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Smoothbore or Rifle for squirrel
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Greenhorn
posted
Any thoughts on smoothbore vs rifle? I know they both work great. Would like to hear who uses what and why.
 
Posts: 33 | Registered: 04 October 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I use both early season it's thick after the leaves come off I switch back to rifle.....Smiler


The best thing about owning a dog is that someone is happy when you get home.
 
Posts: 959 | Location: Alabama | Registered: 09 December 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Hanshi
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I've always been a rifleman and just never warmed up to scatterguns though they do see some use. Ball is shot through my flint smoothbore a lot more than shot. I don't like picking shot out of squirrels and much prefer a rifle. Doesn't mean I don't or never use shot; just means it's a rarity.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3560 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I mostly use my .32 Southern rifle for tree rats but once in a while I do take the 20ga. fowler. They booth work but like Hanshi said, you don't have to pick shot out of them with a rifle. Best regards. RH
 
Posts: 1128 | Location: Iowa | Registered: 15 December 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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You didn't say what you wanted to use said firearm fore so....

I use a rifle for almost everything but use the smoothbore for grouse. Once I get a deer with the flintlock rifle, I will try to take a deer with the trade gun, a smoothbore flintlock.

Load fast and aim slow.
 
Posts: 1726 | Location: Pacific Northwest | Registered: 08 March 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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What is the populations like around where you hunt??If it goes up it will come down,or so I was told.I like the challange of a rifle but in populated areas scatter gun. Fur = rifle Feathers= scattergun,not fast and hard just guidelines for me.I also hunt with a Slingshot and marbles, sometimes.
 
Posts: 1839 | Registered: 11 February 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Graybeard
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The squirrels around here are tiny so no one hunts them but if I was to go after one I'd use a smoothbore with shot for safety. Never know where a rifle ball will come down. Even if you hit the squirrel it might carry a ways after going through him.
 
Posts: 214 | Location: Big Arm Montana | Registered: 17 September 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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When using my 32 or 40 I Never take shots at a squirrel if they are above 5 ft high like it when they are on the ground.


The best thing about owning a dog is that someone is happy when you get home.
 
Posts: 959 | Location: Alabama | Registered: 09 December 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Pilgrim
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For safety due to leaf cover and fully camoflaged bow hunters here in Pa. I would use a smoothie. Later when the leaves are down, the rifle comes out and I am verry fussy about backstops for my shots. BJH
 
Posts: 69 | Location: Central Pa. | Registered: 14 September 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of roundball
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I alternate around using different guns...last 2 years I used a new .40cal late Lancaster to make it earn its keep.
This year I'll be getting the 20ga Early Virginia out for some air with a few loads of #5s...haven't used her since 2012. (spring Turkey and fall Doves).


Flintlock Rifles & Smoothbores
Hunt Like The Settlers
 
Posts: 1867 | Location: North Carolina | Registered: 28 January 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Whitefinger's post times two.
 
Posts: 507 | Registered: 14 August 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Crawdad
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I just can't warm up to a smoothbore either. Every rifle and every rifle barrel is different with no two being the exact same or shooting the exact same. I guess it the individualism of them that makes me love em so much.
 
Posts: 678 | Location: Pennsylvania | Registered: 30 January 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
<mtnmike>
posted
Well here's my 2* ,I have wanted a smoothbore for a fer piece,finally got to buy one an plan on putting same to good use,squirrel,rabbit,turkey,deer,hog,etc. I am looking forward to learning what this smoothbore can teach me,so if I have to pick out some shot then I reckon I'll pick.
 
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Booshway
Picture of roundball
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quote:
Originally posted by mtnmike:
Well here's my 2* ,I have wanted a smoothbore for a fer piece,finally got to buy one an plan on putting same to good use,squirrel,rabbit,turkey,deer,hog,etc. I am looking forward to learning what this smoothbore can teach me,so if I have to pick out some shot then I reckon I'll pick.
For my general purpose hunting here in North Carolina, if I could only have one firearm, without question it would be a smoothbore...they've opened up worlds of different hunting opportunities without giving up anything I used to use a rifle for. The majority of my rifle use has been relegated to year round plinking at the range with the .40 / .45cals...and most hunting is now done with the 20 and 28 gauges. One of the best plans & memories I have is going squirrel hunting with the 28ga a couple years ago, and carrying a couple PRBs in my pocket. An hour befoe dark, I dumped the shot charge, and seated a PRB down...ended up taking a Doe right at dark.


Flintlock Rifles & Smoothbores
Hunt Like The Settlers
 
Posts: 1867 | Location: North Carolina | Registered: 28 January 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
Picture of Swanny
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All we have in the boreal regions are those pesky little red squirrels - it takes a dozen or so to make a meal (sigh). They are destructive little beggers, though. When it comes time to wage war on the little beggers I use whatever I happen to have in hand.

Most often that will be a smoothbore, either trade gun or English pistol with a charge of #6 shot.


“A good dog is so much a nobler beast than an indifferent man that one sometimes gladly exchanges the society of one for that of the other.” (William Francis Butler)
 
Posts: 28 | Location: Two Rivers, Alaska | Registered: 23 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Both.

I have both and use both. You should get two guns.

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Pilgrim
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For me a small rifle is ok for squirrels but with a large bore you will tear them up too much unless you "bark" them. With a smoothbore it doesn't much matter the size as you control the shot.
 
Posts: 62 | Registered: 06 October 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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Now that my eyes are over 65, I've gone to the fowler since fuzzy sight picture might create a bad wound situation on any size game, and we all owe them better than that.
 
Posts: 19 | Location: Bastrop County, Texas | Registered: 25 May 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hivernant
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It depends on why you go. Do you want a critter in the pot most every shot? = Shotgun.
Do you want the challenge of a rifle shot and maybe miss once and a while? = Rifle.
That how I look at it.....But that's just me.


Keep inside the tree line, Don't let 'em know where yer bedded. Some have less than you do and my be inclined to try and take what little ya have.
 
Posts: 107 | Location: The Soviet Socialist state of Connectitax | Registered: 29 May 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Pilgrim
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Give me a rifle and I'm a happy boy.
Tom Black
Cantucky
 
Posts: 63 | Location: Kentucky | Registered: 14 February 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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