The Biggest Squirrel I Have Ever Taken

Red squirrel are much smaller,
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YOu must live out west? Are the little reds you described one of the ground squirrel breeds or are they the ones with little tufts of hair on the ears? Or a different type?

In the southeast we don't have a small breed of red squirrels though we do have a 3 striped ground squirrel. We don't have too many fox squirrels around here but I've noticed the greys are really fat this year, I suspect due to our overwhelmingly good nut crop.
 
WAY NICE KILL!!!! That is by far the biggest squirrel I have seen shot! I have seen some white lookin' fox squirrels that are pretty big but I doubt they are that big. In Florida the Fox squirrel is protected and off limits. The greys have pushed them from nearly every tree they had once resided.
Brent
 
El Chivato.....

Nice looking Scope on that rifle.
Please, Can you advise the make and model?
Plus a little info on that Romanian Trainer as well.
Looks like a combo I'd like to own.
Thanks.
 
I do remember poor as a kid in Michigan and one fox squirrel was enough meat for the family of 5 for a supper!
Brent
 
El Chivato.....

Nice looking Scope on that rifle.
Please, Can you advise the make and model?
Plus a little info on that Romanian Trainer as well.
Looks like a combo I'd like to own.
Thanks.
Click to expand...

The 'scope is something called an FM. I guess it's made in China. It works well, it has adjustable parallax that seems to be right on, and it gathers light well enough that I could shoot for maybe 15 minutes after I stop being able to see clearly with the naked eye. It has a lighted reticle, choice of red or green.

Magnification is 4x32.

It cost me right around $50 a year or so back. Not expensive at all, and I fully expected it to fall apart by now, as hard on them as I am.

It's held up.

The only thing I don't like is that it's a bit fuzzy around the edges. No real biggie, esp for the money I paid, but it can get annoying when I'm shooting.

It will let me sink five into one hole at 50 yards.

The rifle is a Romanian training rifle, M69. It is a bolt action which holds five rounds in the magazine. It is all wood and steel - no plastic or anything else. Rumor has it that CZ sold the machinery to make these to Romania. The bore is said to be target grade, and I easily get one hole groups at 50 yards with either Winchester Xpert or Remington subsonic.

As well, I've floated the barrel and worked over the action. First, I removed the extra heavy striker spring and replaced it with a spring from Numrich. The spring from Numrich is sold in replacement kits for the H&R .22 revolvers, but is much too light for consistent ignition in that application. It is perfect for use in these.

The trigger pull is a military two stage and does not break cleanly - it feels more like a light Glock pull than anything else. I suppose the sear could be stoned down, but with lack of replacement parts, I do not want to try it. I instead installed a stop screw and got used to it out to 100yds.

The 'scope mount is aluminum. Maybe that's not the best choice, but I was doing this as cheaply as possible, and I found it while rooting around in my dealer's bin of spare parts. It has worked perfectly and has never shifted POI at all. The only time that happened was after floating the barrel - I had not sealed the stock back up adequately.

Perhaps the most controversial modification was the force-fit bolt. As is common on surplus guns, the bolt serial number did not match the receiver. It was therefore a bit loose. I took it apart and installed a .010" aluminum shim in it to tighten it up. (This is a regular practice on at least one domestically made rimfire bolt action). I was given dire predictions of the mod forcing the rim and making the gun fire, but the recess in the bolt simply will not let that happen.

Other than that, the only thing I did was to make a new extractor. The old one had broken, so I used a grinder, files and stones to make a new one out of an old wrench (tool steel, you know...). The new one works much better than the original. Anyone with experience with these knows that ejection tends to be weak on most due to the manner in which they were made (fast and cheap.)

The rifle cost me $65 from the cosmoline; when supply dried up, they pulled an "SKS" and the price began rising. I do not know what they go for now.

All said and done, I have maybe $120 in it total, gun and all.

Here are a couple of targets:

DSC00052.jpg

Remington subsonic, 50yds.

The flier was my fault.

Sight in proof for Winchester Xpert, my new ammo after a spectacular failure on a squirrel (hit it 2x in the chest with Rem SS before it fell):

target.jpg

Three shots, 50 yards.

I hope this is the info you wanted!

Josh <><
 
El Chivato.............

Yes, that's the info I needed for a further search.

BSA Optics makes a " FM " prefix " Catseye " series scope.
Just looked em up. Your's wasn't there in a fixed 4x but they've
got a variable in 1.5x4x32mm that looks very similar. 100yd paralax.
Guess yours is discontinued. Your's looks nice and compact. (short).

Your info on the rifle is plenty for me to find out more.
Many Thanks.
 
I am glad to see someone else shooting bushy tails with a Romanian M69. I have three of them. Very good rifles for the money I paid $75 for first and most accurate. $65 for 2nd and looked unissued. I bought my 3rd for $50 which someone cut the stock down to small kid size, (which is ok because I have small kids). Last fall I found a state park that lets you hunt with .22 cal and was one short of limiting out on fox squirrels. We bagged one good size female, two smaller ones and a big buck that even after a good shot made it into a base of a hollow tree. I had to stick a .22 pistol up the hollow and fire a couple rounds before he came out and could dispatch him. He was a big bugger but not quiet that big. I am from eastern South Dakota and all we have is the big red fox squirrels. What I like about this state park is it's allot like where I grew up in SE Minnesota where lots of hills and woods, but on a smaller scale. Back in MN we had both grays and fox (red) and a few the little red squirrels. Here in the Dakotas you would be lucky to get one or two out of someone’s farms grove or a small stand of trees along a gravel road. Also west Nile fever has taken a toll on the population here.

This state park is about an hour away and I have been putting off going this year due to gas prices but a couple of weekend ago my son had a little league football game at one of the university’s that went by this park. On the way back both my boys, one of my boy’s friends and my mother went hunting. It was a terribly windy day with sustained wind of 35 to 40 mph. I figured we would not see anything due to the wind but decided to go anyway. My 12 year old son and I only had rifles and we were walking down a ravine. I was on one side and the other four were on the opposite side. As I was walking up to a big 70 ft dead tree (elm I think) I looked up and all the tress were waving back and forth, but this tree moved with the wind and then stopped. I heard two big snaps and the tree stared moving in slow motion right toward me. I ran down into the ravine and the tree crashed down and landed right where I had been standing. I have never had anything weird happen in the woods until this happened but it is not that strange, we had had a couple inches of rain a few days before and the wind was terrible that day. It’s just weird that if I had not run out of the way it would have landed on top of me.

The Romanian M69 is a good rifle to hunt with. Prices have seen to crept up to $150 to $200 range since these have dried up. Good prices can still be found. A word of warning if you hunt with a kid you may want to skip the magazine and use as single shot. Took my boy out and he lost two magazines in the snow, these are hard to come by and we did find one of them the next spring a little bit rusted but still works.
 
kazland1

Hi Josh. I'm a new member to this forum. I came across your post about that huge fox squirrel I was googling "Piney Squirrels" when I came across your post. So as I had not found much info that I was looking for I decided to join and ask you. Until a couple days ago I had never heard of a "Piney". A client that I am working for, installing a couple of patios, mentioned he was battling "Piney Squirrel invasion of his house. He showed me one that was running up a treee very fast. They are or must be close relatives of the chipmunk. About the same size from what I could observe. He says they do not have the typical strips like chipmunks. He says they are true squirrels. I used to hunt, turkey, squirrel, rabbit, quail when I was much younger and lived in Missouri. Haven't had a gun in my hands other than to move them from one back corner of the closet to another. robably 30 years or more since I hunter. Anyway, enough about my history. Can you tell me anything about these new found critters? Know any good ways to get rid of them from the attic and walls, and to keep them out in the future. You can email me directly if you wish, kazland1@sbcglobal.net. Thanks!
 
Live trap using a "Hav-A-Hart" with a tiny bit of p-nut butter smeared on trigger plate and whole p-nuts behind plate will bring them running. when I refer to piney squirrels I mean regular grays that feed on pine cones mainly, they must taste like turpentine.
Brent
 
Ah, Piney Squirrels...

I've only seen them / heard them called that in Indiana. The Havaheart trap is a good idea, that's how I got rid of a few that were causing problems.

They are so small you would need to shoot a bunch of them for a decent meal, but I bet they would taste ok.

I doubt they would taste like turpentine, I've eaten a million christmas tree farm rabbits that lived primarily on pine needles and they all tasted fine, and I don't think piney squirrels eat much pine to begin with. I have no idea why they are called that.
 
I took a pretty good sized one once....so big I decided to have him mounted as proof they do exist. This bad boy sits (not stretched out) at over 12" high. The girth (Chest) is 10"+. I have several smaller squirrels mounted that are only about 8" high.

bigsquirrel1.jpg


bigsquirrel2.jpg
 
yeah back up in south dakota on the farm we had real big red/fox squirrels that would actually make dens in the corn silo's (the mesh net ones that are for holding feed corn). My dad used to set me and my brother up in the back of the truck with single shot 22's and he would leave us there for hours while he tended to the cattle and other chores on the tractor.

each time he would come back and we would have at least 2 or 3 really big and fat corn fed squirrels or some unlucky rabbits (also real big cottontails about the size of jack rabbits due to eating all that corn and alfalfa).

biggest squirrel I ever shot through was down in oklahoma in a pecan grove. that sucke was about the size of a football and man did he taste good. The pecans seasoned him real nice. :D the farmer gave me a 5 gallon bucket of pecans after I showed him that fat sucker, he said that little bugger was eating him out of house and home and glad to get rid of him.

JOE
 
Thats a good Squirrel.

i got a nice one last year, i had 2 good pictures but my computer restarted and i only have 1 and its not so good, plus its my friends brother holding it and i dont have permission to put up a picture so i had to cut him out. All you see is the squirrel and his hands. The second picture is better. but not a bad little squirrel eh
 

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Having lived in the west all of my life I am somewhat confused as to what is being called a Fox Squirrel. I visit Maryland and W. Virginia often and what they call Fox Squirrels does not look like anything that has been posted on this thread with the exception of the of the red one with tufts of hair on it's ears.The difference is the ones in Maryland and W.Virginia are all black and large.Are these squirrels a color phase of what has been posted here? Wikipedia is not the difinitive answer they screw things pretty regular.
 
El Chivato
I kind of thought you might be from the midwest. This is definitely a Buck Fox Squirrel and not a Red. The link you posted, is a true Red and yes, they are never very big. The Reds, are native to the most northern states. You might ask how one can tell this is a Buck just by looking at the picture? Just look at his nose. No, not that nose but the one on his face.. :p

Now, that Grey, that matt_3479 is the biggest one I have ever seen as they are usually pretty small. Greys are the best eating. IMHO

Blacks are not common around here and whenever I see one, I let him be. These are usually about the same size as Greys. I have also seen Blacks with white tipped ears but not often and no!, I was not drinking!! . :confused:

Be Safe !!!
 
That squirrel isn't my biggest, but the average squirrel i shoot is just a little bit smaller. The biggest one i have ever gotton was also a grey squirrel and i took it to my dads friends cause hes a taxidermy and would do it for free. so i sent it too him and he was so busy he put it in the freezer and then when he was about to do it his dogs ripped it to shreds. My second biggest was a black squirrel and i got it with a 12 gauge, so there was too many holes to do anything with it. This was my third. I took it with my pellet gun like i take most of them, limits me to 20-30 yard shots seeing it only shoots 490 FPS.
 
when I refer to piney squirrels I mean regular grays that feed on pine cones mainly, they must taste like turpentine.
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A few years ago I got a bunch (20 or so) of the little red / piney squirrels. When I cleaned them I only kept the hind legs and maybe the backs - can't remember. Par boiled them then broiled them with wing sauce. Came out very tasty. Haven't tried it with grays or foxs yet.

I grew up about 20 miles from where I now live. We had lots of the big fox squirrels there and a few grays. Here there are lots of grays and a fox squirrel is a rare sighting. Lots of the little red / piney's at both places.
 
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