I've never shot at a squirrel. But I have looked at squirrels.
Look at this fat bastard here. That's a resident of Indiana, that squirrel.
I've noticed... this one in Indy, and also on my visits to Ohio... The squirrels on THAT side of the Appalachians are bigger. And redder. On this side the squirrels are a lot more gray. And slightly smaller. And we have some with black fur. Perhaps even smaller, they.
Truly a noticeable difference.
I seem to recall similar gray style east coast squirrel during my stint in the Florida panhandle, but can't bet my life on it. Gray, like east coast varieties, in SW Virginia and SE Virginia. In Pennsylvania too, both east side and nearer Pittsburgh, but I think the I79 corridor they are starting to change... But man, get to the flat lands past the hills and west and Red and Fat is the squirrel byword.
I wonder, if, with concerted effort, one could import enough of one variety or another to opposite territories and successfully have one variety dominate the other? Not that'd recommend that sort of unnatural intervention. But it's not like there is anything preventing it happening naturally. Yet, it hasn't.
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There's three subspecies of squirrels in the eastern US: the Gray Squirrel, the Red Squirrel, and the Fox Squirrel. Variations in color can make them difficult to tell apart at times, although Fox Squirrels average larger than the other two.
Yes, introduced populations can overrun native populations - - in the UK there are black squirrels that have been competing with native squirrels and in some areas are now dominant.
Squirrels are easy enough to hunt, and Robert Ruark describes how to do so in his classic coming-of-age book The Old Man and the Boy. The squirrels have a scent gland that should be removed before cooking, otherwise the meat can be gamy when eaten.
Squirrels can be hinted with shotgun, .22, .177, or pellet rifle. They make a dandy stew.
Check out the story about the Great Columbus Squirrel Hunt.
http://columbusbicentennial.blogspot.com/2012/01/grand-squirrel-hunt-august-31-1822.html
Way back when, Ohio taxes were paid in money and squirrel scalps.
https://www.dispatch.com/article/20120419/NEWS/304199656
"“I have known boys to go to the river in the morning and kill as many squirrels with clubs as they could carry home, in half an hour. This is explained by the fact that, in the fall seasons of the year, this squirrel seems to be migrating, all over the country, travelling in some particular direction.”
Kerr said that migrating squirrels were swimming in the Scioto River, just below the confluence with the Olentangy, and that he could wade in the water and kill in a few minutes as many squirrels as he could carry."
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