Let Me tell you how smart squirrels are. The squirrels in my neighborhood have taken a big liking to the pears on my back yard tree, to the extent they have stolen two-thirds of the thousand or more the tree started with. Last evening I decided to sit on the back deck so that I could scare them away. I watched as one crept stealthily to the end of a neighboring tree branch. Once there he went into hiding mode, but I knew he was there from the occasional jiggle of the branch. He stayed there for about a half hour and never jumped to the pear tree. I had previously watched from inside the house and he always just jumped after a few seconds. Well, after a while that squirrel crept away from his hiding place and I saw him moving away from my yard. I sat for a while longer watching that squirrel move through the trees beyond my yard, all the time working his way around to the far hidden side of my yard. Many minutes later I notice jiggling of branches in the pear tree, but can't see that squirrel. He stayed hidden, then suddenly he broke for the tree top with another pear in his mouth. I was amazed that he had been sneaky enough to make it into the tree unseen. Almost unbelievable. Since none of the squirrels are harrassed by me of the neighbors, it's awesome that this guy knew I was there to harrass him on this occasion.

That's why one of the hunting techniques is to use two hunters ,one standing still and the other going to the opposite side of the tree .

Squirrels piss me off seriously. They get into the attic and chew wires and tear insulation. We have an invasion of reds every spring and I take out as many as possible. I usually nail 20-30 per season from the back deck. Some are really cautious and when they hear the sound of the door opening will run like hell away from the bird feeder. It takes a few times of just making the "opening" sound for them to start to ignore it. Then they're off to a better place. I use the Aquilla 22LR Super Colibri rounds (20 gr bullet, 500 fps) which is more quiet than an air rifle. Highly recommended for pest control if you've got neighbors and if the squirrel is fewer than about 10-15 yards away.

I had one squirrel thought he had gotten smart.

Would run at full speed at the sound of door or window opening. I ended that with a OZ of 7.5s as he was running full speed.

Smart squirrels naw they all die with a properly place shot or trap.

When I hunted squirrels I would always carry 3 or 4 small rocks in my pocket. If a squirrel went around a tree trunk I'd throw one of the rocks to the other side of the tree to scare it back around to my side.

Mike

last year the sq cleaned my pear tree. i found they hate being sprayed with a hose on a hot day . it really knocks the whiz out of them . and so does my air gun . this year the tree is loaded with good looking pears and no sq are coming , and iv only seen one in the area and he is mighty spooky.

quote:

Originally posted by mtatlor:
When I hunted squirrels I would always carry 3 or 4 small rocks in my pocket. If a squirrel went around a tree trunk I'd throw one of the rocks to the other side of the tree to scare it back around to my side.

Mike

I used to carry a catapult as the beech trees in our UK garden were over 60 feet high. It worked well and also enabled me to bounce stones off other trees for a noise effect.

Had hours of fun shooting squirrels in the UK.


Also used to hang a nut basket out for the birds off an Apple tree branch. Of course the squirrels used to go up the tree, along the branch, down the rope and on to the basket - where their desire for food outweighed their desire to live so promptly got blasted by a 410 shotgun !!!

I use to take my jacket and toss it around the other side of the tree.

Your hat works pretty got for that.

I could see taking a Frisbee along for that purpose too.

quote:

Originally posted by mtatlor:
When I hunted squirrels I would always carry 3 or 4 small rocks in my pocket. If a squirrel went around a tree trunk I'd throw one of the rocks to the other side of the tree to scare it back around to my side.

Mike

Works good on bucks out here in California.