Question about squirrel hunting

[dhaverstick]

I'm gathering some info for an article I'm writing and I need some help from ya'll so I actually appear to know what I'm talking about. Is it true that, historically, most folks hunted squirrels with a blackpowder rifle as opposed to a smoothbore gun using shot? If that is true, was it because the rifle was preferred or was it because the rifle was available? It is my understanding that fowling pieces were used more by the gentry than the common man.

If the rifle was preferred because it was more readily available, did the people on the frontier use the same caliber for everything or did they try to use smaller bores for small game. I've heard the 32 and 36 caliber rifles, preferred nowadays for squirrels, referred to as "gentleman's rifles". This would suggest to me that they were a luxury and not in regular use by folks living hand to mouth.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Darren

 

[VEARL]

I think that they used what they had on hand to hunt with.
Not everyone had the money to have a separate gun to hunt each type of animal.
I personally think that they had smoothbore rifles that could be used with shot or roundball.
When rifling came into being, then you would probably see small calibers being made to hunt small game.

 

[Vaino]

Replies to your questions would be conjecture and some will reply as to what they think really was used for squirrels....including me.

My "guess" would be that a rifle was used and one of the reasons is.....dentures were scarce and expensive and biting down on a BB could cause serious problems. Just relating my experience w/ that of the squirrel hunters of yore. On the other hand....

Of course at various times in our history, the military smoothbore musket was very popular and because of it's large bore, using a PRB for squirrels was sorta "overkill" and besides, the smoothbore musket wasn't that accurate for hunting squirrels if some meat was to be realized. So...logic tells us that shot was used in these widely used muskets.

Also, the smaller caliber rifles were more popular later on in our history....when the big game was decimated in areas of higher populations. The small calber rifles were popular for target shooting and small game hunting. Judging from the later built LRs w/ their "skinny" butts, a large bored rifle would be too punishing.

Of course....this is all conjecture.....Fred :grin:

 

[Patocazador]

I believe they used what they had regardless of caliber or type.
A very common method of getting squirrels, at least in the South, was "barking" them. The shot is not directed at the squirrel but at the tree next to the squirrel. The resulting ricocheting ball plus the wood "shrapnel" makes short work of the squirrel and doesn't destroy any meat.
This method would be successful regardless of the gun on hand.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Yes I have tried this and it does work.

One should remember that it wasn't as though a colonist could walk over to Walmart and pick up whatever he fancied. You bought what you could afford from the available supply. The farther North or South you were from PA, MD, and VA, the farther you got from the centers of early rifle making, and the more probable the gun would have been some sort of smoothbore. Rifles were also considerably more expensive than a fusil in those days.

LD

 

[stinkyfeet]

I have barked a few tree rats too but it wasn't on purpose it was what we call in the army as a near miss.

 

[Robert Egler]

Having hunted squirrels with both a smoothbore and a rifle, the main advantage of a rifle, IMHO, is that it has longer range. In my experience the maximum practical useful range of an unchoked smoothbore and shot is around 25 yards. Of course within that range the smoothbore has the advantage of a wider pattern than the rifle, allowing me to be a lousier shot. :haha:

 

[Vaino]

Don't think "barking" squirrels was a widespread practice. Of the 100s of squirrels I've shot, 3 were intentionally "barked" and it was a last resort measure before walking away. A squirrel's head is a small enough target let alone aiming at a small area of a limb or trunk for "barking" to succeed. Also, none of the "barked" squirrels were dead when they hit the ground...just stunned. Squirrels are very tough animals....any animal that can climb vertically carrying their own weight is very strong.

By the way....the .45 PRB ahead of 30 grs 3f was sufficient for "barking"......Fred

 

[nchawkeye]

Another consideration...

When and where are you speaking of???

Pennsylvania in 1750???

Carolina in 1770???

Kentucky or Tennessee in 1790???

Or Ohio in 1820???

It really depends upon the person hunting and their weapon of choice and there level of competence with a gun...

When I grew up, I started squirrel hunting with a shotgun, then progressed with a rifle...

Currently, I have a .54 for large game and a .40 for small game...

Market hunters in the years from 1760-1790 would have most likely had a rifle bored from .45-.58 caliber or so...This means more than likely they loaded down for squirrels and probably took head shots...

Folks who weren't market hunters probably wouldn't have paid the high price a rifle commanded...They would have probably used some type smooth bore...

Unless of course, a rifle had been handed down to them through the years...

Short answer is, we don't really know...

 

[satx78247]

YEP. = Here in TX, my research indicates that most subsistence hunters from the early-mid 19th Century MOSTLY used "surplus" military muskets for all of their hunting, as the FL muskets were CHEAP & commonly AVAILABLE.
(Of course, some TX "dirt farmers", settlers & other hunters had rifles that they had acquired by various means.)

yours, satx

 

[Billnpatti]

From my reading, I have gotten the impression that from the pre-colonial era through the colonial era and later, the smoothbore was the more common gun. Early on, rifling had not come into vogue. Later, only the rich could afford the added expense of having a barrel rifled. Rifling was done by hand and required many man hours which caused the price for a rifled gun to be quite high. In many instances, a rifled gun could cost as much as a year's wages. This was beyond the ability of the common man. Besides, with a smoothbore, one could load shot for smaller game and birds and buckshot or round balls for larger game or to defend their home. While the rifled gun could shoot more accurately, it could shoot only a single projectile. The smoothbore could shoot balls or shot according to the needs of the shooter. Even a used military musket could be a significant expense, so it was most common for the average person or family to have only one gun and it had to serve many purposes. For this reason, even though the rifle was becoming more common and the price was becoming into the reach of the common man, the smoothbore remained very common as the choice when only one weapon was owned up until the War of Northern Aggression.

This is based soley on my reading. I may be old but I am not old enough to have actually been there to have seen for myself. :haha:

 

[George]

Not an easy question to answer. As someone said, it depends on who, where and when you are. A few items I've gleaned:

The Pennsylvania Gazette
December 11, 1735
From Frankford we hear, that on Sunday the 23d past a Lad near that Place, drawing a Charge out of a Gun that had been charg'd for Deer, in order to prepare for shooting Squirrels, the Gun went off and shatter'd his Hand extreamly. [Shotgun, changing to small shot. for squirrels.]

The Pennsylvania Gazette
April 8, 1762
...desk furniture, a parcel of neat cocking and squirrel pieces, bottle corks, &c. &c. [A squirrel piece is their parlance of the day for a shotgun made for squirrel hunting.]

The Pennsylvania Gazette
Amwell (New Jersey) October 17, 1768.
On Wednesday, the 5th Inst. a melancholy Accident happened here,--- On the Afternoon of said Day, Captain DANIEL READING, Son of the Honourable JOHN READING, Esq ; late of this Place, deceased, and two other Gentlemen, each with his Fowling Piece, charged with small Shot, went out to divert themselves, in the Pursuit of Game in the neighbouring Woods. And they having discovered a Squirrel on a Tree, one of the Gentlemen presented; but the Object moving, he took down his Piece, and, as he confidently thinks, half cocked it.

The Pennsylvania Gazette
October 27, 1768
Imported in the Brig Nancy,”¦ sleeve buttons; short pipes; F and FF gunpowder; mustard seed, bird, squirrel, duck, goose and swan shot; [Squirrel shot is shotgun ammo of the proper size for shooting squirrels]

Joseph Plumb Martin, Revolutionary war, using his musket as a shotgun: "I procured some damaged cartridges, and after converting the ball into shot, and getting out of hearing from the camp, diverted myself by killing birds or squirrels, or any such game;"

John James Audubon, describing a squirrel hunt with Daniel Boone ca 1810: “My companion, a stout, hale, and athletic man, dressed in a homespun hunting-shirt, bare-legged and moccasined, carried a long and heavy rifle, which, as he was loading it, he said had proved efficient in all his former undertakings, and which he hoped would not fail on this occasion, as he felt proud to show me his skill.”

General George Hanger, in “General George Hanger to all Sportsmen, Farmers, and Gamekeepers", 1814, discussing his experience in America during the Rev. War: “The wild turkey is shot with a rifle; nay, even birds and squirrels, from the very top of the loftiest trees in the woods.”

Wm. Blane, in southern Illinois, 1822, speaking of shooting squirrels with rifles: “It is reckoned very unsportsmanlike, to bring home a squirrel or a turkey, that has been shot any where, except in the head.”

Spence

 

[satx78247]

INTERESTING!!!

yours, satx

 

[Patocazador]

Wm. Blane, in southern Illinois, 1822, speaking of shooting squirrels with rifles: “It is reckoned very unsportsmanlike, to bring home a squirrel or a turkey, that has been shot any where, except in the head.”
Spence

I was in a club where one family from No. Carolina would howl and moan if you shot a squirrel in the head as they thought the head to be the best eating. It was an education to watch them "cannibalize" a squirrel head.

 

[satx78247]

MOST of "us southern hillbillies" shoot for the chest as the head is GOOD in a stew.
(Before you "turn up your nose at" eating heads, tell me what part of a squirrel is NOT squirrel.)

There is LITTLE edible meat in the rib area.

yours, satx

 

[Wes/Tex]

With all the 'hoorah' currently about "mad squirrel disease", it's likely some sort of ban will be placed on eating squirrel brains. Yes, I've done it in the past, but with 300 cases annually, in the U.S., of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies or Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease, I'm starting to rethink the practice. No idea how probable getting the renegade protein called a prion is from squirrels but it something to consider.

 

[tenngun]

While reading this I got to thinking.John Adams wrote hi wife at the amazing shots rifle men were. The folks round and about boston were amazed to see a company of riflemen hit a 9 inch squar at 60 yards.
Weknow how much the smoothy was used during the AWI and before. So many 18th century settles were from the british islands, france, scandanavia with germans being mostly in penn and maryland.
Although known the rifle was uncommon in these lands except germany.
Any shot in a dinnerplate sized target on the side of a deer will put meat on the table pretty quick.While,head ,chest or barked a squirrel is too small a target for me to try with my smoothies today. I only hunt tree rats with shot.
Was it called a squirrel rifle from people amazed at a gun one could shoot well enough to nail a tree rat out to 50 yards or maybe more with one ball? maybe the name went together to denote its accuracy,and not its size,or even most common usage. Much like "kentucky rifle" came to be applied to guns of a type regardless of where they were made or used.
Also simple cost may have been a factor here.Not much meat on a squirrel. 100 rifle shots at 35 grains of powder and 90 grains of lead would cost 1/2 a pound of powder and 3/4 of a pound of lead. while 100 shots at 70 grains and 1oz of shot would cost 1 lbs powder and 6.25 punds of shot. You may be able to recover the spent ball but unlikly to recover much shot.

 

[pab1]

Not answering the original question but I found this interesting. I'm currently reading John Kirk Townsends book Narrative of a Journey Across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River. While in Missouri he wrote "We found the common gray squirrel very abundant in some places, particularly in the low bottoms along water courses; in some situations we saw them skipping on almost every tree. On last Christmas day, at a squirrel hunt in this neighborhood, about thirty persons killed the astonishing number of twelve hundred, between the rising and setting of the sun.
This may seem like useless barbarity, but it is justified by the consideration that all the crops of corn in the country are frequently destroyed by these animals. This extensive extermination is carried on every year, and yet it is said that their numbers do not appear to be much diminished."

 

[Patocazador]

I'll bet they're diminished now. :haha:

 

[smoothshooter]

A lot of factors would have been involved in what was used. What was available. Quality of eyesight. Generally, we don't appreciate what an impact that the non - availability of prescription glasses had in many peoples' lives. Less than 20/20 vision would be a major determining factor in how you could make a living. A person with bad eyesight would probably have been considered a poor prospect as spousal material for obvious reasons. It could be the difference between being a farmer or a gunsmith, a wagon driver or a clerk, a tanner or a politician, etc. Vision problems would undoubtedly have been a factor in the popularity of smoothbores. It would seem that a person with at least reasonably good eyes would prefer a rifle for most game if they could afford one because of the problems associated with biting down on a piece of shot in their food. No fillings, caps, root canals, anti - biotics, or pain killers for the unfortunate person who cracked a molar. Economy of powder and lead would favor the rifle also. The major attraction of the shotgun then, as now, is that it is a " no messin' around " tool for putting food on the table within it's range. This is especially important to the non - enthusiast who has no particular love for guns or hunting, and only hunts out of necessity.