Anyone use a .38spl for squirrels

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Just curious if anyone uses a .38 spl on squirrels.  I'm sure it would make a fine rabbit gun, and ballistically would be fine for a squirrel.

The reason I ask is when squirrel hunting you are likely to be aiming in the trees.  With a .22, the bullet won't go far and won't come down so hard.  But the .38 say a 110 or 125 grain bullet - that's a bit bigger than a 40 grain .22 slug.

[Dan Chamberlain]

I use .36 Navy and .36 long rifles, so I suppose a .38 special would work.

Dan C

[Lloyd Smale]

IVe shot alot of squirells and rabbits with the .38 using a 105 lee cast semiwadcutter and it works great.

[Selmer]

I was wondering the same thing about a .454 Casull loaded down with 255 gr. #452454 at around 1000 fps.  Very accurate in my Encore, although a little louder than a .22 short, just wondering how much meat they would mess up???
Selmer

[Mikey]

Black Jacque:  38 Spls for squirrels are probably safer than 22lrs.  The former won't travel a mile but the latter will.  I have often worried about poppin' squirrels out of trees with a 22 because I know those dang things really travel.  I have less of a worry with a 38 spl. as I know those things hit the ground a lot sooner.  I still use one standard load in all my 38s, and thats with a 200 gn semiwadcutter.  I don't know if that knocks them out of the trees any harder than a 22lr but it sure makes them difficult to find afterward.  HTH.  Mikey.

[BH]

Yup.  Use my regular plinking load in a 6 1/2" Blackhawk.  158gr lead SWC on top of 4.0 grs of 700X.  Cheap to shoot, runs out about 900fps and puts a nice clean hole through tree rats.

Bob

[Graycg]

Killed many of them with my model 14 target and standard wadcutter loads...2.7 gr bullseye or 3.1 gr ww231 and wadcutter bullets.  Quieter than a 22 and extremely accurate, don't mess up much meat at all with head or upper body shots.

regards,
 Graycg

[jamie]

I never felt safe using a .38 on squirrels, buddy of mine was mauled after shooting one, so I switched to 45-70 to ensure enough penetration.




 :-D  :-D  :-D  :-D  :-D  :-D  :-D  Sorry Guys I couldn't resist.

[kciH]

As has been stated by a few here already, the .38 special loaded mildly as would be appropriate for squirrels or other small game, is a probably a safer load than a .22LR.  A wadcutter, which is ideal for punching a big hole with no  meat damage, like a hi-vel .22 round would possibly create depending on the bullet design, is ideal.  That .38 will travel less than half the distance of a .22, so get a load in the 750fps range with a WC bullet and use it and feel comfortable with it.  The real danger with shooting up, as in squirel hunting, is not knowing who is a mile away, not 1-200 yards.  Sure it's possible there are people/property withing a couple hundred yards, but it's far more likely you won't know about it if it's a mile away. If you zero a Speer 148gr HBWC@750fps at 25yards, you'll be able to hit a 1" target out to about 32 yards, which is about as far away as most folks can hit a 1" target with a open sight revolver.  At a quarter mile, this load is 88 FEET below the line of sight.  I realize this does not truly represent shooting up into a tree, but it gives you an idea of how much less likely it is to land somewhere you don't want it to than a .22LR

At 800 yards, it is 1166 FEET below the line of sight.

[jamie]

kciH,
  I was only joking , hence all the smiley's.   I too have squirrel hunted with 148 grn HBWC over about 2.5 grns of Clays if I recall correctly, it has been a few years.  I used to get aggrivated to keep having to explain why to everyone and now seeing it in writing, well I can see their side of the fence now.

[Graycg]

I've also shot Sabre-beaked turkeys with the same load....again, head shots.

regards,
 Graycg

[jamie]

CK, To tell the truth I couldn't say if I was aiming at the head or not,  most times the front blade covered most of the squirrel.  I kept my shots to 25 yrds in a Rossi 971.  Only shot one revolver that was more accurate than that little Rossi and that was a customized S&W Target Champion.  That thing shot and honest to goodness single hole at 25 yrds that usually looked like only 3 shots.

[kjeff50cal]

I've in the past shot squirrels with RBHs (7 1/2" in 357 ),  Ruger Single Six .32 HR mag., S & W, M & P (Model 10), and a Rossi .38 sporting a 3" barrel. The .38s & .357 were loaded with waddcutter target ammo. The .32 HR was loaded with 110 SWC and I soon learned that I had to aim for the head  :eek:  if I wanted something to cook! I have only shot one treerat with a full house .357 (125 STP) I found only the bottom half of him.

KJeff50cal

[Darrell Davis]

Hey there Shooters,

I recall one critter that I faced down with my 4" Security.

Hit him hard with my backup load of 2.5grs of Bullseye behind about 150gr of cast lead. When the smoke cleared, the critter was still standing, that is until he slowly toppled over like a fence post.

All of this happened at about eyelash counting  distance - shore glad I didn't miss when the chips was down, it could have been nasty, me be'in miles from no where out heer in Ol'Ideehoo.

Keep em coming! :wink: