Squirrel season

[bigjohn]

Squirrel season opens Saturday and the mulberries are ripe. Makes for some good eating but make sure you use tick protection as they are bad.

[bigbob]

Beat me to it! Good luck guy's.

[segsarge]

Been waiting for it to open! Got a brand new Ruger 10/22 ready to go.

[trapdog]

Don't know the reason behind it, but squirrel season doesn't open until the 1st of September up here. Always been that way.

[bigjohn]

Squirrel and mulberries go together like biscuits and gravy. Young squirrels get so fat on them your hands get plumb greasy dressing them.

[bigbob]

Love how their faces turn brown, and the meat takes on the flavor when they start cutting Walnuts. LOL

[bigjohn]

Ever kill any squirrels that were cutting locust beans? The darn things smell and taste like them ,nasty.

[bigbob]

Nope, never did, fortunately there's not that many around. Best of all is Mulberries and Hickory nut flavored. LOL

[krank]

All my blackpowder buddies are thrilled to hunt squirrels with their smokepoles. I like to use a bullet rather than shot.

[segsarge]

What's the most popular caliber for BP squirrels, .32?

[krank]

Up to 40 cal is classified as "squirrel gun" in the Missouri Offhand rules. I got news for them guys, Grandpa shot whatever he had. Back in high school, me and my buddy shot them with 45 cal Hawkins with just a pinch of powder.

[segsarge]

I've thought a couple of times about getting a .32 to hunt squirrel. But I've got a lot of projects going on and probably wouldn't have time to take on another BP rifle right now.

[krank]

The old squirrel gun wasnt made to hunt squirrels with like the modern black powder clan says. It was small caliber to save on lead and powder. Adequate for game East of the Mississippi. With the Westward expansion, the guns got larger in caliber for elk and grizzly.
A .45 or a .50 works just fine for small game if you tone down the powder charge. 40 cal was real popular because it was good for small game and accurate at longer ranges and takes down deer. I have a cute .32 caliber and I never use it. Another personal feeling is that 32s and 36s take a skinny ramrod and it will snap if the ball hangs up or the bore is dirty.
Really the gun that won the West was a 20 gauge flintlock smoothbore trade gun. Hudson Bay Fur Co passed out thousands of them and that was the gun of the original mountain man and Indians. They would shoot ball or shot or both. Jim Bridger carried a 28 gauge Trade gun and not a Hawken until years later.

[farmnhunt]

Yesterday, I saw a squirrel eating a locust(the bug). I wonder how that will make them taste.