Tree Squirrel Rifles

Anschutz 1416 with field barrel. Sweet little rifle. Shooting ground squirrels in this pic. Of all the rifles I have searhced for this was the hardest to find with the light barrel. With luck I found one 30 yrs old new in its box! 4-12 leup with ao.View attachment 323514
Friend of mine used to have the same model Anschutz. He loaned it to me at a turkey shoot years ago and I beat him with his own rifle. We remained good friends of course but he wouldn't let me shoot his rifle again. Don't blame him either lol.
 
I just noticed this thread and couldn't resist making a comment!

Squirrel hunting was my favorite type of hunting, before moving to Wyoming. I wouldn't even bow hunt deer, because it interfered with Squirrel season.

I was about 9 when I killed my first (a big Fox Squirrel) with a rifle…..the upper barrel on my little Stevens 22/410 given to me by my Dad on my 8th birthday.

I was hunting with my parents and an uncle or two, when our little dog treed. They were gonna give me first shot, but the squirrel was in the top of a very (did I say "very") tall pine. I didn't think the 410 would do the job, so I tried with the .22. This was my transition to rifles only Squirrel hunting.

Over the years I used a couple of different 22 rifles, even took a few with a Browning Nomad 22 semi-auto handgun!

However, perhaps my most enjoyable hunting was with my .308Win. I started hand loading @ 14 with a Lee Loader, then at around 19 starting casting…..first for handguns then for the little .308.

I really enjoyed taking squirrels with my cast bullet loads (head shots obviously) and even took a few by "barking" them. I had read about some of the early pioneers taking squirrels with their .30 cal. boa powder rifles…..and thought it would be pretty neat to try it!

It's been 38 years since I sat under a Beech or Hickory tree in the "Flats" of Evangeline Parish in La. I still miss those cool Fall Mornings Squirrel hunting near my grandparent's home! memtb
 
My Winchester is now officially a "squirrel rifle"!

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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).
I know this is an old thread but wanted to say what a neat wall display you have and would to hear the story of the rattlesnake hide!
 
I know this is an old thread but wanted to say what a neat wall display you have and would to hear the story of the rattlesnake hide!
I think that it measured 67 1/2" without the head 14 rattlers (some were broke off so it had a few more). We were camping on the Cahaba River in Alabama. The Rattler came into our campsite and was going to let it go on it's way, but we had several small children running around, was afraid the snake would come back and one of the kids would run into it. We killed it and then I skinned it out and cooked it on the grill. They tase good with some Tabsco. Lots of rib bones!
I prepped the skin, put it on Felt and stained a board and put trim on it. Makes a good conversation piece in our game room.
 
Thank you Great story we used to run into Prairie rattlers when gopher hunting in Montana. We shot one that was close to our camp It was about 4 1/2 feet long The old rancher would come by in the mornings to have coffee with us We showed it to him and he said it was large for a prairie rattler He said it would taste good if we cooked it I told him it would probably taste like stripped gophers... I felt bad when he laughed so hard he blew some coffee out of his nose.....
 
I used this for years for Gray's in NY. I was getting my limit to fast so I decided to take my pistol. Rifle - 6 shots, 6 squirrels. Pistol- 8 or 9 shots, 6 squirrels.
BTW, I went back to a 4x scope, the higher X was too much. Rifle is jc Higgins, bought 1957 (Marlin 81).
In College, I shot on a pistol with this Browning Challenger (1965) shot a 298 score one time with it. Pistol now has over 50,000 rounds fired. Mostly Remington Std. Velocity.
I learned in school I had to completely clear any thought of girls or test coming up or anything. Then the coach worked with us to correct problems. I was shooting against pro's with their fancy High Standard, high priced pistols they carried in a case. I brought the Challenger to a shoot in the holster pictured. I thought I did pretty good for a all around Browning.
I bought a Mod 29 Smith and had a hard time getting used to it - always shot full house 240 loads intending to hunt with it. I would say 8 or 10 box before I could shoot with it. When In practice I could hit a small pie plate at 100, off hand 6 out of 6 times. Lots of work though. I had S&W tweek it . It was featured in Guns Ammo when first introduced.
 

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