"Barking" squirrels

[Catpop]

I once had a gray squirrel try ruin an afternoon of deer hunting for me. I was up a tree bow hunting. I decided to waste one arrow to shut him up. I did not hit him.
But I did somewhat bark him.
The bear tri blade pased between him and the branch he was sitting on. He went straight up into orbit and I never saw him or his chatting again.
Did I bark him? Maybe not, but I did shut him up!

 

[jeepnik]

Barking can be done to other small animals. I actually missed this one. But I hit a rock next to it and a chip passed completely though. Must have hit the spine just behind the head as it was DRT.

 

[Charliefrank]

As a kid I had a Mowry 36 caliber muzzle loader. I used to bark squirrel often. Takes a good bit of practice though. If the hits not close enough, even if he falls from the tree he'll run off.

 

[444]

It's from an era when one rifle was expected to do it all. .36, .40 and .45 caliber rifles were the most common, with .50 being popular but not nearly as many as the "smaller" calibers. Compare meat damage of any of those to a .22 rimfire. Hence, barking squirrels to eat.

This is the context I have read about this in. Any time I ever heard about it, it was done with a muzzleloader. And I always just assumed that back when muzzleloaders were what everybody had, they probably only owned one gun and thus used it to hunt small game even though it was grossly over-powered for the game they were hunting. And, they wern't just hunting for recreation.

I have no idea if this is just myth or they actually did it. I certainly have never done it and don't know anybody that has (until I read this thread). Although when I was a teenager I "barked" a chipmunk that was running down a road with a .22. I am pretty sure I actually hit gravel which then flew up and killed the chipmunk. Although of course I immediately yelled to my friends: Did you see that shot I made on that running chipmunk ?