T/C .40 morning hunt

Took the .40 cal. out on its maiden hunt this morning, got in the woods around 7:20 and was done by 9am...took 6 shots and killed 4 squirrels 3 grays and a fox squirrel...I will say this the .40 is definetly not squirrel friendly, it will pretty much clean them for you on any type of body hit, my eyes are not good enough to see them when they are 100 ft up in a giant shagbark or pig hickory so its pretty much put the bead on the center mass high and hope for the best...did head shoot the fox squirrel as he gave me a side profile where I could see his head real good..
it is definetly a very accurate gun with the Green Mountain barrel but going to have to work up a lighter load then the 40 gr. of fffg I was using...going to try my .32 next time with scope so I can be a little more accurate on the head shooting.

Excellent post. Very nice shooting too. Any time you can take a squirrel with a rifle, especially a muzzleloader, that is some great shooting. I bet that .40 really bounced them out of the tree. I was so close to buying a .40 caliber barrel from GMB but I wanted a flintlock and all they had were percussion, when I was looking. I figured that would be a real kick to shoot with a flintlock. I guess I figured that caliber for more coyote, raccoon, that kind of thing. But squirrels ... very cool.

Hunting squirrels is something I used to really enjoy. We don't have the big grays and fox where I live. I used to hunt them because they were a challenge but most of all good to eat. Back then not being into muzzle loaders as much and also being grouse season I used a .410 single shot shot shot gun. Just in case you found a bird along the way.

I now have the pine or red squirrels as we call there here. I shot four of them one day and actually cleaned them and tried to eat them. Put it this way, if you were hungry, they were ok. Tasted like pine needles to me. And there was so little on them that all I cooked were the legs.

Nice work and great shooting!!! :yeah:

I think the .40 is alright for squirrels if I can find a reduced load thats as accurate as the 40 gr. load but its just too hot the way it is, like hitting them with a hand grenade..this is the 1st time in probably 20 yrs that Ive tried to hunt with open sights Ive always used a scoped .22 rimfire rifle, pistol or air rifle...be nice to have a scope on the .40 but it would totally ruin the looks of the gun..
Ive got a scope on my little traditions .32 cal and its very accurate plus I can see what Im shooting at..
Going to try to work up a load somewhere between 15-25 gr. for the .40 and give it another try and the bushytails.

Wow your season starts early. Good shooting and I'm sure it was a lot of fun too. I always loved squirrel hunting and try to go at least once or twice in the fall. Hope to be using my new Inline .32 this year! Congrads on a great hunt. :yeah:

Shawn,
sent you a p.m..

ShawnT said:

Wow your season starts early. Good shooting and I'm sure it was a lot of fun too. I always loved squirrel hunting and try to go at least once or twice in the fall. Hope to be using my new Inline .32 this year! Congrads on a great hunt. :yeah:

Click to expand...

Pm returned.

I agree the 40 with 40 grains would not be friendly to anything you want to eat. Found tha 40 grains in my 36 was the same results and dropping to 30 grains did not improve the damage. Most meat friendly was a 32 cherokee with 20 grains. Like you I do like my TC hawken with a Green MT 40 cal barrel.

I agree the 40 with 40 grains would not be friendly to anything you want to eat. Found tha 40 grains in my 36 was the same results and dropping to 30 grains did not improve the damage. Most meat friendly was a 32 cherokee with 20 grains. Like you I do like my TC hawken with a Green MT 40 cal barrel.