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"Barking" Squirrels
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Nope, not talking about the noises that them pesky squirrels make! More like shooting them with larger than squirrel bore calibers. The object is to blast the branch close without actually hitting the desired future barbequed brisket. I showed this method to my hunting buddy a few years ago while deer hunting with 50 & 54 caliber rifles. I dropped a big gray with my 54 when I hit his perch by about 3-4 inches. The old gray fell dead without any real visible damage except for blood from his mouth. This style of hunting I have done for quite a while with fairly good results. I have come a little too close a couple of times which resulted in a twisted mess of meat and guts, but all in all no other problems. Now last fall my buddy I showed this method to had taken 3 squirrels with his 50 caliber. After his harvest he placed each tree rat in his hunting sack. On his way out of the woods, one of them critters woke up and started a real ruckus! Seems he wasn't real dead, just knocked out! Probably a good idea to give em a little head twist before carting em along!
 
Posts: 197 | Registered: 15 January 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Big Grin


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Good shootin', Cran'. I've barked a few back in the day when I had good eyes, but mostly shot 'em in the head. Nowadays I have to use the ol' fowler and shot.

Fiddlesticks


As long as there's Limb Bacon a man'll eat! (But mebbe not his wife...)
 
Posts: 4816 | Location: Buffalo River Country | Registered: 23 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Yes, and have they ever!


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3559 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Hunting with my Uncle Frank one time, he barked a squirrel. Beginning to gut the animal, it woke up suddenly when it felt the point of the knife, curled around my Uncle's hand and bit him good and hard. Uncle still had a hold of it, so he slapped it against a tree. That finished it.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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I had heard about the technique, but had never tried it, and one day with no luck on deer, I saw a bunch of squirrels messing about, so decided to give it a go...

The first one worked like a charm... I shot the small branch under where it had poised, hoping I didn't see it, the branch only about 5' off the ground, and sure enough it fell dead without a mark.

This attracted the attention of my hunting buddy, Steve, who had a 28 bore fusil with him, loaded with ball. So he walked over to see what I'd shot.

I shot #2 high up in a tree... the ball went a tad high, and the splinters from the branch cut the underportion of the squirrel's throat...he fell dead.

Number 3 moved when I shot at him in a tree, so I didn't hit the branch under his head, it hit him in the abdomen, and he fell dead. So out of three, I had one perfect, and two bloody but very edible.

Then Steve asked. "Hey Dave... after you put that round ball through those last two tiny branches...where did it go?"

Where I was hunting was not the largest area of woods, and though legal to hunt there, launching a .490 round ball though a branch and into the sky was NOT a good idea as it might come down "out of safe" in a nearby neighborhood. Frowner

Now I use shot and a shotgun or a trade gun...with shot....

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
Free Trapper
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Very, Very good point LD! I have always taken my shots air-ward in the direction of a large span of wilderness. At least a couple of miles to the nearest dwelling or civilization. Even muzzleloaders can travel a good part of a mile. I sadly remember a news story a while back about an Amish girl who died that was a mile away from the shooter.
 
Posts: 197 | Registered: 15 January 2015Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Excellent point,Dave.


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I tried it once. A squirrel was sitting on the side on an oak tree. I skinned the tree under his belly with my .50 caliber lancaster. It plowed a furrow about the size on my index finger in the bark. The resulting splinters made the squirrel look like he swallowed a grenade!
 
Posts: 552 | Location: SC | Registered: 03 May 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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I've tried barking deer on a few occasions but it never seemed to work. That is to say I've shot limbs and trees next to the deer. Makes me feel better to say it that way rather than the "m" word. Big Grin


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3559 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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Posts: 46 | Location: Iowa | Registered: 28 November 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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A very enjoyable read, Leonard.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3559 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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