Squirrel Season

[hunter63]

I can't believe I haven't been involved with this thread.
Don't hunt squirrels unless they are eating something I don't want eaten.

Used hunt and eat them...but reminds me of rats.

[Rick]

a better question would be what in the world were you on/drinking?

You've never heard that? Tell me you've never heard an adult tell a youngster that the easiest way to catch X was to sprinkle salt on their tails. I've had uncles pull that on me when I was a punkin' and I've seen guys do it to little kids. Of course, the first thing they do is run in the house and grab the salt shaker. Then they proceed to chase X all over the yard trying to sprinkle salt.

[hunter63]

You've never heard that? Tell me you've never heard an adult tell a youngster that the easiest way to catch X was to sprinkle salt on their tails. I've had uncles pull that on me when I was a punkin' and I've seen guys do it to little kids. Of course, the first thing they do is run in the house and grab the salt shaker. Then they proceed to chase X all over the yard trying to sprinkle salt. [/COLOR]

Bhohahahaha.....and here all this time I thought it only worked on birds........

[Eastree]

Oh, lord, I had almost forgotten about that. I remember when my grandmother used to tell me that about squirrels and birds!

[MrFixIt]

You've never heard that? Tell me you've never heard an adult tell a youngster that the easiest way to catch X was to sprinkle salt on their tails. I've had uncles pull that on me when I was a punkin' and I've seen guys do it to little kids. Of course, the first thing they do is run in the house and grab the salt shaker. Then they proceed to chase X all over the yard trying to sprinkle salt. [/COLOR]

Kinda like huntin' snipes...I got it now.
Thinking back, I do sort of remember someone saying something like this, but it wasn't directed at me.

[wildlearner]

Just use a rattrap where they are getting into your food.

[Awanita]

chuck.jpgWe have squirrels with attitudes up here LOL.

[Adventure Wolf]

SLINGSHOT! Seriously some of these slingshots are powerful enough to fire a projectile over 200 yards. I've seen a good slingshooter take down squirrels, small birds and the same slingshooter told me he could kill a rabbit with one. I always wanted to build a powerful slingshot, but have never found the time.

One of my best friends bow hunts for small game. It's usually great fun, even though I'm still practicing and learning.

[your_comforting_company]

Missed a couple yesterday with the blowgun. I was giggling like a little girl. Was pretty fun until I had to climb a couple trees to get my darts back! (I think the squirrels were laughing, too)

[crashdive123]

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[TXyakr]

If someone is a true vegan I respect that. But as a kid I raised and slaughtered my own pigs for personal income and helped out with the cattle dairy farm. Cows a little but especially pigs are very intelligent and capable of emotions far more than squirrels (friends had as pets, I had monkey pets). Some pigs are about as intelligence and emotional as most pet dogs and horses but make up a huge % of the American diet.
I mostly use high velocity air gun and high velocity (60 -100mph) blowpipe to control squirrel and cotton tail population. Once I placed a sticky glue trap at a tight corner under the eves of my house where the squirrels were repeatedly chewing thru and causing $600+ damage to wires etc. A squirrel's tail got stuck, it chewed it off. I never could find that tasty protein meal. Does NOT taste like chicken or pork, but a little like spider monkey only less gamey.

[TXyakr]

PVC squirrel trap, and some silly comments mostly just the same old Blah Blah.

http://mikesbackyardnursery.com/2014...squirrel-trap/

I would be curious to know how fast an average squirrel can chew its way out of this thing.
Probably a good feature, it is cruel to not check your traps frequently, a very minimum of every 24 hours but every 6 is more reasonable. I have used "have a heart" traps but mostly just caught opossums. Either animal is not easy to release safely they can both bite you very seriously. Even rabbits can make a deep bite, I use thick leather gloves and am very cautious, pin with a pole if possible. Domestic animals I feel confident grabbing behind the neck but wounded or trapped wild animals are more dangerous.

As far as cruelty goes I have had mice die from fire ants in small plastic live traps. I was taught as a child not to allow ANY animal to suffer unnecessarily. When I use these "live" plastic tube traps for mice I check them often and verify that there are not fire ants near by. Then remove mice with gloves and crush their heads quickly with thumb or heal, just like my father taught me decades ago. Same with squirrels, it is faster than with a gun and less painful. But I would prefer steel/aluminum for squirrels they can chew thru almost anything soft like wood or plastic. My difficulty was that squirrels seem to be smarter than mice and opossum, not as easy to trap.

[scumbucket]

I use a .50 caliber muzzle loader. Ever hear of barking a squirrel? You shoot the bark under his chin when he's laying on a limb. the concussion kills him without leaving a mark on him. Took me a while to be able to do it, but with a little practice, it works.

[canid]

Sounds more like a desperate bid to make the wrong tool do a job right than a sound hunting tactic, but I'll take that under consideration.

[kyratshooter]

Only reason they developed the "barking" technique was because after they shot all the large game out of the eastern states they still had all those big bore rifles they had to use up. If they shot the squirrels with them directly there was nothing left to eat. That and the limb was a bigger target then the squirrel.

It is also the reason most of the old original Kentucky rifles were bored out to .54-.58 caliber smooth bore. Load them with shot and hunt squirrels and use them for another 75 years.

[canid]

Understood. Don't get me wrong; whatever works in a real pinch.

[richbat]

The only primitive weapon I hunt with and that includes small and large game is a recurve bow or long bow with blunt tips.

[hunter63]

1000 years from now, if some one is gonna be digging around central Wisconsin......discover many, many arrows scattered about, and declare, "There must have been a heck of a battle here....and they were all using Gamegetter 2117 alum arrows with Astro points......

[Rick]

...and no plastic will have degraded.

[hunter63]

...and no plastic will have degraded.

Garbage/supermarket bags are the new fossils....

"Oh, Lookie here, Pick and Save had a sale on beer.......What is beer?"

That alone shows the demise of civilization as we knew it.....