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:  

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.

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...

 

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.

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.