Posted on 11/12/2018 7:54:52 AM PST by Gamecock
Except for bird and rabbit hunting I always have binoculars with me and use them before ever shouldering my firearm. My Dad taught me that and everybody who hunted with us did the same.
Come on, everyone knows at least one squirrelfaced person…
could happen to anyone.
That’s going to leave a mark.
[A 12 gauge shotgun seems a bit of an overkill for squirrels.]
Not at all. Used one for decades and no, it doesn’t blow them apart according to old lore.
In this case, the gentleman needs to find a new hunting partner.
[Squirrels normally sit on tree branches.]
LOL. I see you know little about squirrel behavior or hunting.
Maybe it was half dark?
When I was a kid in Enterprise, Al. we had a neighbor directly behind us (separated only by a fence) who would should birds out of his fig tree with a .22 rifle. This neighborhood was so close to downtown that at 10 years old we would walk to town all the time. Nobody said a word a word about his shooting, it was a non-event. Now the SWAT team would probably show up and kill the guy.
They didn’t have a .22? Or was he using a 12guage because he thinks numerous pellets tenderize the meat and because he always shoots in the general direction of movement and wants to improve his chances of hitting something?
“Squirrels normally sit on tree branches.”
Or chew their way into houses. Nasty little buggers.
.
At least it was a head shot... no pellets to pick out of the hindquarters. ;-)
Maybe if his buddy wasn’t barking up the wrong tree he wouldn’t have got shot.
Wonder if he was wearing a squirrel skin hat?
Shooting up, into a tree where many squirrels are found, one has to be concerned how far that .22 will travel if one misses the shot. Not so much with bird shot.
1. Squirrels are high up in trees. Firing upward with a rifle causes the bullet to go several miles towards someone else.
2. Shotguns disperse their pellets rapidly, to allow a better chance of hitting a small and furtive animal.
3. Shotgun shells are loaded with a variety of pellet sizes, the smaller ones are used for bird and squirrel hunting.
4. Small shotgun pellets (7s, 9 1/2s)lose energy very rapidly and are only mildly dangerous 50 yards away from the muzzle and harmless at beyond 70 yards.
5. When I have hunted at Quantico ALL of the squirrel hunters used 12 gauge shotguns.
My grandfather went out hunting dressed as a deer, and the first deer he saw jumped up and shot him.
Alcohol was involved? Ya think?
Is that a fully automatic 12 gauge shotgun?
Seriously, my dad’s semi automatic Belgium Browning 12 gauge shotgun had to be sent back to the factory in the 1950’s because sometimes when he pulled the trigger 3 shells would go through. It went full auto. It had the ventilated goose barrel too. You could get 2-3 birds with one shot!
I used to have an older Browning A-5 and during a duck hunt, I fired at the first duck in a large flock and got him - and my gun jammed: I had the friction rings incorrectly installed.
I immediately removed the barrel, took out the friction rings, reassembled them again, installed the barrel and forend, and then shot the last duck in the string.
Needless to say, I was the butt of the jokes at our hunting club for a while.
Just because he shot at a squirrel doesn't mean that he was just squirrel hunting. It's small game hunting here in Michigan which means rabbits, grouse and woodcocks too......Those are likely what he was targeting.
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