Squirrel Calls

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 9:22 am

Has anyone used any of these calls. I'm disabled and no longer can stalk the squirrels, so I use a chair blind setup watching a large Hickory tree that they swarm. These are the 2 callers that I was able to find.

Knight & Hale 4 in 1 Squirrel Call
and
Primos 5 in 1 Squirrel Buster

There is a slight difference between these. The Knight & Hale does not require you to blow through the reed. It says to touch the reed slightly to raise the freq while covering the end. This is not possiable, you can not both. You have to cover the end and squeeze the bellows. But if you blow through it appears to almost have the same freq as the Primos. The open end has a larger dia than the Primos.

The Primos seams to have slightly higher freq when doing the distress call which tells you to blow through it. But the end is small enough to work with one hand. And sounds very good and not as loud as blowing through it.

I will mainly be hunting Grays. All feed back is welcome.

I'm going to practice my distress calling on fox squirrels, thats all around my house in the city. In any case I will be trying them out this summer.

Post by **Bullseye** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 9:37 am

I've never used commercial squirrel calls, although I have seen them used. I learned a long time ago, back when I was a kid, to use two quarters. By cupping one in the web of my thumb and index finger and taking the second coin and tapping out a chirping sound. You can call them right up to you with this technique. I used to amaze my friends and family by doing this call whenever we were outdoors or camping.

R,
Bullseye

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 1:45 pm

Bullseye, I have heard of that but have never tried it.

When I was at my Dads last week, I tried the calls. Soon as I did the distress call, the local hawks (that were nesting about 100 yrds from me) would do a fly bye. So I think I was close enough on the call to attrack squirrels.. I did this 2 days in a row. But never saw any squirrels.

My dad has only shot 4 grays for the whole year. He is normally in the 15-20 count by June. He was getting over run with squirrels due to some 130 ac next to him was harvested for the hard woods 2 year ago. This took all of their food supply away. So they were heading into my dads place. I setup a chair bind, it was like a turkey shoot. They just kept coming I was getting 4-5 in 1 day/sitting, then next day would be maybe 1-2, then they were back in groves again. I ended up with 44 in 6 weeks time, with 90% being female. The funny thing about it, was 75% of my shots came off 1 tree branch. And this was hunting 2-3hr in the morning and evening. The Hickory nuts they were after were probably 3-4wks out till they would be ready. My dad has 6 Hickory trees and 8 pecan trees. The only pecan tree I could cover was the one next to the house, which allowed me to watch the main path in and the large hickory tree. We put up some metal skerting around the base so they could not climb it. My dad also trimmed and took down some trees to keep them from coming in from the top, forcing them to say on the ground. It was funny to watch the squirrels get a running start and jump on the skerting and bounce off/slide down. The would shake their heads backup and try again. I would finally shoot them but held off to see if another one would come in. It was very intertaining to watch. This was only about 15' from my blind. I had birds trying to land on my blind and bounce off, which told me the camoflage was pretty good. One evening in October I had some wood ducks come in and walked up with in 5' of my blind. I would not have shot if the wood ducks were around. Luckly they would leave fairly early in the morning and come back about 30-60 min before dark. They ended up nesting in the houses my dad has set out for them. I had 2 coons come to the tank for water as well as a buck and doe. With only an shotgun I did not have the loads to kill the coons, will this year with the 22. My dad did kill too coons last year getting into his bird feeders.

With that may tree rats taken out last year they may be pretty thin this year and the Hawks are now big enough to feed on the grays.

smokey · Post by **smokey** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 6:41 pm

I haven't done any sqiurrel calling but have done a lot of predator calling. I found this web site that may be of some use to you. It sounds like the distress calling would be the least desirable to me. I would think that you would get better results just imitating other squirrels barking. Good luck.
http://www.hunterspec.com/Updateable/up ... egoryID=12

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 9:07 pm

Smokey,

The info given on that site is basicly the same info given on the CDs that came with the calls. The CD's gave more detail on the actual call sequence and how to use the calls to generate them. For example with the barks, the gray and fox is different. The fox start off fast and slows down. The gray starts off slow and gets faster and adds 2 squeals at the end. Besides having different freq, gray high, fox low. Both of the CD said the distress is the one that will bring in the squirrels. Apparently its in their gene to come and aid of the young if they can. The bark is used to coaks them in to giving there position away, and can bring them in too. When used after a shot will calm them and will bring them back in a short period of time. The article did bring out a different method on creating the squeels, inhaling. Where the CD's said to push the bellows down and release it to create these.

It seams every article I read each uses a slightly different technique, so at least there is more than 1 correct way to make it work.

One thing for sure it may be a very interesting summer with the calls. I have about 3 wks before I head to the country.

Tigerbeetle · Post by **Tigerbeetle** » Tue Jul 21, 2009 3:06 pm

When I was a kid I used either two half dollars or two silver dollars similar to what Bullseye described. I could call them very good by mouth at that time as well. I could call crows in the same way. Now, I dang near die of choking when I try to call by mouth. Getting to old for that stuff. I can still walk though, and easing along through the timber is good practice for deer season. Trouble is, I have some fancy hearing aids now and I am not near as quiet in the woods as I used to be.... but I can hear them squirrels cutting hickory nuts again. Trade off is about even I guess.

TB

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:35 am

I have been using the Primos caller for about a week now. Yesterday I was on the back porch watching it rain, pour down. So I did an alert call followed with a distress, then barks. With in 2 min I had a gray headed straight for me. I was not expecting any thing since it was raining, so I had to slip in side to get the gun. This call has worked for me several times now. I'm yet to get one to bark back to me, or have I heard them barking in the woods. The call along with the quarters does get them on the ground for easy targets. I do know if I do the distress the hawks are the first to show up.

It appears the squirrel population is down this year after taking 90 last year from the back yard. When there pecans and hickory there is no stopping them. The last several years the squirrels have been over populated and not enough food to go around. The owner behind me had the hardwoods harvests 3-4 yrs ago which brought all of the squirrels my direction.

It's tough duty all I do is walk out the back door and set in a easy chair or walk 20' to my chair blind which gives me better coverage of the hickory trees. Most of my shots are 30+ yrds which gives them a sporting chance with my MKIII. There is a BIG Bob Cat I need to take out too, along with some rabbits getting in the garden.

Hakaman · Post by **Hakaman** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:00 pm

I just have the turkey caller, but I'm gonna have to try the quarter set up for squirrels. Have you ever done it with silver dollars?

(you might get a more "upscale" squirrel to come in)
haka

Post by **Bullseye** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:37 am

hakaman wrote:Have you ever done it with silver dollars?

No, not with dollar coins, but I have tried it with fifty cent pieces. All I keep calling in is "gansta" squirrels that have really bad attitudes and have already been shot up a time or two.

R,
Bullseye

bearandoldman · Post by **bearandoldman** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:11 am

Bullseye wrote:
hakaman wrote:Have you ever done it with silver dollars?
No, not with dollar coins, but I have tried it with fifty cent pieces. All I keep calling in is "gansta" squirrels that have really bad attitudes and have already been shot up a time or two.

R,
Bullseye

I think the best way is if you could sound like a nut, it should draw them in.

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 3:11 pm

bearandoldman wrote:
Bullseye wrote:
hakaman wrote:Have you ever done it with silver dollars?
No, not with dollar coins, but I have tried it with fifty cent pieces. All I keep calling in is "gansta" squirrels that have really bad attitudes and have already been shot up a time or two.

R,
Bullseye
I think the best way is if you could sound like a nut, it should draw them in.

That's the easy part, just need to rattle my head

bearandoldman · Post by **bearandoldman** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 3:46 pm

blue68f100 wrote:
bearandoldman wrote:
Bullseye wrote: No, not with dollar coins, but I have tried it with fifty cent pieces. All I keep calling in is "gansta" squirrels that have really bad attitudes and have already been shot up a time or two.

R,
Bullseye
I think the best way is if you could sound like a nut, it should draw them in.
That's the easy part, just need to rattle my head

Do it!!!!!!

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 2:47 pm

Decided to give the Hale & Knight caller a try. It has the capability to make a very high freq distress call squeel of the baby squirrel. It's a lot higher frequency than the Primos. It was in the low to mid 80's so I sit in my chair blind by the garage. Did not get out there till 7:30am. Waited 10 min then did a bark to see if I could hear any respond, no takers. At 8:00am I did the Adult Distress/alert call, followed with the baby distress (high pitch squeel), then gray barks. Then more baby distress calls followed with barks. Less than 5 min I had a gray headed down the tree closes to me (~25 yrds) headed toward me. This was a surprise since there are a pair of Hawks nesting within 50 yrds of me, 25yrd to the tree from where the squirrel came down. An easy head shot (MKIII), followed with a few barks and squeels to see if another one is coming/close. No takers so I pick him up and off we go.

The trend I'm seeing is that the baby distress calls the male squirrels to the rescue. Calls them to you whether they bark back or not.

There are not many tree rats this year after taking 90+ last year from the wooded section that's behind my dad's house.

Conclusion... It appears that either of these caller works. I think the Knight & Hale is the better one due to the higher squeel (baby distress) it can do. It does take some practice to master the baby distress call with higher freq squeel. The instructions are not clear on how to accomplish this, it took some experimenting on my part.

Post by **Bullseye** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 4:38 pm

Sounds like you've got a winning combo with those two callers. If they get wise to one you can always pull out the other.

R,
Bullseye

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Sun Sep 25, 2011 7:26 pm

I figured I would post an update on how the caller(s) are working.

The quarter that Bullseye suggested work pretty good and find myself using them the most. But I keep dropping the quarters into the grass and their lost. If you drop them in your shirt pocket they need to be in separate pockets so they don't make noise ans spook them. So I came up with this holder with a lanyard around my neck so I no longer drop them.

Now using them for the last several years there is another way to use the quarters. Using my electronic ears I have been able to listen to the squirrels chewing on nuts. I discover you can use the quarters to emulate this sound too. It can be done using the edge of the quarter in a scratching action on the quarter faces. One area is better than any other, the eagle feathers. This is done very lightly they have good hearing and know what the sound is.

When none are around what so ever the baby squirrel cry is the the best there is. It helps having hawks around to perfect my calling.

The bark is what you want to make them return after shooting. If you do not do a series of barks it may take them 30 min or longer before they return.