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Main Boards => PowWow => Topic started by: frassettor on January 03, 2010, 05:06:00 PM
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Holy Cow I thought I seen it all from these little fellas! Over the last 2 weeks or so I have been trying to get a few for the freezer. So far I shot 3, lost 1 after my small game head came out of it and it took off running .
Today I thought about doing something a little different and try using a broadhead on them thinking it would save me a little "leg work" running after them and "bonking" them on the noggin....WRONG! I shot this little bugger with a Zephyr Sasquatch and he still managed to crawl 15 or so yards and hide in my wood pile..I had to end he suffering when I got up to him. Im extremly happy with the small game heads that Ted@Raptor made me, they do a great job! But no matter where I shoot them they seem to "get out of dodge" pretty quickley after the hit. Except for head shots (which are TOUGH) to do, have you had the same results? Im including a few pictures of my squirrels I shot..Sorry about the last one, I didnt have someone here to take a picture of it before it was cleaned..So tell me your experiences with these "iron willed" animals.
The small game head I normally use...
(http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn125/frassettor/DSC00611.jpg)
My first one from the last 2 weeks
(http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn125/frassettor/DSC00724.jpg)
The "bloodtrail" from the broadhead hit squirrel.
(http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn125/frassettor/DSC00729.jpg)
All cleaned up..
(http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn125/frassettor/DSC00728.jpg)
(http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn125/frassettor/DSC00727.jpg)
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They take a lickin and keep on tickin.... That's for sure.
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I shot a squirrel with a Zwickey Delta and sliced off the back 6 inches of his tail. He ran off, and I walked out there to find a 6 inch piece of tail laying on the ground.
To top it off, I saw him again a few weeks later. I let him go at that time 'cause I figured he was just one lucky squirrel.
Brett
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LOL!!!! those are hard little buggers to and i have still yet to get one maybe next year. good shooting btw.
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much tougher than bunnies...thats for sure!!!!
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Originally posted by HO'NEHE JEFF:
LOL!!!! those are hard little buggers to and i have still yet to get one maybe next year. good shooting btw.
Get your running shoes on Jeff :goldtooth:
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Originally posted by jacobsladder:
much tougher than bunnies...thats for sure!!!!
For sure.
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Tough as nails!! I hit one square in the screws at 15 yds last evening with a Ace hexhead and as he laid there motionless I thought I would just wait awhile and hope for a deer. I saw him scramble after about 20 seconds and run off. The chase was on but I couldnt catch him, I have found that If you dont hit'em in the head they will not die easy if at all.
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I punched one behind the shoulder with a hex head and it didn't go anywhere...and before that I punched one behind the shoulder with a judo and it didn't go anywhere either.The hex head went in one side but not the other and the judo didn't even go though the first side!Just strecthed the skin though the ribcage and hit vitals.
Red squirrels on the other hand,I'm not so lucky with them.
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If anyone wants a great recipe for squirrel pot pies please feel free to PM me, I have a great one we make! :readit:
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(http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx293/dazzafelix/DSCF0264.jpg)This one didn't go too far.
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There's a reason God didn't make squirrels weigh 50#. You'd need a .375H&H minimum for them if He did. Ounce for ounce, one of the toughest critters I know of.
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i seen one run a little ways even after i hit him with a full choke 12ga high brass no.4s so when i shoot them with arrows i like to have something sharp on the end of the arrow versus blunt
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I just shoot'em with judos and they have to drag the arrow - they don't go too far then
Jer Bear
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I try and shoot them in the head or they eat the arrows. The do like to chew on wood arrow shafts.
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Squirrels are tough; kinda like groundhogs. That is one fat squirrel frassettor - yum :)
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Originally posted by Mike Most:
I try and shoot them in the head or they eat the arrows. The do like to chew on wood arrow shafts.
I did have one destroy one of my ADs! Their jaws are strong :eek:
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I have good luck with 190g Ribteks too... :)
Bob
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When I was a kid I THOUGHT I had killed one with a full choke .410 and number 4s. NOPE!! That sucker waited untill I picked him up and ambushed me! Made sausages out of my arm up to the elbow! I couldn't get rid of him fast enough.
These days, they are still among my favorite critters. I have got a couple with my recurve this year. Once was a clean quick shot in the head. The other required some legwork and a follow shot. I dislike that, but I did get him in the freezer. I've just gotten to the point lately where I don't try further than about a ten yard shot at them with anything because they are so quick to jump an arrow and resuslt in a tough hit. Even then, it's not a guarantee. And I use head that will penetrate and combine some type of cutting and impact force. I started off with blunts and judos and never got one. Just had some sickening hits. I try and stake them to a tree or the ground now. Very, very tough little animals.
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This is an arrow that I hit a grey squirrel with. You can see that the blood goes at least as far as the end of the footing. The shot was broadside at 15 yards or so.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/Killdeer/Hunting%20and%20Camp/2009%20November%20Hunt/IMG_2227.jpg)
This is the business end.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/Killdeer/Hunting%20and%20Camp/2009%20November%20Hunt/IMG_2229.jpg)
I shot the squirrel and he fell from the spruce tree. Then he scrambled up the trunk of a dead spruce that was leaning against the first tree. I ran over to get a shot, and he slipped into a small hole.
I tried getting up to it, almost got there, but had no way to convince the squirrel to vacate, and after beating on the trunk a few times, sat down to marvel and document the experience. So I took the pictures.
As I was taking the pictures, I heard a noise. I looked to the side. There was the squirrel, at fingertip length, looking at me. I could see that he was telling me that this was a dangerous place, and I would be wise to leave forthwith. Either that, or he was mocking me for the ineffectual hunter that I am.
I threw down my glasses and camera, grabbed my bow and two arrows, and watched him gain the far side of a tree as I ran for him. I made some great leaps! But it was all for naught, as he disappeared into a hole at the base just before I got there. There was a drop of blood smeared on the wood. I said something.
I tried twisting it out, but it only climbed higher up the hollow trunk. I am sure it died in there. I felt horrible. I committed to broadheads then and there. And then, the next day, I got my chance.
Squirrel, out on a limb. Close. CE Carbon Express, footed, BIG Magnus flying hatchet on the front. Unloseable hot pink and yellow fletching on the back. Perfect shot! The squirrel disappeared, as did my arrow, and although I looked for the next two weeks, I never saw either again.
I sure do appreciate the beauty of a .22 rifle.
Killdeer
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ive had them run up trees with the arrow half way through them, they did fall back down after about 20 feet but yes pound for pound very tough critter
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This thread is very interesting :banghead:
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So far every skwerl I hit in the chest or head with my nutters have ended up in the bag. But. . . you gotta go get them cause they ain't dead. I find that I have to get them and "bonk" them with my Shrew hawk before they are dead.
I seem to knock them out, for minutes at a time, but they always come back.
ChuckC
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I don't worry about what head I use, as I hardly ever connect with them...LOL!!!! I lost count of the ones I missed this fall from my tree stand. My hand started aching from re-sharpening my broadhead after every miss!
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hey killdeer....is that a squirrel nut? :D :D :biglaugh: :D :D
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You're making me blush.
:o
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i have sqirrels that come in and will take nutts right out of my hand...if they saw this thread they would never trust me again. :readit:
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The little rascals her are tougher than woodpecker lips. I hit one square in the vitals with a game stopper type head. It knocked him for at least 6-8 feet from where he had been sitting. He jumps up and runs back to the base of the tree I just vacated him from and peered around the trunk at me. Whilst I was trying to get out my next arrow(a broadhead) I had a little trouble so I had to take my eyes off him for just a split second and I've never seen him since. I did think to myself when I looked up and he wasn't in view "I bet he's lying dead on the other side" I couldn't have been more wrong, he had pulled a Harry Houdini on me.
God bless,Mudd
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They are my nemesis. I have hit and lost 3. The first was a fox squirrel that took a judo to chest while facing me from up a tree about 12-15' off the ground. The arrow hit it just right of center about where the shoulder and chest meet. He simply ran around to the other side of the tree and then down, scampering about 15 yds to his den tree and into a hole.
The second was was a Ribtek 190 that sliced another fox squirrels' throat from a broadside angle. It ran abiout 30 yds across the ground and about 35' up a tree into a nest. The blood trail was better than some deer I've killed. It never came out. Both of the first two were shot out of a 63# bow.
The last was a little female (I know because I saw her "husband" have his way with her) grey squirrel just this past Fall. I hit her right behind her right front leg from 7 yds and broadside as she was sitting on a cedar limb maybe 10' off the ground. I had missed "hubby" with two shots previously and he didn't stick around to watch over her. I was using a 71# bow and a 755 gr arrow tipped with a Hammerhead. The arrow bounced off of her chest and she didn't even fall from the limb. As I stood in slack-jawed amazement, she ran down the tree, across the ground some 35-40 yds to where "hubby" was waiting, then both of them up a hickory.
I know #2 died and I've got to believe #3 had to have some kind of internal injury. #1 is questionable, but I sure am tired of wounding even a squirrel and not recovering them. My last 10 or 12 shots at them this season so far have all been attempts at their heads, but I haven't connected.
Interestingly enough, I killed my first and only groundhog with a Hammerhead to it's noggin in September. It sure died easier than these tree rats. :mad: :banghead:
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Is this normal? I wanted to hunt squirrels with my bow but if it is normal for these guys to simply get wounded I may have to stick with fire power out of ethics.
Not to change the thread but percentage wise how many squirrels hit are actually killed and recovered?
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I have hunted w/bow seriously- for many yrs. Ive experimented w/ alot of diff. things, and have come to believe that there's no substitute for
Hitting them HARD with a BLUNT of diameter somewhat larger than the standard one for a 11/32" shaft. I screw a small washer (3/8 or 7/16") on to the end of the blunt---best done if the shaft end is not tapered--just leave the shaft squared off. The reason why this works is that the shock delievered is greater. Smaller head often penetrates some- this reduces shock. For me this has worked, so long as the bow Iam using throws 'em hard-- this mean's at least a HARD SHOOT'N 55# --MORE is better-- its all about how much SHOCKING energy you can deliver-- To increase shock- increase Bow poundage,surface area of the blunt, and increase total mass of your shaft. You still are going to have to run some down, and dispatch them. It's just the way it is.
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Charles, with a bow I am 0-3 on hits, my son is 1-3 and one of my hunting buddies is 0-2. So, we're only recovering 12.5% of the ones we hit.
It does beg the question, should/shouldn't we...?
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I threaded a blacky once from a tree limb,, threaded him from front to his hind end with a snuffer and he still ran ten feet up that oak limb after the arrow passed threw him just to fall off after that,,I couldn't beleive it,,J
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I gotta get after some of them myself. Have not arrowed one in years.
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Hit 'em with a Talon!
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Stan, when you get 250 gr. screw-ins or some glue-ons I can add an adapter to, I'll be ordering some. I was looking at them this weekend and thought I'd like to try them on squirrels.
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Not so tough. Use standard rubber blunt on woodies and a rubber blunt on top of a 125gr steel screw in blunt for aluminums. Here is the Squirrel before...
(http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt305/justinblack19-/008.jpg)
and here he is after...
(http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt305/justinblack19-/137.jpg)
Just hittin em anywhere with a rubber blunt works for me. Often send them flying four or more feet when hit within 15 yards. Hope to do a European skull mount of one in the next couple days.
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Just about anything will work red squirrels-- greys, and particularily fox squirrels are another story.
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Yup, a red "pine" squirrel is not the wiry gladiator that the grey is.
Killdeer
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All Pm's Amswered. for anyone else whos intrested in the squirrel pot pie recipe, I will post it on the Recipe forum...
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They can be tough, but I have only actually lost a few that I have shot. I use an ace hex head and some wood shafts that I stained blaze orange so that I can easily find them in the rare case i miss! HA! Head shots are best, but obviously easier said than done. But I recover nearly all of mine shot in anywhere in the body with a hex head.
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You need to use these on those buggers. :biglaugh: This is what Rambo used. :)
(http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a176/DMFBlackbird/Ramboexplosivehead.jpg)
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How about a dullish broadhead and zwikey scorpio behind it ? Lots of pounding and arrow remining in carcass? Dont have expirience about squirrels, but other small game has educated me to use broadheads only...
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Gapmaster, that is about the truth. :biglaugh: I need to pick me up a few of those for next Fall.
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(http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx293/dazzafelix/DSCF0201.jpg)Bait them first.....
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If their arms were longer, I'd worry about them throwing the arrow back at me!
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We use to hunt them with our shotguns when I was a teenager. My friend was hunting on day and shot one off a limb, he started to walk over to get it, but it ran back up the tree and out on the same limb. He shot it again. This repeated six times. When he finally walked over to get it he found six dead squirrels, LOL!
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You friend is a snyper for sure.
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I shot a squirrel last year with a hex blunt. he hit the ground running. I was in shock. they are tough. I now use some old Ace broadheads. Your setup looks good. Pennnatration!
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The last squirrel I shot by the time I got out of the tree he chewed half way through my arrow. :banghead:
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Justin that's not really a skwerl is it ?
:biglaugh:
ChuckC