Today I had a squirrel shrug off a hit from a 900gr 25% foc arrow tipped with a 275gr field point and adder, shot from a 70# bow.
While I did get a follow up shot in and recover the squirrel, I was baffled as to why it didn't penetrate more than the field point.
The arrow was a dense spiral flu flu, which I suspect was the issue.
Has anyone else had problems with spiral flu flus lacking the power to take game? Should I switch to 6 fletch, which go way farther than spirals?
I thought flu flus were great till I hunted with them.
I like sgt's and my regular arrows. Sometimes footed.
Spirals probably create the most resistance making them slower moving. I use 3 or 4 fletch and trim them to my needs. But mostly I just use my regular fletching
spirals for arial shots and coolness factor.
Regular fletch for squirrels
May have been part of the problem
4 fletch helical 5" will give enough energy at 30 yards to bowl over any squirrel. They'll carry at least 80-100 yards.
Squirrels are plain tough critters to kill sometimes. If deer were that tough we'd all be in trouble.
I wouldn't worry about it. I think the issue is not your fletch, but the fact that squirrels and other small game can "give" and absorb impact in a way a deer won't.
I've had enough squirrels take solid hits with all kinds of blunts/small game heads from my whitetail setup and then escape unrecovered that I won't shoot them with anything but old, ground down broadheads. Hate to lose any animal I shoot. If they were deer sized, we'ld have to hunt them with elephant calibers!
I agree with Cootling. Had the same thing happen to me once. Regular fletch from a 55# bow. I shot it off the top of a stump. My theory is it was trying to move and the arrow pushed some. Had to finish it off in the tree. 70# might be too light for squirrels though......sorry had to say it.
Squirrels have real tough hides and soft bodies. What I see a lot is that the arrow hits what's ever behind them and keeps the arrow from going all the way threw them. You want a fast hard hitting arrow for ground squirrels I like adders behind a sharp field point. Adder keeps the arrow in them so I have a handle to drag them out of their holes . Tree squirrels I use broad heads.
I use 125 gr Snuffer seconds that I bought years ago for squirrel. Also use my regular fletch. Flu flu's are noisy and squirrel will dodge them.
Broadheads work.
Squirrel are tough
As Thumper said, Squirrel's are tough. I have hit several and they just run off after recovering from blunts. I shoot my three fletch with old broad heads.
Old broadheads only for me.
I shoot a 3 fletch arrow with full width to them like I was making a flu flu but only put 3 feathers on a 2216. I then take 9mm shell casing and hot glue them to a 125gr field point...I then go around the rim of the casing with tin snips and make a "ninja star" point. It'll kill them suckers!
The problem with hitting small and light creatures like birds or squirrels is a slow but heavy arrow tend to push away the animal instead of penetrating them. This is likely made worse by the flu flus. Imagine a 16 ton truck hitting you at 3 mph vs a motorcycle hitting you at 60 mph.
This sums it up ...
(http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn125/frassettor/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpsd007ac7a.jpg) (http://s303.photobucket.com/user/frassettor/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpsd007ac7a.jpg.html)
QuoteOriginally posted by frassettor:
This sums it up ...
(http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn125/frassettor/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpsd007ac7a.jpg) (http://s303.photobucket.com/user/frassettor/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpsd007ac7a.jpg.html)
I KNEW IT!!!! :laughing: :laughing:
Roflmao!!!
Super squirrel! Good one
Lots of good insights here.
But,
Birdbow nailed it on the head, broadhead that is.
QuoteOriginally posted by Birdbow:
I've had enough squirrels take solid hits with all kinds of blunts/small game heads from my whitetail setup and then escape unrecovered that I won't shoot them with anything but old, ground down broadheads. Hate to lose any animal I shoot. If they were deer sized, we'ld have to hunt them with elephant calibers!
X2
frassettor - that made my day!! :biglaugh:
Bernie Bjorklund
NC Iowa/SW Wisconsin
Thanks for all the ideas guys! I'm gonna take your advice and try out a 6 fletch design with 3.5'' feathers. They definitly go higher and farther than my spirals, so in theory that'll do the trick.
I've bowhunted them religiously for years and wouldn't think of using anything but standard fletch and some kind of cutting head. Based on a few hundred squirrel kills, that is the most effective set up. And you're going to lose plenty of squirrels with cutting heads too, just not as many in my experience as with blunted stuff. Shots in the chest, head and neck are not normally the issue. Front leg, gut and back leg shots are almost hopeless with blunts but you still have a chance with a cutting tip, especially if the arrow stays in the squirrel. However, I've still seen more than my share of squirrels drag arrows into holes with them way up in some tree.
I personally do not believe shock does squat to a squirrel regardless of bow weight, arrow weight or fletch choice. You'll be the most consistent in terms of recovering them with cutting heads in my experience and that's why it's all I'll use.
For me, it's only Magnus small game heads... blunts with a razor sharp bleeder inserted. And NEVER a flu flu... only regularly fletched arrows... hickory... 650 gr. Kills squirrels dead.
squirrels are used to blunt force trauma, they fall from treetops all the time.
Judos.
I started using broadheads on squirrels since the last one I shot at 15 yards with a hex head hit the ground then took off running. They are some tough critters.
Where was the squirrel when shot? On a tree trunk?
I decided last year to only use a cutting head when attempting to bow shoot squirrels.
I was out hunting them with my daughter's little pink .22 (no laughter, it's a great shooting gun!) and shot one off of a limb about 30' up. It fell, and thumped the ground, HARD. I thought that was a dead squirrel. I was proven wrong when it got up and ran away from me.
I still swear that I saw it pause, look back at me and raise it's middle squirrel-finger, laugh at me and disappear forever. :eek:
Seriously, when that happened I realized that when I was trying to shoot one with a bow, a cutting style head would be the only way I had any hope of killing one with an arrow (short of hitting one in the eye).
I still haven't connected with an arrow YET, but I will only attempt it with broadheads or an edged small game head from now on.
-Tony
And as far as the fletching goes, I will try the 6 fletch shield or parabolic myself, also. I will otherwise probably not try to use any flu-flu's, and just use arrows that I wouldn't mind too much if I lost it.
I can't believe nobody said anything about "nutters".
(http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h21/VAbowbender/Harvests/B63EB149-7232-4B27-A658-829CA98F82CB.jpg)