author’s .410 single shot with trophy harvest
Spring and summer this year have proven to be a tad interesting, not to mention challenging, due to an ongoing invasion by very prolific red squirrels around our home and outbuildings. Of course, our living in the woods, so to speak, tends to quantify matters. We had quite a number of both gray and fox squirrels around our home, which we always enjoyed watching, and then the little red squirrels began appearing, just a few at first, but recently had become epidemic in numbers with them everywhere. At first, I had a “live and let live” approach to the steadily increasing red squirrel numbers, assuming there was room for all.
Red squirrels, despite their diminutive size, are very aggressive and territorial, and they quickly harassed and drove the larger tree squirrels away, which are now found only on the back of the farm. During this process, the “red menace” gnawed into and destroyed all but one of the several wren-houses I had attached to trees in the yard, no doubt due to their gaining access to get at the eggs and/or chicks inside. Red squirrels are very predatory in this sense and can be hard on nesting songbirds.
To top matters off, they chewed the wiring and completely disabled my beloved Jeep Wrangler and had even built a nest under its hood, almost overnight. A regular target for them is my vintage Oliver farm tractor, where they continually make a nest in the battery housing by stuffing it completely full in short order. I’ve discovered that no matter how secure you think you have a building to prevent their gaining access, the devious red squirrels have a unique ability to discover a way in, and it can be a very small opening you believe wouldn’t allow any access.
Just recently, I went to use my ATV to do some habitat work, and things just didn’t seem right when I started it, and especially so when I shifted it into gear, and matters squealed before engaging with difficulty. I would discover that the air filter had been completely devoured and a red squirrel nest had been built in the transmission area involving the belts. We had just used it a couple days before for towing a trailer while doing yard and garden work, and all was working fine, but thanks to red squirrels, it is presently at the repair shop to make sure everything is in working order.
Yep, folks, it was time to declare all out war! The red squirrel is not protected, and for good reason due to the damage they can do, even to homes by going after wiring and you name it. There are those who may think the antics of red squirrels are quite cute, but I now look upon them as being pure vermin and eliminating them by the most efficient means of extermination. I’m not into using poison for this at all, and the little buggers are quite intelligent at avoiding traps and I’ve even had them steal the peanuts used for bait without setting the trap off. Living in the country, I’m allowed to legally shoot them, and it is the perfect solution to my case. I’m not into having .22 rimfire bullets which might miss the target up in a tree and go sailing off into who knows where, despite our somewhat isolated location. What is effective is a .410 shotgun stoked with 7 ½ birdshot, because red squirrels are constantly on the move in a usually very leafy environment, and they can cover quite a distance through tree limbs in a surprisingly fast manner.
For random sniping occasions when I’m enjoying coffee while relaxing on our back deck, is a scoped GAMO air rifle or a Ruger air pistol (both are quick to load break-barrel single-shots) firing .177 caliber hunting pellets, which are safe to use in this instance and none too noisy, either. I must admit I do look upon this as being general “plinking” which I find tunes up my shooting skills for the fall hunting seasons, and the same also applies to using a .410 shotgun as well, which usually entails a moving target in heavy and leafy cover.
Timing is everything, and we have a couple large mulberry trees in front of our home which have a bumper crop of fruit this summer, drawing in a wide variety of songbirds (sometimes featuring new and unusual species) which my wife, Ginny, and I always enjoy watching from our bay window. Red squirrels also, of course, like mulberries and they became very numerous visitors feeding in the trees while also harassing birds away, and I decided to bide my time and allow the trees to appear to be a “safe zone”. My son Josh and his family involving 15-year-old triplets, were coming from Dayton, Ohio, for a recent weeklong visit. While my granddaughter Mercedes isn’t into shooting (yet anyway), her brothers Orlando and Reese are, and I had spare .410 shotguns and plenty of ammo available for a surprise assault on the mulberry trees! I had previously let them know of my battle plans and they arrived with great anticipation for the event.
I had already sniped (aka plinked) a half dozen or so red squirrels while I was relaxing on our back deck but maintained leaving the mulberry trees near the front patio alone, despite the constant multiple offerings. Well, folks, the red squirrels were caught completely by surprise during a sudden assault with quite an expenditure of .410 shotgun ammo when Josh and his sons went to work, and 14 red squirrels bit the dust in short order, much to my delight as I stood back and watched the ensuing melee!
Presently, I see an occasional red squirrel visiting the mulberry trees, but they are way more wary and not so bold or indifferent as before, which is wise on their part, because they will remain on my “hitlist” from here on. I am not into any sort of armistice in their regard because they go from a few cute and animated little bushytails to becoming the “red menacing horde” rather quickly.
It is our hope that the larger tree squirrels eventually realize there is room for all once again in our yard and that it has become a much friendlier neighborhood.
Unless you are a red squirrel, of course!
than 40 years and has had his weekly radio show, “Tom Lounsbury
Outdoors” for more than 20 years. Tom grew up on a farm in
Michigan’s Thumb, and it is where his first outdoor adventures began
as a kid accompanying visiting pheasant hunters into the field during
the “pheasant hunting heyday” of the 1950’s and 1960’s. It is a passion
he still has to this day and being the 4 th generation to own the family
farm, he has put most of it into conservation programs with a focus on
wild pheasants, which in turn helps all wildlife.
Being an outdoor communicator, Tom appreciates all the outdoor
adventures he experiences in different places, and especially the
people he meets in which to share them.
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