A pair of squirrels interrupted my measuring cup calibrating...

[Mole2017]

So, we let doing the dishes slide last night and left a pile in the sink. This morning, I undertook emptying the dishwasher, loading it and washing the items that shouldn't go through the washer. Then I remembered I've wanted to check several of our measuring cups. Some seemed to be incorrect (one turned out to be off by 1/4 cup when supposedly holding 2 cups), but I also had some on which the numbers had faded badly and I've been plotting to mark the appropriate lines and sandblast some permanent ones...

Anyway, I'm being the good hubby in the kitchen when I hear a faint barking of a squirrel. Haha, well, that's the end of kitchen work for a bit...I grab my gear and step out to locate him.

He's louder now and somewhere off in the northwest corner of the property. I step out slowly from the stoop looking for him. Of course, we see each other at the same time. He shifts about some and finally clears out, heading north at low level (as opposed to tree top), before I can get a shot on him. I follow along the side of the house, stopping at the corner of the addition that provides a nice view of the northwest corner of the property. He jumps to a few trees, browsing some, but he is trying to leave too.

He gets to one of the last before he'd be out of my property, goes up some, and turns to look at me. He's inverted on the tree, with 18 or 20 inches of tree trunk forming a nice backstop at 27 yards. I've had the R10 raised against the shooting stick for a bit now and let him have it pretty quickly, going for a neck shot, which hits him near the left shoulder. He recoils and hangs a very long moment before falling dead.

I hurry to the top of the dirt pile between us to make sure some cat isn't going to grab him and run off. Seeing none, I'm about to step over there to pick him up when I hear something moving south of me. A first look didn't find anything, but then I saw motion--another squirrel!

This guy is in a hurry to leave! He heads directly south along the property line and gets behind a small pine that is one of the last before they either hit the ground and run or go up and jump into a neighbor's tree. I come down the path to intercept, stopping directly east of his location, and am pleased to see he has done neither, but he's not showing himself either.

I wait a bit and consider swinging south of him to see I can pressure him some, but he obliges me and heads up, simultaneously taking a moment to check me out. His first stop is brief and he moves again before I can aim on him. But his second stop, though higher and theoretically more secure, was just as easy a shot and he too gets a neck shot at 25 yards while sitting broadside to me.

This too is very close to the left shoulder--in fact it went behind the humerus and below the scapula like it was headed for his armpit, crossed the chest and stopped under the skin after going through his right scapula. He dropped, of course, and flopped some. When I got over there, I found him reaching some with his front paws to crawl away. Briefly grasping his tail determines he isn't able to fight back, and I pick him up by the tail.

This guy has quite a lot left in him. When I go to switch my grip to his rear feet, he kicks pretty strongly. I carry him to fetch the first squirrel, taking both to the basement door for an exam downstairs. He has weakened some now and I can switch my grip to his rear feet with no reaction and easily give him the squeeze. After a moment or two, I feel the tachycardia set in and he's done for. He's the one with the most blood on his neck in the picture, but I don't know why it didn't kill him faster except that it may have literally passed behind the heart and major blood vessels. The pellet was recovered and found to be in pretty good shape.

Examination of the first squirrel found the pellet had entered the back of the neck above his left shoulder, crossed the chest diagonally and stopped under the skin on the front right side of the chest, about even with his elbows. The pellet had some gashes in it from going through the collar bone and ribs. Both squirrels were breeding males weighing 20 and 19 ounces respectively.

Here's a picture of the pair and my gear, which includes a stick of 1/2" EMT for a shooting stick and my 6x30 Leupold Yosemite binoculars.



The binoculars are nice, being just 6x and small, but even they get kind of heavy on a conventional strap around your neck. So I recently purchased a binocular harness to try out; that's what you see attached to the binoculars. The binocs have developed a leak, i.e. no longer waterproof, so they are headed to Leupold for replacement soon. In fact, sooner than I thought since I just snagged an 8x42 Nikon Prostaff 7 for $6 at a thrift store yesterday. I'm looking forward to putting these on the harness and taking them with me for a woodchuck hunting trip at John's place--two hours of tramping around up there will tell how you like carrying your binoculars or not...Incidentally, for those trips I have a stick of 1" carbon fiber tube to use as a shooting stick. It also serves well as a walking stick, which is certainly needed at John's place!

I made a point of taking these both at 16x on the scope. I'm finding my zero is better than I thought, especially when compared to 9x, so very little compensation needed--just put the crosshairs on 'em and shoot at these ranges. Last I checked, the JSB Heavies are clocking around 915 FPS.

[dk1677]

Nice shooting David!

[Wayne52]

Great shooting David !!!

[ranchibi]

David, nice shooting on those two!

[A.K.A. Tommy Boy]

Hi David !

Good shooting with your R-10, you did well.     That's a nice pair of squirrels.


Best Wishes - Tom