One of the most important things is get out very early in the morning. This cannot be stressed enough.
To scout for squirrels go to oak groves and look on the ground for acorns with holes in them. Bigger the hole bigger the squirrel.
I have never shot all the squirrels in a sweet spot. The point is as you hunt more you find better locations and you start having more and more successfull hunts. You will reach a point where you limit out by noon
Calls are fun to play with but I have not had better success.
The change in weather is more important than the weather. If it has been raining three days straight and then quits the squirrels are going to be going crazy in the morning. If the weather has been great and then starts raining stay home .
This is how I hunt squirrels. I scout the locations maybe even put them into my GPS. Then I wake up early and go to the first location while it is still dark. I sit there as the sun comes up the squirrels are moving around but I can't see them. Eventually I get enough light. I follow one with my scope when it stops I squeeze the trigger. Watch where it falls. Wait! then another one will start walking around. Watch where it falls. Do this for a while then pick up your critters and slowly move to the next location or some location you hear while you were hunting your location. When walking always look ahead not around.
You need to triangulate where a squirrel is when you shoot it. Everything looks different when you walk up to where you think the squirrel is. Do not shoot one jump up and run over there. You will have a tough time finding the critter. Stop look at what is surrounding the squirrel.
Almost all rimfires are good enough. Be carefull about getting a really heavy bull barrel. It is hard to shoot a heavy gun standing up. Squirrel hunting is accuracy intensive and a better gun is a better gun. Flat shooters like the 17hmr and the 22wmr have the advantage of less adjustments in shots due to distance. Eventually you will only shoot squirrels in the head so saving the meat is not an issue.
Do not buy anything over a 9 X when it comes to scopes. Almost no one agrees with me but I believe your best scope should be on your squirrel gun. The need for light collection is paramount. Having a lit reticle might not be a bad idea. My dream scope would be a 3x9x40 with fat hairs over most the reticle that come down to very thin hairs with a teeny red dot on the second plane. The scope is more important than the gun because the gun will most likely be good enough. If you get a cheap scope you will not be able to take shots you could with a good scope. I would rather have a great fixed 4x then a mediocre variable scope. Do not think getting a good scope means high power.
If you have not limited out keep the gun handy when cleaning squirrels. It is not unusual while cleaning a squirrel to see a squirrel.
I picked up squirrel hunting in college. When I started I would go out all day and not get anything. People laughed because the campus had squirrels all over the place. Eventually I almost always limited out.It is so much fun hunting squirrels. It takes more skill than deer and you can do it almost all year round. Squirrel meat tastes soooo good but is a little tough. What I am saying is it is the most fun you can have but it is frustrating in the beginning. I live in the desert now and miss it so muchDoes anyone have tips for small game hunting.?
Get a dog, train it to tree squirrel, shoot squirrel out of tree.
Happy hunting/shooting!!
Hunt slowly, do not rush or move fast through cover you are Hunting.* If hunting with a squirrel or Beagle Dog give it lots of time to work the area you are standing in before advancing a little further on and give the dog plenty of time to work the surrounding area.* Its not how fast you move through cover that matters but how slowly you hunt the area you are already in that matters to get the best results.*
Wear lots of orange and be careful.
camo from head to toe. early in squirrel season find a hickory tree and shoot them as they appear. the others around will hide for a while so let them lay where they fall until you're ready to leave. as for rabbits use a dog or jump on brush piles or crash through thickets until they run out. box traps are even better.
With both, patience, plenty of camouflage and move slowly. squirrels are the tricky ones, they will sit behind a branch for several minutes without moving.
be safe, have fun. if you are asking us, you are not hunting for dinner, so the most important thing is for everyone going into the woods to come back out safe.
you dont have to be as quiet as you should when hunting deer. rabbit like a lot of cover, and sometimes will stay put even when you are right on top of them. i have walked through a field before, and every few steps take a step or two into the high grass to try and kick them out. i use a 12 gauge, so i dont worry about them running like you would if u used a .22 if you have a beagle, a correctly trained beagle will run it in a circle, howiling the whole way. my great grandfather said once when him and his son were hunting '; hey, see that rabbit? his son would say no, where. my grandfather could see the eyes, believe it or not.
as for squirrel, if you put the bead right on its head, from about 30 yards away %75 of the bb's will hit it in the head, and very few will hit the body damaging the meat.
good luck.
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