Slow January, but here's another squirrel :)

[Mole2017]

January is the middle of winter here, if you can call it that in South Carolina, LOL. Anyway, historically it is a tough month in which to get squirrels, between short days, cold weather and their habits. It's been almost 10 days since my last one, but at last I saw one coming through this morning and was able to do something about it...

So I was a little slow getting to the office today. At about 8:40 this morning I looked out the window and saw the rump end of a squirrel on some rotting logs near the far feeder. She is browsing; taking her time looking around and not aware of nor interested in the feeder that is nearby. By the time I scoop up the R10 and step out for her, she is past the feeder, headed southward. I see her jump down and run along the ground a bit and lose her near some big trees.

I head out after her. Standing by the feeder myself, I scan those trees but don't see her anywhere nearby. I'm pretty sure she hasn't given me the slip and I don't see her running through the neighbor's yard, so I stay put and keep looking. After a few minutes, I thought I heard a scritch on some bark and maybe something small (like a flake of bark) hitting the ground. Looking up, there she is, sitting on a branch in the trees I was watching just 20 yards away, looking at me. I suspect she had been hanging on the side of the tree out of view and thought it was safe to take a seat to see what I'm doing...

So, she's broadside to me at about 21 yards, medium elevation. I opt for a neck shot at 16x on the scope. Some testing has indicated there isn't much correction needed at 20 yards and this magnification, so I put the crosshairs on her neck and let fly. It entered just ahead of the left shoulder (about as close as you can get and not hit the shoulder) and exited the right shoulder. She dropped on the spot, did some slow kicking in place and expired in short order. The .177 JSB Heavies are still doing the job nicely. You can see the exit wound on her right shoulder in the picture. She's a youngster at 14 ounces.



Looking at the data, she's the 7th squirrel this month. So, yeah it's been slow, but January is actually wrapping up ok for a winter month, thanks to the four I got in short order the first week of the month. In fact, it's actually above average and at this point almost equal to what happened last year (9 squirrels). The funny thing is, in 2018 I only managed 3 squirrels for January, but 2018 ended with a then-record final count for the year that was then broken in 2019. Hmm. We'll see what 2020 can do.

[Bicycleman]

Nice Gray, David.
I agree that January is a tough month - here in Tennessee too.  They are very easy to see when they are moving.  But so am I!      

[A.K.A. Tommy Boy]

Hi David !       That's a nice Gray Squirrel.

Excellent harvest with your R-10

The hunting has been a little slow up here in the North Woods also.

I've got about 17 inches of hard crunchy snow on the ground. It is very noise to walk on and makes it hard to get into shooting range.



Best Wishes - Tom

[dk1677]

Nice shooting David!

[ranchibi]

David, nice shot!

[Wayne52]

Great shooting David !!!