VarmintAir's Airgun Hunting Blog

Early Spring - Ground Squirrel Hunt - With HW 100 T .22 - And A Bonus Critter

Draw that I hunted up one side and down the other.

This was an area that I found last fall while hunting tree squirrels.  It was 6.2 miles off of the pavement, down a rough and bumpy 4x4 track.  I had some tree squirrel success back in there, and at the time, I thought to myself that I should come back in the spring and check it out for ground squirrels.

I was hunting there in late November, and at the time, any ground squirrels that may have been around had already gone into hibernation for the winter.  The place had all of the earmarks of good ground squirrel country though.  Lots of old stumps, deadfall, and a nice supply of old blowdowns.  All of the things these high country ground squirrels need to populate an area.

The terrain consists of two low hills, that come together to form a draw at their low point. The above picture shows the draw.  It runs about 300 yards into the forest, then does a slow dogleg to the right, and continues on for another four or five hundred yards, eventually ending at a saddle, where the two hills come together a little higher up.

My plan was to hunt up the right side, for a couple of hundred yards, moving into the forest fifty yards or so up from the bottom of the draw. Then, I would head up the hill to where it plateaus, and hunt across the top, until it meets with the draw again on the other side.

After getting my gun and other gear out, I stepped into the shade of a pine tree, just to the right of my vehicle, and using my binoculars, started glassing the area ahead of me. Within seconds, I spot a ground squirrel on a stump at a lasered 111 yards.  Continuing to glass the area, I spot another one closer in on a stump at 87 yards.

Once again, I'm hunting with my new HW 100 T, .22 cal PCP.  This thing is a tack driver extraordinaire.  I planned my stalk, and using the trees for cover, started closing the distance on the guy at 87 yards.  When I got to the tree that I wanted to make the shot from, I knew the distance would be 59 yards to the squirrel.  When I got there, the squirrel was long gone.  I waited for a bit, but he didn't make another appearance so I started closing the distance on the one that was originally at 111 yards. He was still there.

Using another tree for cover, I closed the range on this one to 63 yards. The squirrel is still on the stump, facing to the left, and looking in my direction.  I slowly slipped around the tree I was using for cover, and resting my rifle on my Stoney Point bipod, lined up the shot.  There was a very slight breeze running right to left, so holding the crosshair just over the top of his noggin, and a bit right, I launched an 18 grain JSB pellet toward the side of his head.  At impact, it was instant lights out. The furball dropped in place on the stump.  Not so much as a twitch.  I like it when they're DRT.

I immediately looked off to my left, to where the original squirrel was located, and I'll be darned if it isn't back out.  Rotating my gun and bipod very slowly to the left, I set up for that shot also.  The laser said 47 yards.  I'm sighted in at 50 so I just put the crosshairs a tad low and touched off the shot.  This time, the pellet blew the squirrel off of the back of the stump it was sitting on.  I watched as it tumbled a few yards down the hillside.

As I always do after making a shot, and before moving, I continued to glass the area around me for other squirrels.  Sure enough, almost directly behind me, on a stump I had passed by earlier, is another squirrel facing away from me.  I slowly move around and set up for that shot.  He lasers at 51 yards. As I'm about to launch the pellet, the squirrel suddenly turns to the left and runs over to the side of the stump, like it's going to jump down.  Rather than try to make a finesse head shot, I just grabbed a heart lung hold, and launched the pellet.  At impact, the third squirrel taken in just a few minutes, rolled off of the side of the stump.

WOW!  I kind of thought that this place might hold some ground squirrels, but this was turning out to be better than I expected.  I took a few minutes and gathered up the squirrels for a quick photo-op.

Three squirrels taken within a 115 yards of my vehicle.

I hunted along the edge of the hill for another 50/60 yards, and then headed up to the top of the hill.  As I'm hunting along, as usual, I'm living in my binoculars glassing every place that might hold a ground squirrel. Because of the lay of the land, and the tree density, most of my glassing is done between 40 and 80/100 yards.

As I'm slowly hunting along, glassing, moving, glassing, I suddenly spot a large buff colored patch in the trees about 65 yards in front of me. Because of the tree density, all I can see is the buff patch and some legs. I've been wandering through various forests across the west, for more than 59 of my 70 years, and I know an elk butt when I see one.  Cow or bull, I can't tell just yet, but for sure I have at least one elk in front of me, maybe more.

The good news is, the wind is in my face.  Moving very slowly, and using Ponderosa Pines for cover, I decide to stalk a bit closer.  I decided at the 35 yard mark, that I was as close as I wanted to be.  No point in being stupid, and getting trampled by a critter, or critters the size of a horse.

I set up next to some trees and waited.  The elk was grazing along the forest floor. After a bit, its head appeared out from behind the trees, and I could see that it was a cow.  Head down, and continuing to graze, she had no clue I was there.  I snapped a couple of pictures, and waited. After a bit, I decide to get her in focus in the camera, and give a lip squeak.

That did it.  Up pops the head, and she is looking at me on full alert.  I made a quick step to the right, grabbed a picture, and then stepped back by the tree. At that point, she decided that she was outta there.  Doing a 180 degree turn, she started hauling buns for another zip code.  As I watched her go, after about 25/30 yards, a half dozen other cows, that I hadn't seen because of the tree density,  joined her and there were multiple elk fannies bouncing through the trees as they poured on the coals.

Buff elk rump dead center in the picture.

Head down grazing. 

After my lip squeak at 35 yards. 

Now the thing that always makes these kinds of encounters extra special to me, is the fact that I had just killed three ground squirrels, with an air rifle, not 75 yards away from her, and she wasn't even aware of me being in the area.  Quiet is good.  What a hoot. 

She and her girlfriends cleared the area pronto, so I started squirrel hunting again.   After about a hundred and fifty yards I hit the other side of the hill, and picked up the draw again.

As I'm coming out of the denser forest area, and I'm glassing the stumps and deadfall in the draw, I spot a squirrel sitting on a flat top stump at 58 yards.

Squirrel on stump at 58 yards 

I'm still back up in the trees in the shade, and I'm far enough away that this one doesn't seem nervous at all.  Leaning my shoulder against a nearby pine, I set up for the shot. The wind has picked up, and is running left to right. Holding a bit left and high, I slowly squeezed the trigger, and watched as the pellet sailed just past the squirrels left ear. Quickly racking the side lever on the HW 100, I chambered another pellet, held a bit more left, and touched off another shot.  

This one went where expected, and dropped the squirrel.  Only instead of dropping it DRT, (Dead Right There) the pellet picked the furball up and dropped it down the middle of the stump.  DAMN IT, I hate it when that happens! My recovery rate, when that occurs, is about one in ten, so my hopes weren't real high of recovering that particular squirrel.

As usual, I did a quick look around the area with my binoculars, before heading over to see if I could recover that last squirrel, and as often happens, I spot another squirrel behind me.  This one lasers at 62 yards. Using the same tree to lean against, I simply turned around, held a little high, for the distance, right for the prevailing wind, and knocked him off of the stump that he was hunkered down on.

HW 100 T and squirrel rolled off of stump at 62 yards.

I got a quick picture of him, and headed down to the one that had disappeared down into the stump.

I could hardly believe it.  When I got over to the stump, the squirrel was laying down in there within easy reach.

Squirrel down in stump.

Fished him out of there for a quick pic.

By now, it's well past lunch time, so I started to quick hunt my way back to my vehicle. I saw a few other ground squirrels, but my hunger was greater than my desire to put the sneak on them, so they were left for another time.

HW 100 with another ground squirrel.

It turned out to be an incredible day of hunting with my HW 100 T, .22 PCP.  These rifles seem to be a fairly well kept secret.  I'm really glad I decided to give one a try. As the expression goes, "only accurate rifles are interesting," I can tell you from personal experience, this rifle is very, very "interesting."  

As I thought there might be, last fall, there were definitely ground squirrels in this area, and the elk encounter was really good frosting added to an already awesome cake.

I've got to head out of town again for awhile, so it will probably be a few weeks before I have a chance to do much airgunning.

I'm thinking that maybe next time, I'm going to get my .25 cal Marauder out, and do something I haven't done in some time....get after some jackrabbits.  I was in an out of the way area a few years ago, and had them running across, and up and down the roads, so I think it might be time to head back out there and see if the hares are still around. Yeah, that sounds like something that needs to happen.

Back in a few weeks. 

 

Ground Squirrel Hunting - With The HW 100 T FSB - .22 PCP.

Pair of ground squirrels taken with my new HW 100 T FSB .22 PCP.

I recently had a chance to get my new HW 100 PCP out after the local ground squirrels. Man this thing is sweet.  It is without a doubt, one of the more accurate guns in my collection.  Right up there with my FX 2000 .22, and Marauder .25 cal.

The long shots of the day were at 60, and 61 yards, both head shots.  One off of a stump, and the other off of a boulder.

Below: Sixty one yarder knocked off of this stump.  Head shot with 18 grain JSB's.

Below: Sixty yarder knocked off of the top of this boulder.  Head shot.

I got another one, but as seems to happen at least once every hunt, instead of knocking the squirrel off of the top of the stump, the pellet picked it up and blew it six inches backwards, dropping it down into a hole in the top of the stump.  I put my bipod legs down the hole, and it went at least three feet straight down.  No recovering that one.

Stump top, and hole the squirrel dropped into.

I had the HW 100 out again yesterday, and got a lot of squirrels, but the high point of the day was an up close and personal visit with a cow elk. When I have, time I'll get a story posted about that adventure.  In the mean time, here's a couple of pictures from yesterday's hunt.

HW 100 T, and some squirrels taken yesterday afternoon.

Up close and personal with a cow elk at 35 yards.

Stay tuned, more to come.

HW 100 T FSB - In .22 - Shot String

I finally had a chance to set up my chrono, and run some of the 18 grain JSB Exact Jumbo Heavy's through my new HW 100 T FSB, .22 cal PCP.

The specs I saw for the gun stated that the max velocity was 886 fps, but with what pellet weight?  Anybody's guess, so I didn't really know what to expect with the 18 grain JSB's.  I was pleasantly surprised.

After a bit of experimentation, I found that the best fill pressure for this particular rifle is 2950 psi.  Just as a side note, the barrel length on this rifle is 23.6 inches. One of the longer barrels in my PCP collection.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the shots over the chrono reading in the 880+ fps range.   

This rifle is a dedicated hunting gun, so a huge shot count, for my application, is not something that I focus on.  In my corner of the world, here in Northern Arizona, ground squirrel hunting is not a high volume shooting affair.  A couple dozen shot opportunities is a really, really good day.  Half that is more like the norm.

Since the gun came with two 14 round mags, I was curious to see what the performance would be over the 28 rounds the two mags hold.  That is more than enough shots for a days hunting in my area.  

The air cylinder is 175cc in size.  That's a bit less than my FX 2000 at 202cc.  The FX gives me 32 shots at an average of 854 fps, using the same 18 grain JSB.  The extreme spread is 17 fps, and fpe is 29.

I was guessing that the regulated HW 100, with 175cc air cylinder, would be similar, but with better extreme spread.

Below are the results of the chrono test.

Pellet: JSB Exact, 18 grain Jumbo Heavy.

Fill Pressure: 2950 psi.

1 -  883        15- 886        

2 -  887        16- 888

3 -  886        17- 885

4 -  885        18- 888

5 -  882        19- 884

6 -  880       20- 881

7 -  881        21- 881

8 -  884       22- 887

9 -  882       23- 886

10- 880       24- 887

11- 880        25- 887

12- 882        26- 889

13- 882        27- 886

14- 888        28- 883

Hi - 889 fps

Lo - 880 fps

Avg - 884.5 fps

ES - 9 fps

SD - 3

Avg fpe - 31.4

 

Just for the heck of it, I put a few more pellets in the mag and fired them over the chrono.  Shot number 29, clocked 875 fps, shot number 30, clocked 869 fps, and shot number 31, clocked 863 fps.  It looks like 28 shots, (2 mags) is about the ideal for this rifle.

I'm more than pleased with these numbers.  The sequential shot to shot consistency is really good.  There were two occasions where it was 6 fps, the rest of the time it was 4 fps or less.  This is going to be one heck of a good shooting rifle.  Especially with the 18 grain JSB's.

Last time, I showed how she was shooting them at 15 yards indoors. A few days ago, I had a chance to sight her in at 50 yards out of doors.  Yep, she's a shooter alright.

I set up my shooting stand, and put my wind flags out at 15, 25, 35, and the last one at 45 yards, five yards in front of my target frame.  I also have a wind flag made from a strip of video tape that I hang on the air cylinder of my rifle.

Whenever I'm doing serious accuracy testing, or sighting in a gun, I always use my wind flags.  Otherwise it's just a crap shoot, as far as what you are actually seeing down range on paper. Ideally, I would like to have a tunnel to shoot in, but since that's not going to happen, the next best thing is to use wind flags, and shoot during the lulls.

Watching the flags, and shooting only during the lulls, the following targets show the results.  My hold was at 6 o'clock on the half inch orange dot. 

First four shots at 50 yards.  I was being patient, but not as much as I could have, because I knew I would need to make a scope adjustment. The gun is definitely going to group. The orange dot is half inch.

I made a couple of scope adjustments, waited for the next lull, and taking my time, fired a shot at a fresh orange dot.  It landed dead nuts at 12 o'clock on the dot.  Since the lull was holding, I fired a second shot, It landed just left of the first one, slightly enlarging the hole.  The wind picked up, so I had to wait about five minutes for the next lull to appear. I got off two more shots during that lull, and they landed in with the first two, only slightly enlarging the hole.  The wind picked up again, so I had to wait.  When the next lull showed up, I fired off the fifth and final shot, it went through the existing hole.  I don't think it even touched the paper.  I put in one click of right windage and called it done.

Final five 18 grain JSB's, fired while sighting in my new HW 100 T FSB .22, at 50 yards, shooting over wind flags. 

YEEHAWWW!  I love it when things turn out better than expected.  You don't really hear much about these guns.  HW doesn't have a huge family of PCP's, like they do springers, but if my experience is typical, the one they do offer is AWESOME!  

Yeah, I'm happy, real, real happy.

A few days ago, the weather was pretty nice, so I decided to get her out on a short ground squirrel hunt.  That is if I could find any.  It's still a bit early for them to be coming out of hibernation, but the weather has been fairly warm, so I figured I'd head out and see what I could find.  You never know.  Plus it's just nice being out in the woods, squirrels or no squirrels.

Here's a strong hint as to how things went.  First ground squirrel of 2013, taken with a head shot at 61 yards.  Yep she's a shooter.

When I have some time, I'll get a story up about the hunt.  I'm just thrilled that I decided to give this rifle a try.   I look forward to many successful hunts with her.

       

 

HW 100 T FSB - German Side Lever - PCP Air Rifle - In .22.

BEEMAN/WEIHRAUCH H100 T FSB .22 PCP

I'm guessing that it's been six or seven years ago now, that I was at the Beeman facility in Huntington Beach, dropping off a couple of FWB 300S rifles for new seals and springs, that I first saw the HW 100 PCP.

When you walked into the service office, hanging on the walls, were many samples of the Beeman line of airguns.  Among those, I spotted the HW 100 PCP.  The gentleman helping me asked if I would like to shoot one. Heck yeah I would like to shoot one.  He took me into the back area where they had an enclosed indoor range set up.

 

The gun I was given to shoot was in .177 caliber.  I got to put a couple of 14 round mags through her, shooting at a variety of spinners, and paper targets they had set up down range.  The distance was short, maybe 10/15 yards.  The three things that impressed me were, A) the trigger was very good, B) the side lever action was incredibly easy and smooth to operate, and C) it would stack pellets one on top of the other.

The thing, at the time, that was a deal breaker for me though, was the lack of any quick fill capability.  Unscrewing the bottle each time I wanted to fill the gun was a non starter for me.  The fact that the gun wasn't shrouded, and didn't have a pressure gauge didn't bother me as much as the lack of a quick fill port.

So, I pretty much just forgot about the gun.  Over the passing years, when I thought of HW airguns, I thought of springers.  Never giving the HW 100 PCP a second thought. That is until a few weeks ago.

I recently sold off the last remaining powder burner varmint rifles in my collection, and wanted to take a portion of that money and add a new PCP to my airsonal.

I was perusing the PYRAMYD AIR web site, when I noticed the HW 100 T FSB rifle.  It looked different from what I remembered, and it got my attention, so I decided to take a look.

What I discovered, was a much different gun than the one I originally shot at the Beeman facility many years ago.  This one, now has a built in air pressure gauge, and the FSB in the model designation stands for, Fully Shrouded Barrel.  But the best part, as far as I'm concerned, is the fact that the gun now has a quick fill port on the end of the air cylinder.  I have no idea when HW made these changes, maybe years ago, and I just never noticed, but I'm glad it popped back up on my radar.

It can be ordered with either a sporter type walnut stock, or an ambidextrous thumbhole walnut stock.  It is also available in .177, .20, or .22.  I whipped out the ole credit card and opted for the thumbhole version in .22.   Officially known as the HW 100 T FSB .22.

I was out of town at the time, so I placed the order to time the arrival of the gun, to be delivered the day after I got back into town.  It's always nice to have something fun to look forward to when you've mostly been busy dealing with some of life's unexpected challenges.

I was not disappointed.  This gun just reeks of old country german quality.  The fit and finish are superb.  I was surprised to see that the gun comes with two (2) fourteen round magazines, and if you want more, they are under $30 bucks each.

The stock is a nice piece of straight grain walnut with a dark finish.  I'm not usually a big fan of ambidextrous stocks, but the cheek pieces on this one are so subtle, and well done, that I don't even notice them.

Out of the box, the gun comes with a few accessories.  On the left, in the below picture, is a DIN adapter that allows you to fill the bottle with it off of the gun.  I suppose if you lost your fill probe, this could save the day. Next is the fill probe.  I've added a male foster fitting to it.  To the right of that are the two mags, and last, on the right, is a degassing cap for removing the air from the cylinder if needed.  All items are very well made.

The air pressure gauge is on the end of the air cylinder, and is color coded for quick easy reading.  The item sticking out of the air cylinder at five o'clock, just behind the gauge, is a probe that you put in the fill port, after charging the air cylinder, to keep out dust and dirt between fills.

The side lever is shown below, along with the magazine, and the magazine retainer latch.  To remove the magazine, simply open the side lever, slide the magazine retainer latch to the rear, and lift out the mag. To load, put the magazine in the slot in the receiver, move the latch forward, and close the action.  The action has now fed the pellet at the 12 o'clock position, in the magazine, into the breech, and you are now ready to shoot.

Close up of mag retainer latch and the magazine.

There is an index mark on the outside of the mag.  If you index that to the top, at 12 o'clock, when you insert the full mag, you can easily tell where your pellet count is. The next time it comes up at 12 o'clock, you are out of ammo.  It is also  easy to see the pellets in the magazine as it rotates.

The weather was pretty lousy the day the gun arrived, so there was no going out to the forest and sighting her in.  Instead, I set up my shooting stand and pellet trap in the house.  I can get 15 yards without moving stuff, so that's what I went with.

For optics, I installed a Hawke 4-12x40mm Panorama scope on her. Punching paper isn't my favorite thing to do, so I've come up with a system that works for me, and keeps the bench time to a minimum. Over the years, I've come up with a short list of pellets that I shoot first. There are tons of pellets, but most, for my application of medium to long range varmint hunting, are a waste of air and time to shoot, so I don't bother.

This time, I went straight to the pellet that I hoped this gun would shoot well.  Time after time, in a wide variety of my PCP's, this is the go to pellet.  What is it?  It's the 18.1 grain JSB Exact Jumbo Heavy.  I bought about 15,000 of these when they first came out, and in the accuracy department,  they have been absolutely amazing.

The first thing I did, before doing any shooting, was to clean the barrel. The barrel wasn't nasty, but it was definitely worth doing.  After about a dozen patches, we were good to go.

I shot three five shot groups.  Fifteen yards isn't very far, but you can tell a lot about how a pellet is working in a given gun at that distance.  There are some that won't stay inside a quarter at that range.

What I'm looking for is a group that is one hole, better yet, pellet on pellet.  I got both while testing the 18.1 grain JSB's in this HW 100 PCP. The first two groups, out of the clean barrel, were one hole.  The last group of five, were pellet on pellet.  I see this happen a lot as the bore gets conditioned with the first ten or twelve pellets, the groups shrink. My hold was at 6 o'clock on the black dots.

Below are how the groups went.

Group 1, shots 1-5

Group 2, shots 6-10

Group 3, shots 11-15

The gun was rested on a Caldwell Shooters Bag up front, and a Protektor, heavy bottom, rabbit ear, rear bag.  This thing was rock solid steady.

I'm very happy with what I'm seeing so far.  Next, I'll run her over the chrono, and see what we get.  This is a regulated gun, so I'm expecting very low single digit velocity spreads across the shot string.

Okay, fast forward a day or so.  I've now had time to run her across the chrono.  I'm very impressed.  I'll do a seperate blog story on that, and include all of the data, but the bottom line is, this gun is doing an average of 884 fps, with the 18.1 grain JSB's, for an average of 31.4 FPE at the muzzle.  Not too shabby.

I'm really glad I gave this gun another look.  You don't hear much about them, but the HW 100 is most definitely a player in the PCP market.

Next up, is to sight her in at 50 yards and see how she does.

  

 

 

New Stock - For My .25 Cal - Marauder

I haven't had time to do much in the way of airgun related activities the past four plus months, but I did find time to spend some money on the hobby.

When I saw that DiscosRUs is now offering the Boyds Blaster thumbhole stocks, fully inletted and finished, for the Marauder rifles, I decided to give one a try.

I used to have an HW97 with the blue laminate stock on it, and always liked that look. When I saw that DiscosRUs, is offering a similar laminate, called "Sky Royal Blue/Black" I opted to to go with one of those.

It makes for a really great looking combination.  The blue is nice and dark. Norm Morin is the owner of DiscosRUs, and he really does a nice job on these stocks.  The inletting is very clean and precise.  My rifle dropped right in without any need to relieve any wood at all.

 

I've ordered enough custom stocks over the years, to know that sometimes, when the stock maker does not have your gun on hand to work with, you will need to do a little minor work, with a piece of sandpaper, to get your specific gun to fit the new stock.   This time however, my Marauder slipped right into the stock without any fitting required.  I moved the trigger guard over from my factory stock, and I am good to go.

The finish is high gloss, and reminds me of my Weatherby MK V rifles. It makes the colors of the stock really pop, and to my eye, looks great.

A buddy of mine had a Ruger 10/22 heavy barrel, that was mounted in a Blaster stock, and I always liked the way that gun shot offhand.  The thumbhole pistol grip is almost vertical, and to me, just feels right when shooting offhand, or in my case, shooting standing with the forend rested on my Stoney Point bipod.

This particular stock weighs 2 pounds 10 ounces, which is 6 ounces heavier than my factory stock.  In my experience, laminate stocks tend to run heavier than regular wood stocks.  I don't mind that at all.  I tend to prefer heavier rifles for most of my hunting.

In anticipation of hunting ground squirrels, at high elevation, here in Northern Arizona, I have mounted a Leupold 4-12x40mm Vari-X-II scope, in medium rings, on the rifle.  I've had this scope for about 25 years, and with its fine duplex crosshair, it makes for an excellent optic for use on small varmints like our local ground squirrels.

I don't think I would use a scope, with this stock, that has a large 50 or 56mm objective lens, because high mounts will be required, and the cheek piece isn't really high enough to work well with a scope in high mounts.

For you lefties out there, Norm now offers these stocks in a left hand configuration as well.

I have no affiliation with Norm, or his business, but if you are interested in more info about these stocks, you can contact DiscosRUs at the following link.  DiscosRUs

It's going to be awhile yet, before I have time to get out and pursue the furballs, but when I do, I'm looking forward to hunting my .25 cal Marauder in her new outfit.

AA 410 ERBSL .22 - Gets Some New Glass - And Loses Some Weight

Here she is when I started.  Ten pounds two ounces without the camera.

It's been quite some time since I've hunted my AA 410 ERBSL .22 PCP. That needs to change.  I got her out of the gun case, and decided that what I needed to do first, was to get the weight down some.  As currently configured, without the video camera mounted, she comes in at ten pounds, two ounces.   I wanted to see if I couldn't get her down under nine pounds.

The scope on her, when I started, was the 4-16x50mm MTC Viper, with 30mm tube, camera mount, and sunshade installed.  That combination was then mounted in a set of high BKL rings.

She was also wearing the sporter style stock.  I prefer the thumbhole stock, that my AA 410 CRBSL carbine came with, and my thumbhole stock is about 5 ounces lighter than the sporter stock.  Step one, swap out the stocks.

Next up, was to replace the scope and rings.  A while back, I purchased some of the Hawke, Panorama AO IR EV scopes.  Two of the 4-12x40mm models, and one of the 4-12x50mm versions.  I have really been impressed with these scopes, especially for the kind of hunting that I do. I decided to get another of the 4-12x50mm models, with sunshade, to mount on my AA 410 ERBSL.

I especially like the floating, etched in glass, 1/2 mildot reticle.  Since there are no mechanical strength issues with the stadia wires, since there are no stadia wires, they can make the crosshairs extra fine.  That along with the additional hash marks in-between each mildot, has made this scope one of my favorites, especially for the type of hunting that I do.

I shoot small critters at long range, (by airgun standards) and like a crosshair that doesn't cover very much of the furballs torso.  Many times, I make very minor adjustments in my hold, to compensate for varying wind conditions, and/or range, and this particular reticle is perfect for that.

Floating reticle.  The scope has illuminated reticle capability, in either red or blue.

This scope has a one inch tube, so I mounted it in a set of medium height BKL one inch rings.  I didn't install a camera mount on her, saving another couple of ounces. 

Here's how she looks, sitting in the thumbhole stock, with the new scope. Configured this way, she now comes in at eight pounds twelve ounces.  A savings in weight of one pound six ounces.

Next up, was to get her sighted in again with the 18.1 grain JSB's.  The weather forecast was calling for high winds, starting late morning, so I was out early to try and beat that issue.  There's a weather front moving in, and we're supposed to get some snow this weekend.

This rifle absolutely loves the 18.1 grain JSB's.  Here's a target I shot, while sighting her in with them, shortly after they came on the market.

The five in the bullseye were at 30 yards, and the five in the head were at 50 yards.

Since I already know how she shoots these pellets, my main goal was to just get her sighted in again.  I wasn't trying to shoot itty bitty groups.  I didn't use my shooting stand with front an rear rests, nor did I put my wind flags out.  I shot her over the hood of my vehicle, while resting her on a Caldwell Shooter's Bag.

The only wind flag I used, was the one made from a strip of video tape, that I mount to my barrel or air tube while hunting.

I love a scope, with the reticle centered, scope mount, rail system, that is so well aligned, that the first shot on paper is very close to the aim point, and that's what happened with this combination. I've had some setups, where the first shot isn't even on the target backer.  Then the hunt is on for a set of windage, and elevation adjustable mounts.  Not this time.

I put my target frame out at a lasered 40 yards, grabbed my pellet pouch, loaded a round, aimed at the quarter inch orange dot in the center of a Shoot-N-C bullseye target, and launched the first pellet.  It landed on the target backer, about two and a half inches high, and an inch right.  Not bad, but right then, I remembered that I had the wrong pellets out.  The last time I hunted, was with my FX Whisper, and I had 16 grain JSB's in the pellet pouch.  I put those away, and dug out the 18 grain versions.

Okay, let's try this again.  This time the pellet landed a little lower, but still in the white.  I made some scope adjustments, and fired five for effect.  They cut a nice ragged hole in the black, about a half inch high from my center hold on the orange dot.

I darned near left it there, with just a small right windage adjustment, but since all of my other tree squirrel rifles are sighted in dead on at 40 yards, I decided to do the same with this rifle.

First target shot, while sighting in, with the new Hawke scope. 

That was the last Shoot-N-C target that I had, so I moved up to a half inch orange dot that I had also put on the backer.  After making a small scope adjustment, and while holding at 6 o'clock on the orange sticker, I fired three shots.  They clustered right where I expected.  I added one click of right windage and called the deed done.

Final sight-in target.

Now all I need, is for the weather to improve, and I'll get after the tree squirrels once again with this newly configured rifle.

 

 

 

 

A Great Fall Day In The Woods - And As A Bonus - I Scored A Squirrel

Game tank I started my hunt from.

Have you ever had a day afield, where you were less focused on hunting, and more just about enjoying a nice stroll in the woods?  Well, that's the kind of day I had on my last trip out.

I grabbed my Forest Service map of the area, and picked a road I had never been down before, to explore.  One of the things that interested me, was the fact that there were two game tanks in the area, that were about 600 to 700 yards apart.  They can be fun to hunt around, because where there's water, many times, there is a variety of critter activity.

The area I was headed to, was a little over four miles from the pavement. The drive in was beautiful.  The Gambel Oaks have changed color, and are dropping their leaves in bunches, while most of the Aspen have already shed theirs.

When I got to the area, I was going to spend the day in, I drove past the first game tank, and headed for the second one.  I really liked the area. It was fairly flat with a large park/meadow in the center of it, surrounded by some nice old growth Ponderosa Pines.

I drove past the second game tank a few hundred yards, and pulled into the forest just off the road.  This area is where I would spend the next four or five hours hunting a little, and hanging around a lot.

The first thing I did was to get out my folding canvas chair, sit awhile, and eat a half a sandwich.  Something about fresh mountain air, sunshine, and bouncing down a 4x4 track that makes me hungry.

As I was munching on my Subway foot long, I could hear a woodpecker hard at work on a nearby tree.  I decided, that after I finished my half a sandwich, that I would check it out and see what this guy was about.

As I was eating my sandwich, I was also regularly visited by big yellow hornets.  They look a lot like yellow jackets, only about two and a half times bigger.  Aggressive suckers too.  I think they were after the meat in my foot long sub.

Well, little did I know at the time, but about twenty yards behind me, and about thirty feet up in a tree, was their hive.

Hornets nest.  This thing was about the size of a volley ball with lots of hornets coming and going. 

First off, it took a tremendous amount of self control, to not give in to my inner twelve year old, and stick a few pellets into that thing, just to see, "WHAT WOULD HAPPEN."  One of the advantages of growing older, with some of lifes experiences under your belt is, I already knew, "WHAT WOULD HAPPEN" and it ain't pretty.

Secondly, I made an executive decision to move my operation on down the road another hundred yards or so.  I didn't want one of their young dummies to get some other young dummies together, and go, hey guys, what say about a thousand of us jump this guys butt and see, "WHAT HAPPENS."

Before I left though, I decided to check out what this super industrious woodpecker was up to.  I headed over toward the sound, and found an old dead snag that this guy was using for his food storage locker.

Snag used for storing acorns in. 

I'm looking at this and thinking, "dude, use more of the existing holes, save yourself a bunch of work."  It's like he only gets paid for making new holes, not filling up old ones.

I went back to my vehicle and moved on down the road aways.  I got all of my hunting gear out, and strapped it on, hung it on, and/or clipped it onto my torso, and headed over to the game tank.

My intention was to hunt in a big circle, around both tanks, and back to my vehicle. Roughly 1800 yards or so.  Makes for a nice walk in the woods.  As I'm approaching the tank, I can see that someone has mounted a tree stand next to it. This is the second time, while I've been hunting, that I have seen this at a game tank .  You could tell it had been there a long time, and the Forest Service considers this to be abandoned property.  I'm surprised someone hasn't cut it down, and claimed it as their own.

Tree stand at the game tank.

After looking the tree stand over, and taking a couple of pictures, I headed into the woods to see if I could find any Abert's tree squirrels. To be honest, I wasn't super intent on the hunting part.  It was a gorgeous fall day, and I was just enjoying being out there in the serenity and solitude.

Once again, I was hunting with my .22 cal FX Whisper.  Nice and light, very accurate, and just a great gun to be carrying on a day like this.  It wasn't too long before I saw a squirrel making tracks through the tree tops.  I gave a half hearted chase, for about forty yards, and gave it up. To much like work today.

I was almost down to the first game tank, and while I was glassing a cluster of old pines for squirrels, something caught my eye on an old Gambel Oak tree trunk.  It was in the deep shade, and a little hard to make out.  My laser r/f said it was 77 yards away.  While I'm studying it through my binoculars, I realize that it is a squirrel, partially exposed, and resting in a cutout in the side of the tree.

Oak where I originally spotted the squirrel 

His head, and about two thirds of his body, were sticking out of this hole in the side of the tree. Using some other trees for cover, I was able to close the distance to right at 50 yards.  The oaks have pretty much all dropped their leaves, and the wind has scattered them all over the forest floor, so there was no way my stalk was in any way particularly quiet.

When I got to the last tree, that I was using for cover, I didn't really expect the squirrel to still be there, and I wasn't wrong.  I snuck a quick peek, around the side of the tree, and sure enough the hole in the side of the oak is now empty.  Well crap, I hate it when that happens.  So, let's take a few minutes and glass the area, you just never know.

I almost immediately see that he has left that hole, and climbed up the trunk a bit higher.  He's sitting on an old broken limb, facing to the right, but the way he is positioned, I do not have a clear head shot.  I much prefer head shots, but will take what I can get.  I set up for a heart lung shot, knowing that there is a real good chance that he is going to bolt at pellet impact.  If I can catch one, or both shoulders, it's much less likely.

In the picture below, he was sitting on the broken branch, facing to the right, just below that round knob. His head was partially hidden by that dead stub of a branch that is sticking up. 

I'm sighted in at 40 yards, so hold just a bit high over his shoulder, and launch the pellet. At impact, he's off to the races.  I obviously missed the shoulders.  He leaps from the oak into a pine that is right next to it.  I rack the bolt, to chamber another pellet, and follow his path through my scope.  Using a couple of branches, he crosses over that pine and jumps onto a limb from another pine tree next to the first one. About this time the wheels start to come off.

As he's making his way along that limb, he starts to wobble, and then his back feet slip off of the branch, leaving him hanging by his front feet only. I'm just about to send another pellet on its way, when he lets go and falls to the ground DRT.  When I get over to him, I can see that the pellet caught him just behind the right shoulder, coming out at almost the same location behind the left shoulder.  Turns out to be a nice young male.

Oak tree with notch cut in it, and squirrel laying about where I originally saw him, except his back legs and tail weren't exposed.

I think what had happened with this old oak was, decades ago, when they were logging this area, they intended to harvest this oak, but when they made the cut that would cause the tree to drop where they wanted it to, they discovered that the tree was rotten inside, and not good for lumber. Over the years, the oak tried to heal the cut, but wasn't able to close the opening, and this squirrel, along with others before him I'm sure, found it a good place to build a nest.

I dropped him into my game bag, and made the turn to start hunting my way back to my vehicle.  It's interesting to me, that in life, there's almost always the one percent that don't get the word.  Wildflower season has been over here for weeks now, but as I'm hunting along, I spot this little beauty squeezing out one last bloom before surrendering to winter.

It was a fantastic day, roaming around in a high elevation mountain forest, and getting the squirrel was icing on the cake.  You never know what you might find, or see, and that's a big part of the fun of being out there.

Here's an image from a couple of weeks ago.  One of the things I love about hunting with many small bore airguns, is the lack of a muzzle blast, that puts every critter in the area on notice that you are there.

I had taken a tree squirrel, with my FX Whisper, about fifteen minutes before slipping up on these young ladies at about 35 yards.  I was down wind, and they didn't have a clue that I was even there.  Airgun hunting doesn't get much better than this.   

 

 

 

  

One Hard To Find Squirrel - Forty Minutes - And I Loved Every Moment Of It

Hunt area.

I headed out last Thursday, for another Abert's tree squirrel hunt.  I went to another spot, where I had seen some tree squirrel sign while hunting ground squirrels last summer.

While on my way into the area, I was surprised to see a couple of ground squirrels out and about.  It has gotten cold enough, that most of them have gone into hibernation.

I got my gear out, and prepared to hunt out about 500/600 yards, and then make a wide looping hunt back to my vehicle.  I had been slowly hunting for about an hour. Glassing every likely looking Ponderosa pine tree for squirrels, and not finding a darned thing.  There weren't even any chipmunks or ground squirrels around.  Most of them had decided it was time to hibernate until spring.

I was seeing some sign here and there, but it was old.  Dried up needle clusters, peeled stems, and field stripped pine cones that you could tell had been there for months. Even though I hadn't seen a squirrel, I was still enjoying just being in the forest on the hunt.

I continued to slowly hunt along, carefully glassing all of the old yellow belly Ponderosa pines for squirrels, and quite frankly, at this point not expecting to see much, when there he is.

I spot one proned out on his belly, out on a limb next to the trunk, about 80 feet up an old 120 foot tall pine.  This guy is in the shade, and dead still, not so much as a tail twitch. He has his chin resting on the branch watching my every move.    

I shoot a range to him using my laser r/f, and it comes back at 37 yards. I'm sighted in dead on at 40 yards, but with the extreme up angle, I know I'll need to hold a bit low.

He is so high, that I can't use my Stoney Point bipod while standing.  I drop down to one knee, and position the bipod legs at an angle in front of me, so that I can rest the rifle on it, and still get enough elevation to make a shot.

I'm hunting my FX Whisper again, still shooting the .22 cal 16 grain JSB's.  I chamber a pellet, and resting my right shoulder against a nearby tree, line up the shot.  It turns out that I was holding just a bit too low, and when the shot broke, I saw the pellet hit the limb just under his jaw. He gets splattered with pieces of flying bark, and launched straight up the trunk into the upper canopy, yelling obscenities at me the entire way.

Since this is the only squirrel I've seen, in an hour and a half of hunting, I decide to see if I can maybe wait him out, better yet, find him in the canopy and pick him off. Normally when they do this, I just move on, but with the way things are going, I'm thinking that this just might be the only squirrel I see today.

I put my back against the tree, that I made the shot from, and using my binoculars, I start searching the canopy for any sign of this guy.  I know from experience, that he is going to be near the top of the tree, and well hidden, but he will be watching me.

I also know that I'm not looking for an exposed squirrel, I'm going to be looking for a squirrel head, or maybe only the eye.

I start glassing every little opening I can find from the top of the tree down about a quarter of the way.  I know he's up in there somewhere.  I do that several times, and don't see a thing.  Man, they are really good at making themselves disappear in the tops of these trees.

At this point I decide to take a break, have a drink from my canteen, and just rest my eyes.  After about ten minutes, I decide to try it again.  This time I go even slower. There is nothing in that tree that is shiny and round, except a squirrels eye.  I get my head around that fact, and focus on finding that small, round, shiny, squirrel eye that's hiding in the canopy.

I am really taking my time, and focusing on the minutia, when I spot him. He's about ten feet from the top of the tree, and the only thing showing, is a very small part of his head and his eye.  I'm so excited at locating him, that I'm on the verge of coming down with buck fever.

I slowly let go of my binoculars, they're hung around my neck, and pick up my rifle to set up the shot.  The problem is, I can't find him in my scope. I put the rifle down, and grab my binos again.  Yep there he is, no problem.  I pick up the rifle, and once again I can't find him in my scope. WTH! Using two eyes in the binos, I can find him, using one eye in the scope, I can't pick him out.  This is very frustrating.

I decide to get back into the binoculars, and locate some landmarks on the trunk, and walk my eye onto the squirrel that way, while looking through the scope.  This works great, and now I've got him in my sights.  

Talk about threading a needle.  There is no room for error here. Fortunately, my whisper is up to threading a needle, providing I do my part.  At the moment, it is dead calm.  I hold the crosshair just low to where I think his jawline would be, center the vertical crosshair on his eye and squeeze the trigger.

I get that satifying THWOOKK, at pellet impact, and down he comes, bouncing and spinning from limb to limb.  He lands with a nice soft thud, in the bed of pine needles, under the tree.

Talk about total tunnel vision, for about forty minutes there, I was completely oblivious to anything else going on in the world around me. The concentration was intense, and the thrill of getting him was way out of proportion to the size of the trophy, but man, was that challenging and very rewarding.

When I got over to him, I could see that the pellet had literally gone in one eye and out the other.  It was a nice clean one shot kill.

I was right, that would be the only squirrel I would see all day, but that's alright, the mental energy I put into claiming that one squirrel, just about wore me out.  LOL.

I've got a new scope coming for my AA 410ERBSL, and I'm going to convert her over from a prairie dog rifle to a ground squirrel, tree squirrel rig.  I hope to get her out for a romp in the woods next week.

Stay tuned, more to come. 

 

 

 

 

First Abert's Tassel Eared Tree Squirrel Hunt Of 2012 - This Year - I'm taking A Different Approach

Abert's tree squirrel season opened here on the 5th of October.  It was the 9th before I had a chance to get out after them.  I headed for the base of that mountain that is sticking up on the horizon in the above picture.

During the summer, while scouting for ground squirrel hunting areas, I would also make a mental note, of areas that had good tree squirrel sign. There were a few areas at the base of that mountain, that looked pretty good, with a fair amount of that type of sign.

Below are a couple of pictures that show what sign I'm looking for when scouting areas for tree squirrels.  A bed of field stripped pine cones, and pine cone debris under the trees, as well as stripped stems from pine needle clusters.

Pine cone debris underneath a Ponderosa Pine tree.

Clipped needle clusters, and stripped stems.

Abert's tree squirrels do eat other things, but their primary food sources come from the Ponderosa Pine trees.  That is also where they build their nests.  Another interesting fact about them is, they do not hibernate, so they are out feeding on pine cones, and the under bark from needle cluster stems, all winter long.

To give myself a leg up when hunting these guys, I scout for areas that show a lot of the above types of sign.  That's exactly what I saw in several areas at the base of the mountain I was headed for.

Ponderosa Pine trees are self pruning.  Meaning, that as they grow and mature, the lower limbs die and fall off, or are knocked off in stormy weather. Also, there is very little undergrowth on the forest floor.  That means, that in a typical Ponderosa Pine forest, you can see a long way. An example of that is shown in the photo below.

However, that is a double edged sword.  Not only can I see critters a long way off, but they can also see me.   If I see a squirrel on the forest floor, I'll try and get it to head up a nearby tree.  As often as not though, if they do tree, they head straight for the canopy 90 to 100+ feet up, and get lost in the foliage.  Or, instead of treeing, they will just haul buns for parts unknown, never to be seen by me again.

I've only been hunting these guys for about four years, and I've come to notice something interesting about them.  If they are already in a tree, and have not been chased there by me, they are easier to get a shot at. But, once they've been put on the run, the adrenaline is flowing, making them much more alert and hinky, and making it much more difficult to get a shot.

This year, I'm taking a different approach.  I'll make an attempt on any squirrel I see on the ground, but my main focus is going to be to hunt the ones that are already in the trees.  This can be easier said than done. They are masters at concealment, but if they haven't already been startled, so there isn't any adrenaline pumping, and they are just following the normal daily routine, their natural curiosity may just get the better of them, and while they are sneaking a peek at me, I just might locate them with my binoculars, and be able to get a shot.

Ponderosa Pines do not start producing pine cones until they are between 45 and 60 years old.  There are thousands of trees out there, and I need to focus only on the ones bearing cones. Also, by the time they are that old, the bark on many of their trunks has started to turn a cinnamon, or copper color, giving them the nickname of, "yellow belly." When hunting Abert's tree squirrels, those are the trees that I will focus the majority of my attention on.

Example of an old "yellow belly" Ponderosa Pine tree on the left.

I slowly made my way up the 4x4 track, that would take me into my hunt area.  Pulling into a wide spot in the road, I parked and prepared for an afternoon hunt.  Going through my usual gearing up ritual, after about fifteen minutes, I was ready to hit the woods.

Initially, I was going to hunt with my FX Monsoon, but after a bit of thought, I decided to use my FX Whisper again.  I have been shooting this rifle exceptionally well on ground squirrels.  Making head shots on nickel sized kill zones at 60 yards, in the wind, with ease.  Why change a good thing.

Slipping into the woods, I headed for the area that I had seen goodly amounts of tree squirrel sign during the summer.   Hunting in this manner, meant that I would be spending a lot of time in my binoculars, checking individual trees for squirrels.  Much like when hunting ground squirrels.  Only now I would be looking up into the trees, instead of down low on logs and stumps.

I'm slowly hunting along, checking old yellow bellies for any sign of squirrel activity, and not really seeing anything, when on the third one I'm checking out, as though it was scripted, I see a squirrel head peeking at me from behind the trunk, about halfway up the tree.  I heard myself say under my breath, "I'll be damned, this is actually going to work."

The squirrel is dead calm.  No warning barks, no nervous action at all. It's just staring, secure in the fact, that if it just holds very still it won't be seen. My laser r/f gives me a range of 43 yards. Since it's about 60 feet up in this particular tree, I hold a little low, to allow for the steep up angle, and launch the pellet.The sound of the pellet impacting the squirrel's head was LOUD.  It instantly launched off of the branch it was sitting on, and hit the ground, 60 feet below, with a soft thud, DRT.

I love it when a plan works.  When I got over to it, I could see that the pellet had entered just under the right ear, and came out the top of its head.  After spending the summer making head shots on ground squirrels, that are one fifth the size of these big guys, it looked to be about the size of a house cat in my scope.  How can you miss a target that size.

First Abert's tree squirrel of the 2012 season.

I took a couple pictures, put the squirrel in my game pouch and continued on my hunt. I had gone another five hundred yards or so, glassing every appropriate looking tree along the way, when I spot another squirrel, sitting in the shade, on the fat part of a limb attached to the trunk of an old Ponderosa yellow belly.

Again, this guy is showing zero concern.  It's sitting motionless, in the shade, but in plain sight facing me.  Without the use of my binoculars, I never would have seen this one, or the last one.  It makes me wonder how many I have walked right by in the past. The laser r/f says 39 yards. This one is about 75 feet up a 90 foot pine.  Holding center, high on the chest, I took up the trigger pressure and the pellet hit him right in the throat.  This one tumbled backwards off of the limb, and hit the ground with a soft thud.  Again DRT.

Second Abert's squirrel of the 2012 season.

To say that I'm tickled is an understatement.  I think I may have just cracked the code to hunting these guys.  They are well dispersed, and hunting them based on watching the forest floor for movement, and then treeing them, which is what guys with years of experience told me to do, hasn't been a very productive approach for me.  Based on this first hunt, I'm pretty sold on my new method.  As a side note, on this hunt, I didn't see a single squirrel on the forest floor.  Using that method, again, I would have been skunked.

A picture of the pair. 

Here's a picture that clearly shows why they are known as "tassel eared" tree squirrels.

On the left side, you can see the long hairs that they grow on the tip of each ear, giving them the name "tassel eared" tree squirrel.  On the right ear of this one, the hairs are matted with blood.

I added the second one to my game pouch, and started to slowly hunt back toward my vehicle.  I didn't spot another squirrel on my way back, and the shadows were getting long, so I decided to call it a day.

I'm pretty happy with the results from hunting, using my new approach, and hope to get out later this week for another try.  We need a couple more to make a meal. 

 

 

 

 

 

  

The FX Whisper - Hunts The North Side Of Squirrel Valley

A partial view of squirrel valley looking west.

I did a blog story earlier, about hunting the south side of this valley. When I went back to hunt the north side,  some bow hunters had their elk camp set up near where I would have launched my hunt from.  I know that some folks have waited many years to get drawn for an elk hunt, so rather than get in the middle of their hunt opportunity, I left and hunted another area.

Last week, I headed back out to see if they were gone, and if so, I would hunt the north side of this valley.  On my way into the area, I spotted these two guys taking in the morning sun.

This time of year, I'm especially interested in seeing some of these guys while I'm driving into my hunt area.  If I don't see any, then that tells me that they have gone into hibernation until spring, and I'm just going to have a nice walk in the woods that day.

When I got to the area that I would launch my hunt from, the bow hunters were long gone.  I immediately started getting my gear out, and started prepping for my hunt. While I was getting geared up, I noticed what looked like the profile of a ground squirrel, clinging to the side of an old fire charred stump, about 50 yards away. 

I got my binoculars out of their case and took a quick peek.  Sure enough, it's a furball alright.  I didn't have my rifle out yet, so I just kept on getting ready, figuring that if it was still there when I finished, I would set up for a shot.  I took it as a good omen as to how the rest of the day would go.

I got the legs on my Stoney Point bipod extended, dug out my pellet pouch and dropped 26 pellets into it.  I already had 12 pellets loaded into the guns magazine, and the combination of the two would give me 38 shots.  I get 36 shots on a fill, but I always take a couple of extra pellets, to cover for the ones I invariably drop in the grass while refilling the mag.

Then I put my camera, SPOT GPS locator, Colt 1911 .45 acp, (cougar country) extra loaded .45 mag in its pouch, and water canteen on my belt. Hung my binos, range finder, and pellet pouch around my neck, double checked everything, and decided I was ready to go.

I checked out that stump again, and the squirrel was still there.  I shot a range to it, and it came back as 54 yards.  I haven't even left my vehicle yet, and I've got my first shot of the day.  I'm liking this a lot.

I set the Whisper onto the bipod and lined up the shot.  Since I'm sighted in dead on at 40 yards, I allowed a bit of daylight between the top of the squirrels head and the crosshair, held a little left to allow for a left to right breeze, and gently squeezing the trigger, sent the 16 grain JSB on her way.  Below is the result.

After taking a couple of pictures, I headed over to the start of the valley area that I would be hunting.  Hunting along the tree line, I was maybe two hundred yards into the valley, when I spot a squirrel sitting on a pile of debris, left from when the area was logged many decades ago.  The laser says it's 107 yards away.  I need to close the distance, so picking some trees that I can use for cover, I start my stalk.

When I'm about as close as I can get, I peek my head out from behind the tree I used for cover, to see if the squirrel is still there, and much to my surprise, there are now two.

My laser r/f gives me a reading of 59 yards.  Using the first mildot south of the crosshair, I place it on the squirrels head, and then, allowing for a brisk left to right wind, I hold one mildot left.  When the shot broke, the squirrel flipped off of the old log he was sitting on, and disappeared.  I immediately shifted the scope onto the second squirrel, racked the bolt, and using the exact same hold, sent another pellet on its way, with the exact same result, as shown below.

Pair of squirrels taken just seconds apart.  One off of each end of this old chunk of log.

This is just too much fun.  We are definitely on a roll.  Three shots taken, all over 50 yards, and we have three squirrels down.  It's hard not to start feeling just a little cocky.  Hey, we're shooting a pellet gun in some pretty stiff winds, making head shots on small critters beyond 50 yards, why not.  LOL.

For whatever reason, I decide to hunt a little deeper into the forest.  Up until now, I've been hugging the tree line.  Seventy five or so yards in, I spot an old blowdown stump. It has one root that is sticking straight up about six feet, and sitting right on the end of it is brer ground squirrel.  

This guy lasers at 51 yards.  Same story, hold high and a little off for the wind, and THWAAACK, another head shot furball on the ground. This continued for another couple of hours.  Misjudging the wind, I had a few misses, along with a lot of center punched skulls. The north side of this valley was turning out to be every bit as good, ground squirrel country, as the the south side was.

Squirrel dropped at 51 yards, while sitting on the tip of an old root.

I don't bother to stop and take a picture of every squirrel killed, but here's a couple more from the afternoon.  The wind was gusting from 12 mph, to just over 20 mph. My barrel mounted wind flag really earned her keep that day. All told, I covered a couple of miles out and back.

I spent a good three plus hours on the hunt.  The wind made all of the shots challenging, but that's part of what draws me to this sport.  I got a pretty good wind burn on my face, but a small price to pay for a great day afield, hunting ground squirrels with an accurate airgun.

The temps here are going to drop into the 40's for a day or two this week, and that will probably put most of these guys underground until next spring.  There's always a few stragglers, but my main focus from here forward, since the season just opened, will be on the tree squirrels.  

The Abert's tree squirrels do not hibernate, so if you can stand the cold and snow, you can hunt them through the end of December.  As a matter of fact, yesterday, I was out after them for the first time this year, and had some success.  I'll get that story up as soon as I have a chance.

Late in the day, as I was bouncing down the 4x4 track, heading back to the pavement, I spotted this guy grabbing a few late afternoon rays. 

The ground squirrel hunting has been fantastic this year.  It has been a ton of fun, and I had a chance to use a bunch of different guns.   Hunting these tree squirrels though, is a whole different ball game, and I'm looking forward to the challenge.