Lucky Munk

[JimH]

Friday my little chipmunk friends were back.  I found him in a little tree next to my feeder.  From my 2nd floor bathroom lair a shot to the feeder is too close for my Hawke Eclipse 4-16x50 30mm scope with Side Focus.  So I do my best and line up for a center body shot.  I figured with a .22 CPHP any shot would do.  Zip!  The lead passed either over or under him taking out some poor leaf but no meat.  The little bugger never flinched.  I couldn't get another shot at him because he was hidden in the branches...then he took off.

Saturday he's back.  This time I'm watching him from the kitchen window.  He figured out how to drop from the top of the feeder, jam his nose between the weight sensitive panel and help himself to all the seed he wants.  The combination of his light weight and small size defeats the squirrel protection of the feeder.  So I ran upstairs and took steady aim at the critter as he casually munched on my seed.  Again, he's out of focus but fills my scope... how could I miss?  Plink!  The rodent flies - contorting in the air as he falls to the deck below.  I take my time and find him on the deck under the feeder.  As I open the door he just scurries away.  No blood, no sign that he's hit at all!

I look at the feeder and there's a deep dent in the metal tray right where he was feeding.  I can't believe I missed again!  I'm not sure if my shots are hitting high or low.  I'm guessing high due to the close range.  My Mrod was sighted in at 10 yards but seems dead on at near 50.  Believe it or not I still have not been to the range to really understand this gun under controlled conditions.  I've had such great success at 20 - 50 yards I just never made myself do the work to really figure out the mildot system.

Maybe I need one of those air shotguns.... better yet, I NEED the Mrod pistol with a short range (tactical?) scope.  I'll get that striped devil yet.

[AirHunter]

Well usually if the range is close the rifle tends to shoot low because of the height of the scope in comparison to the bore, well at least this my case but it depends the range u have sighted your rifle in. Also i dont know why but when i shoot my rws 34 at different angles the POI changes. so if i shoot at a downrage angle my rifle shoots lower but idk your rifles behavior so i would suggest to do some target practice and try to replicate the same shot as if you were attempting to eliminate the nutter and experiment at shooting at various angles....just my .02 cents...good luck im sure u'll get that nutter eventually

[dk1677]

I know they put it down but I got 11 chippers last year and 1 this year with my Gamo ( 20ft or less shots) The other 15 I got at 25 to 35 yards with the 850.

[JimH]

The little monster was here again feeding on my seed.  Again another shot, again a miss.  This time I determined I'm too low due to the close shot.  I'm afraid to aim higher and hit the plastic window of the feeder...but after two shots in exactly the same spot, I'm confident another inch up and I'll have him but miss the window... Wife won't be happy with all the feeder dents and damage...   

[1shotwonder]

It's only a plastic window no harm there. LOL!.. I hit a glass one already... Try and explain that one.."well you see, uh there was this bird sitting there"..lol!

[AirHunter]

im sure u'll be fine just dont aim at the sky either lol...that sucker is gonna get hit sooner or later

[dk1677]

Hmm there's an idea a pellet proof bird feeder 

[shadow]

Find your Hunt Zen..you'll get em bro. Ed

[AirHunter]

Hmm there's an idea a pellet proof bird feeder 

u need to wrap ur feeder in kevlar then haha

[only1harry]

How about a couple of 1lb bricks of duct seal in the background spread out on the plastic as a backstop? 

hint: use low power on the Mrod since you can't put a lot of duct seal on a feeder, hehehe.

[JimH]

How about a couple of 1lb bricks of duct seal in the background spread out on the plastic as a backstop? 
hint: use low power on the Mrod since you can't put a lot of duct seal on a feeder, hehehe.

That's not a bad idea... plus I could switch to my Gamo VH....

[JimH]

another miss today... at least I think so.  I saw one munk on the deck and aimed just above his head to compensate for the close distance.  when the pellet hit there was a scramble of munks tearing off in two directions.  I didn't realize I had two little friends feeding at that time...one was hidden by the BBQ.  I ran down and saw my pellet took off a bit of wood right at the edge of the board, but no blood.  One munk ran under the deck and was still under there barking at me when I looked under - too dark to tell if he was hit.  The second was still on the deck hiding behind the hot tub.  I though maybe he was wounded so I walked up to 4 feet away from him from behind a bush and no blood there either.  Looks like I have two little guys to deal with.
My conclusion is that the "aim high" approach is probably good for munks on the feeder which is at least 6 feet closer to my upstairs window where I had previously missed them.  on the deck surface, I probably could have aimed dead on and made the kill.  Now I'm wondering how I ever made such a clean one shot kill on that bandit who was at the feeder.  Lucky I guess... like these munks.

[AirHunter]

you should try to shoot paper targets and see how your airgun is shooting at the distance u are shooting those munks from.

[JimH]

Well the luck ran out for my little friend... at least one of them.  Thankfully the defense mechanism in these little creatures is to freeze when they hear a noise.  I saw the little varmint eating some seed on top of the deck rail post.  I ran upstairs to my kill-zone and opened the window.  The little creature froze and magically, he was totally invisible to me.  Unfortunately, he was not invisible to my scope.  I took a solid aim for a head-shot but given my close proximity I figured I would land a little low.  But the .22 CPHP would make fast work of this pest with a through and through shot to the heart lung area.  Fine by me.  He dropped like a rock, albeit a small furry one.  RIP my unlucky little buddy.

The kill-zone:


"Lucky"


Thru&Thru:

[only1harry]

Nice shot and great pics Jim!  You finally got him.  Nice touch on that trajectory line, hehehe   It's really amazing how well they can camouflage themselves and disappear even though you know they are there.  The scope usually finds them though.  Most of the shots I made on Chippers would not have been possible without the scope which reveals their position.

[dk1677]

Congrats on getting him Jim!

[AirHunter]

nice job!