What rifle do you squirrel hunt with?

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I'm hopeing it will be a good scope, it's the first Nikon i've bought... I keep hearing the quality has gone down on them these days, so who knows forsure??

DM
 
Stevens 22-410 is pretty good too. That's what I hunted w/ the most when growing up. CB in the top and a 3" .410 #5 in the bottom. I always tried to leave the woods w/ the same .410 shell I started with. Dad would lead the way and I stayed about 40 yds back. The squirrels would move around the trees as he passed and I'd zap'em with a CB. Very little noise, so it wouldn't spook the rest. Worst case, I'd hit a cutter call a few times and they'd go right back to searching for acorns/nuts. I'd always carry a few LR cartridges in my pocket because there were a few hickories that a CB wouldn't reach the top of.
 
I use a Norinco JW15 (copy of a Brno Model 1 / CZ452) with a 1.5-4.5 scope. Very accurate and I don't need to worry about it getting banged up in the woods.

I also like a Savage 22/410 with a 2.5x scope. I use the 22 when I can get a good solid tree trunk as a backstop and the 410 when I can't. I don't like to send a bullet flying off into the air to come to earth I know not where.
 
Only been out one day this year, and all I saw of a squirrel was a tail disappearing around a tree. But I saw that through the Bushnell 4x shotgun scope that lives on top of my Savage Mark II GL.
 
I've killed more with the 22 but I like the challenge of getting them with .177 pellets. I had a Remington / Crosman NPSS .22 pellet rifle but I didn't like the higher cost of the .22 pellets vs cheap .177's.

It takes a good shot with a .177 pellet to do the job. But a good shot does it. My Gamo Springer is good for about 25 yards or less. They have some that are good for further. I've heard the Benjamin Marauder PCP can kill em out to around 80 yards or so and they also make up to .25 cal. They adverdtise that you can kill a coyote with the Marauder .25. But once again big pellets are a lot more than .177's.

I still prefer the 22 though when I have enough safe shooting distance.
 
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Natman I have the same rifle with a bushnell scope. I don't have many places to hunt here so most of my squirrel shooting is to keep them out of garden or fruit trees A
RWS 34 i .177 does that duty
Roy
 
From the 70's until now, a Winchester 67 single shot with iron sights.

I recently picked up a Norinco JW-15 and put a 1.5x - 4.5x scope on it, once the kinks are worked out it will be my new squirrel gun.

As my eyes get older, it's easier shoot something with glass on it.
 
I've not hunted squirrels for several years, but during the many years I did hunt them, I used my Remington 550A semi-auto .22 LR that my father gave me for my 13th birthday. That was in 1950. Shot great then; shoots just as accurately today, a squirrel and cottontail killing machine. :D

L.W.
 
I have shot more squirrels with my Benjamin Pellet rifles 342 and NP XL 1100 than I have with rimfire or shotgun combined.
 
I have shot plenty with shotguns in .410 and 12gu, as well as a goodly number which felt the need to chew up my feeders with my .243 and my 25-06. Even with a head shot only there wasn't much left to haul in with me.

As of late however with the grandkids getting into the spirit, I have been working on them with my Bowtec Tomkat and my single cock air rifle. The bow is a hoot, but you have to really pick the shots as well as know about where your arrow will land. Even with the small game tips and judo type points they still fly a ways. I haven't gotten around to working up some with the huge fuzzy stuff on the ends just yet.

With either the bow or the pellet rifle heads shot drop them like a rock. It's a challenge though to get them to turn those heads when they are really snuggled up against the limb thinking they are hid.
 
Marlin 880 SQ with bull barrel. Killed a lot of em back in the 1990s.
 
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