jnojr
Member
Better question: why kill a harmless, practically defenseless squirrel in the first place? It's one thing to kill an animal to put food on your table or to defend yourself from attack, but just offing them for the heck of it (and "lost birdseed," boo hoo, essentially falls into that category) is sick.
There are humane pest removal services that trap and relocate animals if they're causing genuine problems. (Btw, thousands of squirrels live around my area and cause no significant damage that I've ever seen or heard of.)
Ground squirrels, while cute, are enormous pests. Before the area around it was developed, my moms place had these damn things tunneling under the foundation, chewing through the walls, etc. I couldn't kill 'em fast enough. I started with my Ruger 10/22, but as soon as I fired once, they'd run for their hidey-holes, and stay for ten or twenty minutes. I got a case of Gopher Gassers and loaded up the Winchester Defender 12 gauge. Light a Gasser, stuff it down a hole, follow up with a wad of newspaper, then watch. The smoke starts coming out of other holes, and then the squirrels bolt, and get a dose of bird shot