Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Small Game Your favorite way to squirrel hunt

Wow....that really brought back memories. Used to float the creeks and bayou's of Louisiana with my golden retreiver up front and my shotgun across my lap. I had "Kaleb" trained to handsignals and would put him out on the bank and signal him to the other side of the tree to turn the squirrels when they tried to hide on the back side. And of course, once they fell Kaleb would bring them back to the boat. I never had to get out of the boat...LOL

firstshot
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Make your first shot count!

That's awesome to have the dog working with you. I've never hunted squirrels with a dog. The old days lot's of hillbillies had curs or fiest of some sort that would work squirrels. I've listened to many tales of such hunts from my Grandpa and Dad over the years. Seems to be a vanishing part of the sport...

I enjoy just slowly sneaking along looking for them on the ground or low on the trunks of trees with a 22LR.

After I went off to college, I came home to a young lab at my parents home. I grabed my 22LR and went out to get a couple of squirrels. The lab went a long and he was very quiet and just stayed behind me. He soon learned what I was after and then I followed him! He was an amazing dog but unfortunately he died 9 years ago. I still have some great memories!

RH

My hunting is mostly sitting or still hunting, depending on the circumstances, probably just like a lot of the other posters.

What I do differently when I can, is to wet wade, or use hip boots up or down a stream. This is especially effective when there are a lot of dry leaves on the ground, because you make no noise at all.You can see and hear a lot of game this way, especially when the squirrels are making a lot of noise, and you are not making any!

I also use sub-sonic hollow point ammo. It's accurate, deadly, and does not alarm the area you are hunting very much.

Glad to see so many other squirrel hunters at the Fire.

Steve

Off my bird feeder.

Steve,
The only thing I dislike about the sub-sonic ammo is the looping trajectory. I like to hold on their little noggin' and not try to dope the drop on longish shots. I will say this, the Eley sub-sonic's are very, very, accurate, quiet, and effective within close to mid-ranges.

I prefer the Eley .22LR high velocity hollowpoints.

MOGC
I agree with you re the loopy nature of the sub-sonics, but I have tried to minimize the problem by test shooting them at various distance from 10 to 50 yards, and then recording where they hit. Like you, I also just use head shots, and it was not very hard to do so when you know how to hold for a particular distance. But, then I got so hung up on knowing the exact distance of a squirrel, that I was using my laser rangefinder. After a couple of trips to the woods with it, I stopped using it because it became a case of complication beyond necessity. It was just more fun doing without it. And I was still making clean kills.

The Rem Sub-sonics have been pretty accurate in my rifles, and I bought a lot of them when they were cheap. More recently I've tried Aguila sub-sonics, which have been even cheaper, and more accurate. I believe that Eley makes the brass and the primer. I value the quiet nature of the sub-sonics quite a lot.

Thanks for your comments.

Steve

still hunting or floating the river

Well said, and that's the way I hunt gray squirrels too.

i am not a very experienced squirrel hunter but i like to listen for them and stalk to where i think they are. then wait for them to move in the tree. has actually worked pretty well!


that or driving the road and waiting for them to cross in front of me :D:D:D (justkidding)

Now that I can hunt in Missouri, I plan to put squirrels on the menu, mostly in the NW part

Back in NC, my favorite method was to walk in a stand of woods my grandmother owned...it was about 50/50 hardwood and pines, and in the years the fields nearby had something besides tobacco in them, it was pretty good hunting. Usually, we used shotguns, though a .22 LR was best for reaching up to the high pine branches they used as a subdivision/ highway system. I miss it very much.

It is a bit funny to me seeing this thread, at work today, I told a hunting coworker that it seems like ages since I took a squirrel with something besides a P225/75R15.

Still huntin em , hands down.

galbrath be sure to give Monkey mountain, and Honey creek a try for squirells this season.

Slipping through the woods in the early morning or evening with a .22lr in my hands moving quietly and taking nothing but head shots. When you get warmed up start calling your shots for the ear or the eye.

Squirell hunting as a kid taught me many skills that I later used as a USMC Scout Sniper.

my dad's family farm has a huge walnut grove interspersed with hickory trees. I fondly remember slow walks through it (it was big enough to keep looping back around). I wish it was easier to get there -- it's been many years now and there aren't many squirrels in UT. Hunted much he same in VA & AL too.

I enjoy wading the rivers in Ohio with my 22 anschutz shooting lapua subsonic. I have also been hunting the tree rats with my compound bow and a G5 small game head the bow kind of tears them up but with the anshults I always have plenty of (squak) slang for squirrel in the refrigerator.

My favorite way is to find a good hardwoods stand and just sit quietly. They'll show!