Squirrels with CB's

[chsparkman]

Spent last Friday morning sitting in a deer blind, hunting for squirrels. Rifle: Ruger No. 3 in .223, 45 gr. Lyman 225438, 5.7 gr. Greendot.

[OldBearHair]

Nice, Good organic nutrition. Expected more damage to the meat. Nice.

[thadfz]

Looks like it was a success


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[Hamish]

Classy rig for tree rats!

[gunseller]

Cool I like the set up. How quite is your load? Mine makes less noise than a 22LR. I use a 60 grain GC over 2400. Head shots at 50 yards are do able using my Mini Mark 10 in .223.
Steve

[WebMonkey]

sweet!
squirrels are the best.
nice red one.

[WebMonkey]

sweet!
squirrels are the best.
nice red one.

[GhostHawk]

What kind of speed you getting? I'm guessing slower.

Nice fox squirrel.

We don't see many gray's up here, they all moved into town, fewer predators, more food.

[richhodg66]

I use cast in a couple of .22 Hornets. Good squirrel medicine. Two grains of Bullseye and a plain based 45 grain WFN kills better than a .22 LR and is quieter.

[GEOMETRIC]

Nice, I thought about using a .22 cal. rifle with cast bullets for squirrels years ago but didn't pursue it because I thought meat destruction would be excessive. Apparently I was wrong.

[Motor]

I use a Traditions Hawkins style cap lock in 50cal. and the Lee 250gr REAL. My powder measure is a .308 Win casing. You do have to be extremely careful about your backstop.

Funny thing is the big 50 does less meat damage than the 22 magnum and of course if you head shoot them meat damage isn't an issue anyway. Unless of course you like eating squirrel brains.

Motor

[Blammer]

nice shooting!

Personally I think your undergunned.

I use my 30-06 and the 311284 with a full tilt load of IMR3031.

which incidentally, is also my deer load.

[richhodg66]

Good call. I hear they sometimes charge if they're wounded

[runfiverun]

he should be a hair over 1800 fps with that load.
out 22ing the 22lr by a fair margin, and running the 22 mag right along with a 40gr+ boolit to boot.

[NyFirefighter357]

Your all under gunned. lol I took one last year with my rifled 12ga shotgun, sabot round is 300gr S&W 500 Hornady FXT @2,000fps. Took his head clear off at 50yrds. At 50yrds it has 2196Ftlb energy. I'm hoping to work on casting and loading a sabot round like this.

[BarkEater]

Been a long time since I've been out squirrel hunting, so long in fact I'd never thought of cast. Thinking I should try this hunt again. Thanks for sharing...good shooting.
Mike

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Well done ! That is real good eating !
Muzzleloaders with cast RB been popping tree rats for how long ???
RB in any of the larger mentioned brass cases above will take out those nut gatherers.
Mike in Peru

[richhodg66]

If you want a step up in power from the .22 LR, cast in a centerfire is the way to go. It's been my experience after shooting and hunting with one a lot as a kid that the .22 WMR isn't good for anything you want to eat and recent limited experience with a .17 HMR is that it's even worse. A soft bullet with a blunt point moving slower is the answer. Even after joking around about overkill, those 311284s did less meat destruction than a fast moving hollow point like a .22 WMR.

[smokeater]

Y'all sure know how to rub salt in a wound. Here in Alabama they will let you shoot a deer with a 25acp or a squirrel with a 500S&W but won't let you shoot small game with a centerfire rifle. To me, a centerfire rifle with a cast boolit and proper powder charge would be the ultimate small/large game weapon of choice. I have given up on the state ever changing so I spend alot of time in the woods with my handguns leaving the rifles in the safe.

[GEOMETRIC]

Ahmen, If you want to blow a small game animal to critter vapor, shoot it with a high velocity fast expanding .22. Years ago I had a .22 magnum. It was very destructive unless you used the FMG ammo. I liked to shoot what I referred to as "Remington Specials". It fired a 45 grain lead bullet at a velocity that killed well & left you with something for the table. I don't need a step up in power to kill squirrels. Put a 40 gr. bullet in a tree rat's head & it will die rather suddenly. I have a match grade .22 that will do that all day long with sub sonic ammo.. Still, I find the concept of hunting squirrels with my own cast boolits & patched round balls attractive.
I must be missing something. I have shot squirrels & other game with everything from RBS in a 30 cal. rifle to patched RBS in a .32 cal. muzzle loader & without exception, they all created excessive meat destruction unless you made a head shot. Some were so explosive, even a head shot would destroy meat in the adjacent body. Obviously, you have to get the velocity down below a certain threshold. It seems logical that 30 cal. is 30 cal & that a 30 cal. bullet that doesn't explode traveling below that threshold, won't do anymore damage from a modern rifle than a 30 cal. RB from a muzzle loader. I have found that the .32 cal. RB gets pretty destructive unless you keep velocity low. Maybe that is why our forefathers developed the art of "barking squirrels".
I like hunting the "glory critters" as much as anybody but I still try to get in a few good squirrel hunts every year. I also like to hunt many game birds most folks "turn their noses up" at.
I am still learning so, as somebody we all know named Bill says, what say yea?