Tree rats

I'm really glad squirrels aren't as big as beavers.

Bruce

Buddy of mine works for a big auto manufacturer here in Ohio. Plants are out by me in the middle of nowhere and they have issues with ground hogs chewing on wiring harnesses. Same reason, they switched to a peanut oil to use as a lube to pull the wires and the critters found them tasty. Not sure how many of those made it to the consumer but they did have a dozen or so that had to be pulled out of the transport lot and fixed.

They've since switched over to a less tasty lube and no longer have the issue. The visual of someone trying to chase a groundhog in a lot of a couple thousand cars strikes me as rather amusing

Tree rats!! We’ve had a sweet corn stand off our driveway for quite a number of years. I had been lax in keeping the squirrel population under control for a couple of years and last year while manning the stand the squirrels would go after the corn the minute someone left the stand for whatever reason. We also have black walnut trees lining the drive and they were full of walnuts. The squirrels had a designated route they used through the woods so picking a spot underneath I declared war on them with a .410 shotgun. After 70 some squirrels had been dispatched they got the hint and stopped coming over through the windbreaks that connect our farmstead with some rural development areas. Since .410 shotshells aren’t real cheap I found .444 marlin brass could be substituted with minimal alteration and reloaded as a shotshell for 1/3rd the price. Only the rim thickness had to be thinned down in order for them to work in the break action .410 I have. Making a few handloading tools on the lathe for both the brass and regular shells makes reloading simple. Here’s a few pics of a normal .410 shotshell, .444 Marlin brass and the tools made to reload each.

bearbait said:

Nice work bird dogger, great to be able to do that yourself however the pellet gun is a cheap and effective way for me to take care of the problem.

Click to expand...

Heres an idea if you want a little entertainment

https://youtu.be/MaDVUGybFdE

bird dogger said:

Tree rats!! We’ve had a sweet corn stand off our driveway for quite a number of years. I had been lax in keeping the squirrel population under control for a couple of years and last year while manning the stand the squirrels would go after the corn the minute someone left the stand for whatever reason. We also have black walnut trees lining the drive and they were full of walnuts. The squirrels had a designated route they used through the woods so picking a spot underneath I declared war on them with a .410 shotgun. After 70 some squirrels had been dispatched they got the hint and stopped coming over through the windbreaks that connect our farmstead with some rural development areas. Since .410 shotshells aren’t real cheap I found .444 marlin brass could be substituted with minimal alteration and reloaded as a shotshell for 1/3rd the price. Only the rim thickness had to be thinned down in order for them to work in the break action .410 I have. Making a few handloading tools on the lathe for both the brass and regular shells makes reloading simple. Here’s a few pics of a normal .410 shotshell, .444 Marlin brass and the tools made to reload each.

View attachment 44428

View attachment 44429

View attachment 44430

View attachment 44431

Click to expand...

Can't you just reload the plastic hulls?

North Idaho Wolfman said:

Actually some parts of Phoenix have real Roof and sewer Rats, Arcadia is filled with them, Nasty, disgusting, buggers!

Click to expand...

OH real rats,,, I thought you were talking about the politicians,,, no offence toward the real rats

bucktail said:

Can't you just reload the plastic hulls?

Click to expand...

Sure you can, and I do reload the few I have. But you can only reload them a few times depending on how hot the load is before the plastic starts to degrade. The brass shells should last forever and that's where the real savings come from. Not sure how they'd feed in an auto loader or a pump action gun but in a break action gun where you just drop in the shells by hand they function perfectly!

Those critter catapults in all the variants are hilarious! Will have to build a version of one sometime. But they don't eliminate the problem permanently.

I had a squirrell that kept getting into a bird feeder that was hung on a shepherds hook. I went out one day and slicked the pole up with vaseline. Neighbor would sit out on his front porch and laugh at the squirrels. They would get about 4ft up the pole and lose traction. Start throwing there feet up trying to make up lost ground. Then walk funny cause everything was stucking to there feet

A coworker had a family friend who mounted a bird feeder inside a hampster wheel They mounted it in a tree in veiw of their kitchen window. Said it provided hours of entertainment

Many years ago my folks had a vicious squirrel in the yard. It killed a couple birds off the feeder going for the seed. My dad finally caught it a trap while we was there. Even in the trap that thing was nasty. After we let he let it go a few miles east (They live on ocean).

Howling said:

Many years ago my folks had a vicious squirrel in the yard. It killed a couple birds off the feeder going for the seed. My dad finally caught it a trap while we was there. Even in the trap that thing was nasty. After we let he let it go a few miles east (They live on ocean).

Click to expand...

Did the squirrel survive the long swim back to shore?

bird dogger said:

Did the squirrel survive the long swim back to shore?

Click to expand...

The relocation appeared to have worked. The squirrel never came to my folk's house. The birds use the feeder in piece now.

I went to visit my friend a while back and he was standing outside the back yard with his pellet gun. It's a 1960's CO2 powered Crosman. It holds a charge for years after a $12 rebuild kit in the 1990's at some point. Anyway I could see the frustration on his face. He's got a squirrel that gets into everything, the trailer wiring, race car, everything. Of course if there's any squirrel nearby now, he's paranoid thinking it's the one that's eating wires. So he's looking up a tree and there sits in the crotch of a couple limbs a big old fox squirrel. I pointed it out, he aims and shoots. Miss. Darn squirrel went to barking at him. Guy said he keeps shooting and missing and every single time the squirrel starts laughing at him.

The gray squirrels are outnumbering the fox squirrels 5:1 now. 20 years ago you rarely saw a gray. Now you rarely see a fox and NEVER see a black squirrel. I used to live in Iowa and the blacks were everywhere. Maybe they like the more temperate climate or maybe they don't tolerate the heat here, dunno.

Couple weeks ago I was fishing at the local lake, which is about 50,000 acres in size. Sprawled out between the hills. Anyway, I was sitting over a brush pile more or less in the middle of nowhere. That part is 2.62 miles from the ramp and about 2 1/2 to land on 3 sides, and about 500 yards to the bank over on the one side. Well I see something swimming across the water, gets closer and it was a fox squirrel. I didn't know they could swim, but apparently they're VERY good swimmers. I was impressed. I didn't know deer could swim very well either but they sure can. Seen one crossing the creek in that same general part of the lake last fall. From a distance it looked like a pile of brush floating across the water until I got closer, then realized it was a big buck.

I had them get used to my routine of feeding caged animals and they would follow the cart and take expensive fruit and produce away from my animals. I was telling an older customer about shooting over 200 hundred this year. He looked and me and had the "you sure are stupid" look on his face. Then he says "You're picking them up, ain't ya?"
Well, yea, of course.
"Let them lay. You won't have to shoot near as many"
within weeks I couldn't find one.
Chalk one up for experience.

I had a squirrel get into my barn recently, he chewed on my kubotas fuel cap. I’ll get s pic next time I’m over there.

I was fishing in a lake in a very rural area years ago. I heard something barreling through the woods. All Of a sudden a very large buck jumped into the water and started swimming across the lake. Soon after two large dogs appeared on the bank clearly out of breathe. The deer was huffing and puffing as well, I trolled over near him and took a few pictures. Unfortunately, they’re on a phone that took a crap on me so I lost them.