Gray squirrels.... small game or vermin???

[dks7895]

Do ya'll consider gray squirrels small game or vermin.  Those little SOB's are vermin in my book.  If I see them in the yard, it's lights out.

[GRIMJIM]

I enjoy squirrel hunting. Never cared for eating them though. Especially the greys. Just vermin to me. At least you can get some meat off a nice sized fox squirrel.
 I usually go with a friend and give them all to him.

[SHOOTALL]

Depends , when they get in the way they are limb rats . Hey the white tail deer is vermin here when they eat the corn and bean fields bare. If you have never seen 60-100 deer in a 40 ac field eating the crops I don't expect ya to understand.

[dks7895]

SHOOTALL makes a valid point.  But I wouldn't put a rodent in the same class as a white tail.  I see gray squirrels as rats with nicer tails.  Makes for good target practice.

[Sensai]

 Both!  In the winter, they're tasty small game.  In the summer, when they're stripping my fruit trees bare, they're vermin/fertilizer.  Multi-tallented little rascals, aren't they?

[BUGEYE]

Both!  In the winter, they're tasty small game.  In the summer, when they're stripping my fruit trees bare, they're vermin/fertilizer.  Multi-tallented little rascals, aren't they?

me too.

[Swampman]

They are fun to hunt and good eating.

[mcwoodduck]

I too vote for both.
Out at the farm they are small game and a great day of hunting.
Around the house where they try to break in, nest in the eves, stash nuts in the house, and chew wires.  Vermin.
When I was in High school we were having problems with the tree rats in the vacation house and I ws getting rid of them with the 10/22.  one of our neighbors yelled at me for shooting his pets.  I expained I was only shootingthe ones nesting in the house and causing damage and I was sorry for hurting his pets.  He fed them.  It explained the peanuts in the nut storage cashes we found in the insulation.  I stopped using the 22 and went to the pellet rifle and out of his sight.
The next year there was an ordinance of no hunting in city limits.  We ate the ones I killed.  Brunswick stew and BBQ thighs.
Oh it was hunting season and I did have a license.
My parents now live at the vacation house and dad tried to trap them and bring them out to the farm, 10 miles away.  Not knowing that they can travel up to 20 miles to return.  Dad hit the tail of one with some paint and when he came back he was met with full auto fire from dad's Drozd BB gun.

[SHOOTALL]

In Va its illegal to trap tree rats and to transport them live ( I know ) .
So shooting is the best way.

[GeneRector]

  Howdy! I've been told that if your state allows live trapping of nuisance squirrels, then you need to set them free at least 5 miles away, as the crow flies, from your house. Take them less than 5 miles and they will be back soon. Always, Gene

[streak]

They are fun to hunt and good eating.

Swampman, You got the right idea !!
Hard to beat a good mess of " cat squirrels" fried and with mash potatoes, carrot/cabbage slaw,
fresh baked rolls or biscuits and milk gravy and ice tea!!

[BUGEYE]

off topic.  swampman, I have a 20ga youth model nef that looks like the middle picture.
is that a laminated stock?

[mechanic]

They are both, as some have already stated.  With a Handi 22 versa pack and cb caps, they become groceries.  Quieter than my pellet gun. 

Ben

[mcwoodduck]

They are both, as some have already stated.  With a Handi 22 versa pack and cb caps, they become groceries.  Quieter than my pellet gun. 

Ben

I was just out back the rainy day shooting the in the new Henry 22  I picked up at lunch time.

[Swampman]

off topic.  swampman, I have a 20ga youth model nef that looks like the middle picture.
is that a laminated stock?

Yes, it came of a NWTF gun.

[BUGEYE]

off topic.  swampman, I have a 20ga youth model nef that looks like the middle picture.
is that a laminated stock?

Yes, it came of a NWTF gun.

thanks

[Ladobe]

I considered them fine fodder for the cook pot, not vermin.   I really enjoyed hunting them with a 22 rifle or pistol when I lived where they do (Carmel, CA - late 60's to mid 70's), and I hunted them often all along the central to northern coastal ranges.   Used my Win 1890 pump, and starting in 1971 when I bought it just for them a Colt New Frontier Buntline covertable.   I never used shotguns or my first muzzies in the early 70's that were TC 50 & 54 Hawkens.   Closest I could come to them for hunting before those days or since is pine squirrels, plus prairie dogs, rock chucks and several species of ground squirrels which I did hunt extensively from the early 50's to just a few years ago.   

When you want a squirrel meal, you want a squirrel meal, right?  LOL   In Carmel my place was on the beach/ocean front and had several Ponderosa pines and coast live oaks on it with a healthy population of Gray's.   So a few times, when they lined up with the ocean backdrop, some would fall to my 1890 with 22 shorts so the neighbors wouldn't notice, and we'd have fresh unscheduled squirrel for lunch.   

I would love a chance to use one of my 17HM2's for them, rifle or pistol.   I've used them on several species of ground squirrels and jacks.   They are heads above the 22LR, especially when the range gets long.   So they are the perfect Gray squirrel cartridge IMO.   

[Swampman]

The best day in the woods I ever had was killing a mess of squirrels with a 20 gauge flintlock.

[bobg]

  Small game. Couldn't drag a deer out if i shot one and can't walk good enough to run the beagles anymore. Squirrels are all i hunt now. Makes a good day in the woods and they taste good too.

[bigbore442001]

I can say my vote is mixed. It depends on the circumstance. In a situation where they are causing damage to structures or for some reason an agricultural pest they it is vermin. When they are in huntable woodlands,etc I see them as a game animal with all of the rules in place to conserve the species. I know it sounds like a non answer but again it depends on when and where.