Spring Squirrel Is Nearly Here...

[TNHagies]

Traditionally, when I squirrel hunt with a ML I hunt w/a sidelockwith 777 and a round ball. But this year I wanted to try something different. I decided this year to use my Laminate Genesis for fun. The Genesis shoots Blackhorn extremely well so I thought I"™d break the rules with it and try and shoot roundballs out of a 1/28 twist gun with Blackhorn... To be honest I wasn't expecting much.

I started at 25 grains of BH and went up to 35 grains. I was using .490 Speer roundballs, .010 patches and a veggie wad for a buffer. (The .018 patches are too thick and w/out a buffer it blows the patches) all that ignited with Win209s.

I sat the target out at 20 yards which I figured would be about the distance I"™d shoot most of my squirrels at. The first group (Top Left)with 25g wasn"™t too bad. I could kill squirrels with that. So on to 30g (Top Right). Now we"™re talkin"™! That"™s head shootin"™ accuracy there. So for kicks, I wanted to see if 35 grians(Middle)would get any better. But, it looks like 35 is too much and it started slinging them. Looks like 30g is the sweet spot.




I"™m lookin"™ forward to May 9th. Bring on the bushy tails!

[bronko22000]

Sounds like it will be fun. But to be honest, I aint never heard of a spring squirrel season. What state is that? Looks like you found a load to fill the pot. And although 20 yds isn't very far, for your purposes I think it'll do nicely.

[TNHagies]

bronko22000, TN is the only place I know of that has a Spring squirrel. I grew up in VA and we never had such a thing. I only hunt the first part of it because it gets too hot and I don't enjoy sharing the woods with snakes.

20-30 yards is about all I'll do w/a ML. Now my Marlin 39A, I can take them out to 75 yards or so but I've grown bored of it.

[Old/New]

Nice shooting. Appears you're ready for 'em!