The squirrel must die

The only benefit squirrels have for me is that I have several new oak tree saplings out in the field that I can replant in more desirable spots. They sneak up, grab some acorns, and run out to the field to eat them.

Anyone remember the old American gladiator show? The one where they have to go through an obstacle course while getting tennis balls shot at them from above. Thats me from my upstairs bathroom window with a 22lr. :D
 
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My wife was sitting out front this afternoon with her Crosman CO2 air pistol, waiting for the squirrel to make another appearance in front of our house after he ran right across the porch while she was reading and relaxing with one of the dogs. She is hoping she can get off a quick shot while none of the neighbors are looking. But she definitely wants an air rifle.

I'm thinking of getting her a Gamo Varmint .177 air rifle. Decent reviews for the price, and it will use the same ammo as her pistol. If we are discreet about it, we may be able to shoot from our back deck as long as there is no one else outside to see us.
 
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wtimothyholman said:
If we are discreet about it
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I saw a guy at the range where I RSO that brought a violin case to the range. In it he had a violin that he modified and it had a short barreled CO2 rifle inside. He could hold it up to his chin like he was playing it and the scope protruded from the area where the strings would be. He was really accurate with it shooting to 25 yards. He said he used it for varmints, rats mostly running on the telephone lines, but did not want to scare the neighbors.
 
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wtimothyholman said:
I've actually got a very nice trap, but it's designed for larger animals (e.g. raccoons, feral cats, possums, etc.). I don't have a live trap suitable for a squirrel, but it's moot as I don't intend to relocate him. This squirrel is entirely too acclimated to being around human homes. He is constantly running across our roof and would undoubtedly make a home in our HVAC crawlspace if he could find a way in.
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I had a squirrel in my attic once. My son would complain about it because he could here it running through above his bedroom. I checked some discovery channel videos on the internet that mentioned sprinkling cayenne pepper in the attic to get rid of critters. So i use cayenne all the time for the health benefits. So i to my big canister of cayenne pepper and started on one side of the attic and crawled back to the other side sprinkling it all over. My son never heard that squirrel again.
 
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samplenhold said:
I saw a guy at the range where I RSO that brought a violin case to the range. In it he had a violin that he modified and it had a short barreled CO2 rifle inside. He could hold it up to his chin like he was playing it and the scope protruded from the area where the strings would be. He was really accurate with it shooting to 25 yards. He said he used it for varmints, rats mostly running on the telephone lines, but did not want to scare the neighbors.
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That's one reason why I am leaning towards the Gamo Varmint. It looks like a hunting rifle, instead of being tricked out to look like a military weapon, and will be less likely to scare a neighbor if we are seen using it.
 
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I have a Benjamin that has swappable barrels, both .177 and .22. I tried the .177 first and settled on the .22. Keeps my ammo simpler because it matches my old Mark I pistol. The big pain with a break action is the combination of recoils, the push back of a normal recoil combined with the twisting torque of the spring uncoiling and bouncing a little. A PCP makes all of that insignificant.
 
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sebastiantombs said:
I have a Benjamin that has swappable barrels, both .177 and .22. I tried the .177 first and settled on the .22. Keeps my ammo simpler because it matches my old Mark I pistol. The big pain with a break action is the combination of recoils, the push back of a normal recoil combined with the twisting torque of the spring uncoiling and bouncing a little. A PCP makes all of that insignificant.
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I've been eyeballing a Benjamin Marauder pcp for some time. Cant justify the price though, they are more than what I paid for my 22lr squirrel gun. Would make chipmunk cleanup a little easier though.
 
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Old Timer said:
The only way to make a squirrel respect an electric fence would be to use a 50,000 v transformer, Instant BBQ
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Believe me there are fences you wouldn't want to touch. I have one that I touched and it felt like I'd been hit by a semi for a good 20 minutes afterwards and hurt like f*ck. To a squirrel the hit would be far greater.

The big issue with e fencing is squirels are very clever and will go under or thought the strands without touching them. However, you can buy electric fencing nets. Maybe a cut down net could be a good barrier:

 
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My wife is three steps ahead of me. She has already talked to the neighbors on either side, and gotten assurances from both of them that they are perfectly happy with her killing as many squirrels as she wants. (One neighbor in particular had an experience where a squirrel tried to chew its way into a room where his newborn daughter was sleeping ... with him, the hate is visceral.) Then my wife ordered a Winchester air rifle on the advice of a friend of ours. Plus, she was sitting on the front porch this morning with her Crosman pistol, waiting for the squirrel to make an appearance.

She is hard core. :love: Me, I'm just waiting for the 110 Conibear traps to arrive to set up my squirrel pole.
 
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[QUOTE="wtimothyholman, post: 470342, member: 27096"

She is hard core. :love: Me, I'm just waiting for the 110 Conibear traps to arrive to set up my squirrel pole.
[/QUOTE]

You need to be careful with those Conibear traps. You could be unwittingly trapping the local birds. I have even had birds in my haveaheart traps, that I let go. I don't use those any more. Don't hurt the birds! Your wife has the right idea, you know what you are exterminating w/ a piece of lead.
 
Squirrel #1 is now residing in rodent Valhalla. My wife and I got home this afternoon, and she went out on the deck with her Crosman just to see if there were any targets of opportunity. Lo and behold, a squirrel was sauntering across our back yard, not 10 yards away from her. She took aim and knocked him down. Unfortunately it wasn't a clean kill, so she had to hurry downstairs to administer the coup de grace.

She tossed the carcass on top of a log in the alley behind our house, next to some bushes where I've spotted a fox roaming in and out at night. It's within view of one of my cameras, so it will be interesting to see what happens to it.

My 110 Conibears arrived today, too. This isn't over yet .... we don't know if the one she got is the one that's been running across our roof and attacking her garden and my cables.
 
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handinpalm said:
You need to be careful with those Conibear traps. You could be unwittingly trapping the local birds. I have even had birds in my haveaheart traps, that I let go. I don't use those any more. Don't hurt the birds! Your wife has the right idea, you know what you are exterminating w/ a piece of lead.
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I don't intend to use them for long; only until we thin out a few more squirrels. And I'm debating if I should even bait them, at least at the start. According to some of the videos I've watched, if you just place the squirrel pole at a 45 degree angle against a tree they normally climb, they'll run up that pole and run through the traps even if they're not baited. A trap without any bait isn't going to attract birds.

In my case I'll put it against the deck support beam that they use to climb onto my house. We'll see what happens.
 
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CCTVCam said:
Believe me there are fences you wouldn't want to touch. I have one that I touched and it felt like I'd been hit by a semi for a good 20 minutes afterwards and hurt like f*ck. To a squirrel the hit would be far greater.

The big issue with e fencing is squirels are very clever and will go under or thought the strands without touching them. However, you can buy electric fencing nets. Maybe a cut down net could be a good barrier:

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Just like the fence I took a dare and pissed on as a kid. I learned about weed burners back then, and still buy the old weed burners! (No not that kind of weed)
I do like the idea of fencing nets.
 
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wtimothyholman said:
Squirrel #1 is now residing in rodent Valhalla. My wife and I got home this afternoon, and she went out on the deck with her Crosman just to see if there were any targets of opportunity. Lo and behold, a squirrel was sauntering across our back yard, not 10 yards away from her. She took aim and knocked him down. Unfortunately it wasn't a clean kill, so she had to hurry downstairs to administer the coup de grace.

She tossed the carcass on top of a log in the alley behind our house, next to some bushes where I've spotted a fox roaming in and out at night. It's within view of one of my cameras, so it will be interesting to see what happens to it.

My 110 Conibears arrived today, too. This isn't over yet .... we don't know if the one she got is the one that's been running across our roof and attacking her garden and my cables.
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An air pistol probably doesn't have enough enegry for a clean kill unless the shot is very precise. Most are less than 6ft lbs at the muzzle. Many 2-3ft lbs. 3ft lbs is the often quoted guesstimate to cleanly kill a squirel from a headhot. Energy will drop off rapidly with range and air pistols are very inaccurate making accurate palcement difficult. You did the right thing ordering an air rifle. A 12ft lbs rifle will despatch them all day.

Also, don't fall into the trap of fancy pointed pellets, hollow points, flat head etc and heavy weight pellets (the latter unless using an FAC rated air rifle which isn't a good idea in a back yard as eseentially it's a low powered rimfire rifle). I'm no expert, but I believe from what I've read time and time again, a simple dome headed pellet with a weight of around 7-8 grains is the best killing tool in an air rifle.
 
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There is no "magic" pellet weight or style. I've fooled, extensively, with various pellets for my Mark I and the rifle. Each has better, and more repeatable accuracy (better grouping) with specific pellets. It took a little time to find out which pellet worked best with each but it was worth the effort. I just had the Mark re-worked and went through the whole process all over again since muzzle velocity changed pretty dramatically.
 
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I want a magic pellet that can bend space-time!
 
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