Tree Squirrel Rifles

[TBell]

I forgot to add in the rifle from my youth. My dad bought this Savage Model 29B in 1949. I started shooting it around 5 years old. Shot many squirrels, but we mainly used this on the shoot "Rats" along the Lackawanna River and in the Rail Road Yard in Moosic PA. Between the both of us we shot thousands of rats. At the time my father was the Yard Master for CNJ RR and he would take me to work with him. The Yard had a lot of rats due to the grain spilling out of RR cars and the River at that time was polluted and loaded with rats. About an hour before dark the rats would start coming out. Sure made me a sharpshooter trying to hit a rat at 75-100 yards with iron sights! I remember every couple of weeks my father would buy us a brick of Federal 22 LR Hollow Points in a bright red box. They were Less than $5 a brick back then (penny a shot).

4 times that is a buy these day

 

[Pro2A]

View attachment 323369

My primary tree rat guns. Learned to shoot at 5yo in basement with a Stevens (Model 11, I recall) rolling breech block non-adjustable iron sight single shot .22 which Dad bought for me at an estate sale......was just like he had learned to shoot with. Then, graduated to Dad's J.C. Higgins, maybe Model 30, semi-auto .22 with a 4x scope.......spring retracting sling. Still hunt with both to re-live great memories of squirrel hunting with my Dad. Now have numerous added .22s......Winchesters, Remingtons, Weatherby XXII, Begaras, Tikka T1X and TAC A1, and many more. But, typically return to the first two for squirrels. The open sight Stevens became easy to shoot again once I got store bought eyes with double cataract surgeries in 2016.... Squirrel hunting really teaches younguns to really hunt, rather than ambushing as most do today when deer "shooting"...er, hunting. Really fun with a good squirrel dog, especially one that understands to bark loudly on the opposite side of the tree from the guy with the .22.

 

[AllenRay]

Like Coyote I'm at war. Gas cap straps and garden damage. .22cal Gamo Is the rifle right now( I live in town). Will rock my Marlin .22 Mag when I get out of town.

 

[Firewater]

Mostly use my old Marlin 39 for squirrels, but in areas where shots are long, my PRS Savage TR/MDT Chassis with a Vortex AMG let's me reach out. My G7-BR2 works great for 1st shot hits.
View attachment 323676View attachment 323677

wow! what else can I say?

 

[Chas1]

Remington custom shop bolt and a Browning lever. I also use a winchester 69 a lot and always shoot cci short hollow points View attachment 323674

Your Remington is sure a good looking rig.

 

[stovepipe]

Thank you Chas 1.. I'm a large frame individual and it fits me perfectly...the Browning not so much

 

[gps2]

My favorite is the first rifle my dad gave me 51 years ago in this day (Christmas) Winchester 67A, barrel was cut down to 20 inches. He told me you have one shot and it only counts if you hit the squirrel in the head; make that shot count son!!!

Thanks for starting this post it brought back a lot of great memories as my dad passed away a few years ago.

 

[Buckys]

Jealous. 17 or 22 cal air rifles are borderline in the 'burbs. Bringing back memories of Grandpa's old Bejamin Pump pellet gun and Grandma setting me up to keep the birds out of her strawberry garden, though.

 

[crashlanding]

Can't find all the Monkey or Fox Squirrel pictures. Shot 250 grays in the back yard, nothing less than 50yrds and out past 100. Would shoot 50 with the TC then 50 with the Volquartsen. They ate the wires out of my truck engine and tractor so we went to war. I had several real nice Monkey & Fox squirrels along with coyote hides and a real nick Gray fox in the big freezer in the basement. I went on a business trip and somehow before I left the electrical cord got knocked out and the freezer stopped working. Jill went into the basement and the items started to thaw so she threw all of them out. She thought that since they started to thaw they would not be any good. So I lost all the contents.
Still have two really nice rimfires.

Did you leave any? or flat out annihilation

 

[Mike Matteson]

I have a model 62 Winchester pump that my dad started me out at age 5. It was a little big for me then. Got my first cotton Tail with it. Still have it now.

 

[Rusty PW]

My first rifle was a Mossberg 341B 22LR. Bought it with my own money when I was 12 yrs old. Paid $79.00 for it. Still have it 53 years later. Shot a lot of small game with it.

 

[Mmac52280]

First squirrel gun was a Remington Nylon 66, and I still have it. Now has a cheap Weaver 4x, but it shoots true. I also have A Savage 24D in 22LR/.410 and another in 22LR/20 gauge that i taught my girls to hunt with. Shotgun only gets used on "runners". Hoping Mom and Dad let me take my Granddaughter out next year.

 

[ntsqd]

Where I spent my summers as a kid it was ground squirrels that were the problem. Everything in those days was flood irrigation and their burrows re-routed that to where we didn't want it going. Grandad first turned me loose on them with an FN Herstal 4 digit S/N version of the Browning pump (some interesting history in how we came to own that rifle). He got to worrying that we were going to wear it out, so a friend loaned him a pair of Steven Favorites. After a couple summers his eyes got to where he couldn't shoot iron sights either. Same friend advised him not the drill the FN (Thank God!) and just get a 10/22 and a Weaver K4 for it. The 10/22 was nice with it's scope and all, but one of those Favorites was lethal on squirrels (no idea why both weren't, but the other one just didn't shoot as well). No idea how many ground squirrels I kilt over the decade+ with those rifles.

I inherited the FN and the 10/22 w/K4, but the Favorites went back to the friend long ago. In about 1988 I found a Favorite at a gun show with a 17A front sight and a Marble's Win M92 Tang rear sight, and bought it. In any friendly comp with my friends I'm not allowed to shoot my Favorite. It's just as accurate as that first one and maybe more so.

 

[Kelljp]

My first one at the age of 10 was a Winchester model 37 410, I graduated at 12 to my uncle's 1930s Remington 22 bolt action rifle which I just gave to my great-great niece
Start them young and it will last a lifetime.