Vern Humphrey
Member
We've been talking about squirrel hunting in another thread (Two part question, .22 hornet and TC Encore) so I thought I'd start a new thread here.
I live on 185 mostly wooded acres, deep in the Ozarks. My wife is nurse, and try as I might, I can't get her to retire. She was up before dawn, getting ready to go into the nursing home. I let her use the bath and get dressed, and then rolled out of bed to kiss her good bye, and got dressed.
It was a beautiful morning -- blue sky, cold and crisp. There was frost on everything. I took the Gae Bolga (my M82 Kimber in .22LR -- the Irish will know what the name means) and my claymore bandoleer and started down to the little creek -- that's an intermittent creek flowing into my pond.
Crossing the creek on stepping stones and starting up the hill on the other side, everything was still -- a bit early for squirrels. I walked slowly, just barely ambling along, and after a few minutes spotted a gray squirrel feeding on the ground. I put a stalk on him, and as I got closer, he would move away -- but didn't take alarm.
Then a big, red fox squirrel appeared. He spotted me as I was stalking him, but didn't know what I was. He went up a tree, but kept stopping and peeking around the trunk. This tree, like a lot of them around here, lost limbs in the ice storm a couple of years ago, so there was a lot of trunk. I "took a lean" against a smaller tree and aimed where I though he'd appear next. Sure enough, he was right there, head and shoulders in the cross hairs. It was a classic head shot at about 20 yards, and he peeled off the tree and fell about 20 feet to the leaves with a nice "Thunk!"
I dropped him in the claymore bandolier and continued on the way I'd been moving. In about 50 yards, I spotted a ground-feeding gray and stalked him successfully, shooting him on the ground.
I spotted and stalked three more grays, without success, and finally came to an old logging road, looping back toward the house. Just across the road, I spotted another gray, and stalked him. He alerted and made for a tree -- but stopped about two feet up the trunk and looked back at me. Squirrel number three.
I was back at the house in less than 30 minutes total time. I fed the horses, and dressed the squirrels while they ate, then turned them out, put the carcasses in the sink to soak, and there will be fried squirrel for lunch.
I was using WalMart Winchester hollowpoints -- they seemed more destructive than I'd like on these squirrels -- even the head shots went right through, emerging farther down the body. I lost a couple of front legs that way. I think I'll switch back to the old Winchester Wildcat solids -- I still have a couple of cases of them stored in the basement.
I live on 185 mostly wooded acres, deep in the Ozarks. My wife is nurse, and try as I might, I can't get her to retire. She was up before dawn, getting ready to go into the nursing home. I let her use the bath and get dressed, and then rolled out of bed to kiss her good bye, and got dressed.
It was a beautiful morning -- blue sky, cold and crisp. There was frost on everything. I took the Gae Bolga (my M82 Kimber in .22LR -- the Irish will know what the name means) and my claymore bandoleer and started down to the little creek -- that's an intermittent creek flowing into my pond.
Crossing the creek on stepping stones and starting up the hill on the other side, everything was still -- a bit early for squirrels. I walked slowly, just barely ambling along, and after a few minutes spotted a gray squirrel feeding on the ground. I put a stalk on him, and as I got closer, he would move away -- but didn't take alarm.
Then a big, red fox squirrel appeared. He spotted me as I was stalking him, but didn't know what I was. He went up a tree, but kept stopping and peeking around the trunk. This tree, like a lot of them around here, lost limbs in the ice storm a couple of years ago, so there was a lot of trunk. I "took a lean" against a smaller tree and aimed where I though he'd appear next. Sure enough, he was right there, head and shoulders in the cross hairs. It was a classic head shot at about 20 yards, and he peeled off the tree and fell about 20 feet to the leaves with a nice "Thunk!"
I dropped him in the claymore bandolier and continued on the way I'd been moving. In about 50 yards, I spotted a ground-feeding gray and stalked him successfully, shooting him on the ground.
I spotted and stalked three more grays, without success, and finally came to an old logging road, looping back toward the house. Just across the road, I spotted another gray, and stalked him. He alerted and made for a tree -- but stopped about two feet up the trunk and looked back at me. Squirrel number three.
I was back at the house in less than 30 minutes total time. I fed the horses, and dressed the squirrels while they ate, then turned them out, put the carcasses in the sink to soak, and there will be fried squirrel for lunch.
I was using WalMart Winchester hollowpoints -- they seemed more destructive than I'd like on these squirrels -- even the head shots went right through, emerging farther down the body. I lost a couple of front legs that way. I think I'll switch back to the old Winchester Wildcat solids -- I still have a couple of cases of them stored in the basement.