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SCGunNut
PostPosted: Mon Feb 03, 2025 8:33 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 10 Feb 2008
Posts: 51
Location: SC

Took the old Savage 220A hammerless single barrel 16 out for a woods walk yesterday. Used some old paper Xpert #6s. Not sure how old they were ('50s maybe?). Had one misfire but the others fired fine. No hang-fires, but they smoked like a mother! You'd have thought they were black powder!

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fourtown
PostPosted: Mon Feb 03, 2025 9:37 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 25 Jan 2014
Posts: 252
Location: MN

I am glad to see shotguns being used for what they were designed for.

I don't have kids or grand kids, or a 220, but I always thought that a hammerless single would be a good first gun foe a young shooter. Single shots with a hammer are often difficult for small hands to operate.
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Hammer bill
PostPosted: Tue Feb 04, 2025 6:18 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 09 Feb 2015
Posts: 861

I started out when I was 11 yrs old using a 410 for squirrels.Then one day an oldtimer told asked me why I used a shotgun for squirrels. My answere was ( I don't know). He said give them a chance. Use a 22. From that time on I used a 22. Did better with that
A 22. Never went back. I'm 78 now.
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bigblue
PostPosted: Tue Feb 04, 2025 8:07 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 30 Sep 2020
Posts: 199
Location: ont canada

Smile Smile Great pic I use a Win 16 Steelbuilt for bush walking and bagging those tasty rodents. Thanks for the post.

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drcook
PostPosted: Tue Feb 04, 2025 11:15 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 09 Dec 2012
Posts: 734

16's do quite handily on squirrels. We have big fox squirrels around here. 6's work but I prefer 5's

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dr = David R, not Dr. but thanks for the compliment, most folks just call me Dave
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GWP Again
PostPosted: Tue Feb 04, 2025 1:46 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 09 Dec 2022
Posts: 42
Location: Washington

While I have hunted and eaten quite a bunch of squirrel's, I have always used a pellet gun for them. Shotgun at times for rabbits though.
Good on ya for getting out and getting it done! Even better with a 16!

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SCGunNut
PostPosted: Tue Feb 04, 2025 6:30 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 10 Feb 2008
Posts: 51
Location: SC

Hammer bill wrote:
I started out when I was 11 yrs old using a 410 for squirrels.Then one day an oldtimer told asked me why I used a shotgun for squirrels. My answere was ( I don't know). He said give them a chance. Use a 22. From that time on I used a 22. Did better with that
A 22. Never went back. I'm 78 now.


Oh trust me, I shoot my share of them with .22s and a .17 Mach II when there is plenty of food in the trees, but this time of year, I mostly find them on the ground looking for the nuts they buried in the Fall. They are constantly moving, often running, rarely sitting still. All but one of these were shot on the move. It's a bit like rabbit hunting. The Full choke is perfect because they are tough to sneak up on in the crunchy leaves.
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16gaDavis
PostPosted: Wed Feb 05, 2025 8:13 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 24 Jun 2013
Posts: 2122
Location: canandaigua - western n.y. (formerly deerhunter)

SC - That pic could be made almost identically with my Excel 16ga single ! Identical ! Every time I even consider buying something else , I spot it , it winks at me , and I change my mind .

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AmericanMeet
PostPosted: Wed Feb 05, 2025 5:43 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 26 Apr 2010
Posts: 3228
Location: NCWa

SCGunNut- were those XPerts fold crimp or roll? I've had misfires from older Roll crimps but the newer fold crimps- although several decades old have always fired.
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Hammer bill
PostPosted: Thu Feb 06, 2025 9:34 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 09 Feb 2015
Posts: 861

SCGunNut wrote:
Hammer bill wrote:
I started out when I was 11 yrs old using a 410 for squirrels.Then one day an oldtimer told asked me why I used a shotgun for squirrels. My answere was ( I don't know). He said give them a chance. Use a 22. From that time on I used a 22. Did better with that
A 22. Never went back. I'm 78 now.


Oh trust me, I shoot my share of them with .22s and a .17 Mach II when there is plenty of food in the trees, but this time of year, I mostly find them on the ground looking for the nuts they buried in the Fall. They are constantly moving, often running, rarely sitting still. All but one of these were shot on the move. It's a bit like rabbit hunting. The Full choke is perfect because they are tough to sneak up on in the crunchy leaves.


I'll agree with you. Where I'm from we don't have a season till middle August. Makes for many long shots. I enjoy that as long as I have a tree to lean against or a limb for a rest.
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SCGunNut
PostPosted: Fri Feb 07, 2025 8:12 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 10 Feb 2008
Posts: 51
Location: SC

AmericanMeet wrote:
SCGunNut- were those XPerts fold crimp or roll? I've had misfires from older Roll crimps but the newer fold crimps- although several decades old have always fired.


They were roll crimped with the info printed on the end "cap". I have no idea how old they were or how they'd been stored. I just had a handful of them that a customer gave me in the gun shop I work in. We constantly get free ammo that people ask us to "dispose" of. I get a kick out of killing game with ammo that was loaded before I was even thought of (55).
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fourtown
PostPosted: Fri Feb 07, 2025 2:00 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 25 Jan 2014
Posts: 252
Location: MN

When I was much younger, I used to try to shoot up all my duck loads during the late pheasant season each year. I didn't want my shells to get "old".
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Brewster11
PostPosted: Fri Feb 07, 2025 4:27 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 08 Feb 2009
Posts: 1387
Location: Western WA

Just curious - how do gray squirrels compare to fox squirrels for table fare? We took nothing but fox squirrels back home, but out here it’s all grays with some Douglas and Reds thrown in. Some out here turn their noses up at Fox squirrels, can’t understand that.

TIA
B.
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AmericanMeet
PostPosted: Fri Feb 07, 2025 4:54 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 26 Apr 2010
Posts: 3228
Location: NCWa

Checking the old Shooter's Bibles, 1939 shows only roll crimp shells while 1953 shows only fold crimps. Not sure of the transition but appears to be during or shortly after WWII. So the shells were likely about 80 years young. Prior to WWII there was development in primers, transitioning from mercury to lead. Ammo that the military had made after 1900 that was primed with mercury primers was in storage and when taken out for WWI had a high rate of mis-fires. This prompted development of new priming compounds and it is my guess that those shells made prior to WWII were using "development" stage primers.

As for Red, Grey & Fox squirrels- in Northeast Iowa there re all three- the Reds are considered varmints, Foxes are relatively rare and Greys are the mainstay of the squirrel stew/BBQ.
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SCGunNut
PostPosted: Fri Feb 07, 2025 10:06 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 10 Feb 2008
Posts: 51
Location: SC

That makes sense. I also had a few paper Super-X "high brass" #4s with the fold crimp, likely from the '50s, and they fired like they were loaded last week. If the roll crimped ones were WWII era, that's pretty cool that they still put meat in the pot, with the exception of that one shell.
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