I know they would kill a rabbit, but could I use blunts on squirrels?
If you use Tarantulas, yes :bigsmyl:
I won't even use Judos on them, those little stinkers are tough! I like Game Nabbers or broadheads, something like the Magnus bladed blunt should work well also.
I've killed squirrels with Ace Hexhead blunts on several occasions. Best to hit 'em in the head though cause they can be vicious little boogers when wounded. I wouldn't use a field point though, no sense in making them made unneccesarily.
Sometimes. I've killed 'em dead as dirt with blunts. I've also had them "return from the dead" on me using the same heads. All my squirrel heads incorporate some kind of a blade or edge on them these days.
Yes.
I would use broadheads or gamenabbers, blunts will not do it unless you get a head shot.
Steel blunts will put them away if you hit them in the head. I use those for shots in the trees. For shots on the ground, I use broadheads. Pound for pound, they're about the toughest thing to kill there is.
I feel that if deer were as tough as squirrels, we would never kill any of them. I put a hex head through a squirrel this fall and I watched as the squirrel climbed a tree, came back down and walked off with my arrow. Never did find the arrow or squirrel. From now on it is only broadheads. Rick
It will kill them, you jusy might not know it. I hit a squirrel with a blunt. He sat on a tree limb for about 30 minutes before falling dead.
Chet Stevenson, the "Ole Bowhunter" probably killed more squirrels than all of us on this site put together. The man was an artist and an inovator when it came to his equipment and he preferred steel blunts to anything else. I shoot them exclusively. They don't get stuck in trees and if you ever want to see how much energy they have just try shooting one at half inch thick plywood some time.
I have shot alot of squirrels with blunts and usually I break their back and watch them climb the tree with only their front legs working. they are very tough. I switched to some broadheads called the varmiter. they put the whoop butt on those squirrels. no more crawl offs.
I agree with Raminshooter, blunts have probably killed more squirrels than anyhead. Their vital are not big so any head can leave wounded ones, judos can tear them open and broadheads can slice a part off and they still make it ot a hole. I have shot about everything at squirrels and have killed more with blunts than any head, but last year I started using a sharpened wingnut screwed unto a ramin dowel and that is working well. Shawn
Shawn---can you post a pic of your sharpened wingnut setup?
Last year I shot a 580-grain arrow tipped with a 125 grain G5 small game head from a 45lb bow at a squirrel that was 7 yards away and I hit this squirrel hard in his side. The arrow after hitting the squirrel dropped straight to the ground, as did the squirrel. I thought yes... my first traditional kill! When the squirrel hit the ground he flopped around a little bit, as I would expect him to do. I confidently head over to retrieve my trophy and then he jumped up and took off. :eek:
He went up into a tree and peeked around the trunk at me and I took another shot. This shot glanced off the tree and missed him completely. I looked down to nock another arrow, looked back up in the tree and saw no squirrel. I circled the tree while looking up in the tree and all the surrounding trees and saw no squirrel. So I set back against a tree a little ways from where I last saw him and I waited and watched and watched and watched. I set for 45 minutes waiting for some kind of movement or sound from him and saw and heard nothing.
After 45 minutes I went back to the tree of his last know origin and started doing circles around the tree searching the ground thinking maybe he died and fell out of the tree and I didn't see or hear it happen. I spent another 20 minutes searching the ground and found nothing.
So to answer your question, no I wouldn't use a blunt (rubber blunt) to hunt squirrels unless you can consistently hit a golf ball. Squirrels are tough little dudes!
I would advise rubber blunts if your tempted to shoot straight up.
Lets not forget gravity :)
I only use judo points. Blunts would probably work. Good huntin' !
DR
Ace hex blunts work for me.
Gamenabbers or bodkins do it for me.
I think blades are in order...heck I shot one 4 times with a SHOTGUN once and it still ran off. The first shot blew the thing out of the tree and I could tell from the leaves that he was in the middle of the pattern every time after that...beat all I've ever seen.
A steel blunt will go through a 3/4" piece of plywood at 14 paces, I'm sure it will humanly dispatch any squirrel that you will come across.
IMO, blunts won't work consistantly on Midwestern fox squirrels. I use a modified field point which stays in the critter to help with recovery.
Squirrels are not necessarily harder to kill than most other critters but they are very, very difficult to kill quickly. Since squirrels have the ability to climb trees and get out of reach, and are smaller than most other game animals we hunt and harder to find even on the ground after hit, it is important to find a way to kill them quickly.
I don't know what is the absolute best head to use as I haven't tried everything out there. I'm always looking for the "best", but of the heads I have used by far the best is the bladed blunt. It produces both the shock of the blunt with the penetration and cutting ability of a broadhead. Keeping the arrow in the squirrel after a hit greatly reduces the chance of a squirrel being able to get back up a tree before he dies, or before you can get to him after he has been able to hide on the ground. Too many times a broadhead alone will pass through, and the steel blunt alone will not always penetrate enough to stay in the squirrel.
A squirrel hard hit with about any head will die, many times a slow and painful death if you can't get to him and find him quickly. The goal is to be able to retrieve the squirrel, and do so as quickly and humanely as possible. Head shots of course are ideal, and in this case type of head used is irrelevant. I can't even come close to getting 100% head shots so type of head used is important to me.
I agree with Tom. I've been hunting squirrels with bow and arrow for over four decades and have learned a thing or three. They are tough little buggers and have the tenacity of a badger.
If you get them close on the ground, and hit them in the head, about anything will kill them; however, that usually is not the case. I generally use modified broadheads...snubbed tips.
Here's one:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/oldearcher46/01060005-1.jpg)
george d stout, where did you get heads like that to modify?, how did you modify them?
Ace blunts, or a bladed blunt--you get shock plus tissue damage/blood loss. An Ace Hex Head blunt behind the shoulder will kill one quick. If I knew how to post pics I'd show one.
Chad
Ian, they are Bodkin heads that I have had lying around the house for a few decades. I think you can still get them. I snub the nose off and add a few cuts out of the blade to keep them from sneaking under leaves so easily. Nothin' fancy.
it depends greatly.
(http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff63/c_sweeney/IM002325a.jpg)
Here ya go, Yolla Bolly. Hope this helps. Sharpened wingnuts are one of my favorite types of small game tips...
Judos do the job for me. I won't say I've never lost one, but it's a rare event.
Thanks Chris, I was hoping someone would post a pict of one. Shawn
Does the wood arrow/wingnut combo have a tendency to split the shaft with it sticking out like that or drive the wingnut down the shaft
It does seem to break (the shaft) behind the end of the wingnut with hard hits when I'm out stumping, but then again, what doesn't?
If I hunted only grey squirrels, I would probably use more blunts or game nabbers. With the larger fox squirrels, my favorite is also a blunt with a small triangle blade soldered or glued into a cut in the end of the blunt. Even a field point has the advantage of at least staying in the squirrel while a blunt will usually fall out. If the arrow stays in the squirrel, of course you will have a better chance of getting it and it not running off wounded. Squirrels are unbelievably tough.
i use game nabers because the hit hard penatrate and slice witch wors well on tough squirls
Figured I'd post these in case some of the folks interested in the sharpened wingnuts shoot carbons/aluminums...
(http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff63/c_sweeney/vvvvvv.jpg)
Top point is a sharpened 5/16" wingnut with a 125-grain target point. The bottom one is a sharpened 1/4" wingnut with a 1" 8/32 machine screw (which, according to woodchucker, comes in at an ideal 125 grains total.)
*Just a side note, I only use the bottom setup if I know I won't be stumping as I hunt (rarely ever). That machine screw has a tendancy to bend with only moderately hard hits...
For you guys that shoot broadheads at squirrels - am I right in assuming you are only shooting them on the ground?
I can't see shooting a broadhead at a squirrel 20' up an oak - wouldn't you be likely to lose the arrow, head, squirrel and all up the tree? But if I'm wrong about that, I'd love to understand your strategy. :-)
Squirrels are tough! Use exploding heads!
Hex Head by ACE for the trees...and Bhead on the ground.
Those wing nut heads might work as well, but I've never tried them. They look like they would do much better than regular nuts...course that wouldn't take much.
Regular nutters don't work very well on small game. Worse blunt I've ever used or witnessed. Seen more rabbits run off from killing shots that I cared to see, frog swimming off with a nutted arrow, and I remember shooting them nut heads with Doug Campbell out of a 69# recurve he had....and I had a half dozen or so gofers run back in their hole after being pummeled squarely. We both gave up on them after that day. They just don't kill at a high percentage at all.
Charlie Lamb experimented with those back in 48, and if they worked he'd still be using them. It was cool looking through his barrel of odds and ends dating back decades.
(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y230/bluegrassbowhunter/SG.jpg)
The one on the left is a blunt that has the back end flared out some & work great on cottontails around here,blunts are gonna shoot through em anyway might as well cut some tissue going in.
The one on he right is a small game nabber & works great on treerats & usually won't stick in a tree(notice I said usaully)you can do a field point the same way as the blunt pictured above & makes a good squirrel head & are cheaper than the nabbers.
If you hit them in the head a rubber blunt works quite well.
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g128/ad2877/Picture064.jpg
I prefer broadheads for squirrels. I back them up with a scorpio. Have not lost a squirrel since going this route. Might miss the little buggers but havn't lost a wounded one in a couple of years.
Bluegrasshunter above shows a blunt with the back end flared. I do the same thing to field points, and find that works well
I use nutters and do well. BUT...I carry a Shrew hawk for the coupe-de-grace cause they will "come back to life. I like to shoot at them while they are in a tree and would really frown on flinging almost anything cept nutters at them. Once spent, I don't think a nutter arrow is gonna damage anyone who might accidentally be hit down range. That has never happened and prolly won't.....but I worry.
ChuckC
GingivitisKahn, Most shots are on the ground on the trunk of the tree. Of course, common sense would tell you when to not shoot. My broadheads are blunted enough that they wouldn't penetrate much, but high-tree shots call for hex blunts, etc.
What George said!
George and Terry - fair enough. That makes sense to me. :-)