Small Game, Predator and TrappingFrom shooting squirrels in your backyard to calling coyotes in Arizona. This forum now contains trapping information..
I have decided to try to hunt squirrels with my bow. How do you guys hunt squirrels, do you hunt from a treestand, bait them, or stalk them. And what type of broadheads do you use? Thanks Alot!
I carry five arrows when deer hunting, 4 boadheads for deer and a blunt tipped arrow for squirrels, rabbits, etc. It gives me very good practice to and from my deer stand and occasionaly, if I really dont think a deer is likely to show up, from the stand itself. Put it in the front half of their body and they are dead like that, but I am shooting 75 ft/lbs of KE. I shot a squirrel with a broadhead once to see what would happen, cut his lungs into perfect thirds and he ran 20 feet! But like I said that is just one incident I dont know what usually happens. I average about 10 squrrels a season like that but I have never actually gone hunting exclusively for them bow in hand. Then again, some of my deer stands might make better squirrel stands...
You will lose alot of tips if you use somthing sharp . Anything that can inbed in a tree - will . I stuck a G5 small game head about 2 1/2" into a pine . Thats plenty deep to never get it back . Broad-heads will have worse problems . I would suggest using "bludgens" . These are the cheap hard rubber or plastic tips . They're durable , don't get stuck in trees , sheds , fences , etc , and are only about $9 for 4 .For small game , I use those and the G5 SGH tips . Good luck .
I hunt squirrel's with my bow it's good practice for me. I used 125g muzzy boardheads but that was spliting them in half then I was told to use a blint tip. When I hunt for them I'll walk around and then I'll sit and wait for them to start running around.
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This sounds like a great idea, but how does this work? I understand the blunt tips and all, but how do you retrieve the arrows if the squirrels are in the tree? How about shooting them on the ground? I would think it would be difficult and time consuming, trying to retrieve arrows in dense woods or undergrowth.
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Shoot then in the tree? I dont, for obivious reasons. If you want to retain a good number of arrows you have to wait till there is some kind of backstop behind the target as well as on ground level. Thats why judo heads would be a good idea, they are less likely to 'skip' and get lost. I would rather be standing when I shoot also simply because then there is a greater angle with the ground and the arrow will travel a shorter distance. Maybe stillhunt/spot and stalk?
When I was much younger, my friends and I would hunt squirrels with a bow. We even managed to bag a few.
We would lose lots of arrows, especially on those tempting shots at one sitting out on a limb. If the squirrel was a gainst the trunk or large limb, we'd usually get that arrow back although sometimes it would be bent. ( aluminum)
Shooting at squirrels with a bow is definitely fun. To tell you the truth, I enjoyed a close miss more than an actual hit. I hated cleaning those tuff buggers.
The best way is too shoot down. Have them at a lower level than you. Here is an example with a rabbit. I was above and useda fieldtip on it; the shot pinned it to the ground and than it broke free and ran 20 ft with the arrow in it, so I drilled it in the head. I shoot squirrels all the time too.
Squirrel hunting with a bow
