I want to try squirrel hunting. Would a 410 be a good choice? Or should I use an air rifle since I've never gone hunting before?
>>64442616A good air rifle will work. A .22 will work well. Any given shotgun, including little .410s, will also work well provided that it's loaded with appropriate ammo. Post in the thread for questions that don't deserve their own threads next time.
>>64442677I forget that thread exists. Thank you fren!
NIGGA'
>>64442616Yeah .410 loaded with birdshot will work just fine. If you're going to go buy a new gun for small game though, I recommend a .22lr with a scope. If you've never hunted before, I'd pick the .410 over an air rifle if I was you.
>>64442616Most every air gun past a Red Ryder has more than enough power to kill squirrels and other things like birds or rabbits, so you'll be fine with a .177 or .22 air gun.
>>64442616This question certainly does deserve its own thread. Squirrel hunting is incredibly fun. If you're shooting tree rats in your backyard (nothing wrong with that) just go with an air rifle, you'll have fun and you won't bother the neighbors. If you're out in the woods a .410 will work very well - it's probably the ideal shotgun caliber for squirrels - and I say that as a 20 gauge fag. If you decide to go with a shotgun I highly recommend you use #4 lead shot. they hit significantly harder than #7.5 or #8 shot, which most people use. I've wounded squirrels with a couple pellets of #7.5 shot, they ran to ground and hid in a hole - the only reason I recovered them is because I have a squirrel dog. However with #4 shot it only takes one of those pellets to drop a squirrel. In my experience you'll kill more squirrels with a shotgun than with a rifle because it's much easier to hit the ones that run. Don't take that as a knock on .22 for squirrels though - it's great. If you decide to use a .22 be sure to put a scope on it because that just makes it a shit ton easier (squirrels blend in to tree bark really fucking well). When it comes time to eat your harvest, nothing beats squirrel stew paired with a nice dense bread.tldr: air rifle for backyard, .410 #4 lead shot or .22 with a 4x scope for woods
>>64442801>>64442840Post guns
>>64442956your turn faget
>>64442956
An additional concern when using a shotgun is finding pellets in the meat. A .22 avoids this.
I love .22 short for squirrels. Won’t go nearly as far as a LR can, and it’s basically hearing safe.
>>64442941How do you get all the pellets out when you prepare the meat? I almost cracked a fucking tooth last time I ate squirrel stew.
Mepps will buy your squirrel tails or trade you for fishing lures. You need a fair amount of tails to make anything off of it, but might as well get some value out of a part that you were going throw away anyways.https://www.mepps.com/squirrel-tail/
Remember to leave red squirrels be.
>>64443671Just be careful man
>>64443671Magnets. How do they work?
>Needing a shotgun to kill a tree ratI am at least the third generation in my family who shoots squirrel with the same motto:"If I can't shoot them in the left eye, I don't take the shot."Anyone who needs a shotgun deserves every chipped tooth they get.
>>64443825US red squirrels aren't what you're thinking of and if you're killing UK reds you're going to be in incredibly deep shit, not so much "well that was a dick move" as "we'll be seeing you in court".
>>64442616>whitoid wants to kill animals for the fun of it When will you "people" stop?
>>64448952I bet you feast on innocent plants, they have no legs they can't run awayyou mow them down by the field fullthey are living things. they enjoy the light of the sun they create beautiful art with their flowers, they reproduce and can have life spans of hundreds of yearsdon't you feel guilty killing them for a salad? have you no heart?
>>64442616skewrl
>>64443230My body looks just like Adam’s on the cover of that book. Just with larger pecs and more hair.Am I gonna make it?
>>64449273DYEL
>>64442913what the fuck even are those abortions?>>64442941this is all good advice. if you do go the cheap air rifle route, i suggest .22 in a break barrel spring piston rifle. only go higher in caliber if you are going to go the pcp route. .25 in a break barrell is devastating at < 20 yards, and still lethal at < 50 yards, but these type of rifles require more practice to really get good shot placement. they require a different hold than powder burning rifles due to a "double recoil" from the action of the spring piston. also, squirrels are much tougher than rabbits or birds, and i have seen them tank shots on multiple occasions that seemed like they should have been put down. the inherent higher velocity in .22 with like a .14 gr dome pellet will help with this. expect to spend 250-600 for a good spring air rifle that will have 750-850 fps, and a not terrible trigger. spring piston triggers are mostly bad desu unless you are going to shell out for a weirauch. a good poorfag version with a hardwood stock is the hatsan 95 in .22. it has an adjustable two stage trigger that is not terrible. if you go pcp the limit is just your budget. you can get .25, or .30 or even .50, all of which will have no problem achieving 900 fps (good velocity ceiling for pellets) easy. also, there is no recoil, and they are very accurate.
>>64446992>"If I can't shoot them in the left eye, I don't take the shot."this is a really good philosophy. nothing feels worse than causing undue suffering to a critter, even when their population is out of control. no problem with a .22 or .17 all day long. however, if you can do that with a spring piston air rifle i will shake your hand good sir.
>>64446992>Anyone who needs a shotgun deserves every chipped tooth they get.I bet I kill a lot more squirrels than you do
>>64450838>BrownDogRedSquirrel.jpg>not actually a red squirrel>is actually a fox squirrel>not going for the lazy dog quick brown fox pun
>>64443177kek
>>64450585Oh c'mon, the tape isn't so unattractive. I have an excess of tape (two rolls of gorilla tape, a bunch of electrical tape in different colors, some blue scotch/painters tape, and a few other rolls of duct tape somewhere) that I just put on everything because I have so much.
**forgot to mention:what you typed was pretty good information, PCP is kinda overkill but there's no kill like overkill
I don't like hunting with shotguns because they break the gut and you have to pick all the tiny ass shot from the meat.Air rifle/22lr is so much cleaner. Air rifle small game is like scalled down big game, you have to think about shot placement like a deer but in rabbits and squirrels. But if you just want to hunt and be done with it a 22lr with good ammo is the best choice.
just make sure not to bring the napalm rounds
>>64451604NTA but 3M electrical tape is the shit. The offbrand Harbor Freight goes sticky after a short time and the """vinyl""" they make it out of hardens strangely quickly turning very brittle. The soft vinyl the 3M uses stretches way better too. Doesn't mean most of my colored electrical tape isn't the 6 color pack from HF though lol.>>64451627This and the more I shoot shotguns the more the insane spread rate feels almost exactly like it does in games where people complain it does no damage past 20yds, even with 00 Buck. 20yds, reasonable. 30, okay. 50...holy fuck that's how much my shot spreads?! And that's with an 18.5" IM but still. I played around with what I had and need to play with a 20-some inch barrel one day but damn that spread is nuts. Shotgun hunting feels like, well, RNG. You can only do so many things to improve your pattern before it's down to dumb fucking luck where the pellets land. You can estimate pattern width but where they go within that pattern is anyone's guess, hopefully somewhat evenly spread. You can go with Flite Control but $$$ and while it improves your spread at further distances that then also makes your shot a lot tighter at closer distances which I feel like could be a downside depending on game. Pick your poison, really. And if you need it in anything but 00 buck...god help you. No 2 or No 3 buck is as small as I found IIRC because my state won't allow anything bigger than No 4 for certain game. And in 20 ga, lol, good luck x2. It got to the point I figured I'd just get faster shooting a rifle especially since I'm already into rifles more than shotguns.
>>64454394>Doesn't mean most of my colored electrical tape isn't the 6 color pack from HF though lol.same, besides some other brand of electrical tape that's black my colored electrical tape is Harbor Freight. I just use gorilla or duct for most applications so I have barley used the Harbor Freight ones
