# RED SQUIRRELS, LEAD, and RUBBER



## gabeb (Jan 1, 2016)

Hello to all I've not been active bc we just bought a new house... Well it has squirrels and I've gotten better at building slingshots and shooting them. Wanted to ask Ive been shooting 1/8 oz lead fishing sinkers (100 for 2$) at a tackle shop closing so would that kill a squirrel with triple blue bands not sure what brand but compares to tb silver. The squirrels are monsters like 3lbs. They aren't reds for sure. Will this combo kill one if so what shot should I take( head, body)? When I buy a camera I will post pics. If you ask why they get so big there is a peach, pecan, and 2 walnut trees in 2 yards. I have permission to kill them and hunt on their property. I have already take a few house sparrows for my cat which have also over populated. Please respond ASAP one in my yard.............


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## RealLucky (Dec 28, 2015)

I think that with a well placed shot, your set up should be fine. Aim for the head, as the concussive force should be enough to finish him off. If I recall correctly, squirrels perish around 3.5lbs/sq inch, which is quite low, as long as the shot is well placed.


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## rockslinger (Nov 16, 2010)

Check out the hunting section, lots of info there.

Also make sure of the legal hunting season and proper license.


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## Gunnar (Dec 30, 2013)

1/8 oz is about 54 grains which is the weight of 3/8 steel personally I wouldnt use that low of a set up


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## Lacumo (Aug 18, 2013)

Squirrels LOVE bananas, and the older, blacker and more over-ripe the bananas are, the more the squirrels love them. The meat of a really black banana will have started to ferment and the very minor alcohol content will give you comically drunk squirrels that will fall off of fences, roofs, utility wires and poles, be unable to climb up things they usually fly up as if they were jet-powered, etc. Don't go doing anything that I wouldn't do, now...


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## Chuck Daehler (Mar 17, 2015)

There are volumes written on this subject but I'll see what I can do here.
1. That load is light... go for 100 grains, TBS 1 INCH WIDE TAPERED TO 3/4 INCH.
2. Head/neck shots only...body slams will usually wound but not kill especially big squirrels. A heart slam may kill or knock the wind out of him enough for you to run up and club his head. Carry a club.
3. Practice until you can hit a bottle cap fairly consistently at 10 to 15 meters. That's hard to do. Otherwise you will miss the head and hit the body or miss the animal altogether. A bottle cap represents the kill zone of a squirrel's head. A nose shot will be cruel and make the animal starve to death because he can't eat. A hind leg shot may break a femur and wound him so bad he can't get around to get food. A stomach shot will wound him enough for him to die far away in his nest.

Plenty of squirrels are taken by forum members so it certainly can be done but limit your range to that which you can hit a bottle cap consistently.

Obviously obey hunting regulations and seasons. Shooting squirrels in off season interrupts their breeding and caring for young and depletes the population so hunting is sparse. Make sure local hunting laws include slingshot taking of whatever game you fancy shooting. If a fish and game cop catches you shooting without a hunting license or indeed using a slingshot in a zone/state where it's illegal, you'll pay much more than if you just went to the super market and bought meat and also have a criminal record.


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## gabeb (Jan 1, 2016)

Thanks to all would .44 lead be ok? The range will be 5-15 yards because our garden is just about 10 yards away from the garage


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## Chuck Daehler (Mar 17, 2015)

.44 lead would be fine. .40 and 10mm both...and yes range within 15m, preferably 10m because it's hard to hit a small target at longer range...but if you could it would still impact with enough energy on the brain or upper spinal cord (upper neck) of the animal to dispatch it.

In hunting there will most always be times when an animal is wounded and not killed immediately and crawls off to die alone. That's just the reality of it...especially with slingshots. It's your decision of what to do about it.

This planet has always been a fierce one in that one life form eats another and they in turn get eaten...it's known as the food chain. I imagine all life bearing planets are similar in concept. Mankind, at least some, are known to identify with an animal's suffering yet the majority of us are carnivores and readily purchase meat yet don't necessarily want to be the ones who kill and clean it and prepare it for sale at the meat counter. It's in a way hypocritical and a way not...the way not is merely eating another animal. A lion kills a zebra not because the lion hates the zebra, it's because the lion is hungry and wants to bring home some food for its young. Mankind however kills other humans out of hate rather than food and avoiding suffering isn't part of the formula. Look up in wiki, the Rome Coliseum. Hundreds of thousands of humans were killed for enjoyment of other humans in that place including lions eating Christians, gladiators killing gladiators and other what we consider today, atrocious events. Beheadings, terrorism, robberies involving murder, violations and other ways for humans to kill humans are the modern day methods of heartless killing.

So what's this about wounding an animal vs killing one? It's just human nature and the law of the jungle of beast eating beast. It's just planet Earth. Humans and all other carnivores just kill.


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## CornDawg (Sep 27, 2015)

...sounds like you'll be hunting in a residential environment. *"Be sure of your target and what is beyond it."*

When I was 12 I spent an entire summer working odd jobs to replace a neighbor's custom bay window. Apparently they were quite fond of it...


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## Henry the Hermit (Jun 2, 2010)

This belongs in the Hunting Forum.

3 pound squirrels, but not Red? What kind of squirrels are they? Greys (or Cat Squirrels as we ET ******** call them) don't grow that big.


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## truthornothing (May 18, 2015)

Yah, What Chuck says, 3 lbs squirrels are me and Darryl Dixon's dream....Wouldn't take too many to make a tasty stew


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## gabeb (Jan 1, 2016)

They might be a reeeeally light red squirrel but the show many characteristics of greys in my aera...


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## Gunnar (Dec 30, 2013)

I think he means fox squirrels cause the reds here in the U.S. are called pine squirrels


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## gabeb (Jan 1, 2016)

Possibly I'm used to hunting ducks.


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## Henry the Hermit (Jun 2, 2010)

Gunnar said:


> I think he means fox squirrels cause the reds here in the U.S. are called pine squirrels


Where I grew up (East Texas) we only had Fox and Cat squirrels. I didn't even know that the Red (Pine) squirrel existed. Anyway, the Eastern Fox squirrel is the largest of the three native American breeds. Hey! I learned something today.


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## StretchandEat (Nov 11, 2015)

In MS. We have grey squirrels and Fox squirrel(though some people call em red squirrels ) but where I live you hardly see the fox squirrels. .if you do its in the strangest places.. killing one with my slingshot is a goal/dream of mine..maybe I need to get another rat terrier and hit the pines


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