Red Squirrle in Maine

woodcock

woodcock

New member
I fell on a new method for red squirrle. I got into snowshoe hare last winter and it's quite a challange. When I'm hunting squirrle I've been stocking rabbit for practice. I use my revolver and being able to hit something depends on me standing next to a tree, a small one is best, with little branches to lean the barrel on.
So I plan my movements from tree to tree. It makes the squirrles madder than a hornet. I've actually had a few charge me! I got stuck without something to lean on and the squirrle coming down the tree after me, I emptied my gun on him, he was three yards away when he come to his sences and took off. I got one of then after that. They chatter like monkeys. I figure, to them your "sneeking" around the woods hiding under trees. Take 5 or 10 quiet steps to a small tree and stand allmost motionless and listen for a little low churp. thats how it starts. Once they start chatter'n you can move around slowly and take shot. The noise does'nt bother them. Sneeking through the woods will P***off squirrles.
 
Wouldn't you get pissed off if you lived in the woods and the same guy came in every night and shot off 5 or 6 rounds at you and never hit you and then left ? I think any creature would get a little irritated. just joking
 
I really enjoy squirrel hunting. I'm here in mid west Illinois. We have both gray and red, and the red get pretty big. Throw some meat tenderizer on them, and toss them on the grill and the eating is pretty good. I hunt with a scoped 22 and a .410 pistol. The pistol is to shoot then out of trees. Too many farms near where I hunt to risk missing an elevated shot with the 22. The little grays are easy to clean. Put a slit under the tail. Stand on the tail and pull on the hind legs. Everything save for the hind leg fur comes off in one piece.
Live well, be safe, eat squirrel.
Rich
 
Thanks RTY for that tasty recipe. I never thought to cooking them. I have the same problem. I can't just let the bullets fly. I have a red dot scope on my .357 another tactic I use is to fire a locator shot. In most cases this will get them to chirp. I carry some of those orange stick-on target, when I walk in to an area I'll stick one to a dead tree walk away, wait a while then take a shot resting the gun against a tree. This lets the contestants know that the games have begun and I'll know I'm still shooting straight. I'll fire up, but only when the squirrel passes across the tree trunk so the bullet gets burried right there. I pass up lots of easy shots because I can't burrie the bullet. The 410 pistol sounds good. Who makes it, I'm interested.I was thinking of getting a revolver in .45long colt so I can shoot 410/ 2 1/2" shells.
Hay Maineiac, You gotta try this, it's a blast. You have willing participants, this is our target rich environment here. They may not be much but there everywhere. The state says we can take as many as we want any time!
 
Have you considered a 410 or 20 gauge shot gun? I wouldn't try hitting them close up, probably wouldn't need to clean them. #4 shot might work well. Bigger pellets are easier to pick out. I have shot a few grays with my 12 gauge but I wasn't looking for dinner. Knocks them right out of the trees. You can pick up a single shot shotgun for cheep.

Snipe
 
I have got a question about red squirrels, are they as vicious as I have heard? One guy I work with says they attack gray squirrels and bite their "nuts" off (no pun intended). They are not a protected species here in NY, and as far as I know, I have not seen any around here. Season opens a week from Monday. I'll know what to do if I see one.

Scott12 /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
Scott12, pleased to meet ya. That could be true. On the island here, there are'nt many grays. There around but only in certain areas. I was talking it over with my son one day and he said that grays wo'nt live around reds and vise-versa. I have,nt seen a gray sence last fall but when the seson opens I know were to go. Come to think of it there wer'nt any reds there! One day I parked my truck near a field and just was listening for crows. A red started chattering a hundred yards away in the woods. It ran thru the trees all the way out to the edge were I was siting in my truck. Chattering like a monkey. I guessed he was saying "I wanna play with the 357". He liked the subsonic 38's better. Ha!
 
I'm not sure you fellows are discussing the same "red" squirrel. Do you Mainers have the same "fox squirrel" that those of us in the Midwest have? Or is it a smaller, slightly different species? I think it isn't the same squirrel, though I'm not sure.

I do alot of squirrel hunting here in the Missouri Ozarks in the fall. I usually kill around 100 or thereabout. Our limit is six per day. I normally use a .22 LR scoped rifle of some sort, I have several. I do occasionally use my peep sighted Marlin M39. That's a great tune-up for using my aperture sighted Marlin .45-70 for deer hunting. When the numbers are high I can get a limit with a .22 handgun fairly quick. Our squirrels have just barely begun to cut hickory nuts, that's usually the beginning of the best hunting. The squirrels will get heavily into the hickories, then the acorns. We're going through a hot phase in the weather and that slows the hunting and squirrel activity down some.

As for the nut cutting Scott12 was referring to, chalk that up to an urban legend. Grays and fox/reds intermingle and live equally in the forest here. Perhaps the larger fox squirrels out muscle the smaller gray from a particular tree occasionally, however, they don't castrate them as the old saying goes. For the most part, they behave a little differently and that may be the root of the legend. Grays rise earlier and like heavier timber and brush. Grays are more nuerotic and bounce around more, seldom sitting still for very long. The fox squirrel sleeps in and rises a little later in the morning, is less erratic acting, and prefers more open country than his little gray cousin. Fox squirrels will invade a corn field and can sometimes be found pretty far from big timber. So if they aren't always in the same timber patch it's more from their different preferences than anything else.

Gotta love those crisp fall mornings when the leaves are turning and falling. Squirrels are bouncing around, chattering at each other, and laying up fat for the winter. They aren't push overs, it requires woodsmanship, a skillful stalk, and good shooting to bring home the makings for some squirrel dumplings.
 
I use my 45/70 for squirrels. I have a load with a 425 grain cast bullet at just over 500 fps. It's deadly (one hole) accurate out to 25 yards. By the time it hits 50 yards it's 6" low and after 50 yards you're digging trenches. The recoil is non-existent and it makes less noise than a 22LR. I have yet to hit a coyote with one, but will try this year. Just another good use for the old 45/70.
 
These reds weight about a pound full grone. There proble 6 inches of body and 4 inchs of tail. There in the trees now shelling spruce pine cones. Soon they'll be storing them up under ground. By january they'll all be under ground or running from hole to hole.
Fine subsonic 45/70. I'll be getting a BFR in that cal. soon. Biggest, finest revolver. I have,nt told the squirrels yet, but I think they'll like it!
 
Yeah, I don't think that is the same squirrel we call a "fox squirrel" here. I'm pretty sure they are two different species. A big old Missouri fox squirrel is nearly as large as a medium size house cat. They den in trees and do not live in underground burrows. In the summer they build nest of leaves up high where they can catch cooling breezes. Two different critters. Sorta like the western "squirrel" species, many of them are entirely different critters that what I see and hunt here.
 
Back
Top