• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

Favorite squirrel rifle

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

tryinhard

40 Cal.
Joined
Jul 18, 2007
Messages
285
Reaction score
8
What's your favorite squirrel rifle caliber? I've seen guys post they love their 32s & others want 36s
 
As it stands right now my 32 Seneca is my favorite but I have been doing a lot of practicing with my newly acquired flintlock CVA Squirrel Rifle. I hope someday to own a Kibler Southern Mountain Rifle in 32 cal. But have absolutely no complaints about any of my small caliber 32 and 36 TCs or the CVA. Light little guns that you can carry all day and all are extremely accurate.
 
I use a .54 for squirrel here in the Lone Star State....course they are a might bigger in these parts.

t-rex-jurassic-park_wide-a2deb59155d62f291d237da020badc44ffeea557-s1600-c85.jpg


.40
 
Have an .87 cal . that might be a better choice for the T- REX. Since it's a lizard , it must taste some like a chicken /fish mix??? Around here , it is said,if you shoot a bear , it's good to have lots of friends to get rid of that much meat. .............oldwood
 
I prefer the .32 in the early season when the leaves are still on the trees. Most of my shots are 30 yards or less. Once the leaves fall, I switch to a .36 cause it has a bit more range and the shots are longer, in the 40-50+ yard range. In my state, .36 with round ball is the largest caliber that can be used when hunting on state owned lands. Any caliber can be used on private land.
 
I usually double up my squirrel hunting with early morning coyote hunting. My 40 is accurate enough for head shots on squirrels to 25 yards and powerful enough for coyotes at 2-3x that distance.
 
The .32 and .36 are my favorite for small game and I consider them about equal. For many years my Crockett .32 was the go-to small game rifle for me.
 
I use a 50 and try to "bark" them... the squirrels usually run away laughing but I get lots of tree limbs for my campfire
 
I sold my little .32, it was very accurate and fun to shoot but I put together a nice light .45 and for 25 years have shot countless squirrels, grouse, a few ducks and some nuisance beaver. Light loads like 25-35 grains of FFG make nice clean head shots, my usual target carry load is 47 grains of FFG and can up it to 65grs.+ if deer are on the menu. It doesn't waste anymore meat than the .32 yet gives me more stopping power if I run into something else. Twice now I've run into packs of feral dogs while in the woods and the dogs and I walked into a few coyotes that took a bit before they ran. This fall I'm going to try my luck with a very light .50 I just picked up.
 
I have shot all my squirrels with either any number of .45’s that I have or a .50 cal Hatfield. I have a .32 flinter from Tip Curtis that I bought a few years ago for squirrels but haven’t shot it yet. Also have a couple .36 that would do the job as well..........Greg
 

Latest posts

Back
Top