I know there are several threads on here, in the past on arrowheads for squirrels. I was bowhunting yesterday morning and it was slow, but a squirrel as often happens tempted me, into a shot. It jumped up onto a stump at about 5 yards or so, and I managed to swap out my broadhead arrow for a Judo, thinking I would try this one more time. Having tried this a several times in the past, and as expected, I hit that squirrel solid and hard with that Judo headed 625 grain arrow, knocked him off of the stump, and for a second, I thought I had him, he was stunned, for maybe 3 seconds, then as usual for me, he got up and scampered off. The Judo hit him hard but didn't even break the skin, I believe.

The Judo has another problem also, it's noisy to pull out of my backquiver. So, wanting a single flat broadhead type head for this application, I modified a Ace broadhead, to what I think will be much more effective on that occasional shot at a squirrel.

I have not shot a squirrel with it yet, but I tested in my target I used for testing broadheads and it shoots very accurately, so I am excited to try it out.

I just think it will penetrate pretty good but still have some shock value and tear up jake. And be quiet and easy to pull out of my back quiver, unlike the Judo which is a great stump shooting arrow, but frankly, I have never had much success on killing squirrels or rabbits with it, and the wires always scrape the inside of my backquiver and make a noise when trying to get it out of my quiver.

Rubber blunts will kill them graveyard dead...

I have tried rubber blunts before, and never had much luck with them. Maybe on a solid head shot they might work, but I am not very good at hitting the head on a squirrel. I did hit a squirrel with a rubber blunt one day, and it just bounced off of the squirrel, and the squirrel went on about it's business, and that was with a 60 pound recurve, and probably a 600 grain arrow.

Try the ACE hexblunt, and your problems will be over, and they will not stick in the tree.

Bob

I like your idea, should work great.

I used a filed tip with a washer behind it.. Penetrates & shock both.

I use old broadheads because if squirrels were deer sized we couldn't kill them. LOL

Nice.. I used broadheads as well and picked my shots accordingly..

I always used plane old blunts or ACE hex blunts -

Well, I've only shot one with a rubber blunt that I hit... It was a rubber blunt over field point with flu-flu feathers, so it was actual hunting weight matching close to my broadhead hunting arrows...

He was about 10 yards or so away on a limb about eye level of me in my treestand... He was facing me all mad flickering his tail... Rubber blunt hit square in the front of the chest and he dropped stone dead barely made a kick when he hit the ground... I was drop jaw shocked, never realized they were that lethal on small game... I carry a rubber blunt, a Judo, and 3 broadheads in my quiver every time I'm in the woods with bow in hand...

Andy Man, I have an Ace hex blunt in my quiver, I have not tried it on a squirrel yet.

Jack said, "I use old broadheads because if squirrels were deer sized we couldn't kill them. LOL"

If they were deer sized, I wouldn't even go in the woods, without a 44 mag, at least. (:

I use a washer behind a slightly blunted (filed) field point or a knock off of a converta-blunt behind a field point. It hits hard, gets about 1-1.5" of penetration, and Flys well enough at short range.

Yep, I built a couple of the washered heads, last year on some old 4 blade broadheads. I never actually shot one of them, at a squirrel for some reason. I like the washer idea and might add it to this head here. But for my hill style backquiver I kind of like just the flat profile without the washer, and thinking that the reversed front cut, I made would still produce ample shock, along with penetration and cutting.

Use old broadhead

I also use a broadhead, why not?

As a rule, rubber blunts have killed big squirrels for me on headshots and when I’ve been able to smash the squirrel against a tree. When I have picked them off of a tree trunk or branch, they have invariably run off; probably running off to die, but that’s not the objective….

I’ve been shooting flu-flus with .38 cases up front recently, and have been very impressed by what they do to an aluminum can; I also like how they stand up to solid hits on very solid pine/spruce stumps. No damage to the cedars, either…. Oldest trick in the book for good reason, I guess….

Ace Hex seem well thought out, and they sure do have a great selection of weights available. I have some glue ons which I purchased quite some time ago, and I don’t think I have yet managed to hit a squirrel with one…

I guess I will probably be making up more flu flus…

That seems like a waste of a good Broadhead. Why not just shoot them with the broadhead if they are on the ground. That way you don't have to switch arrows. The BH will sharpen up pretty well with a file and you can continue hunting. If a squirrel is higher up and tempting me, then I will switch to a squirrel arrow. My squirrel arrows are inexpensive bamboo or woodies usually fletched with scraps of cut fletching. I found that even a shell casing tipped arrow from a 62-pound bow will often thump a squirrel and leave him to run off. I would never consider a rubber blunt on our tough grey squirrels. I drill and screw in a drywall screw and sharpen it down to a point. This will get into the squirrel's tough hide and improve recovery chances. I have also found our squirrels are fast enough to dodge a flu flu. I have found this method to be effective and I sometimes even shoot a deer whilst squirrel hunting!

Yup, used those in the past also but now field tips are getting expensive too.

@Twofer— are those 100% home-made? I have heard that you can make your own “hula skirts” with a pair of snips…

Squirrel season opens here tomorrow and we have some trouble-makers here at the house. Have to see how my shooting holds up after a whole month of simulated Elk- hunting shots ;)

I like that hula skirt idea, hadn't seen that before.

Yes, homemade and had the idea from the old game nabber heads. Just take a pair of needle nosed pliers and pinch tightly and bend upwards. The steel will tear and fold pretty easily all around to form the skirt.

I shot a squirrel at less than 10 yards in the head with a hex blunt. Bow was 56# of draw weight and a direct heavy hit right on the noggin. The darn thing feel to the ground off the limb it was perched on and to my surprise climbed right back up the tree. I couldn't believe it.

Heavy Metal, yeah! That's what I am talking about. And the reason I decided to try this head, I pictured at the start of this thread.

Another diy option:

8/32" screw, nuts/washers to fine tune weight, small wing nut.

Kills tree rats better than it should, pulls well from back quiver, will not bury in trees.

Susceptible to bending in the unsupported threaded section (green line) but cheap enough ($.05-.10) to replace or simply discard.

two4hooking's brass case + screw tip is something I'd like to try if I can modify it to thread into an adapter.

I kind of like that set up, Snow Crow

Liking this thread, been thinking on squirrel hunting this season.

Well, let me tell you what I have seen so far this year….

We have an issue around the house with Pine squirrels, which not only seem to be getting into the crawlspace, and pulling out insulation for use in their nests up in the spruces, but several of them had taken to processing pinecones on the front porch, which leaves pitch all over everything, so really a maintenance issue… This is Not Hunting; this is pest control.

But the season opened yesterday. And these rascals are BOLD.

Rubber blunt to the thorax: a good hit scuffs off some hair. With a cedar flu-flu at less than 10 yards, they’re toast. Honestly, I think that a 500-ish grain arrow in the mid-section gives them a non-survivable concussion just by shear forces taking them off of a limb. Past experience is that such is not the case with the large Grays and Foxes, but Destroyed is punching in a whole new weight division.

.38 Spcl case on a cedar flu-flu: one clean pass-through (broadside, picking off of a limb) and one full penetration (quartering away on the ground).

.38 brass wins over rubber blunts. Massive trauma AND rips through the hide. Still have 100 gr rubber blunts on top of 150 gr steel blunts in my quiver, but the steel tends to punch right through the rubber when you hit dirt, etc….

I do think that the screw through the primer of the .38 brass has a lot to recommend it when hunting big grays or foxes, and if nothing else it should improve the grip of the brass on the cedar shafts, so what’s not to like?

But since I have them, I am pretty interested in mounting up some Hex blunts; they are probably more demanding of accuracy than the big, rubber dudes, but they will be much more likely to cut a nice neat hole through the hide of whatever you hit. I can’t help but imagine that rawhide from a Fox squirrel was probably about as good as it gets for a primitive bowstring…..

Well, let me tell you what I have seen so far this year….

We have an issue around the house with Pine squirrels, which not only seem to be getting into the crawlspace, and pulling out insulation for use in their nests up in the spruces, but several of them had taken to processing pinecones on the front porch, which leaves pitch all over everything, so really a maintenance issue… This is Not Hunting; this is pest control.

But the season opened yesterday. And these rascals are BOLD.

Rubber blunt to the thorax: a good hit scuffs off some hair. With a cedar flu-flu at less than 10 yards, they’re toast. Honestly, I think that a 500-ish grain arrow in the mid-section gives them a non-survivable concussion just by shear forces taking them off of a limb. Past experience is that such is not the case with the large Grays and Foxes, but Destroyed is punching in a whole new weight division.

.38 Spcl case on a cedar flu-flu: one clean pass-through (broadside, picking off of a limb) and one full penetration (quartering away on the ground).

.38 brass wins over rubber blunts. Massive trauma AND rips through the hide. Still have 100 gr rubber blunts on top of 150 gr steel blunts in my quiver, but the steel tends to punch right through the rubber when you hit dirt, etc….

I do think that the screw through the primer of the .38 brass has a lot to recommend it when hunting big grays or foxes, and if nothing else it should improve the grip of the brass on the cedar shafts, so what’s not to like?

But since I have them, I am pretty interested in mounting up some Hex blunts; they are probably more demanding of accuracy than the big, rubber dudes, but they will be much more likely to cut a nice neat hole through the hide of whatever you hit. I can’t help but imagine that rawhide from a Fox squirrel was probably about as good as it gets for a primitive bowstring…..

Lastmohecken- For some reason, wings forward has as instant kill rate approaching 100% for me; even had one rat fall from a branch stone dead from a strike to the flank, no broken bones.

Wings back is about as effective for me as a standard blunt, about 50-60% instant kill.

Obviously if stuffing shots through brush the wings forward version will get hung up much easier.

Update from this morning… I took one off the side of a tree with the 38 brass on a cedar flu-flu, and from the way he was flopping around on the ground, I was certain that I had scored a CNS hit… but the little rascal did manage to crawl away before I could position myself for a follow up shot, so I am hoping it will succumb to the injuries in very short order, but was not able to recover this one.

I really like the idea of going wings–back on a wingnut — it seems likely that that was the lightbulb behind the Magnus small game blunts — the team is still and I may just take a file to them to sharpen them up a little bit. I think I’ll run out to the shop and see if there’s a way that I can quickly add a wingnut to the brass… It would be a lot easier using dad‘s drill press than trying to free-hand it when I get home…

Well, THAT was easy!

Corax_latrans, I like Snow Crow's Wing Nut idea, but I was also thinking along the same lines of going ahead and sharpening the wings, some. More chance of sticking in a tree, but better chance of penetration on the tough Fox and Greys we have around here. Especially the big Fox squirrels, they are some tough buggers and can take a pretty good hit and run off on you. I usually try to shoot them on the ground from my elevated deer stand, so sticking in a tree on a miss is not a big concern for me.

I remember taking a big Fox out of a tree with a heavy aluminum flu-flu and a 125 gr rubber blunt out of my #55 Martin Lynx speed-cam, and that SOB hit the ground at full speed!

I couldn’t find any wingnuts in Pop’s hardware organizers, so I’m going to have to pick some up when I get home, I guess. I was pretty surprised that little Piney got away from me this morning, and I hate losing anything I’ve harmed, so will definitely add some wingnuts to those .38 cases and will report back. Especially if I tone down the poundage, I don’t want any more critters experiencing ONLY the blunt force trauma…

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