Is it me, or are squirrels TOUGH! (pics)

[woodbender]

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

[Zach Mikita]

This thread is very interesting  

[ChuckC]

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

[Hit-or-Miss]

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!

[PAPA BEAR]

hey killdeer....is that a squirrel nut?   :D    :D        :D    :D

[Killdeer]

You're making me blush.
   

[PAPA BEAR]

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.  

[Mudd]

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

[Hackbow]

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:      

[Cyclic-Rivers]

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?

[Chuck Hoopes]

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.

[Hackbow]

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...?

[whitebuffalo]

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

[Irish Archer]

I gotta get after some of them myself. Have not arrowed one in years.

[StanM]

Hit 'em with a Talon!

[Hackbow]

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.

[unregistered]

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...

 

and here he is after...

 

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.

[Chuck Hoopes]

Just about anything will work red squirrels-- greys, and particularily fox squirrels are another story.

[Killdeer]

Yup, a red "pine" squirrel is not the wiry gladiator that the grey is.

Killdeer

[frassettor]

All Pm's Amswered. for anyone else whos intrested in the squirrel pot pie recipe, I will post it on the Recipe forum...