Help me find a suitable air rifle for squirrel defence

AlbertaJohn said:
Your friend needs to take a pal course, for safety reason.
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+1

Getting an airgun to teach his son, sure. But he's not a gun (nor outdoor) guy...
- He ought to be up to speed about safe handling /rules /regulations.

When dealing with critters, I'm in the use-enough-gun camp.
- Squirrels can be though little bugger. A non-pal airgun would not be my first choice, even more so if the guy is a poor shot.


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[video]https://www.kania.net/images/success-02.jpg[/video]
 
Big Bad said:
I tried that, but I couldn't get the squirrels to fall for them.
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Even with peanut butter??

Before I got my PAL, I got quite a few red squirrels in my shop with the Tomcat brand rat trap. 90% of the time it kills a red squirrel instantly. Make sure to tie the trap by a string to something anchored, for the 10% of the time you need to finish them off.
 
AlbertaJohn said:
Shooting people with a pellet gun? What the heck is wrong with you people up there?

Did you report him?
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The further north you go, it's like going back in time...... wino's went extinct in lesser Canada almost 20 years ago!

OP, it can be done and I'm sure any kid that was unspervised in Canada with a pellet gun has seen the results.

Traps are the answer if the guy wants to get rid of pests, that said I'm starting to wonder how much of a pest problem buddy has?
 
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I don’t know how bad he has it, I do know how bad the squirrels can get at my place though and how destructive they are, but in this case the main driver is his wife wanting the situation addressed. I figured the air gun was a good gateway to at least getting his kid into shooting, even if dad shows little interest.
 
A conibear style trap placed in a properly sized box so that it aligns the body is a swift, humane and surefire way to dispatch squirrels.
 
It is probably easiest just to get some live traps baited with peanut butter on bread , and knock down the squirrel population with those via relocation . Any non pal required pellet gun is going to be too under powered to kill a squirrel humanely unless you get a perfect shot at close range.
 
traps hunt 24/7 and will be most effective, where allowed the ultimate around home quiet and in barn/quonset type rig is the weihrauch hw30s .177 in pal required velocity, does actual 625 fps with 8 gr pellets and handles the magpies, crows, squirrels, gophers to 30 yards just right, not too much over penetration issues or noise and they stack pellet on pellet at 10 yard accuracy and last for generations if you don't leave cocked for weeks on end, you can get the full power spring kit and swap into a non-pal version but maybe not a great recommendation?...but if an airgun can really do close to 495 fps over the chronograph with harder higher alloy content pellets like crosman points/domes etc. then you will do similar work to 20 yards, I had one that did 426 fps actual with 14.3 gr crosman point pellets in .22 and it killed a lot of stuff to 20 yards, a lot of gophers, grouse, crows and magpies, tuck that in behind the ribs of squirrels and they will be killed humanely, or headshots work good too, depends if you want them to die right there or maybe over the fence lol

hw30s is the buy once properly the first time type option and take it with you wherever you go if only to have one airgun in life, but only come in handy part time and only certain places you end up, traps are more versatile and likely more effective and they hunt them all day long
 
probably this toy crossbow can kill a squirrel - ht tps://www.cabelas.ca/product/165990/centerpoint-hornet-recurve-compact-crossbow - but I never tried : )
 
Callee said:
Even with peanut butter??

Before I got my PAL, I got quite a few red squirrels in my shop with the Tomcat brand rat trap. 90% of the time it kills a red squirrel instantly. Make sure to tie the trap by a string to something anchored, for the 10% of the time you need to finish them off.
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The main problem is that squirrels don't approach the bait bar from the same low angle that a rat would and when triggered I believe the trap's kill bar just passed under their chin. I tried in various ways to get them to sort of lower their heads as they took the bait but as I said they didn't fall for it. I could have live trapped them with a Havahart type device but relocating animals is illegal here and probably is in fact just a slow way to kill them. I therefore found a fast way to do that and they got wise and just mostly stayed away. That's all I wanted.
 
The water bucket trap's using a plastic garbage can, peanut butter, will catch multiples with no reset and they drown quickly.

I believe squirrels have existing lifetime claims on territory and relocation mostly leads to conflict somewhere else
 
I know from my own eradication efforts that because of their territorial nature, you can dispatch half a dozen and wake up the next day and more have moved in without skipping a beat.
 
Big Bad said:
The main problem is that squirrels don't approach the bait bar from the same low angle that a rat would and when triggered I believe the trap's kill bar just passed under their chin. I tried in various ways to get them to sort of lower their heads as they took the bait but as I said they didn't fall for it. I could have live trapped them with a Havahart type device but relocating animals is illegal here and probably is in fact just a slow way to kill them. I therefore found a fast way to do that and they got wise and just mostly stayed away. That's all I wanted.
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That's where the tomcat brand excels. It's a set of snapping jaws, you load the peanut butter inside and they have to stick their head right in to get it. The jaws get them righ around the neck almost every time.
 
cath8r said:
I've seen so many squirrels killed with 495fps pellet guns. No clue why everyone is shi÷%ing other notion?
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I've seen it as well, but I have a clue based on what I've seen why some people, including myself, think there are better ways to dispatch squirrels.... bucket trap is pretty cheap to build and operate and the squirrels drown quickly each and every time they fall in.

I've mostly had to deal with pest squirrels in other people's homes where they had penetrated into the house and were chewing up insulation and making trails through the framing.

As jacotsmith points out, more will move in when you get rid of the locals. The real longterm solution is to make sure pests can't get into your house and do damage.
 
Tell him to find some teenager's, young folks to clean them out for him. He provides the meals and a bounty on each squirrel.
I like CB longs myself
 
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