Look Out Squirrel!!!

[Semisane]

In a comment on my Round Balls & Light Charges post, Mossie said:

I always wondered what kind of accuracy one would get with a fast twist .45 and a 125 grain .357 and a very low charge level. Might work pretty good for small game.

The thought intrigued me, so I ordered some MMP sabots and dug around in my little used stock of handgun reloading supplies and came up with a box of 125 grain Speer .357s.



After finishing the round ball shooting Friday evening, I set a target out at 50 yards and loaded up the Renne with 30 grains of GOEX FFFg under the Speer bullet. Five shots later I had this target.



Seeing no indication that this bullet/sabot combination is going to be a small game load, I put out a fresh target and took five shots with a 40 grain charge.

Hoo-Weee!! Here's that target.



Now you just know I had to try 50 grains of powder. New target/five shots/here it is.



Nope. Nothing useful there. It looks like the 40 grain charge is the sweet spot.

By then I'm thinking - "If I sight this load in for 50 yards for small game, I need to know where it's going to hit at 20 or 30 yards". So I put a fresh target out at 20 yards and took two shots. Then moved the target to 30 yards and took two more shots. Then two shots at 40, two at 50, and two at 60 yards, for a total of ten shots.

Here's that target.



Happy, satisfied, and with dusk approaching, I headed for the camp to clean the gun and sip a little Scotch. One of the guys had ten pounds of Jalapeno/Cheese deer sausage on the pit and a couple of loaves of french bread. We ate well that night, but I kept thinking about that last 10-shot group - wondering if I could repeat it.

Bright and early Saturday morning (well, around 10 o'clock) I hit the range and repeated the drill - two shots @ 20 yards, 2 @ 30 yds, etc., etc. Here's the ten-shot target.



Did you notice that shot about two inches below the others. I'm pretty sure that's a result of Cayugad sending malicious spirits down this-a-way with his foolish talk about eighty four degrees being "HOT" and disrespecting the laws set forth by the gods of muzzleloading (evil though some of them may be).

I hereby declare my .45 GM/LRH Renegade a suitable small game gun, as well as a proven deer killer.

The first "Sinful Sister".

[rafsob]

Thanks you for the test and the results are a help to many of us that are inflicted with this rare disease called ML shooting.

Like I have said in another post and thread, I shoot my Zouave with a 41 gr charge and get fantastic results. I never thought it would be a good idea to try shooting a lower charge for hunting purposes.

I have a Crockett .32 cal. Traditions and now will try different lower charges in it for hunting. The next smaller caliber I have is a .50 cal. PRB gun (Hawkins Carbine) with a 1 in 66" twist and this may be fun to try lower charges.

I must do some work with my Kimber 84m, .338 Federal and some 160 gr. Barnes bullets first. I still need to get my hands on some Nosler 180 gr. bullets. I am thinking these lower weight bulletws may be a better bullet for this Federal round.

[cayugad]

that looks like a real good small game load... I will have to try that with my rifle.

[Semisane]

Here's an interesting point I forgot to mention. Notice on that last target there are four shots grouped in the center bull and five shots grouped a half inch higher and an inch to the left.

This is what happened. The shots in the center bull were the first four shots taken - two at 20 yards and two at 30 yards. When I pulled the trigger for the next sequence of shots at 40 yards the hammer failed to contact the cap. The bridle screws had loosened and the fly was out of position preventing the hammer from falling all of the way.

So I had to remove the barrel from the stock so as to remove the lock and tighten the screws. Then I reinstalled the lock and barrel and shot the 40, 50, and 60 yard shots. It appears that taking the barrel out of the stock and reinstalling it caused the POI to shift a little.

[deer655]

I wonder what damage that big bullet would do to the squirrel. It would cut a pretty big hole thru a small animal. I have seen one 357 bullet at 85 grains, I wonder how that would do. Its amazing what 10 grains can do to accuracy. Great test and let us know how about how much meat damage is done when you go hunting.

[bronko22000]

very good as usual semi. Looks like that sinful sister is going to be bringing home some meat for squirrel stew.

[Semisane]

Its amazing what 10 grains can do to accuracy. Great test and let us know how about how much meat damage is done when you go hunting.

You've got to remember deer655, that going from 30 grains to 40 grains is a whopping 33% increase in powder. That's got to be significant. As far as meat damage, it will be head shots only (that's why I'm looking for one-inch groups). I don't expect to have to cut off the heads when I clean them though.

Looks like that sinful sister is going to be bringing home some meat for squirrel stew.

It had better Bronko. Each club member is expected to contribute two squirrels and a rabbit to the "beast feast" in early December.

[lemoyne]

Semi, At a rendezvous I went on squirrel hunt with my 54 I figured no problem just shoot them in the head. Since my Hawken was sighted for 110 gr that was what I used.
Took several squirrel all head shots when I cleaned the for the pot I was shocked the head shots did not stop the front shoulders from being blood shot.

[Semisane]

Lee, I wonder how low you would have to go in velocity to avoid that kind of hydrostatic damage. Certainly a .54 ball out of a slingshot would not bloody the shoulders - but I've never been very good with one of those.

[TNHagies]

Well Semisane, I can't tell you what the .357 bullets will do but I squirrel hunt w/a .490 ball and 30g BH and that works beautifully! I too only head shoot them and it doesn't do too much damage. Sometimes you'll get some blood-shot shoulders though. It's a lot of fun and I love it when they 'helicopter' out of the tree