GUNS Magazine December 1958 - Jeffersonian

.an y other type of squirrel hunting. Here,the hun ter or hunters (they tak e differentroutes in the squirre l woods if th ere's moretha n one) simply ease along th rough goodsquirr el woods a la In dian , stopping every40 or 50 yards for a couple of minutes tolook and listen. When a squirrel is spied,the hu nter advances toward the tr ee thesq uirrel is in.Th e usual squirrel woods will contain severaldifferent food s which squirrels like, an dif it is a good year for several food items thef uzzyta ils may be sca tte red out and feedingover a wide area. If so, the stalking hunteris more apt to click than th e still hunter. Heis usuall y armed with a shotgun and is ofcourse eq uipped to deal with either still orrunning squirrels. Th e average stalking hunter,however , will get far more r unning shotstha n he will still shots, and nor mall y he willsee more squirrels than either the still ordo g hunters. If he eases through th e woodsqu ietly enough and has a good pair of eyesfor spying the fuzzytails, he will get a surprisingnumb er of shots within easy shotgunra nge.T here have been many arg uments in th epa st about squirrel guns and load s. Fromna il-keg stools in the old -time country generalstores to present coffee-break chats downat the spor ting goods store, the arg umentshav e been carr ied on. And they always willbe, j ust as th ey should be. Things wouldn'tsce m ri ght here in America otherwise.I have been hunting squirre ls regul arly foralmost 30 years, but I am stilI classing whatI have to say about squirre l guns and load sin the followin g paragrap hs as personal opinions,based on my own personal experiences.But my experiences might well differ fr omtho se of othe rs.As far as squirrel hunting shotguns areconcerned, I am personally a 12 gauge fanall the way. I have had too many cripplesescape into den holes when I was usin g th esmaller gauges to suit me. I pr efer a good12 gauge over-under with 28 inch full chokeJ11 Ule; .l U lJ U WJ1I ~ V tU(1 ~ L C1VU. .::s (1 ::) p e reonar U V J U ·ions, based on my own personal experiences.But my experiences might well differ fr omthose of others.As far as squirrel hunting shotguns areconcern ed, I am personall y a 12 gauge fanall the way. I have ha d too many cripplesescape int o den holes when I was using th esmalle r gauges to suit me. I prefer a good12 gauge over- und er with 28 inch full chokeand modified barrels, or a 12 ga uge pum p orauto-load er with 28 inch full choke or modifiedba rre l. In such a gun, I use highvelocity (lo ng range) load s carrying No. 6shot. With such a combination, I rar ely haveany crippled squirrels escape.I mu ch prefer an auto-loading .22 forsquirre l hunting of th e rifle kind , because theauto-load er makes possibl e qui cker andeasier second and th ird shots which ma yFAST DRAWHOLSTERS jl o r t i ilflIf yo u want tobe a n expert g un