After months of searching I was lucky enough to find an early S&W 34 (1959 - LNIB) to team up with my S&W 629-3 for hunting. I love the light weight of these little J frames (or in this case an Improved I frame) and found it to be very accurate. The first day I took it hunting squirrel I hit the "motherlode" in a stand of chesnuts. The squirrels were everywhere even at 1:00 in the afternoon. They were traveling in and out of the chestnuts from the surrounding hardwoods. I shot 2 of these squirrel without taking a step and had 5 in just over 2 1/2 hours which is really good for me. All were shoulder hits with only one requiring a finisher. I was using CCI mini-mags. Great fun. Anyone else been taking the .22s after small game?

Nice revolver, and squirrels!! I love baked squirrel.

I love hunting squirrels with an open sighted revolver. Taking five or six in a couple of hours is good shooting and I'm sure you had great fun. Congrats. I sent you a private msg by the way.

You should give the Aguila SE hollow points a try. They are the most accurate hunting loads I've ever used.
Gary

Thats a great picture and a nice bunch of squirrels. I spent a many great hour in the woods with my Dad shooting squirrels.

Thanks for the nice comments. It's handy having a brother/hunting buddy thats enjoys photography. It's nice to know I'm not the only one out there hunting squirrels with a revolver. I'll have to give the Aguilas a try. I mainly went with CCI MiniMags because I had heard they are a bit cleaner. These early S&W's have close tolerances and can have ejection problems with dirtier ammo. Are the Aguilas fairly clean? Here is a pic of a "benched" 5 shot group at 25 yards with the CCI MiniMags. I tend to get vertical stringing with the slightest changes in grip pressure but I was still not expecting this kind of accuracy.

Squirrel skinning video <LINK

what a great way to skin squirrels! i just seen this video

I'm shooting them out of a Freedom Arms 22 with match chambers without any problems; I can't imagine the S&W is any tighter. They may not be as fast as the CCI's but the lead seems a bit softer and will do more damage to a squirrel than any other 22 LR HP I've tried. I'm sure you know squirrels can take a lickin' and I really like the performance of the 38 grain HP bullet.

What a brilliant way to skin squirrels. Wonder if it would work with rabbits?

Excellent! That's awesome w/ an open sighted wheel gun.

I took a few last week w/ a Contender Super 14 .22 Magnum. Took a youth hunter out for the early doe season and he scored early so we went squirrel hunting in the afternoon. We ran into a bounty of grey's and a boatload of fox squirrels! He scored on a few and I only fired to make sure he had enough for a meal.

Man, That's a killer holster... What type is it? BG

Kyode....Cool link. I look forward to trying that method of skinning squirrels. Looks easier than anything I've ever tried. Gary..if you can shoot them out of a Freedom Arms (model 83 I presume) I'm sure I won't have any problems either. I consider the F.A.s to be the best revolvers currently made. Dan B.... don't know the laws in your state but maybe you've converted a young man to handgun hunting. Cheifbg....The holster was made by David Newcomb. The trademark of his holsters are that they are all sheepskin lined (easy on the blueing) and handmade to your specifications. I'll give an unabashed plug for this fellows work anyday. His holsters are true works of art at a very reasonable price. He's made over 125 holsters for people on the S&W forum. Send me an email and I'll give you his contact information if your interested.

Yep it's an 83 - discontinued now but a fantastic gun. It has the 5-1/8" barrel with adj. sights and I wouldn't take anything for it.

That skinning method only works, based on my experiences, if you haven't shot up the spine (you'll pull them in half) and if you haven't put any holes in the soft tissue of the abdomen (like with an exit wound). If you have then you'll have a big mess if you try pulling the hide off like that. I have found that gardening shears work very well when cutting off the feet and head.