squirrel gun

The Tennessee Squirrel rifle was a very lightweight little rifle, much smaller than the "Kentucky Rifle", and was usually half stocked. Most had round barrels. They lacked a patch box, and usually had a depression in the stock for a tallow lube for the patch. A friend of mine, now dead, was a restaurant hunter around Water Valley, Mississippi, and he claimed he used a Harrington & Richardson .38 caliber muzzle loader. I quizzed him several times about .38 caliber (instead of .36) and he was adamant that it was .38 and a caplock. He was able to tell me the "balls to the pound" difference.

Bob Wright
 
B.L.E. wrote:
It wasn't until we started settling the West that the need for buffalo and elk rifles came about.
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Buffalo weren't confined to the west, Davy Crocket took buffalo in Tennessee. These the woods bison.

Bob Wright
 
Never seen it don, but have heard much of "barking squirrels."

This is done by shooting the limb under the squirrel, the wood fragments stunning the squirrel. The stunned squirrel is dispatched by swinging him by the hind legs and cracking his head against the tree truck. This leaves the head intact and the brains undamaged.

Incidentally, my cousin went to an auction, this around 1960 or so, and a squirrel rifle came up. When nobody bid on it, he offered a quarter. He bought the rifle, a .44 caliber, for twenty-five cents! I gave him a piece of scrap brass to make the missing trigger guard.

Bob Wright
 
I di recall seeing an ad for 32 or 36 cal 'squirrel gun' in Fur-Fish-Game.

The co (I dont recall who) only made a few each year and the recommendation was to order early.

There was also an article about 'barking' your squirrel, that is to hit close to it and shock it to death.

Bob, just above mentions barking. I didnt see his article before I posted mine.
 
Anyone "barking" a squirrel is nuts. I have not witnessed firsthand, but heard a story or two of a squirrel hunter picking up what they thought was a dead squirrel and finding themselves being bit by a "tree rat."
I give mine a few good pokes with the barrel before retrieving.
 
Never encountered a "barking squirrel"

....Probably because I never did much hunting, but I can tell you I have met up with the "barking spider" and boy do they have some bad breath!


















:rolleyes:
 
Never encountered a barking squirrel????

How do you call them otherwise?

As to getting bitten, pick them up and swing them immediately into the tree trunk. They won't survive.

Bob Wright
 
If you hunt long enough, you'll make mistakes.

Anyone "barking" a squirrel is nuts.
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True and years ago, when I only had a .50, I tried it and it worked. I often state that as hunters, we are not out there to hurt animals but rather to kill game that is in season. We shoud not hunt if we can't do our best to dispatch the game as humane as possible. .... ;)

Just do your best, in your own best ways !! ... ;)

Be Safe !!!
 
As to makers of Tennessee Squirrel rifles, my wife and I were driving east on US Hwy. 64 near Falls Creek Mill and noticed a historic marker. It gave the name of the gunmaker once located there (whose name I've forgotten) and he made "Tennessee Rifles" as I recall. It would have been in the cap-lock era. As I recall this was near Belevedere, Tennessee.

Bob Wright
 
johnwilliamson062 said:
I have not witnessed firsthand, but heard a story or two of a squirrel hunter picking up what they thought was a dead squirrel and finding themselves being bit by a "tree rat."
I give mine a few good pokes with the barrel before retrieving.
Click to expand...

Animals always die with their eyes open.
If its eyes are closed then it's unconscious.
A squirrel startled me that way after falling from a tree top, so now I remember to check. :)
 
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