Would a decent air rifle kill a grey squirrel?

[Impasse]

They used to chuck them about with little regard to safety.

[Tyre Smoke]

Impasse said:

They used to chuck them about with little regard to safety.

I think that was the idea!

[the_lone_wolf]

SHutchinson said:

I quite like grey squirrels. How about a squirrel proof bird feeder?

Please also budget for a motion activated GoPro:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgDa_cpgHWs

The video above is best enjoyed with this playing in the background:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK6TXMsvgQg

[MarshPhantom]

Impasse said:

MarshPhantom said:

The Queen is non-native, are we allowed to shoot her?

Aunty Liz was born in Mayfair, her mother in Hitchin and her mother in Belgravia. How far back are you going to declare a non-native?

Did the grey squirrels cross the channel on a raft?

[AlexRS2782]

Well I shot one today, albeit with the garden hose

Good contact and knocked it right off of the tree branch, where it was trying to hide behind foliage, shortly after attempting to gain access to the nut / suet sprinkle feeder. So far it hasn't returned for fear of another soaking

[lowdrag]

I use a Theoben Crow Magnum .22. I bought it years ago but firstly the company folded and it's FAC now anyway. I use it for rabbits, but mostly magpies and it is effective at 40 yards and more. Extremely accurate.

[FlyingMeeces]

AlexRS2782 said:

Well I shot one today, albeit with the garden hose

Good contact and knocked it right off of the tree branch, where it was trying to hide behind foliage, shortly after attempting to gain access to the nut / suet sprinkle feeder. So far it hasn't returned for fear of another soaking

yknow I think not moving the local population but, er, modifying their behaviour - so they hold the same territory but eat elsewhere - might, as long as it's not pissing anybody else off too badly, actually be a really really good plan! Pay a bunch of 10 year olds a tenner to spend a few days of the holidays hiding out with super soakers and just make your back garden a really unappealing-to-squirrels spot? Bonus per squirrel soakered or something.

[McVities]

I've got no issues with anyone that wants to exterminate a few thousand fluffy tree rats with a gun or five.

For those seeking a more humane option, apparently, birds do not notice the effects of capsaicin whereas squirrels are very sensitive.......a couple of scotch bonnets (other proprietary potent chillies are available) chopped up and well-mixed with the feed should do a good job. Would be interesting to see the results on film

[yellowjack]

ATG said:

viscountdallara said:

How weird !
My Mother was walking her dog in Devon yesterday afternoon. She heard an "enormous bang", which startled both her and the dog.( and probably a few squirrels too).
It turns out that there was a live grenade, pin in, in someone's garden. Disposal squad called and neutralised it.... With a bang !

I wonder how often these things turn up? Just how many grenades have people managed to lose? The mind boggles.

Modern times, on a purpose built grenade range, it's close to impossible to 'lose' a grenade. Training is conducted such that the rate of grenades down the range means you KNOW that yours exploded. You're also only issued with the specific number of grenades allotted for that practice.

Rewind to WWI and WWII, and blokes were carrying grenades around on exercises, and lobbing them around in a less controlled manner than these days. So it was quite possible to throw one that didn't go 'bang' and not know it, and because "there was a war on" it wasn't so critical to send squads of troops out to search for the odd one dropped out of someone's kit with the pin still in.

There's a unit called Explosive Ordnance Clearance Group, staffed mostly by civil servants, which goes around the country doing deep clearance of former MOD ranges that are no longer used, and are going back to public access, farming, or being built over. Most of what they turn up is 'solid shot' projectiles (I've got a cannon ball in my garden that was recovered from one site I worked on with them, so it goes back a long way). But a surprising amount of 'live' unexploded stuff also surfaces after many years in the ground. It tends to be in softer soils, where impact fuses have failed to function, or munitions were never properly fused when dropped from aeroplanes or fired. Everything from 1,000lb bombs to small calibre ammunition can, and does turn up. Bear in mind that there were literally millions of soldiers training all over the UK during hostilities. Studland Bay is one place that springs to mind, where large items have turned up after many years when the dunes have shifted.