Show your squirrel rifle/gun.

[drax05]

I've never tried to "bark" a squirrel and have always shot the critter, itself. The only squirrels I ever "destroyed" were a couple of grays I shot with my .45 flintlock. I was deer hunting and loaded with my usual powder charge. I aimed for the neck on the first one and he flew through the air at the shot. Maybe I hit a little farther back than I hoped because there was literally not much left of it. It opened the gray up completely and partially dismembered it. I couldn't find all the parts! Basically it had exploded. Another one a short time later suffered a similar fate. A big fox squirrel wouldn't have been much damaged as I shot one with a heavily loaded .58 prb with barely an in & out slit on the neck. I wouldn't shoot at the limb but I have shot very low on squirrels figuring I'd either hit him or the limb.

my first and only attempt to "Bark" ended much like yours, late 60's, .45 H&A Minuteman, down loaded with 40 gn. 3F, missed first shot, quick loaded from horn measure, however 60 gn. this time, went through pine limb and made two squirrels.....I jokingly shouldn't have mentioned, a few years later, the incident to a friend and local newspaper outdoor writer......

 

[Hanshi]

That's a rather spectacularly nice rifle!

 

[Hanshi]

I had one of those nice .45 Minuteman flintlocks from the 1960s. Mine was quite accurate and very reliable.

 

[Billy-by-gosh]

Out here in the mountains of Arizona, we have some really large Ponderosa Pine trees, and their trunks can be impressively wide. When I was hunting tree squirrels and one of them stopped on a trunk above me, I could aim just below the squirrel's body and fire. The impact of the ball would spray him with tree bark and sharp wooden splinters (Barked him). Never tried it if they were out on a skinny branch.

I probably barked a dozen off of tree trunks, and out of those, only one of them was visibly alive when I went to pick it up. I should mention I only used this when carrying a larger bore M/L rifle.

 

[heelerau]

This rifle was given to me by a late friend and mentor that I had known since the age of 15. This was the first custom long rifle I had ever seen. Made I guess in the ver early '70s, Douglas barrel .36 straight, and originally a Russ Hamm lock which I later replaced with an L&R Rpl drop in which I had tuned by a bloke in Minnesota before it was sent down under. We don't have squirrels down under but we do have possums, and they are pretty tough critters to kill. If I was a resident of the US I would be using this rifle to shoot squirrels. The rifle is a real tack driver.

 

[Old and grumpy]

I haven't noticed this subject being brought up so I thought I'd get the ball rolling. What is your favorite squirrel rifle? Why? Be detailed and as "wordy" as you like. And DO post photos. If you have more than one, post 'em all. I'll start it off.
This has been my top squirrel rifle for years. It's a .36 X 38" X 3/4" flintlock. It's feather light and accurate to a fault. I really love this plain-but-excellent small game rifle. I got it around 14 years ago and it's been fired a lot. This is the one I reach for when headed into the bush for little critters.

Here's another view of the little .36.

This Crockett was the scourge of the squirrel woods for years but is now sadly gone.

This is the newest, a .32 SMR IN BRASS! Yep, brass, not iron. Not yet woods savvy but will soon be christened. It's a .32 X "A" wgt. 38" Rice transition "radius groove" barrel.

You just did this to make me jealous. Mission accomplished.

 

[Hanshi]

Yesterday I blackened the brass on the .32 so it now resembles iron. I've done this with two rifles and it works and looks good. What did I use to create "faux" iron? I used Birchwood Casey "aluminum black". It causes the brass to turn black like unpolished iron hardware. It doesn't form a "coat" of any kind, but rather reacts with the brass to turn black. It works something like browning a barrel. The type of brass may have an effect on how well it works but so far I've had 100% success.

And I've been made jealous so many times that I relish the opportunity to return the favor. :cheers:

 

[Winter Hawk]

My Sweetie refuses to have anything to do with cute furry animals I have killed, doesn't want them in the house, for gosh sake. Now venison is something different as long as she doesn't have to look at the poor deer before it is transformed into meat. Hence, I don't hunt the wily tree rat. If I did however, I would use the Hodgepodge rifle (.45 caliber) which Hanshi has already seen.

~WH~

 

[JMG1894]

Mines a Pedersoli Frontier in .32.
hope to go after some wabbbits over Xmas leave.

 

[user 23626]

Yesterday I blackened the brass on the .32 so it now resembles iron. I've done this with two rifles and it works and looks good. What did I use to create "faux" iron? I used Birchwood Casey "aluminum black". It causes the brass to turn black like unpolished iron hardware. It doesn't form a "coat" of any kind, but rather reacts with the brass to turn black. It works something like browning a barrel. The type of brass may have an effect on how well it works but so far I've had 100% success.

And I've been made jealous so many times that I relish the opportunity to return the favor. :cheers:

Thanx Hanshi, great tip. I've been wondering how to blend in my thimble brass weld with the rest of my H&A UH project...Out Here

 

[30coupe]

Thanx Hanshi, great tip. I've been wondering how to blend in my thimble brass weld with the rest of my H&A UH project...Out Here

Yesterday I blackened the brass on the .32 so it now resembles iron. I've done this with two rifles and it works and looks good. What did I use to create "faux" iron? I used Birchwood Casey "aluminum black". It causes the brass to turn black like unpolished iron hardware. It doesn't form a "coat" of any kind, but rather reacts with the brass to turn black. It works something like browning a barrel. The type of brass may have an effect on how well it works but so far I've had 100% success.

And I've been made jealous so many times that I relish the opportunity to return the favor. :cheers:

Birchwood Casey also offers Brass Black. I've never tried either. Perhaps they are the same product with different labels, lol. I've darkened the brass on both my TC Hawken and my Navy Arms Kentucky using Brownell's Oxpho Blue, but it gives the brass more of a patina or aged look rather than black. I like the faux iron idea though. I may have to give it a try.

 

[30coupe]

Mines a Pedersoli Frontier in .32.
hope to go after some wabbbits over Xmas leave.

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I have one too, but mine is a cap lock. Sweet shooting little rifles though for sure.

 

[Hanshi]

Birchwood Casey also offers Brass Black. I've never tried either. Perhaps they are the same product with different labels, lol. I've darkened the brass on both my TC Hawken and my Navy Arms Kentucky using Brownell's Oxpho Blue, but it gives the brass more of a patina or aged look rather than black. I like the faux iron idea though. I may have to give it a try.

I didn't have any brass blackening liquid and tried the Aluminum Black just for the heck of it. Bluing solution didn't do anything, but as soon as I started rubbing the aluminum black on "WOW" I was really surprised. I used it first months ago on a rifle and again recently on the .32. It doesn't rub off and is NOT a "painted on" color. It reacts chemically with the brass. I may try to find some brass black and compare the two.

 

[drax05]

I had one of those nice .45 Minuteman flintlocks from the 1960s. Mine was quite accurate and very reliable.

These are mine from early 60's, both were gain-twist, .45. Minuteman from Dixie. My first ML's were "Brazilian Trade Muskets. I used the percussion one up to early 80's. Sad note is the flinter, that became a "blanket gun" for some reason or other in early 80's. Sold it and got it back like this some 30 years later. Percussion one accounted for a number of squirrels, rabbits, and turtles, 3 deer, from 1963-1982 or so, and attended the Colorado State Shoot 1975 or 76. Turtles for gumbo!

 

[JMG1894]

I have one too, but mine is a cap lock. Sweet shooting little rifles though for sure.

30coupe, my other Frontier in .50 was a percussion but switched the lock to an L&R RPL flintlock from TOTW.

 

[Hanshi]

I ordered my Minuteman .45 flintlock from Numrich Arms back in the 1960s and already had their Heritage .45 underhammer. Wish I had better photos of the MM.

 

[drax05]

I meant Numrich, not Dixie as I had/have a Dixie 1/2 stock target rifle bought around that time and am reworking the back-action lock. It has had a nail file bent/cut for a mainspring for many years just go keep it working as I used it in MardiGras parades years ago on horseback firing blanks because it was short and light. Dixie, then Golden Age Arms, then Lodge were about all we had back then, remember?

 

[Hanshi]

I do remember, drax. I used to order catalogs from all the gun companies and daydream over them. I still have the old original Numrich catalog from those days. I read the Dixie catalogs until they fell apart; and of course always got the Gun Digests. My earliest GD is from '55; missed a couple in the mid '60s but have them all up into the '90s & maybe very early 2000s. So many of those BP gun makers just faded away. So nice to reminisce.