more injured nutters...

[only1harry]

Unfortunately it is very hard to find out who is shooting them because pumpers are usually very quiet.  My 27yr old Crosman 66 Pumper is the most quiet gun I have an it shoot 7.9gr pellets at 640-645fps very consistently.  I never knew it was that powerful and surprised me how quiet it was because I had compeltely forgotten about it.  It was in my parent's house in the bdrm closet where I used to live 2+ decades ago.  It was only shot about 100 times so it's like new.  Anyway it is impossible to detect its report 50yds away.  Squirrels can cover 2 square blocks.  I have seen them come down the street from 150yds away.  If a kid is a few houses down you will never know he is shooting a pumper rifle or a 1377 pistol.  It is apparent whoever is doing it is not using a scope either and is definitely shooting them from 20+yds out where the pellet is not carrying enough energy to do any serious damage to the squirrels. 

Either way it's a sad situation.  My biggest fear has always been another airgunner in the neighborhood.  I am lucky I don't have that problem (I don't think) and have never found a squirrel with a pellet in them.  My only "issue" is with someone shooting raccoons and Groundhogs less than 2 blocks away with a .22LR rimfire.  He has well over 1 acre of property and I can hear the rimfire report every couple of weeks or so, day and night.  Not that he is wounding them, but he is taking critters that I could be shooting.  He does some home improvement work for my neighbor 2 houses down, and that is how I know it's him.  They were discussing hunting extensively one day and told my neighbor that he also shoots in his backyard and what he shoots.  He is a contractor with trucks and a bulldozer in his long driveway and I always suspected the rimfire shots were coming from there, because he has 1-2 wooded acres behind the house.  He has put a real big dent in the raccoon population in the area which is why I hardly had any of them visit the bait site last year, unlike the year before when I had plenty of them and took out 1/2 dozen with the Condors.  So "competition" is my worse fear, and it looks like you definitely have some except it's someone inexperienced, without brains, and thinks nothing about wounding the critters.  How about putting up some posters in the neighborhood, on telephone poles and such, asking the shooter to stop wounding the squirrels, or to get a more powerful airgun?   Maybe his parents will see it and do something about it. 

[Jman]

I would post signs up like harry said. Something along the lines of "Anyone airgunning squirrels call xxx-xxx-xxxx, I need your help!"
Thatll make the kid thinking you need some squirrels removed and that you will pay, so id think youd have a phone call right away. Ask him what type of pellet gun he would use, and if hes shot any lately. Thatll give you all the info you need...then just tell him that you have been finding injured squirrels yada yada. Might actually work...