GTA
All Springer/NP/PCP Air Gun Discussion General => Hunting Gate => Topic started by: wolverine on May 17, 2025, 04:10:07 PM
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1st let me state I've been hunting squirrels since the early 70s. I know what squirrels eat and how to attract them to a safe area to shoot, however, where I live now we have bears. Lots of bears. Forget about bird feeders or using peanuts, peanut butter, safflower, or sunflower seeds. I'll get bears. Bears have destroyed all the bird feeders I hung to attract blue birds. (i didn't know bears would eat mealworms)
We've been in this house 2 years now. Our 1st squirrel season here I eliminated over 40 squirrels from our backyard. Now they're back in numbers. Problem is most are in the front yard where I can't get a safe shot off. We have woods to the north and to the south our neighbors have 2 very large pecan trees in their backyard. The squirrels use our yard as a highway to the neighbors, and while they're here they tear things up. (last year i replaced the boat trailer wiring twice and it never left the yard) I need something that will attract squirrels without attracting bears. I know someone here has dealt with this so I'll be patient and wait for their answer.
Thanks in advance!
p.s. it's not just my yard. this entire area is infested with squirrels
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We have more than our fair share of Black Bear as well and have given up on trying to have a nice bird feeder to attract birds.
I do do my share of shooting rats in the woods behind my house and built a feed station with a concrete backstop to help stop pellets when shooting the rats that visit. I just put bird seed on it. It also attracts the bird and squirrels, but since it’s essentially a concrete slab, it’s pretty much bear proof! Yea, the bears will visit and eat the seed, but then they move on without destroying it in the process. And once they are gone, the birds, squirrels and rats return! The birds and squirrels generally get a pass, but I have not had any damage caused by the squirrels. None caused by the rats either, but hey, they’re rats, so no one really cares that I shoot them!
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thanks for the reply.
my problem is we have a screened in patio with a grill and griddle. we also have friends with a similar setup. they have had bears tear through the screen twice, and once had the screen door ripped off by bears that came to lick the grease off the grill. i don't want the bears anywhere in the yard. so far, we haven't had the same problem, but it would cost $$$$ to replace the screen.
when we lived in the midwest, we had a bad problem with raccoons knocking the grill over for the grease. i put many to sleep with my NP2.
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Black sunflower seeds are nutter crack
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Carl, you can always put a bowl out full of black-oiled sunflower seed in your backyard shooting lane, and bring it back inside the house before dark. This should work for a while until the bears decide to come during the day. They will come around at night because of the empty shells on the ground, so they might decide to come out earlier before dark to investigate. Just be careful because it's the off-season for squirrel now..
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Or dress like a nut ???
(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e2/55/82/e255820aef7489eacd9ba69f57c8154c.jpg)
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Carl, you can always put a bowl out full of black-oiled sunflower seed in your backyard shooting lane, and bring it back inside the house before dark. This should work for a while until the bears decide to come during the day. They will come around at night because of the empty shells on the ground, so they might decide to come out earlier before dark to investigate. Just be careful because it's the off-season for squirrel now..
Not in North Carolina. We have a spring season. It ends on the 26th. It's only viable on private land.
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Black sunflower seeds are nutter crack
They also attrack bears.
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You ever find pecans in your yard that nutters left like I do from my neighbor's? I always wonder why go through all that effort then just leave it in the next yard.
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You ever find pecans in your yard that nutters left like I do from my neighbor's? I always wonder why go through all that effort then just leave it in the next yard.
I have 4 kayaks stored upside-down. When I take them out, I have to clean the pecans out of them.
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These here don't pack anywhere, just leave them out in the open. Can't be too hard for them to open so that blows my mind why they decide to do that.
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You hit the nail on the head with your first post.
Trailer wiring.
Squirrels can't resist it! :D
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You hit the nail on the head with your first post.
Trailer wiring.
Squirrels can't resist it! :D
farm equipment wiring also !!! >:(
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>:( Chipmunks, Rabbits and Squirrels, all have chewed my wires ! Mice just nest in air cleaners and the like LOL
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Have you tried an single strand electric cattle fence,
works very well on any critters, ask my dogs...they know about them lol
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Maybe just wire a dummy trailer to that electric fence transformer! Chew away Mr. Squirrel! ;D
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Bears eat everything squirrels eat and then some! Maybe just a water dish you can empty at night? I would think squirrels would drink from it.....just a thought. A black bear had torn thru a friends window and was halfway in in the middle of the night woke my friend and his wife up and they screamed at it and it luckily backed out. Good luck!
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For Da Bears ???
(https://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=218927.0;attach=477092;image)
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Bee keeping is a business in these parts and the commercial bee keepers have leases in the National Forest. They fence off a quarter acre for an apiary with electric fence to keep the bears out. Just twelve volt batteries for power but they seem to work.
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Yes, electric fences do work for keeping bears out of my apiary. If the bear has already “visited,” then a strip of bacon hung on a hot wire will condition it to stay away. The mouth and tongue really feel it, but their thick hide is not so sensitive.
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i like the electric fence idea. i think if i string it along the north side of my property against the woods, it would deter them. they could however go around it via the street, but maybe it will be enough to keep them at bay.
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Electric fences need a bit of research. For my apiary, I need to dump a few gallons of water on the dirt weekly to insure a good electrical ground during the dry California summers. My buddy keeps his cattle contained by running a ground wire vertically in between two hot wires. He keeps the grass down to prevent shorting out the circuit. Your local fencing supplier would have recommendations on what to buy for your situation… solar charge for battery or power available at the site, etc. Have fun with this one!
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Paul, I have one for you; We remodeled our deck a few years back. I had a concrete pad poured to prevent water issues in our basement & then had a new poly
deck installed with full length steps & lights in the risers for accent & evening travels to our swimspa. The lights started going out( this all happened while I'm still
traveling for work) and then my Queen mentions a BAD smell outside by the deck. I'm tasked with locating said odor when I'm home on rotation. With only 4-5
inches to peer underneath on one side,"I,, see,, naating!" I can't pull lights for replacing as the connections are out of reach w/o major deck board removal.
Eventually only one of 5 lights works , I retire & decide to "tear into it"! I call a handyman for assistance & we go to it. Upon removal of faceboard & several deck
boards we find the cause of "de-lumination" , and a nice rodent skull for my grandson science collection. Yep a squirrel had chewed through the wires & finally bit
a little too deep ! :( A few new lights & a couple repairs & good to go w/o having to rip all off & start over w/ conduit ( ::) shoulda' in the first place). Now ,, One
light is out again :( , I'm wating for more before I call my handyman friend, but no odor yet!!
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Some years ago they chewed a insulator on my electrical entrance. Last week a local college lost power for a day because one had chewed a wire on a large transformer Fried the nutter good ;D
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Almost twenty years ago I got a late night call out from the local Utility company that we had a power outage in the park campground and they needed a ranger on hand. So I suited up and went out on a rainy night to find out what the heck was going on. I found the guys with the bucket truck working on a pole with a dangling power line and a broken insulator. They thought a falling branch had hit it and it shorted out. I started walking around the base of the pole with a flashlight looking for the branch when about fifteen feet from the pole I found the scorched carcass of a large male bobcat in a clump of palmetto. I showed it to the line crew and the top kick said he’d seen squirrels, possums, and raccoons fried that way. He figured the cat was soaking wet from the rain and had chased some other critter up the pole. When it got to the power line it touched it and shorted. The resulting arc blew the insulator off the pole and the cat into the bushes.
The boss had me bag the carcass and store it in the shop freezer until the district biologist could collect it and do a necropsy. I stuck it in the freezer and forgot about it. So did the district biologist. So there it lay amongst the ice pops and frozen burritos for THREE YEARS. Finally somebody had to defrost the freezer and gave it a decent burial. :o
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I had a rabbit chew through my extension cord for Christmas lights, I found him in spring, and knew why my lights quit in that section :)
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I got a good laugh out of that Sam. Poor bobber. I don't know which is worse getting fried or forgotton about for 3yrs. How big was it 35lbs or so?
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LOL! Don’t EVER look in the freezer of a park or wildlife sanctuary. A park I worked at in Georgia kept Red tailed Hawks and barred Owls. We kept a refrigerator full of roadkill for them. ;D
That cat was 37 lbs. I remember because I weighed it. It hung out near the campground dumpster and had obviously grown fat on the easy pickings.
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Dave , growing up on a farm, we had many fences w/ "juice " in them. Once when I was with my Grandpa I observed him "checking the fence" w/ a piece of grass
I watched him get ever closer to the wire as his hand & arm started to twitch until he was brushing it with his fingers. I loved Pap & tried to do anything he could,
so I reached for a blade of grass and placed it on the wire , ZAP!! As Pap was picking me up from the ground laughing , he said " Marty boy, you got too close too
fast"! That was a learning experience ,for sure. I found out later in life,my Gramps didn't use any grass or weed stalk to check fences , he just walked up &
gingerly fingered the wire until it "tickled "him. I miss him.
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Dave , growing up on a farm, we had many fences w/ "juice " in them. Once when I was with my Grandpa I observed him "checking the fence" w/ a piece of grass
Great memories!
I have a fancy meter, but do not use it as long as the grass is green. My method is to carefully bend a long blade of grass around the wire and pull tight. Then pinch it with the other hand between the the thumb and index finger. Then slide them toward the wire until it tickles.
Oh, and what I specifically water during drought is the ground rods… really need ground rods if you run a ground wire.
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Sam that's a shame big boy got zapped but at least he went out quick. He just didn't get trashed quick is all. Would've been fun to taxidermy the critter with his hair all fuzzed up straight.
Martin I miss mine too. One day closer to seeing him again! I got tagged by one in the ribs after being told it was off. My uncle apologized while laughing after realizing he didn't disable it as he'd thought. Just had to be a fully charged battery too instead of a dead one. It sounded like a loud slap when it lit me up like Reno on New Years then I screamed loud but like a man at least instead of a skirted schoolgirl so thankfully I sounded off a macho response which for a guy is the most important outcome of course. :P
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My wife found me looking at electric fences and told me no way, it will keep the deer out toonand she likes watching them. She suggested i leave my truck in the drive and wait for the squirrels to show mid 80s today, i think she's trying to kill me.
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Well one Holiday I ate too much, almost miserable" and my Mother stated " Jimmy just go outside with your gun ???