, remember the day Dad drove up with it. I was out in the barn, milking the cow. I couldn't get finished with that chore fast enough.

Great gun. I remember trying to decide between the M-12 and the M-37 Ithaca. My great uncle was a trap shooter of some renoun, owned a hdw store and other businesses, well respected by me. He told me the Ithaca was like a Ford, the Winchester like a Buick. I got his drift, as he drove a big Roadmaster Buick at the time.

Many moons later, I did obtain a first year production, solid rib 20 ga. 37R, restored the wood, recut the checkering. It's lighter than the M-12, but a M-12 is a M-12, for sure. A classic.

DF

A 20, not a 12 ga., but a nice squirrel gun, nonetheless. Action seems slicker than my M-12, but 80 yrs. has a way of slicking up a shotgun action. It came with a Deluxe Poly Choke. I thought about cutting it and installing flush fitting chokes. But the Poly Choke is vintage and I left it as it was. Even with the rib barrel, it would be pretty "whippy" without that extra bit of weight on the end of the barrel. Wood was restored, metal original, factory rust blue on the barrel. The line per inch checkering is different, stock vs. forearm. I read they farmed a lot of that work out. IIRC, it's 20 lpi stock, 18 lpi, forearm.

DF

OP, that Model 12 is a treasure. My favorite pump shotgun is the grand old Model 12. Mine have taken much game. Enjoy that shotgun sir!

The first real firearm I ever shot was a model 42 Winchester. My dad swapped it even for brand new Remington model 1100 in 1975. Something he deeply regretted. That little .410 was our favorite for chasing rabbits with beagles.... another sport I miss.

The .410 is perfect for rabbits. As kid, I even got a T/C Contender in .410 which worked well on swamp rabbits. The beagles would bring them back around and they'd come slipping thru the woods. We'd clean them in the woods, put the carcass in a bread bag, stack them in our hunting vest. It didn't take many to make the hunting vest heavy. Mom made the best rabbit gumbo which we ate by the fire after the hunt. Great memories.

Here's my rabbit outfit. Made for light, handy packing. I didn't like the factory grip, found it uncomfortable. Made my own, like it much better.

DF

Apologies to the OP for "chasing rabbits"...



DF

That's ok DF, I kind of high jacked this thread a long time ago. I guess that happens when you have a discussion about the good ol days.

Yeah, the "good ole days", always a topic of interest.

I bet your Dad was sick over the 42 Win trade after he saw their value go thru the roof. But, hindsight is 20/20 as they say. Those rabbit hunts on cold winter days were a hoot. A friend had a pack of Beagles and he'd come out to my Dad's farm; we'd hunt swampers in the delta hardwoods. Fond memories.

DF

In 1975 a Remington 1100 went for round $175. We were in Carrols gun shop in Wharton Texas a few months later and saw a model 42 in the same condition of his with a $700 price tag. The price along with not having that Winchester anymore caused great remorse.

Hope he's not checking current prices...

DF

Yeah they're proud of them

Great thread. Great story Vic, thanks for sharing.

Dirtfarmer, I love your Contender. I hunt rabbits with the same, just in the Encore platform.

My 12 gauge heirloom is a Mossberg 500. Back when I first got married I didn't have two nickels to rub together. I moved to upstate NY and at 23 found myself in shotgun country for deer. I only had a 30-30 Winchester and scoured the local gunshow for a cheap shotgun to use for deer season. paid $115 for a Mossberg 500 pump with a slug barrel and another $20 to a friend for a bird barrel for it. My neighbor took me under his wing and taught me about hound hunting and I used that gun for deer as well as all the hound hunting we did. Rabbit with beagles, fox and coyote with hounds. That was the only gun I used for YEARS!!!!

Fast forward and my son wants to use my shotgun for deer as I now use a revolver or Thompson Encore. He loves the history of the gun and has at this point taken 3 deer with that gun. Makes my heart warm to see him want to use his old mans gun and continue the tradition. I am still running beagles and he has taken a handful of cottontails and a snowshoe hare over them with it in addition to the squirrels he has taken with our Black Mouth Cur.

I enjoyed reading that.

Black Mouth Cur caught my attention. Down here we have the Catahoula cur and I've heard the old timers say those with a black mouth were the smartest. These curs have glass eyes or sometimes one glass eye, are often brindle colored. Tell us about your cur.

DF

Dad wouldn't have a dog if it didn't have a black mouth.

great thread. I learned to hunt along the Navidad River in Lavaca county. lots of fox squirrels there in the 60s and 70s. I used a Remington Model 17 that was my grandfather's main meat getter back then.

Beautiful river bottom , some of those Live Oaks are hundreds of years old.

Another good rabbit chasing gun. Very handy with a sling.

DF

My first Squirrel killed was with a 12 ga. After that I tried my 20 ga, 28 ga & 410. None could reach the top of the 85' pine trees & cut thru the foliage, in deep East Texas, like that 12 ga. That was 1985. I prefer squirrel hunting to any other.





My 58th b-day presents to myself was a 1965 Browning Auto 5 still in the box. I bought it a VR 26" Invector barrel. I assembled it last October and took it on its first hunt. There is not a man in the woods more proud of his shotgun than when I pack my Auto 5 hunting.

Belgian Auto Five shotguns have class...

Did you take it to the woods in deep east Texas ?