# The slingshot as hunting pest control.



## msturm (Sep 18, 2019)

Day three in the bear stand, over a known bear trail. I'm only ten feet off the ground armed with a 54 lb at 27 in guava self bow I made in Hawaii. I have 5 matching bamboo arrows tipped with 145 gn. Ribtechs. I have seen this bear on this trail twice and have him on camera a dozen or so times.... Yet when I am in the stand we never cross paths..

The reason for this is of course my nemesis, the red squirrel. There are three that consistently blow my cover in this spot, including jumping to my tree and dropping spruce cones on me and endless chattering alerting the woods to my presence. Well today I am ready for them. I'm praying for a bear, but hoping for a squirrel or three. Fingers crossed.

Squirrel tastes too good to be this much of a pain in the ass.

Msturm








Photo taken at 11:27 pm.


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## Sandstorm (Apr 5, 2021)

From what I understand they’re the toughest little bastards on the face of the earth. Happy hunting for both squirrel and bear.


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## vince4242 (Jan 11, 2016)

That is a beautiful bow! And a nice flipping job. Good luck with the squirrel they are tough to kill with a slingshot.


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## ghost0311/8541 (Jan 6, 2013)

I always take my slingshot when bow hunting just for that reason I was elk hunting in Colorado and had a squirrel doing the same thing about 15 feet a way when 8 packed for the hunt I did not pack sling shot ammo on purpose because we are in the rocky mountains so there will be rocks I put gum rubber on and thoughts rocks up here not round ones I had to cut green tree limbs into am


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## ffastfzr (Feb 15, 2021)

Sir, I feel your pain. We don't have a ton of red squirrels in my section of NY, but we sure do have a ton of the grey ones. Having been a bowhunter for over 30 years now, I have grown to loathe those little manifestations of evil. I have had more acorns, twigs, branches, leaves, hickory nuts, horse chestnuts, you name it dropped down on my head or down the back of my collar than I care to think about. I have even had one of the little demons run up my leg one time. I don't know how many times I went on high alert thinking a monster buck was coming down the trail only to find two or more squirrels chasing each other all around creation. I hate them, and wish them nothing but ill. 
All that said, much respect on the self-bow. I hunt either with a Bowtech realm, or an elite E35. On occasion I'll also bust out my Excalibur crossbow. Semi-related, have you looked into hunting out of a tree saddle as opposed to a stand? I switched two years ago and absoutely love it when I have a long hike in, and don't have the option of setting up a fixed stand ahead of time. So much lighter than a climber, and way more versatility with the types of trees you can climb. Best of luck and shoot straight.


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## ffastfzr (Feb 15, 2021)

Almost forgot, about where in Alaska are you? My wife and I spent two weeks with just the two of us backpacking the Resurrection trail in Chugach about five years ago, and then we spent two weeks doing the same on Admiralty Island three years ago. Absolutely love it up there. We were supposed to go back to Kenai last spring but couldn't because of Covid.


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## msturm (Sep 18, 2019)

Got him tonight. The squirrel that is. 










Ffastfzr, I grew up in kenai. I live about an hour south now.


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## J3ff (Apr 12, 2019)

What ammo and hunting set up do youbhave for those squirrels? Nice get.


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## msturm (Sep 18, 2019)

J3ff said:


> What ammo and hunting set up do youbhave for those squirrels? Nice get.


Ammo : 7/16 steel.
Bands: .72 sheshou. 1 in to 3/4in tapers. 6.5 in working band.


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## J3ff (Apr 12, 2019)

J3ff said:


> What ammo and hunting set up do youbhave for those squirrels? Nice get.


Thank you. And those are the same size and dimensions I use actually good to know I could get some squirrels if I needed.


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## ffastfzr (Feb 15, 2021)

msturm said:


> Got him tonight. The squirrel that is.
> 
> View attachment 350873
> 
> ...


Congrats! I hope the bear is soon to follow. 
My wife and I were supposed to backpack the Russian Lakes Trail, which is sort of in your neck of the woods, last year but couldn't because of covid. We're hopeful that we can do it next spring instead. Either that or we're getting flown in to either the upper or lower paradise lake cabins. If we do set the trip, I'll drop you a note. I'll build you a custom slingshot and give it to you in person if there's a chance we can meet up someplace!


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## msturm (Sep 18, 2019)

ffastfzr said:


> Congrats! I hope the bear is soon to follow.
> My wife and I were supposed to backpack the Russian Lakes Trail, which is sort of in your neck of the woods, last year but couldn't because of covid. We're hopeful that we can do it next spring instead. Either that or we're getting flown in to either the upper or lower paradise lake cabins. If we do set the trip, I'll drop you a note. I'll build you a custom slingshot and give it to you in person if there's a chance we can meet up someplace!


Hey that sounds Sweet! I was just on the Russian Lakes Trail about a week ago. I had a great time, are you planning on going to the cabin? or to Kenai lake? Either way bring a machete and something to keep brown bears away. We did plenty of trail work and saw 3 pretty decent brownies.


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## ffastfzr (Feb 15, 2021)

msturm said:


> Hey that sounds Sweet! I was just on the Russian Lakes Trail about a week ago. I had a great time, are you planning on going to the cabin? or to Kenai lake? Either way bring a machete and something to keep brown bears away. We did plenty of trail work and saw 3 pretty decent brownies.


We had planned on hitting each of the three cabins and spending 3 nights or so at each. Then we'd likely sleep out 3 or 4 nights in our hammocks as we finished out the loop. 
I already bought myself an Esee Junglas specifically for machete/camp knife duty, but I might opt for a lighter weight machete and carry my trusty Esee 6 for camp duty. The Junglas is a bit much to swing constantly. 
When my wife and I did the Resurrection trail, we both carried bear spray and 870s loaded with Brenneke slugs. Only ran into one juvenile black bear, but ran into an absolute ton of moose. And it was right when they were calving, so that made things interesting. 
When we went to Admiralty lsland, in addition to bear spray, my wife had her 870 and I brought my 11-87 both with Brennekes, and we both had 10mm Glocks in chest holsters loaded with 220gr hard cast Underwoods. Didn't see a single bear the two weeks we were there, but there were footprints, bed downs and scat everywhere. And a fresh set of baby bear prints on the beach which had us on HIGH alert. There were a ton of deer runnning around there too, in addition to a slew of other critters. 
I was thinking we were just going to carry spray and our Glocks for this trip to save some weight. I may have to reconsider that...


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## High Desert Flipper (Aug 29, 2020)

msturm said:


> Day three in the bear stand, over a known bear trail. I'm only ten feet off the ground armed with a 54 lb at 27 in guava self bow I made in Hawaii. I have 5 matching bamboo arrows tipped with 145 gn. Ribtechs. I have seen this bear on this trail twice and have him on camera a dozen or so times.... Yet when I am in the stand we never cross paths..
> 
> The reason for this is of course my nemesis, the red squirrel. There are three that consistently blow my cover in this spot, including jumping to my tree and dropping spruce cones on me and endless chattering alerting the woods to my presence. Well today I am ready for them. I'm praying for a bear, but hoping for a squirrel or three. Fingers crossed.
> 
> ...


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## High Desert Flipper (Aug 29, 2020)

That's an amazing bow! I think the sling and bow pair well together and you are getting great use out of the combo. Best of luck with the bear now that you are getting the squirrels in line!


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## msturm (Sep 18, 2019)

ffastfzr said:


> We had planned on hitting each of the three cabins and spending 3 nights or so at each. Then we'd likely sleep out 3 or 4 nights in our hammocks as we finished out the loop.
> I already bought myself an Esee Junglas specifically for machete/camp knife duty, but I might opt for a lighter weight machete and carry my trusty Esee 6 for camp duty. The Junglas is a bit much to swing constantly.
> When my wife and I did the Resurrection trail, we both carried bear spray and 870s loaded with Brenneke slugs. Only ran into one juvenile black bear, but ran into an absolute ton of moose. And it was right when they were calving, so that made things interesting.
> When we went to Admiralty lsland, in addition to bear spray, my wife had her 870 and I brought my 11-87 both with Brennekes, and we both had 10mm Glocks in chest holsters loaded with 220gr hard cast Underwoods. Didn't see a single bear the two weeks we were there, but there were footprints, bed downs and scat everywhere. And a fresh set of baby bear prints on the beach which had us on HIGH alert. There were a ton of deer runnning around there too, in addition to a slew of other critters.
> I was thinking we were just going to carry spray and our Glocks for this trip to save some weight. I may have to reconsider that...


Sounds like you have it in line! 870 with brenneke slugs is about as much stopping power as you can get. To save some weight you can get an 18in barrel and a pistol grip kit for the 870. hard on the wrist though!


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