When I first started squirrel I used either hi-speed LR or Short because that was all which was readily available to me as a rural boy with only small towns readily accessible. Then this gentleman put me on to these standard velocity LR loads. Sure what energy goes out the back side of the squirrel is wasted, Who cares. The problem with the short bullet in LR rifling is not the lack of stabilization as the short specific barrel has a slower twist than a LR barrel. The problem is Over stabilization. Lack of stabilization will cause a bullet to tumble, over stabilization does not. The main concern here id it can magnify ant imperfection in the balance of a bullet more so that one which is just properly stabilized. I shot from fairly short range up to longer ranges but not normally at extreme ranges. I was hunting in hill country & often to find a clearing to shoot through would end up on the lower side of the tree, which added to the range. Most of my hunting was done early in the season when the leaves were still on the trees. I lioked to take advantage of when they were "Cutting" rather than later when many were feeding on the ground.
By the 1960s there was no longer a price advantage to shorts, the LR was a lot more versatile & shot better. Seemed like a No-Brainer to me. AND Neither would "Knock" the squirrel off a limb, You had to Kill it hope it wiggled enough to fall, most did. My problems with lodged were virtually from hitting another limb on the way down. Unless they were very precariously balanced there shooting them with a .22 would not knock them loose, nearly always had to resort to some other method. Most of the ones I shot were greys, but occasionally would encounter some Fox Squirrels & shot a good number of ground Hogs using this same load. Right across in front of my house was a small creek. On the far side of it was a sheer bluff with caves which went back inside. Groundhogs, as well as coons, would den in them. One day in early spring I spotted a young tender groundhog sunning atop a large slanted rock which had fallen out of the bluff. I got the Mossberg out I got within about 30-35 yds of it, aimed & fired & two of them rolled off that rock. Sometimes a bit of extra power is not a bad thing. Perhaps I read Robert Rurak too much in my teens but have always remembered his phrase, "Use Enough Gun". The LR is enough for most Fur type small game, but Not Too Much just as the 20 gauge is enough for many upland Feathers, but never Too much. Simply have no desire to go smaller than either.
