DavidD.

When I hunt squirrel, I use the stands I use in deer season, I really like a .410 or 12GA for hunting them on our land (very dense), and usually I have a lot of success hunting them in the evenings. I am hoping to try our some squirrel hunting with a pellet gun this weekend.

ufimych

One more tip to hunt squirrels. Buy a West Siberian Laika puppy. He will start treeing naturally and you will shoot them by the dozens. MOreover, you will watch a beautiful treeing work of your dog.

bushmaster_5bko

take your shotgun, walk around, see em, run at em, tree em, and shoot em.

sean_paul87

It honestly depends on the population that year. If they had a good nut season last year, chances are the squirrel numbers will be very good this year. Once the hickories are almost ripe/are ripe, you can sit under a big hickory and wait, and you can easily get your limit in a half hour. If you use a .22, when you shoot a squirrel the others around it seem to forget in 5 seconds unless they know where you are. This hickory frenzy lasts about a week where I live. Next, the oaks ripen. The squirrels are more dispersed, but you can easily find them. If you hear the cutting into nuts up in the trees, look. In my experience, squirrels are oblivious when up in a tree eating nuts. This also true when they are chasing each other, and to a certain extent when they're burying nuts. Squirrels will most likely not run and hide if they hear you but cannot locate you. When one lifts its head to look around, freeze and it will go back to what it was doing.

jrbsr

One thing I have found to be very valuable is a good set of binoculars.
You see a squirrel then it disappears when you get close enough to get a good shot.
I took a set of binoculars, and started looking in the tree, and it wasn’t long before I spotted where they were hiding.
It was amazing how you can find them with a binocular, when you can’t find them with just your eyes.

Try binoculars next time you go squirrel hunting, and you will see more of them.

sean_paul87

Good advice! however, I only do this when they are on the ground and I am using hollowpoints, and sometimes solid points do the same. a .22 hitting a squirrel is basically an artillery shell being lobbed at high speed right thru it. That being said, while I always aim for the head, I am not worried as long as it doesnt hit below the ribcage/or hit the limbs. A squirrel shot in the spine will not bleed/bleed very little, and it dies instantly. One hit in the chest may drop right there/may try to walk a few steps, but I've never had one escape up a tree when shot in the chest. However, gut shooting a squirrel is awful, especially since they usually end up hiding in a tree out of reach and its very sad thing to watch. If I am using hollow points, I learned a long time ago that headshots many times will make the head explode, so that there is little left except for maybe the lower jaw. It's a bloody mess, and chest/spine shots are much less messy while using hollows. I rarely use them, and only use them if my solids run out. Another thing you have to watch out for is hitting a squirrel through the jaw, I have done it a couple times. they don't run off, probably because of massive shock, but it doesn't kill them and is awful to watch.

sean_paul87

this works especially well if it's windy/very wet and you can't hear the squirrels walking around. My preferred method for this is to walk slowly and watch, as you make little noise but your method works very well too, especially if its around the time the nuts start dropping.

CRhodes

Seems to me I see more to shoot at since I grew a beard.

Dodge631

it is all movement. ive seen tons of squirrels oblivious to me while i sat in a tree with blue jeans and a white shirt.

also, when there is a squirrel orbiting a tree, tie a string to a bush on one side, then move to the other, when he moves to the side of the bush pull the string a few times and he'll come to your side. i reccommend paracord btw.

Peddero

great idea as i never thought of this idea any time it will really work a lot, and maybe i can break my own record