AA 510 .22 cal side lever carbine.
This was my second trip out with my new AA 510 side lever carbine. This time I headed up to an area at higher elevation, where I had seen a fair number of ground squirrels, while hunting tree squirrels a couple of years ago.
When I finally reached the hunt area, my altimeter read right at 8000 foot elevation. It is really beautiful up there. Especially this time of year. Spring comes later at high elevation, and the forest floor has just started to green up with some early wild flowers starting to make their appearance.
Picture of the general area I hunted in.
I was about five miles from the pavement, and used an old logging road to get up into the high country. These roads a pretty basic, and a 4x4 is nice to have.
Photo of old logging road I used for access. This doesn't look bad, but it gets pretty rugged in some places.
The wind was really blowing, so I limited my shots to 60 yards and under. I'm shooting the 18 grain JSB's in this rifle. It shoots the 16 grain JSB's well also, but the 18's have a higher BC, and buck the wind a bit better, and since this place is pretty much always windy, I go with the heavier pellet.
I got my gear set up and slipped out into the woods. It wasn't long before I saw a squirrel with just a portion of its head showing over the edge of a stump. It lasered at 54 yards.
The AA 510 carbine had no problem center punching that small target in the wind at that distance. Notice that the air tube mounted wind flag is standing straight out.
It was a very challenging hunt. You really have to spend a lot of time in your binoculars, and hike over a fair amount of country, looking for these guys back in the shade and shadows of the forest. It's mainly spot and stalk type of hunting.
They love to build their dens under these 100 year old pine stumps, so that's where I focus most of my efforts, but you will occasionally find them sitting up on old blow downs too.
A couple of ground squirrels taken at 48 and 53 yards.
Since I am constantly warring with chipmunks around the house, I included a few of them in the mix as well. The suckers insist on trying to get into the walls, and chew on the wiring, and that motivates me to ventilate the bastages whenever given the chance.
I decided to shoot some video on this hunt. The following are some video clips showing the AA 510 .22 carbine in action. She's launching the 18 grain JSB's at an average of 878 fps, for 31 fpe at the muzzle. Like I said, because of the high winds, I limited my shots to 60 yards and under.
This video runs 2 minutes and 50 seconds, and may take 20 to 30 seconds to load.
Needless to say, the air is pretty thin up at 8000 feet, so a nice accurate, light rifle is my choice for hunting in this type of terrain. Heavy gets old real fast. I'm fortunate to have a battery of airguns that I can choose from, for different types of varmint hunting. The AA 510 carbine is definitely a good choice for high altitude hunting.
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