Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Small Game 22lr for Squirrel

Those who like'em seem to really like'em.

Probably would have liked'em had I been exposed. Just never went there.

Reloading for 3 is better than reloading for 4...

DF

No 16 gauge and have never had one. I don't even know who you are any more.

Nearly every farmer that I've ever met had at least one dusty/rusty bolt action or single-shot shotgun tucked away somewhere. Those who I have known seemed to favor the break action single-shot configuration, perhaps because they could open the action and blow out the dust, spider webs, and whatever else one might find in the barrel of neglected barn guns.

Sharps my middle son moves to Kansas this weekend (Wichita area) and starts his first job out of college on Monday. In addition to his SxS and his 7-08 I am sending a 22lr along with him. It’s your M77/22. He loves bolt guns so I thought it just made sense. Well that and the fact the youngest one really likes the 2nd Marlin 39A Mounty laying around here.

A neighbor farm kid had one of those. We stomped rabbits out of brush piles, shot quail when we could hit them, doves the same and of course squirrels. I had a single shot break action Winchester M37 Steelbuilt 20 gauge. He had his bolt action 16 gauge. I always liked the fact his shotgun was a repeater.

Those 37 Winchesters bring a premium in good shape, a bunch more that a bolt action repeater.

DF

I hunt them with a .32 or .36 cal inline muzzleloader or my favorite a Beeman R-9 springer air rifle in .22 cal or one of my other .22 cal RWS or BSA air rifles..killed hundreds maybe a thousand squirrels with a .22 but enjoy air rifles and muzzleloaders more and kill just as many every outing.Also only take head/neck shots been years and years since I've body shot a squirrel.
Have killed a lot of rabbits in the snow with air rifles also.

You still ain't makin it hard enough to be really sporting. Kellory {AKA Daniel Boone JR} kills his squirrels with hex nuts out of a slingshot and kills his deer with arrows shot from a bent sapling with a bootlace.

One of my wife's relatives has been using a .22-caliber Talon SS airgun that has a built-in air tank. He refills the airgun's tank using an old scuba tank.

Still have my late Dad's JC Higgins Bolt in 20 gauge, has an odd safety (back for fire, forward for safe) but it's put a bunch of squirrels in the pot. More than a few doves and ducks too.

I use a 22, sometimes a 12 gauge

Have had occasion to address an overabundance of squirrel around the house of late, greys. Though I noticed this some years back the CB caps are not as effective as BB caps on the little beasts. The pic below represents the body count of squill and an armadillo taken in the rain this morning. One shot per except I popped the 'dillo twice to finish off the tin. I wasn't surprised the BBs penetrated fully on squill, but they also fully penetrated the 'dillo on a broadside shot high behind the shoulder area at 30 yards.



If you ever have cause to shoot these things, CLEAN YOUR BARREL THOROUGHLY. Failure to do so will result in pitting after a short time.

Love hunting and eating squirrel! Unfortunately there ain’t schit for squirrels out here. Except ground squirrels, which are about nothing but prairie rats.

Have nothing against shotguns for squirrels but picking lead shot out, or biting down on it, kinda sucks.

Definitely will have to head east soon for a squirrel hunt!

If you use a shotgun, try loads with #4 or #5 shot, as those sizes will usually pass completely through leaving no shot in the meat. I've a lightweight double that I loaded up 1 ounce and 1-1/8 ounce rounds at 1150 fps and there's been no pellets left in the meat that l could find.

I've hunted squirrels with shotguns, air rifles, and rimfire rifles; .22 lr with subsonic hollowpoints is my preference and what I mostly stick with anymore. Quiet, accurate, plenty of reach and inexpensive. Ammo is light to carry, and if you happen to be in an area with no squirrels found you can always do some "plinking" to keep from things being boring.

Same here, Im headed east for a long delayed squirrel hunt. Even got my .22 out of mothballs and checked zero the other day...I forgot how good it shoots! Ruger 77/22VBBZ

Where are you head ingwe???? I always thought early fall and late summer were a bad time for ticks..

Lotsa ticks here in NY late summer/early fall but you can't let that stop you. You'll stll get them in Nov./Dec. during deer season too, even when there's snow on the ground.

I'm not going till October. Missouri.

Nice!

Late October early November is usually a great time in the SE. Usually enough cool weather to knock the bugs down.

Phillip- yes sir. I’ve hit more than a few old buck squirrels with a load of 6 and they are tough SOB’s. Knock them off a branch and then they haul azz. 4 or 5 shot better medicine.

I’ve a little Stevens Favorite that keeps getting better the more I shoot it. It needs a squirrel hunt!

Ingwe,

Where in MO are you going?