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Grey Squirrel Stalking


Dan73
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Is there any finer sport than stalking Grey Squirrels? Probably, but still.

Had a couple of hours free this morning so I popped along to a syndicate Trout Fishery which I am a member of and where I can control the grey squirrels.

For this I use my fully moderated Baikal 410, usually with Eley 2.5" 12.5gm cartridges. However recently the squirrels have been far more skittish than usual and stayed high in the trees so I've upped the cartridges to Eley 3" 18gm ones. There is a slightly louder report with these, but it is still a very quiet shotgun/cartridge combination.

I took my usual walk around the lake but saw nothing so I went up in to the woods and decided to just stand by a tree, around a few dreys to see if anything moved, whilst also hoping a Pigeon might land on a nearby branch. After a good 10 minutes of just watching and listening I saw a few high branches moving in an erratic motion about 50 yards away. Watching a little closer I saw a squirrel mooching around, stopping to eat or smell something before moving on. Clearly it did not know I was looking at it.

Waiting a little longer it seemed to be moving from tree to tree, slowly getting closer to me, although still staying very high up in the branches. I then noticed two other squirrels darting about, again up high in trees but some way back from the one which was coming closer. This one then went behind a tree so I took a couple of slow steps forward, trying to make as little noise or sudden movements as possible. I then saw it again, it ran over a couple of branches, and still hadn't clocked me. It stopped again and I pulled it down cleanly. I don't shoot anything moving with this gun, I always wait for a stationary target.

After picking up the squirrel I thought I had made enough noise to move the other two off but as I was making my way through the wood, which is covered in bracken and fallen trees, to the Lodge for a well earned cuppa, a small squirrel moved in a tree to the left of me. When this happens I freeze and wait to see if the squirrel has seen me. I can normally tell by the tail twitching if its spooked or if it runs without stopping up the other side of the tree. This one stopped, waited, took a couple of steps forward - probably waiting to see if I moved - then took a couple more steps then stopped to sniff/eat something. This one was also taken cleanly.

So two squirrels in the bag for about an hours "stalking" - that brings my total at the Fishery to 82 for the year.

Most of these have been females - the larger one in the attached picture is male and the first one I've taken in several months.

 

 pic1.jpeg.1035e064edd268a200cc4500e34f901c.jpeg

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Are there any successful ways of calling in squirrels?

There's a strip of woods where I shoot and I thought I might look for any squirrels. I've read somewhere about tapping two coins together. I also see the yanks produce a squirrel caller - looks a bit like a crow caller. Or is it all a load of old hooey and down to good old stalking.

thanks.

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At the moment I don't need to call them. I just camp out in my pop up blind or even just sit in the Land Rover with the window down where there are a couple of pheasant feeders. I have a couple of specific squirrel feeders set up but they have not been so successful.  It is so successful that I am about to put in permanent blinds in a couple of places where I am shooting double figure mornings.  I have heard varying comments on calls, some good  and some bad. I am loath to give away my location as squirrels are very adept at locating and then hiding.  Plan to be out on a feed ride I have not shot since February when the ground was grey with them, this weekend.  Hope to boost the returns on here.

No finer sport and non more worthwhile.

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A 'Walk, stalk and stand' day in a good bit of squirrel woods takes a hell of  a lot of beating for good sport in my opinion, whether it's with a .410 or with the air rifle. Anywhere that the squirrels are a particular problem I like to site a feeder filled with peanuts and shoot over that from a hide. I've had 17 squirrels in 3 hours like that before (air rifle).

If you'd like to try a feeder Dan, give me a shout. It looks like you must be close to me and I have a few feeders made up in my workshop at the moment waiting to be put to good use.

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Well done Dan. One of my favourite shooting sports is on the squirrels. Went to a large wood a week last Friday expecting to see a few so took a semi auto ready for the fast action sport ahead. As it turned out, I didn’t see a single squirrel. Plenty of dreys though. You never know what you’re going to get. Once in these woods, my mobile phone rang. Whilst I was on the phone, three squirrels came towards me, I don’t know if the phone ringing attracted them? Anyway, I broke off my call to attend to the business, bagged two of them. I will return up there when most of the leaves have fallen.

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On 27/11/2017 at 08:33, Mice! said:

wp_ss_20171124_0002.png.fc27d92cf09f710e89b57e5f888e7ed8.pngThis one, watched some YouTube videos first then had a good look about price and delivery varies massively 

wp_ss_20171124_0001.png.e2d96eb10e6c0dd52974146102aa52f6.png

bought it from this eBay seller, turned up quick free delivery some are saying two weeks from states and £40?

cheers seem ok ,got one on order

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I noticed this afternoon that any sound had them look up and stop foraging, none of which was from myself as l was nicely tucked up in a hedgerow a 100mts away, but they showed no concern at all to pheasants walking in amongst them.

lndeed they were so into feeding that the crack from the HMR didn't even have them running for the tree tops, 5 didn't run anymore at all.

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