Well well, look what has emerged from the darkest corner of one them heavy steel closets. My wonderful, beloved Marlin 882, 22WMR. Man I've had this thing forever and a day, ok, 30 some yrs. Dunno why I bought it, but I seen it one day at one them Gander Mountain stores and somehow talked myself into buying it. Believe me, it wasn't much of an argument at all.
We have a lot of history together, so so many great squirrel hunts back when I could hump over those high ridges in Kalkaska County that held all those lovely mature oaks and beech. I was a squirrel sniper with this incredibly accurate rifle. It's preferred was those maxi mags from CCI, the hollow point ones, but the VMax Hornys I've been feeding it are just as good. I've probably laid down close to 400 bushy tails, mostly Grey's, with her, most of the time from 50 to 125 yards, always a head shot. The Glenfield pretty much got retired when this girl hit the block.
My most memorable hunt with this rifle was around 1998, I was not having a good day, as I had thinned the population down in the one spot I hunted pretty good, but there was this big old male Grey, and I mean a good one, that always seemed to bust me a ridge over and get into the nest before I could get into position for a clean shot. Well, I spotted that chucklehead bouncing around thru the binos, and about crawled 100yds trying to get into a spot to drop on him. I almost got there, and you guessed it.....busted. A happy camper, was not, came out covered in the nasty stink mud only to made a fool of AGAIN!!, well, I figured I'd duck behind a big oak and see if he might get stupid and show himself. I waited him out about and hour, and just as I was going to get up, I heard a branch rustle. I got up along side of that oak, peeked the rifle around it eye to the scope and started scanning a tree about 60 yards out. Sure enough, the breeze blew his tail just enough for me to get a glimpse of it, and lowering the rifle slightly, here was old Grey, peeking around that oak looking for me. Well, crossbars on the nose and fired the main phaser banks, and got that satisfying picture thru that Bushnell that rides on top of that thar rifle. Big smile. And somewhere in my collection, that tail is still floating around. Brought a tear to my eye when I pulled this out today, thinking back on that and all the other hunts I've enjoyed with it. It's taken a few yotes, too. It's a little beat up from its time afield, but to me those marks are memories. It'll never leave my arsenal