I walked out the door with my lunch and laptop bag in hand, CCW behind my right hip. I heard a sudden ruckus about head high on my right. My reaction was something between a cringe and a mild spasm. Turns out a squirrel had scampered down the gutter on my side porch just as I walked down the steps. If he had been lying in wait for an ambush, I'd have been had.

Wait.......Hold on.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

I'm glad he didn't attack!

Now get ready for the inevitable "what's the best squirrel gun" discussion!

I prefer the .357 Magnum. Cleans 'em and cooks 'em at the same time.

Even with situational awareness, nobody is prepared for every possible scenario.

A tip. Try to get in the habit of keeping your "gun hand" free. That way it's available if you need it.

I read a story about a couple who were killed when they exited a restaurant and were shocked to see a man beating, and then shooting his ex-wife at her parked car. The man then turned to them. They were walking hand in hand, and though the husband recognized the danger and wanted to draw his concealed pistol, his wife had a "death grip" on his hand and he couldn't get free in time. The man killed them both.
Suffice to say that I not only try to keep my hand free, but my wife now walks on the other side!

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Stay protected my friends.

I never really thought about it when holding hands. When carrying a child, absolutely. Unlike many things you hold in your hand...a kid is one thing you can't throw at your target as a distraction in order to draw your weapon.

Glad you weren't attacked. Those things can bite and scratch....take this from someone who as a kid tried to, and succeeded, in grabbing one, they are real hard to let go of , let me tell you. Grabbing him was easy, letting go wasn't, them things are mean!
Gary

I was a 15 year old squirrel hunting in TN with the neighbor kid (we lived out in the sticks). We chased 3 squirells into a head high hole in a tree. You wait here, I'll be right back. I return with a hand full of bottle rockets. Light 'em up, drop 'em in, step back and wait with my H&R 20ga Topper. Upon the report, they come flying out of that tree alright, right onto the top of my head... like a big stepping stone. I then duck for cover for fear of being shot, but no worries, the neighbor kid is rolling on the ground laughing so hard he's crying.... hmmmm, some help he was.

Best squirrel pistol is a .44Mag, unless you have access to....I don't know....a .416 Rigby. You want those spawns of satan really dead.

Okay, I have a story! When I was a kid, around 14, we were squirrel hunting with pellet rifles. My Crosman would kill one but my friend's BB gun would only knock them out of the tree. Herbie, my friend, had a dog named Snoopy, a beagle mix, and he always came along.

Well, Herbie knocked one out of the tree, and before it could get up and run away, Snoopy ran up to bite it. The squirrel latched onto Snoopy's tongue, and the dog started yelping loudly and violently shaking his head from side to side, with that squirrel still attached! We were rolling on the ground laughing!

This was roughly 41 years ago, but I still feel bad for that dog!

I kept my gun hand free during my 30 year LEO career and continue that habit in retirement.

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Old Cop
LEO (Ret.)

To Mexistrat: check out the Google home page. It looks like your little friend taunting you!

In the Border Patrol Academy if we were caught with anything in our gun hand...at any time...the instructors would let us have it. It is a very good practice to keep your gun hand free.

Fox

My favorite squirrel story:
I got a panic call from a neighbor that he had a squirrel in his house and needed my assistance. Being that he was a lawyer and of course not capable of dealing with real problems I went over to see what was happening.
A squirrel had fallen down his chimney and somehow managed to get caught by one paw in the flue. Let me tell you this was one P.O.'d squirrel hanging there! I told him to hold a bag under the squirrel while I released it from the flue. He was to then take it out side and let it go.
The lawyer panicked when I released the squirrel it missed the bag and proceeded to run all over the house. Mrs Lawyer was NOT impressed!
We finally managed to shoo it out an open window.
Jim

This squirrel has a unique way of keeping out of the line of fire. Reminds me of Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd!

Squirrel Likes Shotgun

Responding to a Ninja/Squirrel attack from the porch roof..... is one situation I know I don't practice enough...........

IIRC....... It's happened at least twice; once to James Bond and a earlier attack on the Shogun........

I can feel that dog's pain....Lordy that makes me cringe just thinking about a squirrel bite on the tounge.
Mine only bit the flesh between my thumb and index finger....
The tounge....OH NO !
Gary

as a kid hunting in the woods of Maine, we had a SLOW morning in a tree stand. after 6 hours in the stand, my buddy decided to light up a smoke. after hours of complete silence, a big grey squirrel showed up mad as heck. needless to say, he was chirpping, squacking, and charging us in the tree. my buddy turned to me and said, "too bad for him Bloom..." and cracked off a round from his big bore winchester 94 in .356 win. hips, tail 2 strands of skin, shoulders and a head. swear he chirped on his way down, but the ringing in my ears from the shot drowned it out. watch out, them sruirrels are dangerous, and hearty.

Wasn't it Skeeter Skelton who was snowed in for several days at a hunting camp, out of food and all but out of his favorite drinking material,"Pappy Van Winkle" bourbon.
He was handgun hunting with a .44 mag, and finally a squirrel came around.

His comment after a direct hit, "squirrel tail and ears don't add much to the stew pot" !

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wanna do right-- not right now

Save Gunpowder!! Get a Jack Russell!! Mice, Rat's, and Squirrel's are no problem!! They will even teach a 'possum to play Dead!!!!!!

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Sounds familiar ,, I was about 12 yrs old .. squirrel hunting with a Crossman pellet rifle. Shot a squirrel out the top of a tree.. Must of been a 20 to 30 foot fall. Figured the squirrel was dead,, and picked it up... It wasn't ,, like grabbing the wrong end of a chain saw.. Bit me about a half dozen times before I could let it go...

I am right handed, my wife says she is correct handed (left). Back in 1976 when we started dating it worked out the we held our "off hands" with each other. That worked out well when I (then we) started carrying. It evolved into a routine of which person went where when drawing and firing. You have to do it not talk about it. Ivan

I walk my dog on his leash in one hand and the other grips my cane. Which hand goes for my CCW? Needless to say, my situational awareness is on high alert after dark, especially after dark. I do keep a gun near each hand, just in case.

This guy moved in with us three weeks ago today. Found him floundering around out on the road on a 90 plus degree day. His eyes weren't open yet and he was just about burned up and done. Didn't think he'd make it. Gave him cream and honey, and then kitten formula.... well,... he made it, and it's going to be hard to let him go when he's old enough! He's a hoot to watch and learns fast, and the dog loves him (female Saint Bernard).
Named him Lucky.... lucky that Pat found him before the crows did.
Bill

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This thread is gettin' real squirrelly.



My youngest got the below gag present a few years back. Whenever he'd see a squirrel in the yard it was fun to watch him go up to his room, grab the squirrel underwear, run out into the yard, and chase the squirrel. He never did get the underwear on one of those squirrels.

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Scoundrel & Ne'er-Do-Well

Was 15 or so, hunting deer with Dad. Didn't have a stand, just sat down with my back against a good-sized tree and tried to stay motionless.

After a while I began to feel small pieces of something or other falling inside the collar of my coat, one or two every few minutes. At first I ignored it, trying not to spook any deer in the area by looking around to see why this tree apparently was shedding its seed or whatever down my coat. When it didn't quit, I finally looked up into the perturbed faces of two fox squirrels sitting on a limb next to each other, maybe 8' or so directly above me. They had been chewing pieces off of acorns or nuts(don't recall the species of the tree) and dropping them on me, apparently trying to run me off. The looks they both gave me told the story.

As I recall, I got up and found another tree.

Not a CCW or self-defense story, I know. But who knows just how nasty those two might have become had I not retreated?

Andy

I would suggest a 20lb cane in one hand and an 85lb Rottweiler on the leash in the other hand.... Once my wife didn't have a cane but she DID have Sinbad, (our Rottweiler), there... All he had to do was make his "presence known" and the Perp had business elsewhere!! RAPIDLY!!!!!

Very cute! Not the first time I've heard of someone doing this. Good luck letting it go!

I was deer hunting once, a nice clear day, and then I thought I heard rain. "Weird", methinks, "it's too nice to rain", so I look around and, sure enough, there's a squirrel running back and forth on a hollow branch and his feet made it sound like it was raining.

No, I didn't shoot it.

But I thought about it.....

Wait, were you a 15 year old squirrel, hunting in TN or a 15 year old, squirrel hunting in TN?
Apologies, couldn't help it.

The first thing a Cop's wife is taught is "NEVER hold/hinder my gun hand ".

"Wait, were you a 15 year old squirrel...." Naaawww, just edumacated in the Franklin County TN school system. That neighbor kid now works at the Nissan plant in Dechard... about 12 mi. from where we lived.

I miss my .416 Rigby. I bought it for Sasquatch, but really it was perfect for most anything. As the man at the shop said, elephant rifles are also good for everything smaller than elephants. I do not trust those squirrels myself. Always chittering and plotting....

Ray Stevens knows all about it.

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CPT, Armor (Ret)
Luke 22:36