First squirrel of 2021

[JimD]

I got a Prod last year and enjoyed testing pellets for accuracy and tuning it for a little more power.  I recovered and posted pictures of two squirrels I got and recovered, I think I killed but did not recover two more.  Today I got my first for this year.

I hit the first four last year without a miss and then missed the same squirrel that doesn't have a tail 3 times.  My groups had also opened up so I cleaned the gun and the barrel was quite dirty.  I had fired a bunch of shots tuning it.  I opened up the transfer port a little and turned the hammer spring up but not all the way.  I could get over 19 fpe with 7 turns CW but only for about 10 shots.  I tried 4, 5, and 6 turns and selected 5 because it gave the least velocity variation, gave me almost 24 shots, and still averaged almost 17 fpe.  But after all that shooting the gun needed cleaned.  I also moved the scope forward a little, resighted the gun, and shot it at 20, 15, 10 and 5 yards to be sure I know where it hits.  With the added velocity from the new tune, my vertical  change seems to be less than 1/4 inch from 15 to 25 yards so I consider it negligible.  It was about 3/8 inch high at 20 yards before I increased the velocity with the tune. 

The squirrel I shot today liked the seed the birds scatter from the bird feeder I put out to draw squirrels back.  But when I go out the back door, he hurried up the tree, jumped from that large oak to another on the other side of the yard and runs off.  So I put my shooting sticks on the side porch earlier today and when I saw him under the feeder I went out that way with the Prod.  That makes my shot longer, maybe 25 yards, maybe a bit more.  I was also not completely steady with the sticks but felt pretty good about the shot.  He was facing me when I squeezed off and I was shooting for the head.  I hit a little left instead and got his shoulder angling back into the lungs.  That shot did not seem to exit.  He moved maybe 3 feet onto the tree at the bottom with his head pointed down.  My second shot hit him under the eye and exited the chin.  That put him down but he still was not out.  So I put one through him from the top to bottom after walking over to him.  He was not trying to escape but was still breathing.  That finisher bled the most.   Tough squirrel.  If the first shot went where I think it did, his lungs and possibly heart were hit.  But even after another one in the head he was still breathing.  But that shot seemed to deflect down presumably by his skull so it did not hit his brain square. 

Nice to have the gun shooting well again and at a little higher power.  I don't know for sure but I think a little more power might have helped some on the first shot by pushing the shot further into his insides.  But I may have also been lucky he might have been capable of moving faster and further and just chose to look back first. 

[ranchibi]

Jim, great shots on that tough squirrel with your tuned PRod! Been using my PRod carbine to take care of the rats around my place..the perfect compact, quiet and light rig!

[dk1677]

Nice shooting Jim!

[JimD]

Thanks guys.

[mrbulk]

Whoa that even looks like a perfect heart shot (or am I just watching too much bad guys getting shot on TV...)

Congrats!

[Wayne52]

Great shooting on the nutter Jim !!!

[only1harry]

Congrats on your first squirrel of the year.  I love the Prod for squirrel hunting.  It makes head shots easy, and I am 12 for 12 since I got it 1 year ago, plus 2 Groundhogs (at close range over the summer) and a bunch of Starlings.

[JimD]

Thanks again.  I'd love to go 12 for 12 but I'm not close, yet. 

[Mole2017]

Nice strategy on the squirrel! They do seem to learn what the back door means. For the longest time, I used a cat door I had mounted in the window next to the back door. I usually could slip that open and get a shot on a squirrel on the patio outside. If I was quiet and didn't poke a long barrel out too quickly, they usually were done for.

If you have the time, trying to sort out the wound paths can be informative, especially for trying to figure out what happened with that first shot. Head on shots like that give me trouble at times--weird stuff happens when you get a little bit off center. But keep it up!

Here's hoping you soon get Stumpy!