172 
F 0 R E S T 
AND S T R E A M 
April, 1921 
SIGHTING IN FOR SQUIRRELS 
IN WHICH IS DISCUSSED THE BEST COMBINATION OF SIGHTS AND 
HOW TO PROPERLY ADJUST THEM ON THE .22 CALIBER RIFLE 
By CAPTAIN ROY S. TINNEY 
A MONG recent inquiries addressed 
to the gun editor of Forest ano 
Stream was one which asked for 
advice as to the best combination of 
sights for squirrel shooting, and also 
how to properly adjust those sights on 
a rifle using the .22 caliber long rifle 
cartridge. 
This question is far easier asked than 
answered. The choice of a set of sights 
for any firearm is a problem that each 
man must solve for himself, and this 
applies with equal force when sighting 
in for any particular form of game 
shooting. All that an old timer can do 
is to explain the virtues and limitations 
of such sights as are available and make 
some practical suggestions regarding 
their use. 
Last year a friend of mine purchased 
a large farm about two hours run from 
New York; part of the tract was wood- 
land, tall, fair sized trees and very little 
brush, an ideal spot for grey squirrels, 
but the new owner soon discovered that 
a colony of red squirrels was in pos- 
session. Now the red squirrel is an un- 
desirable citizen, he either kills or drives 
off the greys, destroys birds’ nests and 
generally misbehaves himself, so before 
stocking up with grey squirrels, it was 
first necessary to make war on the 
“reds.” The owner is not a hunter, but 
he has a number of friends who are, 
and being a sociable and ingenious per- 
son he got up a most interesting little 
week-end party. 
Each man was requested to bring 
along his pet .22 rifle and the result was 
a most interesting collection of small 
bores : 
FOUR TARGET RIFLES 
A WINCHESTER Musket with a 5-A 
telescope sight, aperture reticule 
to fit a 2 inch bull at 25 yards, a typical 
rig for indoor shooting under the N. R. 
A. rules. 
Stevens 414 with 3-power ’scope and 
cross-hair reticule. 
B. S. A. No. 12 Match Rifle, multi- 
aperture micrometer rear and post aper- 
ture front sight. 
Savage bolt-action, Model T9, “as is- 
sued,” receiver peep and military front 
sight. 
THREE HUNTING RIFLES 
Winchester Model ’90 repeater, tang 
peep, no disk, and gold bead front sight. 
Remington 12-C N. R. A. repeater, 
rear peep fitted with disk and pinhead- 
aperture front sight. 
Savage, semi-automatic; tang peep, 
no disk, and Vickers-’Maxim gold lined 
aperture front sight. 
These rifles had only two points in 
common; they all used the .22 long rifle 
cartridge and were all equipped with 
an aperture rear sight of one sort or 
another. 
What remained of Saturday afternoon 
was spent sighting in. The first move 
was to cut a lot of green sticks about 
two feet long, sharpening one end of 
each and driving a headless nail through 
the other. These sticks were driven into 
the ground at the following ranges: 20, 
25, 30, 35 and 40 yards and on each 
stick was hung a 2-inch white clay disk. 
Also some paper targets were put up at 
40 yards, then each man sighted his rifle 
so it would hit where he aimed, at that 
distance. Then he fired at 5 clay disks, 
starting at 20 and finishing at 40 yards, 
without altering his sight adjustment 
or changing his point of aim. If all 5 
disks were broken the sight adjustment 
was right, if not, he went back to the 
paper target and did some more doping. 
As most, in fact, practically all of the 
shooting was high-angle fire, up into 
the trees at an angle of seldom less than 
45 degrees, often more, this horizontal 
sighting i)i at 40 yards, really gave the 
rifleman an effective 1-inch C. D. Z. 
(continuous danger zone) about GO to 
70 yards long, the longest range to be 
encountered in the thick foliage of the 
woods, and it takes good holding to hit 
a squirrel at 70 yards. 
T HE hunt started early next morning 
and by lunch time that particular 
colony of “reds” had become history, 
something to talk about for a long time 
to come. Every one of those seven men 
was a good, steady, consistent shot who 
understood his individual rifle. Four 
of them were using target weapons 
equipped with sights that, according to 
all accepted precedents, were singularly 
ill adapted to the work at hand; three 
had hunting sights; and the strange 
part of it all was that the men with the 
target sights got the most squirrels. 
There are many ways of accounting for 
this; heavier guns, better holding, luck, 
et cetera, sufficient to overcome the 
handicap imposed by the target sights. 
The squirrel is a small mark at best. 
They are still arguing about it, all seven 
of them, and the more they talk the 
more they disagree; that is why rifle 
shooting is such an interesting sport. 
For locating a squirrel up among the 
leaves, a 'scope sight is a distinct ad- 
vantage, but it does not enable a man 
to shoot any straighten, also a ’scope 
plays weird little tricks every now and 
then, giving you an “unaccountable” at 
a most embarrassing moment, and then 
breezing along as usual. The telescope 
sight, as we have it today, is a most in- 
teresting and attractive device, but it is 
not dependable, and the mounts easily 
get out of adjustment while hunting. 
To some men a peep rear sight fitted 
with a disk is impossible in the woods, 
others use it without the slightest diffi- 
culty, removing the disk only when the 
light is particularly bad. As to a front 
sight, a gold or ivory bead, something 
that will stand out in contrast to the 
background is unquestionably best. A 
square ivory front sight is particularly 
good, but it is very fragile and must be 
carefully protected from injury. My 
pet combination for squirrels is a long, 
heavy Peabody-Martini single-shot rifle, 
equipped with a peep roar end and a V. 
M. aperture front sight. Line up the 
two circles so they are concentric, frame 
the squirrel and ease off; also use a pair 
of binoculars for making observations. 
The main points are: Know your rifle, 
look through your sights and at the 
squirrel, understand the C. D. Z. of your 
ammunition, hold hard and don’t disturb 
your aim when you ease off. The vital 
zone on a squirrel is just about one inch 
in diameter, and the man who can hit 
that, with any sights, at 60 to 70 yards 
is a really fine shot. We hear a lot 
about “drillin’em through the head at a 
hundred” and “barkin’em” at twice that 
distance; yes, we hear a lot of things 
about shooting, but just take one of those 
talkative gentleman out on the back lot, 
hang a 2-inch clay disk on a stick 70 
yards away, let him cut loose and watch 
the little alibis come flocking around. 
Yet a shot that would break that disk 
would only graze a squirrel and send 
him scurrying on his way. 
D ED squirrels have one characteristic 
N I could never quite understand. 
You fire at one of them and score a miss, 
yet he does not run, instead he will fre- 
quently turn about and cuss you out to 
the limit of his vocabulary, giving you 
plenty of time to reload and bring him 
down with a second shot. The first time 
I noticed this, I was a very small boy 
armed with a flobert rifle that shot 
breech caps, and was so surprised that 
I became as badly rattled as the squir- 
rel and fired at least a dozen times be- 
fore I accidently hit him, yet all the 
time that fool red squirrel stayed right 
there, barking away like a terrier dog. 
