What is your favorite squirrel caliber/load combination or combinations ? Mine would be 17 mach 2/eley 17 gr - 17hmr/ horandy 17 gr - 22cal / winchester 40 gr power points. Just currious what the favorites out there are.

.22 LR-HV

I haven't squirrel hunted in years, but when I was a kid we always used full choked 20ga shotguns with 6 shot. But most of the old timers around here talk about using full choke 410's loaded with 4 shot. It must have worked, they didn't starve to death and for most of them hunting was about eating and not sport. I just might have to get me a 410 now that I think about it and try it myself.

I wouldn't expect the hot-rod 17 cals to be very useful for squirrel hunting, assuming you plan to salvage some meat. My experience has been that, even with head shots, the hyper velocity cals do excessive damage. My favorite squirrel hunting cartridge is Win .22LR Target - Standard Velocity. But, nearly all my squirrel hunting is done with a 32 cal percussion squirrel rifle any more.

Cheap .22LR and .17 pellets have been all I've used so far. .22 works best IMHO. Soon to try my 12ga. w/ #4 and #6 shot hopefully. .17 cal. cf rifles never looked too good to me. Too expensive to shoot. Edit: but then again the 12ga. doesn't sound much cheaper.

Tal, I do try to salvage all the meat with the exception of the head so thats where I shoot them, I have not experienced excessive meat loss when I do my job. Every so often I lose a front leg if the angle of the shot is not good.Thanks for your post and I'm glad to hear your hunting with the 32 percussion, are you trying for head shots with that?

22 Long Rifle high velocity 38-40 grain hollow points, 22 magnum 40 grain full metal jackets and 2 3/4" 20 gauge 1 oz. number 5s.

lossking, great choices, some public ground around here is shotgun only and occasionally I hunt with someone that likes squirrel brains, in both cases I've had very good results with the 1oz of 5's.

naildriver, undoubtedly there are several excellent shotshells for squirrels but, like you, I've found that particular 20 gauge load to be one of the best.

Of course!!

Good picture.

Tal/IL, I had .32 muzzle loader like yours & it was very accurate but I couldn't deal with the stock. It was a pretty little thing but to me it was about as comfortable to shoot as a pitchfork with a barrel taped to it! I hope yours fits you better than mine fit me. I sold it. I now shoot squirrels with a left handed bolt action CZ. It is most accurate with plain .22 LR ammo so thats what I feed it. When I am hunting with a shotgun it is a 20 ga. Elsie with 7/8 oz. #6 reloads. I had a SXS .410 Stevens when I was a kid. I always used 6's regardless of what shotgun I was shooting. The .410 was a great little squirrel gun & I killed a ton of bushytails with it but it was a lot easier to hit anything flying with the Elsie. That was back before plastic hulls & wads so the .410 shells were loaded with a full 3/4 oz. of shot. The 7/8 oz. 20 ga. load is at least twice as effective as the .410 but I regret selling that gun. Head shots are the way to go with the .22. Any .22 cal. bullet through the head is more than potent enough to kill any squirrel so I go with what is the most accurate. I guess every rifle is different. The bore is so tight I had to buy a .17 cal. rod to clean it. A .22 cal. rod won't fit down the barrel. I tried all the fancy target ammo but it shoots the tightest groups with plain promo HV .22 LR solid points.

If im hunting in a open hardwoods i use a 22 but if its thick brush i use a 20 or a 410 a 12 in my opinion is a little much if you want to eat them you dont want to blow them in half with a 12 then try to eat them

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I use a .223 for head shoots at 75 yds. But seriously I like a 10/22 ruger with 36 gr high velocity. In a shotgun a 20 ga. with #6's

My choice of shotguns is a Ithica 16 ga. NID choked M/F and 7/8 oz #6. My rifle of choice is a Remington LH 581 with a red dot sight. Ammo is bulk Federal's.

Last year I was using 1 1/8 oz of 5 or 6's and this year I plan to use the same and some 30 gr. speer tnt .22 wmr bullets.

I reload 1 ounce of #5 shot for my 20 gauge. And as naildriver and lossking said, it is a really great squirrel load that is tough to beat.

I haven't hunted tree squirrels in a long time but always used a scoped 22 LR and tried for head shots.

I sometimes hunted with an old guy who was a pure meat hunter. He used a full choked 12 with high base 5s or 6s and could take squirrels a long way off and out of the tops of some tall trees. One time I was kidding him about using too much gun, not sporting, etc. He said, "when I go squirrel hunting I go to kill squirrels".

Was this guy the guy off of the Dos Equis commericals? "I don't often hunt squirrels, but when I do I prefer a 12 gauge."

LOL, that was him, "back in the day". He'd have probably used an RPG if he thought it would work better.