What caliber for squirrels? (SERIOUS!)

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How about a sling shot? When I was a kid I killed many a rodent with my wrist rocket. Just load up about a dozen #6 lead shot and presto! You've got yourself a potent weapon. It takes a little practice, but with it's surgical tubing rubber bands, It was much more powerful than my pellet gun. Accuracy came with practice on beer cans and eventually dead squirrels were the result. I even got good enough to take flying barn rats (pigeons) on the wing now and then.
 
Just as a back-up to my previous post, I took out a 6" (12" w/tail) rat tonight in my garage. He was probably ~7-8yds away, but one shot w/a pointed pellet out of the 760 and he was gone.
 
Seriously. While a student at the Ohio State University I had a room mate who was fairly proficient at harvesting "urban squirrel" with a box of Cheerios and a tennis racquet.
 
WSM MAGNUM said:
Aguila Blanca, did you check your electrical wiring in the attic? If those critters were up there for a while, most likely they chewed up the wires. As an electrician, I had to replace a lot of wiring in peoples attics because of squirrels and coons. Even found some that were dead from electrocution.
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Old house = BX

Not a problem, but your point is well taken.
 
Gents, I like the idea of putting a one-way door on the point of entry, but ... where does one obtain one of these things? The local Agway sells Hav-a-harts, but I have not encountered the one-way door thingies. I'll have to be creative to fit it, I think -- the entry point is a triangular gable vent at the peak of the roof and I'll have to remove the rake trim and the louver to attach the door ... but I reckon to repair the louver and install new screening and hardware cloth I'll have to do that anyway, so -- bring it on.

Got a source?

Thanks.
 
I have dispatched them with .22 cb caps out of my 24" barrel 9422, they are quiet enough out of a long barrel that you can hear the hammer fall. Out of a short barrel they are loud.

I have also used a pellet gun my gamo 440 use the light flat head pellets for maximum velocity, its 1000 fps spring air.

Dont shoot up in the air even with a pellet gun, when you shoot the squirrels put some bait on the ground where they can find it, convenient to the view from a second story window, do it for a couple days if necessary, then use the ground as a back stop and open the window and shoot from well inside the room so you are not visible to the neighbors.

Know your target and what is beyond applies here.

Poisoning risks collateral damage to dogs or cats or even wild animals that may eat the body.
 
Jus kiddin man, but in all honesty I would try a pellet pump rifle 900-1000 fps with domed hunting pellets, one shot to the head should put em right down.
 
Rat traps for great in the attic. I even killed a couple at work that were running around above the drop ceiling. The hardest thing was finding decent bait in the office. Believe it or not I used gum drop candy for bait and got 3 that way.
 
If you are afraid to us a gun (22 etc) try rat traps baited with peanut butter (not mouse traps get the big ones). They work well on our gray squirrels. Might want to anchor them in case you don't get a instant kill. rugerman
 
Those cheap Crossbow pistols might be worth a try. I got one at a fleamarket NIB for ten bucks and it shoots pretty good. Much more powerful and accurate than I would have believed at such a price.
If it will go through both sides of a steel coffee can it should do the deed for a rodent of any size.

The air rifles mentioned already are probably the best way to go. I have a Daisy 880 (Wallyworld), a Crosman 760 (that I found), and a Crosman 1077 that I bought from a junk shop for twenty bucks (I was suprized to find it was in almost new condition).

CO2 Pistols for the most part don't generate enough velocity and energy for a clean kill. Some may but aside from my old S&W78g I couldn't recomend one. Even then I found that .22 wadcutter pellets from the S&W at around 400FPS wouldn't penetrate the body of a large Norway Rat, They killed slowly by internal hemorrage, the sharpe nosed field points on the otherhand would zip right though and kill instantly.
Some of the more powerful CO2 pistols will give over 500 FPS in .22 caliber.

The Crossman Ratcatcher Pistol Carbine style would be a good pest control tool.
 
Another vote for the live trap, like the Tomahawk link that someone posted. I've lived around pesky squirrels too, and have had them in my attic here in Florida. The live traps work great when baited with wild bird seed in a little cup. I strapped one to a long 2x4 in the attic that was sort of a squirrel expressway, and caught them all in a few days.

What you do with them next is up to you......

I also forgot to close up the access holes, and this past spring, found my attic taken over by a family of screech owls......extremely cute but very very messy.:(

When I lived in central California, and had ground squirrels, it was war. A Daisy/Colt 1911 CO2 air pistol and a CO2 repeater pellet rifle worked on those bad boys.
 
Resse's peanut butter cups from hell. Take chocolate laxitive and coat with peanut butter, then roll in birdseed. I'd do the one way door thing first though as you do not want what will happen after they eat it, happening in your house.

When I lived in a populated apartment complex and couldn't shoot, this was how they were handled.
 
A 4 ft. long 0.625 cal. barrel blowgun with a zytel broadhead dart (dipped in "Pur-Cap" or hotter hot sauce) will make short work of raccoon and/or squirrel ... silently, and (if you're a good shot), mercifully ... and you can still use the meat.
 
A Daisy powerline 880 is very effective against sqirrels with pointed field pellets. It is also in your price range.
 
While a student at the Ohio State University I had a room mate who was fairly proficient at harvesting "urban squirrel" with a box of Cheerios and a tennis racquet.
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Dammit! Now I'm cleaning soda off the monitor.


Seriously though, if you live in ANY suburban type area I would bet you that discharge of a BB gun is just as illegal as discharge of a firearm ... I'd nail that down with the local PD first. Additionally, killing of cute fuzzy little squirrels may bring a cruelty to animals charge in some places.
 
Hi Aguila Blanca,

Use your imagination, a piece of plywood cut to size, hinged and mounted on the outside of the vent would work nicely. The critter could push it open from the inside but not pull it open from the outside. If you have a torch diamond mesh for the floor of cattle trailers would work as well.

Or (just to keep it gun related) if you have a foundry furnace you could melt empty brass and cast it to the size of the vent. The outside hinge is the key.


Selena
 
When I was in Junior High, one of my school friends came in with a squirrel tail bookmark and told us how his dad took him squirrel hunting and showed him how to tan the hide. One of my other friends was quite impressed and wanted to go squirrel hunting too, so they decided to go one day after school.

They met at the squirrel hunter's house one afternoon when the parents were away and retrieved a rifle from dad's gun cabinet. Weapon in hand, they went off looking for a squirrel. They found one, took careful aim and shot it with a .30-06. The only thing they could find aftward was the last couple inches of the tail.
 
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