I'd also lean twords an air rifle.
I'd also lean twords an air rifle.
The Great Kazoo's Feedback
"when you're happy you enjoy the melody but, when you're broken you understand the lyrics".
The air rifle idea was my original thought but I'm unsure how much punch they have out at 25-30 yards away. When i was a kid (a long while ago), we'd shoot those ground squirrels with fairly potent stuff and they are durable little critters. My favorite was a .30-06 "Accelerator" (.223 sabot) but that's a whole different kind of squirrel misting...
One that came to mind was the Chiappa "little badger". As far as I can tell from my research on Calguns, threaded muzzles are OK in CA on rifles (but are no-go on pistols). I've shot one of the Chiappa's once and it seemed like it may fit the bill.
Bear in mind: once the last squirrel is dispatched, the rifle will never be fired again, so there's a limit to how uppity this needs to be.