Need recommendations for quiet air fun for taking squirrels You can

[Sniper66]

Folks that sell "Trim" soffits, rake boards etc. love squirrels. Electricians love them. Carpenters love them. They are NOT animals. They are "Chewing Machines with legs".

Caught these guys taking a nap in the warm winter sun in my back yard. Same one's that ate through my Porch door and other areas of my house. What do I hate more? Roof Rats!

View attachment 844440

A good #6 magnum shot from a 12 ga from 25 yds would kill all 4 of them in one shot....I can dream, eh?

 

[fpgt72]

I borrowed a Have-A-Heart trap and caught nothing. The squirrels kept trying to gnaw their way into my house, chewed holes in my "squirrel proof" bird feeders, in spite of my soft-hearted attempt to relocate them. So, I shot them with my pellet rifle. They no longer gnaw on my house or my bird feeders. My neighbor shoots them too and we are quietly supported by the entire neighborhood. By the way, if you live in an area where you can catch crabs, dead squirrels make great crab trap bait.

Squirrel in the bird feeder....so cute.

These bastages are really starting to tick me off.....Now I am not saying anything here.....but if one of these forest rats was to vanish I don't think anyone would be the wiser.....I hate these things.

I did not get video of them on my front porch digging up the wifes tulips.

 

[dh1633pm]

Squirrels can be a pest for city dwellers and country dwellers alike. They also play an important part of the forest ecosystem. By collecting food stuffs and storing them in many places they help propagate trees and other plant life. About 20 years ago the red squirrels had all but pushed the gray ones out at my dad's. With shotguns and .22's we pushed them back. We then resettled grays by capturing them in the city with a have a heart trap. It was as easy as put the trap down, put the peanut butter back in the house, collect the trap and be on your way. I was capturing at least one a week. Now we have a healthy collection of grays. A little squirrel food in a feeder keeps them out of the bird feeders.

Now back to the .22 air rifles. Did you settle on one yet?

 

[Punkinhead]

I tried havahart traps for chipmunks but I kept catching birds. I didn't feel good about the way they'd panic and flap their wings hard enough in the trap to injure themselves. I got a .25 Marauder. Not a cheap setup, but very quiet and shoots dime sized groups at 35 yards with no wind. Wind wreaks havoc on them though.

I don't shoot squirrels since they keep the acorns picked up and there aren't enough of them to cause problems. The marauder is for ground squirrels and starlings. The ground squirrels don't really hurt anything but they run up my downspouts to escape my dogs and the dogs end up pulling the downspouts off the house.

 

[fpgt72]

I tried havahart traps for chipmunks but I kept catching birds. I didn't feel good about the way they'd panic and flap their wings hard enough in the trap to injure themselves. I got a .25 Marauder. Not a cheap setup, but very quiet and shoots dime sized groups at 35 yards with no wind. Wind wreaks havoc on them though.

I don't shoot squirrels since they keep the acorns picked up and there aren't enough of them to cause problems. The marauder is for ground squirrels and starlings. The ground squirrels don't really hurt anything but they run up my downspouts to escape my dogs and the dogs end up pulling the downspouts off the house.

Have you tried different pellets?

My only 25 is a kral and unless we are talking stupid wind I can work it about like working a rimfire.

I really think that shooting air guns really is about the best practice you can get....and PCP is shooting so close to rimfire IMHO the experience is the same.

Low power CO2 in the winter in the basement, great practice for offal...awful hand....and prone. And you shoot for about the price we shot rimfire in the 70's.

Generally even with all the "macho" talk, I will let things go unless they are acting stupid, or being a real pest. Coyote would come up to my chicken pen, electrified, caged....pretty coyote proof....but not raccoon proof....those little buggers would take the pain to get an easy meal.

Had a game cam to catch them....raccoon would jump up the fence....just hollering....then get on the net on top not electrified....just nylon to keep the hawks out....chew a hole inside and go to town. Coyote would come up get bit once then would say to heck with that....they would also come over and go nose to nose with the game cam....oh human left this here.

stupid hd crashed and I lost all the pics and videos...it was pretty cool seeing them figure it out.....wife was not too happy however.

 

[Sniper66]

OK....Time for a good story. Friend of mine's parents live on the edge of a small midwestern city. The dad planted some seedling trees only to have them eaten by squirrels. So his son (my friend) gifted him a nice pellet rifle to solve his problem. But, the friend's mother objected to harming the squirrels, so he gave up that idea, planted more seedlings and tried some of the afore-mentioned solutions. None of them worked and all of his seedings again became squirrel food. One day when the tender-hearted wife was away, the frustrated dad got out the pellet rifle, whacked 3 squirrels, and discretely disposed of the dead critters. Day or so later the wife wonders where the squirrels are and starts to look around, but is reassured when she sees more live squirrels scampering about. What? says the husband and he vows to renew his secret battle. Now each time the wife is away, the sneaky husband disposes of a couple more. That was about 3 years ago. The body count, all completely unknown by the wife, is up to about 190 squirrels! And they just keep coming!! By the way, he has managed to start some trees.

 

[a_canadian]

That tranquil scene immediately brought two things to mind; living out in the country, and a short barrel shotgun. I suppose with a good suppressor and starting from the bottom there's a small chance of getting two before the rest scattered but likely only one. Unless of course you had three airgunner friends nearby to call over, each one calling a different squirrel, then counting down the shot. That would be one for Youtube!

 

[fpgt72]

OK....Time for a good story. Friend of mine's parents live on the edge of a small midwestern city. The dad planted some seedling trees only to have them eaten by squirrels. So his son (my friend) gifted him a nice pellet rifle to solve his problem. But, the friend's mother objected to harming the squirrels, so he gave up that idea, planted more seedlings and tried some of the afore-mentioned solutions. None of them worked and all of his seedings again became squirrel food. One day when the tender-hearted wife was away, the frustrated dad got out the pellet rifle, whacked 3 squirrels, and discretely disposed of the dead critters. Day or so later the wife wonders where the squirrels are and starts to look around, but is reassured when she sees more live squirrels scampering about. What? says the husband and he vows to renew his secret battle. Now each time the wife is away, the sneaky husband disposes of a couple more. That was about 3 years ago. The body count, all completely unknown by the wife, is up to about 190 squirrels! And they just keep coming!! By the way, he has managed to start some trees.

When we first moved out to the country the wife loved the deer.....we moved in July 4 weekend. To the fall (I think, might have been spring) she wants to plant tulips along the drive....the 880+ foot long driveway. She orders from Holland....thousands of bulbs.....a screw like thing that goes on a drill....so out we go with a little gas Generator and we are planting bulbs like crazy. Thousands of bulbs, and Thousands of dollars here.

Then come the deer....and they are digging up the bulbs and eating them.

We try everything, fishing string across trees.....lights, sounds.....nothing works for long. And now SHE is replanting....and getting upset. Now you likely know that just walking out on your front porch and smoking a deer or 4 is kinda looked down upon......so what to do.

Well she gives up on the tulips down the drive and switches to Daffodil's...nothing eats those....but we still have tulip bulbs around the house....right next to the house and those deer are still coming up.....so here is what I ended up doing.

First open the door and yell....off the go....then they get use to that and only run a few yards away.

Now run outside in my tighty whities (enough to make anyone go into shock) and they run off....about 3 days and they are looking at me like I am insane and not leaving.

Grab ice and chuck it at them....they soon learn Ice range and that it really does not hurt....they do look at you as if to say.....Hay bro, you hit me with ice.

Ok out comes the red ryder....now I got pretty good at lobbing a bb out to 50-ish yards.....again they learn what bb gun range is and stand right outside of it.

Now remember we are still planting bulbs to replace this.....and remember if momma ain't happy no one is happy.

Now she is wanting me to kill them....ahh hon.....they kind of frown upon that......

So we move to fire arms....a few rounds into the ground by the front door and they are gone.....but they come back.

And we get to the same point.....they will run a few yards away and look at me and say....dude you can't shoot for sh____

We now have bushes around the house.

Point of this long story is....they will never leave as long as there is food there and no natural thing to keep them away.....they eat my apples, my peaches (I never get one peach and those bastages know when they are ripe)

 

[KevininPa]

When we first moved out to the country the wife loved the deer.....we moved in July 4 weekend. To the fall (I think, might have been spring) she wants to plant tulips along the drive....the 880+ foot long driveway. She orders from Holland....thousands of bulbs.....a screw like thing that goes on a drill....so out we go with a little gas Generator and we are planting bulbs like crazy. Thousands of bulbs, and Thousands of dollars here.

Then come the deer....and they are digging up the bulbs and eating them.

We try everything, fishing string across trees.....lights, sounds.....nothing works for long. And now SHE is replanting....and getting upset. Now you likely know that just walking out on your front porch and smoking a deer or 4 is kinda looked down upon......so what to do.

Well she gives up on the tulips down the drive and switches to Daffodil's...nothing eats those....but we still have tulip bulbs around the house....right next to the house and those deer are still coming up.....so here is what I ended up doing.

First open the door and yell....off the go....then they get use to that and only run a few yards away.

Now run outside in my tighty whities (enough to make anyone go into shock) and they run off....about 3 days and they are looking at me like I am insane and not leaving.

Grab ice and chuck it at them....they soon learn Ice range and that it really does not hurt....they do look at you as if to say.....Hay bro, you hit me with ice.

Ok out comes the red ryder....now I got pretty good at lobbing a bb out to 50-ish yards.....again they learn what bb gun range is and stand right outside of it.

Now remember we are still planting bulbs to replace this.....and remember if momma ain't happy no one is happy.

Now she is wanting me to kill them....ahh hon.....they kind of frown upon that......

So we move to fire arms....a few rounds into the ground by the front door and they are gone.....but they come back.

And we get to the same point.....they will run a few yards away and look at me and say....dude you can't shoot for sh____

We now have bushes around the house.

Point of this long story is....they will never leave as long as there is food there and no natural thing to keep them away.....they eat my apples, my peaches (I never get one peach and those bastages know when they are ripe)

Huh, eat your peaches? Surprises me. My gray squirrels leave my peaches alone. But they're heck on my pear and apple trees.

But back to the OP. I've been using an Air Force Talon SS. Toss some washers and spacers in the shroud and it's very quiet. Very effective. Got mine as a blem back in the late '90s. Cheap then. Don't know what they run now. Highly customizable. Mines a .22. Basic rules of airgunning, .177 for feathers, at least .22 for fur. Headshots are key.

One last thing, squirrels are dumb (at least mine are). I'll have three of them on a pile of sunflower seeds. Quiet airgun. Shoot one, it falls, the other two just look at it and keep eating. End up getting all three. Not sure if they're stupid or just cold hearted.

 

[a_canadian]

Pretty sure he was saying the deer eat the peaches, not the greys. As in 'they frown on that' to the just shoot the deer suggestion. I know a guy in an area where deer are plentiful and he's trying to grow a lot of berries for meat making. He's built a tall fence, hung Irish Spring soap, all the tricks. He asked me once about maybe using a paintball gun... but I explained that he would get into a lot of trouble for harrassing wildlife if a neighbour saw him do it. Doubt it would deter the deer much anyway. They're worse than squirrels when it comes to garden devastation. But unless the rules change where he lives, he won't be able to shoot them. Deer population keeps climbing, cougars too, so things are getting a bit wild in that suburb. He doesn't get a lot of berries.

 

[Jackrabbit1957]

My mother got a hold of some electric wand thingamajig goodies that she placed in her English ivy that the deer were tearing up. Once they get stung by one they leave it alone.

 

[Lycidas Janwor]

I've wanted one of these for the rat issues. As much as I'd like an air gun, I don't have the devoted time to wait and the critters that pass through are night opportunists so that definitely has some limitations. This is ready 24/7 and for multiple resets after being triggered.

That's a New Zealand product, if I'm reading their internet address correctly