VarmintAir's Airgun Hunting Blog

Airgun Hunting Small Game and Varmints - For Me - Is About Accuracy First - Power Second

FWB 300S .177, 5 shots at 35 yards, with 8.4 grain JSB Exact, generating about 6fpe at the muzzle.

I talk to guys all of the time, that are coming over to airgunning from a lifetime of shooting powder burners, and the one thing they are almost always focused on is pellet velocity.     

Show them an airgun, and the first question is, "how fast does this thing shoot a pellet?"  That's usually where the education about the differences between hunting with small bore airguns, and small bore powder burners begins, with the emphasis on accuracy, not power.

Small bore powder burning cartridges, like the .17HMR, .22 Mag, .223, .22-250, and .220 swift, are high velocity death on small vermin like ground squirrels, and prairie dogs.  Highly explosive projectiles, such as the Hornady V-Max, and Nosler Ballistic Tip bullets, when driven at high velocity, literally detonate small rodents on impact.

At impact, a tremendous amount of energy is released by the polymer tipped bullets rapid expansion. I have hit ground squirrels with a 50 grain V-Max bullet, fired from a .22-250, doing over 3500 fps at the muzzle, (1360 fpe) where there was literally nothing left of the squirrel but red mist and hair blowing in the wind.  Impressive power to say the least. You're not going to get that with an airgun pellet.  Hunting with small bore airguns is about accuracy, and very precise pellet placement, not high power.    

When shooting powder burner varmint rifles, supreme accuracy was always a pursuit of mine, but for a slightly different reason than when shooting my airguns.  Supreme accuracy, lets met reach out farther with my powder burners, 400 yards and beyond was common.  I wasn't so much concerned with placing a Ballistic tip bullet on a precise spot, like the earhole of a ground squirrel, as I was mostly interested in putting it center of mass, on the squirrel or prairie dog at long range, and the highly explosive bullet would take care of the rest.

With my airguns, I also pursue high levels of accuracy, but with these guns, it's because I need to place a pellet precisely where I want it to go. Airguns do not blow things up, they kill by putting a pellet through one or more vital organs of the critter being hunted.  That means a high level of accuracy is required, to consistently put a pellet precisely where it is wanted, on demand.     

The guns I hunt with, all have one thing in common.  They are very, very accurate.  The power levels vary from about 6 fpe on the low end, to 46 fpe on the high end. Not enough power to vaporize rodents that's for sure, but still enough power to kill cleanly, within each guns accuracy capabilities and power limitations.

For example, the above photo of a target, shows a five shot group at 35 yards, fired from one of my FWB 300S, .177 cal, recoilless springers. This gun  generates about 6 fpe at the muzzle.  The orange dot is half inch. This rifle is death on ground squirrels, with head shots out to 45 yards.

A typical adult California Ground Squirrel, or adult Gunnison's Prairie Dog's head, is a target that measures roughly 2 inches wide by  2 inches high, and about 2.5 inches front to back.  Inside of that, you have about a 1.5 inch kill zone.  Include the neck, and upper chest, heart lung area, and we now have a kill zone that runs about 1.5/2 inches wide by about 4 inches tall. 

Not an impossible target, all the way to 100 yards, but it takes a very accurate airgun to stay inside that 1.5/2 inch wide kill zone at that distance.  Especially when shooting in the wind.

Depending upon where and what I'll be hunting, I use various guns that all have excellent accuracy, but cover a wide range of power levels.

If I want to reach out a bit farther than my 6 fpe FWB 300S allows, but want to hunt a gun that's short and light, I'll grab my Marauder pistol/carbine.

Below target, Marauder .22 pistol/carbine, 5 shots at 40 yards, with 12.8 grain Sn-2 tin pellets, generating 13 fpe at the muzzle.

I'm very comfortable using my Marauder pistol/carbine, for heart lung, or head shots on ground squirrels out to 65 yards.  The accuracy and power, at 13 fpe, is more than enough for California Ground Squirrels at that range.  Last year, I used it exclusively for hunting ground squirrels, and the performance was simply amazing.

If I'm looking for a bit more power, and reach, in a nice light rifle, I'll hunt with my Benjamin Discovery.  

Discovery .22, 5 shots at 30 yards, with 16 grain JSB Exacts, generating approximately 23 fpe at the muzzle. 

My Discovery has been a ton of fun to hunt with.  The accuracy and power, let me take ground squirrels out to 75/80 yards, and the light weight of the gun makes it a dream to carry all day long.

Below are other sight-in targets from some of my other hunting PCP's. The power may vary from gun to gun a bit, but the common denominator through out all of these PCP's, is their excellent accuracy.

There is also a wide range of gun prices represented in this blog story, but accurate, is accurate, whether the gun cost $250, or $1600. That doesn't matter to me, because I'm mostly interested in what a given gun can do down range with a pellet.  That's where the real work gets done with any gun, and my less expensive PCP's shoot right along with some of their higher priced cousins.

I've used all of the following guns to take ground squirrels, and prairie dogs out to around 100 yards.  The targets show the performance, of each gun, when sighted in with its tested pellet of choice.

RWS Rapier .22, 5 shots at 50 yards, with 18 grain JSB Jumbo Heavy's, generating 30 fpe at the muzzle.

AA 410ERBSL .22, 5 shots at 50 yards, with 18 grain JSB Jumbo Heavy's, generating 30 fpe at the muzzle. 

Benjamin Marauder .22, 5 shots at 50 yards, with 14.5 grain DYNAMIC PCP-2 tin pellets, generating 27 fpe at the muzzle. Half inch orange dot.

AA 510 TC .22, 5 shots at 50 yards, with 18 grain JSB Jumbo Heavy's, generating 29 fpe at the muzzle. 

Benjamin Marauder .25, 5 shots at 65 yards, with 30.8 grain Beeman Kodiaks, generating 46 fpe at the muzzle. 

FX 2000 .22, 5 shots at 100 yards, with 21 grain Beeman Kodiaks, generating 31 fpe at the muzzle. Red dot is one inch.

With the exception of the .22 cal Marauder, none of these guns are driving their pellets over 900 fps, and a couple, the Marauder pistol/carbine, and FWB 300S, are under 700, and 600 fps respectively. Not tons of power (13 fpe and 6 fpe) for sure.  Yet both guns are very efficient killers of California Ground Squirrels.

Anyone who has followed this blog, the past several years, has seen stories, and videos of these guns being used to hunt with, and when used within each guns capabilities, and power limitations, they have all performed the task at hand very, very well indeed.  

All of these guns are superbly accurate, and that's the focus when it comes to hunting with small bore airguns.  We need enough power, along with the accuracy, to deliver a pellet cleanly to the vital organs of our chosen prey.  We will never have the kind of velocities and power, that the powder burner varmint cartridges generate, but we don't need them either.

Hunting with small bore airguns, isn't about high velocity and loads of muzzle energy, it's really about accuracy, and precise shot placement, and for me, that's what makes it so challenging and fun.  

 

   

Category - "Hunting Video Library" - Updated

Marauder .25 cal, with camera and Abert's tree squirrel.

I've finally had a chance to add the new videos I shot on hunts this past spring and summer, to the "Hunting Video Library" category of the blog.  For those who don't know, the "Hunting Video Library" is where I post all of the videos I shoot during hunts.  They are posted without the associated stories that would normally go with them.  It now includes most of the videos from various hunts over the past two and a half years.

This way, folks who just want to watch the hunting videos, have them all located in one place.

There are video clips located in the Library, that I shot while hunting with the following guns.  AA 510TC .22......Marauder .25......Marauder pistol .22......AA 410 ERBSL .22......AA 410 CRBSL .22......FX 2000 .22......Discovery .177......FX Whisper .22......and my RWS Rapier .22.

To find the "Hunting Video Library" just scroll down the side bar, on the left of the main blog page here, to the "Categories" section. Scroll down it until you come to the "Hunting Video Library" heading, and click on it. That will take you to the Library section.

If you click on the "Hunting Videos" category, and not the "Hunting Video Library" category, it will take you to a section of the blog that has the hunting stories with their associated videos embedded.

The "Hunting Video Library" is made up of individual videos only. Scroll through the offerings, until you see something you would like to view, click on the arrow, and after loading, the video will play.  I hope you enjoy watching the clips.

RWS Rapier .22 cal, with video camera mounted.

 

Clown or Dinner? Depends.

We have five huntable species of tree squirrels here in Arizona. They're well scattered around the State. The one that hangs around my neck of the woods, is called the Abert's Tassel Eared Tree Squirrel. It grows long hairs on the ends of each ear, and that's where the "tassel eared" comes in. These guys are a ton of fun to hunt, and are very challenging. We are surrounded by 4.5 million acres of Ponderosa Pine trees, and each and every tree is a food source for these squirrels. Because of that, they don't generally congregate in large numbers in any given area. I put a lot of miles on my boots in the course of hunting these guys.

We have lots of them here in town, and that's when they go from potentially being dinner, to just being the neighborhood clowns. I came down stairs this morning and spotted our three cats shoulder to shoulder at the back window, intently watching something in the back yard. When I snuck a peek, I saw this guy in one of our pine trees. I grabbed my camera and snapped a few pics of him doing his thing. He thoroughly searched each and every limb for pine cones. None in this tree, just a bit too young to produce cones yet. When he hit the tip top of the tree, he just sat there for awhile, soaking up the sun, working on his tan, and taking in his domain. He eventually worked his way back down the tree, and sat on a stump next to it for a bit. If you look closely, you can see the long hairs on the tip of each ear. 

When I'm hunting them, they love to get into the crown of a 90 foot pine and disappear. I know they're there, and they know I'm looking for them. I'll put my back against a nearby tree and start slowly glassing every inch of the tree that I can see. I'll change position several times to get a better view of different parts of the tree. The vast majority of the time, I will never spot them. They will stay hidden and let me starve to death before they will move so much as a muscle. They are true masters at concealment. Makes for a very challenging hunt. I hate to admit it, but I get outsmarted by these rodents on a regular basis. 

Anyway, some folks have never seen these squirrels, so I thought I would share the pics. I'll be hunting his brethren in the forest tomorrow, only It'll be with my .25 Marauder, not my camera. The male adults can run 2.5 pounds. These guys are big. The limit is five, and it's a challenge to get that many on any given hunt.

A Daisy Red Ryder - Mountain Cactus - Rock Squirrel - and Wind

 
The forecast called for sunny and wind. When they say wind around here, they aren't talking about the 5 to 10 mile per hour variety. When it makes the forecast, they mean 20/25 mph to 30/40+ mph type of winds. 

I decided to get out into the forest anyway, and shoot some photos for a book project that I'm working on. I wanted to get some pictures of my Red Ryder, since that was the first airgun I ever owned. Got it new in 1953. Not the one in this picture, but one pretty much just like it. I don't remember when I got this one, but it was many, many, years ago. 

When I finished up, I decided to take a hike around to see what I could see. With the wind velocity being so high, I didn't take an airgun along.  I just took my camera. As I was exploring the area, a spot of bright red, off in the distance caught my eye. When I got over to it, I was surprised to find a cactus plant in full bloom. My altimeter said 8200 feet. I'm in the middle of a Ponderosa Pine forest, and the last thing I am expecting to see at 8200 foot elevation is a cactus. It was out there all by its lonesome, and definitely beautiful. I love Mother Nature and her unexpected treats.

  
To give some perspective, here's a longer shot of the cactus, and the area I was in. 

  
I took a couple of pics, and resumed my hike. I came to an area that dropped off into a jumble of large broken rocks and boulders. When I looked over the side, I saw this guy out sunning himself. It's called a Rock Squirrel, and it's now obvious why. LOL.  These guys appear to be very closely related to the California Ground Squirrels.

  
The wind had really picked up. When I got back to my rig, I broke out my wind meter and tried to get a reading. Sorry for the blurry picture but at 31 mph, there was no way I could hold the thing still. It was gusting to just over 40 mph.

  
All in all, it was a fun day in the wind and sun, shooting some airgun related photos for my book project. Having the Daisy along sure brought back a bunch of fond memories from decades ago.     

California Ground Squirrels and Rattlesnakes Go Together - Like Pretzels and Beer

Rattlesnakes and ground squirrels are pretty much inseparable.  In my experience, over decades of hunting California Ground Squirrels,  where there are a lot of squirrels, there are also a lot of rattlers.   I have encountered hundreds of them over the years.  I sometimes encounter several on the same day.

I remember that the guy in the photo above was in a super grumpy mood.  I heard him way before I ever saw him.  I don't think he liked me horning in on his hunting grounds.

Some rattlers I have encountered did not coil or rattle at all, and others had most of their rattles broken off, and couldn't rattle if they wanted to. My point is, pay attention to where you are putting your feet.  You cannot count on a warning from every rattlesnake you encounter.

I hunt with one of the Stoney Point telescoping bipods, and when traveling cross country through tall grass, I use it to probe the area in front of me.  Plus, over the years, I've learned to use my eyes to quickly sweep the area directly in front of my direction of travel.  It's automatic now, I don't even think about it.

In the areas that I hunt them in, the young ground squirrels start coming above ground around the middle of May.  This is also when I start to encounter the greatest number of rattlesnakes.  Young squirrels are furball McNuggets to the rattlers.  

The following video is made up of video clips I shot of a few of my encounters last year.   The first one was posted on YouTube at one time. I've reposted it here, and it is in much higher resolution.  This video is about four minutes in length, and may take 10/15 seconds to load.  

I came across this guy sleeping in one morning.  It was cool and overcast, and he had himself tucked in under these rocks waiting for the sun to break through and warm things up a bit.

 

This next guy was laying out on a patch of bare ground, grabbing himself some early morning sun.  I walked up on him and snapped a quick photo.

When I encounter them out in the middle of nowhere, I just leave them alone . I do a lot of cross country hunting.  I like to get off of the beaten path, and in the process, I find a lot of squirrels, and also meet my fair share of buzz tails. It's all part of the excitement of hunting California Ground Squirrels.

WATCHOUT! THERE'S A RATTLER!  Just kidding.  LOL.
 

Airgun Hunting Video - Shooting In the Wind - Just Do It - You'll Get Better Over Time

I sometimes get questions about shooting in the wind, and how to get better at it.  I don't know of any shortcuts.  It's one of those shooting skills that's learned by doing. The more you do it, the better you become at it.  It helps to make a study of it though.  

Pay close attention, and precisely note where you are holding for each shot, that way you will know where to adjust your hold to for your second shot. That may sound kind of obvious, but knowing that you were holding on its head isn't good enough for hunting with airguns. You need to remember whether you were holding on the center, or left or right sides.  Maybe you were holding on the top of its head, but to the left or right, depending on distance, wind direction, and velocity.  Also, when possible, watch the dust tossed up by the pellet impacting in the dirt.  It can give you some indication of how much you missed by, and in what direction.  That's info you'll need to remember if the shot is a miss, so you can make an informed correction before taking the second shot. Your second shot kill ratio will go way up, if you've learned important information from the first shot miss.

If conditions allow, and  they don't always, try and make your shots during lulls in the wind. Generally speaking, the wind at your shooting position has more impact on the path of a pellet, than wind at the target.   

Over time, when shooting in the wind,  your brain will start to build up a database of information learned from your previous experiences while shooting in the wind. 

A must have tool these days, is a scope with multiple hard aim points built into the reticle. Scopes with mildot, or christmas tree type reticles are indispensable when shooting in the wind.   

Back in the days before mildot scopes, and the other more recent developments in reticle design, I would buy scopes with duplex crosshairs, so that I had at least two hard aim points. The thin crosshair junction of course, as well as the tip of the duplex where the crosshairs went from thin to thick.  It was a great help for holding off when shooting in the wind, and also for holding over for those long range shots.  Not as useful as todays mildot scopes though.

The following videos are examples of years of experience gained from shooting in the wind paying off.   The wind that day was really howling.  It was clearly audible, bending the dry grass, and moving tree branches all over the place.  I had two choices, go home, or hunt and deal with the wind. I decided to hunt.

I spotted this guy at 53 yards.  The wind was blowing right to left, at 90 degrees to my line of fire.  My brain, and gut said to hold one mildot into the wind.  I put the first dot left of the crosshair junction on the squirrels head, waited for the wind to drop a bit at the spot I was shooting from, and gently squeezed the trigger.  I was sighted in at 55 yards, the squirrel lasered right at 53 yards, and the one mildot hold off was on the money.  When the shot broke, I saw and heard the pellet impact, and the furball rolled off the log DRT.  I love it when that happens.

The second video clip shown below, was shot about a half hour later, and about 300 yards farther down the same canyon. The conditions had not changed a bit.  The wind was still howling, only on this shot I was shooting across it in the opposite direction. Where before it was coming from my right to left, this time it was reversed.

I shot a range to this guy and got 57 yards.  The database between my ears said, "hey, that's almost the same range as that shot back up the canyon, the conditions are the same here, let's use the same one mildot hold off, except in the opposite direction."  Works for me.

I got the shot set up in the scope, lightly touched the trigger, the pellet launched, and this guy was dead before he hit the ground.  

This particular day, I was hunting  with my .22 caliber FX 2000, shooting the 15.9 grain JSB Exacts.

Punching paper in the wind can be time well spent too.  Before starting a prairie dog hunt in Wyoming a couple of years ago, I spent a few hours on the prairie shooting in the wind at 50, 75, and 100 yards.  I like to use the large Birch Wood Casey Shoot-N-C bullseye targets.  The pellet impacts were easily seen at the longer ranges, the instant feedback was very educational, and payed off in spades when I hit the dog towns the next day. 

An Airgunning Parable About Snooty Eurogun Snobbers - A Story With Many Truths and Messages

The following story was inspired by some of the snooty airgun snobbers I've met on the various forums.  Some of these folks are incredibly arrogant, rude, and more full of crap than a Christmas turkey. 

I slipped into the squirrel woods this morning with my field grade, old technology, Benjamin Marauder air rifle. I was feeling a little bit like the time in first grade, that I showed up at school with my lunch in a paper bag, and the other kids all had theirs in spiffy high tech metal lunch boxes with lids, and handles, and thermoses and stuff. They looked at my bag, pointed and laughed. That really hurt, and still does to this day. Hang on a second I need a tissue. 

Anyway, I hoped I wouldn't run into a cool and hip airgunner, with his modern $2500 high tech air rifle, because he would surely look at my old tech $500 Marauder and point and laugh. That sort of thing should only happen to a person once in their lifetime. 

His rifle will have a gyro, solar powered butt pad and cheek piece, virtual chronograph, voice operated trigger and range finder, and the scope will be a computer controlled model, with the servo drive, that automatically compensates for hold under and over, at any range. It will also have the automatic, computer controlled, multi pellet select magazine. That's the magazine that knows which pellet is the best one to use for a specific shot on a particular type of critter, then selects the appropriate pellet, and loads it into the guns breech. 

The switch selectable sporter, or thumbhole stock, is a very nice feature to have actually. I'd kind of like to have that on my Marauder. 

The system preferences must be set before starting to hunt. That basically consists of telling the gun what type of critter you will be hunting, what the bag limit is, and it will then set the shot count. For example, if you're hunting tree squirrels, and the limit is five. It will probably suggest a shot count of at least 100. If your shooting skills are such, that you feel 100 shots is a bit low to take 5 squirrels with, the system does have a manual override. 

The built in wind compensator works in conjunction with the gyro, to keep you locked on target, no matter how hard the wind is blowing, or how much you wobble. There is a small green LED that will flash in the scope when the critter acquisition laser is locked on. 

You now have the exciting option of firing the gun yourself, by saying the word "shoot", or waiting five seconds after the green LED starts flashing, and the onboard voice chip will say "shoot" for you. It seems to me that saying the word "shoot", yourself would be way more satisfying. 

The GPS Critter Drop Locator in the butt stock, will then print out a map of the exact GPS location in the forest, of the last furball taken, to plus or minus one half inch. 

So anyway, I had been slipping slowly through the woods, dropping a squirrel here and there, when a guy came around a bend in the game trail that I had been hunting along. It was my worst nightmare. He was obviously a squirrel hunter, and he was carrying the latest $2500 model of the battery operated .22 cal Lazzer Whizzer MK IV. 

As he walked up he looked at my Marauder, stared for a moment, pointed, and started laughing.......bear with me a a second, I need a tissue. Anyway, that was so hurtful and unfair. 

Then he said, "how many shots does that thing get?" I said 30. Well at this point he starts laughing so hard he tripped on a log and fell into the pine needles. Then he looks up and says, "don't you know the limit is five, what are you thinking?" I said, " um, gosh I really don't know I guess, how many shots do you get with yours"? He says, "I've got it set for 125 right now, but I might increase it. So tell me how does that thing shoot?" 

"It's doing dime sized five shot groups at 50/55 yards with 18.1 JSB's." A loud bellow follows, "NO WAY IS THAT POS SHOOTING LIKE THAT! I'VE GOT OVER TWO GRAND IN MY LAZZER WHIZZER, AND IT DON'T SHOOT LIKE THAT, AND NOT ONLY THAT, BUT MY LAZZER WHIZZER IS IMPORTED FROM EUROPE."  "Well okay, but that is how mine shoots." 

Then He stops and says, "hey, I see you've got three squirrels, how many shots did it take?" I said, "four". At this point he bends over at the waist, and between guffaws, he says, "yeah right, you mean 14?" I said, "no, four." Again he's back down in the pine needles beating his fists on the ground and laughing so hard I thought he would hurt himself. 

He finally stopped long enough for me to ask, "so how is your hunt going, how many do you have?" He stopped laughing, looked at me very seriously and said. "I don't have a single one." My response was, "wow, really, haven't you seen any?" He says, "oh man I've seen a bunch, but the battery in my .22 cal Lazzer Whizzer MK IV crapped out on me. I'm thinking of getting rid of this thing and getting the MK V. I hear it's going to be even shinier, and gets 200 shots on a fill. Plus, Game and Fish is going to up the tree squirrel limit next year to 6. Don't want to get caught out here without enough air to take a six squirrel limit." 

At that point he brushed himself off, and with snooty nose pointed high in the air said, "you really ought to get yourself a good gun, one made in Europe."  I said, "well I do have a good gun."  He says, "no, actually what you have is a POS."  I'm thinking, "what's this guy talking about, even he says I've got a Positively Outstanding Shooter, what more do I need?  Some folks just don't make sense."

So on that note, the snobber headed on down the game trail heading back to his vehicle. As he was leaving I asked, "so do you have another battery in your truck?" He says, "of course not, what do you think this is a flashlight?  No, I've got to plug my Lazzer Whizzer into the charger at the house.  Did I mention that this beauty is imported from Europe?" I did, well the charger and battery came from Europe too, but they aren't very shiny. Then I heard him say to himself, "your battery may be dead baby, but you are shiny, and I love you."

I looked at my field grade Marauder and thought, "come on girlfriend, we need two more for a limit. You may not be shiny, but you stack pellets at 55 yards, and that's what really matters. I know we only have enough air left for 26 more shots, but I think, if we don't waste air and ammo plinking poop flies off of deer turds, we can pull this off. We'll worry about the limit going up to six next year, next year. Maybe we can get a bigger air tube and get your shot count up to 60 or so by then. Taking a limit of six squirrels is going to be pretty tough with only 30 shots."

No, the Marauder isn't shiny, doesn't cost $1500 to $2500 dollars, and it doesn't get 130 shots on a fill.  It doesn't have a built in chrono, or operate on batteries, but out where the furballs reside, accuracy wise, mine stacks pellets, and that's where the rubber really meets the road with any airgun. Mine holds its own quite nicely against any of my Euroguns at a fraction of the cost.

Sense of humor available free at: www.lightenupandlaugh.com

2010 Arizona Airgun Prairie Dog Hunting - I'm About A Month Early I Think

 

I decided to take an early run out to the cattle ranch I hunt prairie dogs on, to see if there was any activity yet. I had never been out there this time of year, and wanted to get an idea as to when the prairie poodles might start emerging from their winter siestas.

I saw lots of cattle, and lots of dormant prairie dog mounds, but only three dogs. Those three were the season's early birds for sure. The vegetation is very low, and I couldn't get within 150 yards of them. If I had been hunting with one of my powder burner varmint rifles, they would all have been history, but I much prefer the challenge of hunting them with my airguns.

I had my FX 2000, and Benjamin Marauder .22's with me, but I didn't take either gun out of their cases. I'm just too early, and 99% of the dogs haven't emerged from their winter naps yet. I'll give it another try around the middle of March. The season closes April 1st until June 16th for their breeding season, but I might be able to get a shot at some furballs the last couple weeks of March.

One good thing though, with the vegetation being so low, and using my binoculars, I could see areas off in the distance with lots of mounds, that I didn't even know existed last summer when the vegetation was much higher. I took the opportunity to do a bit of hiking around, and scouting out of the newly spotted hunting grounds, hopefully it will pay off with some good shooting come June.

Here's a couple of pictures of the area I was in. You can see what I mean by the vegetation being low. No way to put the sneak on any dogs to get within airgun distance. By June the vegetation will be much higher. That works to their advantage as well as mine, but I can use it to get within a hundred yards or so, and then let the 2010 Prairie Dog Games really begin. 

 

Four Favorite Tree Squirrel Hunting Rifles. AA 410CRBSL - RWS Rapier - Benjamin Discovery - FX 2000 - All In .22 Caliber

 

Checking zero.

AA 410 CRBSL .22 cal, 10 shot.

Tree squirrel season opens here in less than a month, so I decided to get my four favorite tree squirrel hunting rifles out and check their zero. First up was my AA 410CRBSL carbine. The light weight, and thumbhole stock makes this gun a pleasure to carry on long hunts.

Her favorite pellet is the 15.9 grain JSB Exact Jumbo. With the power control set wide open, she drives them at an average of 877 fps for 20 shots. Accuracy, in good conditions, is in the .5 to .6 inch range for 5 shot groups at 50 yards. 

 

FX 2000 .22 cal, 8 shot.

Next up is my FX 2000. This rifle has a modified RWS Rapier stock on it. I picked the stock up online. It didn't have a hole in it to accept the air gauge on the FX 2000. I sent it to James Linthicum of Quality Gunstocks, and he bored the gauge hole in it for me. This makes for a very nice light weight squirrel hunter.

Her favorite pellet is the 18.1 grain JSB Exact Jumbo Heavy. She drives them at an average of 854 fps for 32 shots. Accuracy, in good conditions, is in the .3 to .4 inch range for five shot groups at 50 yards.

Benjamin Discovery .22 cal, single shot.

My Discovery is one of my favorite squirrel hunting rifles. It's light, accurate, well balanced, and quick on target. This rifle came from Mac1 airguns, and shoots right along side many of my more expensive rifles. 

One of her favorite pellets is the 15.9 JSB Exact Jumbo. She also shoots the DYNAMIC PCP-2  tin pellets extremely well.  At the present, I have the power adjusted to launch the JSB's at an average of 868 fps for 15 shots. Accuracy, in good conditions, runs in the .5 to .6 inch range for 5 shot groups at 50 yards.

This is an excellent rifle to carry on a five or six hour hunt. She's light, deadly accurate, and I've had a lot of hunting success with my Mac1 Discovery.

RWS Rapier .22 cal, two shot.

   

Last but not least, is my RWS Rapier. These rifles were actually built for RWS by FX Airguns of Sweden. It is essentially an FX 2000 with a two shot shuttle system, instead of an 8 shot rotary magazine like on the FX 2000.

I like to hunt with it for all the same reasons the the FX 2000 is one of my favorite rifles. It's well balanced, extremely accurate, and very fast handling. It's a pleasure to carry on an all day hunt.

Her favorite pellet is the 18.1 grain JSB Exact Jumbo Heavy also. She launches them at an average of 857 fps, for 30 shots. The accuracy is the same as the FX 2000. Five shot groups at 50 yards consistently run in the .3 to .4 inch range.

Abert's Tassel Eared tree squirrel taken with my RWS Rapier last year.

The above picture shows an Abert's Tassel Eared tree squirrel. These are the guys that I will be pursuing in a few weeks. They are very wily and a challenge to hunt. They are never very dense in any given area, so a hunt involves covering a fair amount of ground. The limit is five, with ten in possession. 

A relatively light, but accurate rifle, is my weapon of choice for these hunts. All of the above rifles meet that criteria quite nicely. I have checked the zero on all of the guns, and they are ready to go.

Just to be safe, I always take two rifles when hunting. Nothing ruins a hunt faster, than to have a problem come up with your rifle of choice for the day. A back-up gun is a good thing to have along. 

The season opens October 2nd, and I hope to be able to get out after them on the 3rd. Stories to follow.

 

 

Airgun Hunting Video - "Airgun Hunting the California Ground Squirrel" - The Making Of

DVD TRAILER 2 minutes 20 seconds in length.  Trailer may take 10/15 seconds to load.

 

 

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

Several years ago, I was looking to buy a video or two about hunting vermin with airguns. Much to my surprise, there were none available.  Actually, I was a bit amazed.  Over the years I had purchased many videos about rock chuck hunting, coyote calling, and prairie dog hunting with powder burners. I just assumed that there would be some videos available about varmint hunting with airguns. I was wrong.

This set in motion a twenty two month adventure that had me producing my first airgun varmint hunting video.

I prefer to hunt alone, so I knew I would need the camera to be mounted to the scope of my rifle. I would need to be able to operate the camera at the same time I was making the shot. It wouldn't be practical to carry a tripod mounted camera around with me in addition to my rifle.

I did some research and came up with a camera mount that attaches to the rifles scope. Next I researched compact digital video cameras, and selected the Canon HV10. It had the video resolution that I would need, and enough zoom capability to capture small targets, like the California Ground Squirrel, on tape at long ranges like 70 to 100 yards.

I started shooting video clips of all of my shots as I made them. Where I felt it was appropriate, I added some real time commentary about specific shots.  Things like wind conditions, range, and hold off.

To keep the video clips visually appealing, I mostly shot video during the Spring when the background scenery was green and lush.  I learned that showing mostly brown squirrels, against a mostly brown background, made for a visually boring experience. It took two Spring seasons of shooting video, to get all of the clips that I wanted for the DVD. 

Using a variety of PCP rifles, I took ground squirrels from 30 yards to just about 100 yards. All of the action is captured in the video, and the majority of the clips are also shown in slow motion.

I also include short segments about some of the gear that I use, and how the video was shot.

One problem that I encountered, was the fact that the camera would not function properly on a spring powered gun. The jolt of the gun firing would cause the camera to malfunction. I wanted to include springers in the DVD, so what I did, was to hunt with them and shoot still photos of the results of those hunts, and include those stills in the DVD.

All of the editing was done by me on an Apple iMac computer. I edited about twelve or thirteen hundred video clips down to the 265 specific clips that I chose to use in the DVD.

California Ground Squirrel hunting can involve a relatively high volume of shooting. That's what I have tried to capture in this DVD. In the Spring time, after the young have come above ground, it's not unusual to get a hundred or more shots in a day. Hunting California Ground Squirrels with airguns is very exciting and can be extremely challenging.

I also wanted to showcase the power, accuracy, and effectiveness of "modern adult airguns" when used in actual varmint hunting situations. I think this DVD captures all of that and more.

The feedback from folks who have purchased the DVD has been very positive. Many have thanked me for making it available to the hunting community. There wasn't anything about, "varmint hunting with airguns", available on DVD before now, and I wanted to change that. 

The production of the DVD was a real labor of love, and a challenge on many levels. Software issues, hardware issues, camera issues, and the weather wasn't always the best, but I'm really glad that I made it. I want people to see what modern adult airguns can bring to the sport of varmint and small game hunting.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of "Airgun Hunting the California Ground Squirrel", you can do so by clicking on the link under the video trailer above.

The video was produced in the NTSC video format. This is the video format used in the U.S.A., Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and dozens of other countries.