Got home from work today a little after 3 pm and since noone else was home I decided to grab the .22 Goldfinger and head over to a large patch of woods down the road from my house that I haven't hunted since last year. It's about 100 acres in size, has a large overgrown field right next to it which is also about 100 acres large, and while the woods are predominately made up of large pine trees it's bordered on one side by huge old oak trees, the trunks just filled with all kinds of holes perfect for squirrels to nest in. There's an electric power line dirt access road that runs between the pine forest and the oak tree border, so hunting the row of oaks is best done by simply slowly still hunting down the power line road and scanning the trees and brush as you walk. There were a few squirrels there last year, but not enough to make it a great spot. I figured I'd just spend the last few hours of daylight creeping around looking for squirrels and also use the time to see if it's worth bowhunting this year for deer.
Well, I never did see any deer,although I saw plenty of sign, but as soon as I started still hunting my way down the dirt road I quickly realized that those couple of squirrels from last year must've been awfully busy during this past summer because there were squirrels all over the place. I had only still hunted about 75 feet down the road and I was already watching 4 or 5 squirrels scampering through the tree tops. Unfortunately they had seen me and were heading off in the other direction, but I trotted down the road and got in front of them causing them to all try and do their disappearing act by climbing onto the opposite side of the tree and laying motionless.
I moved back into the underbrush about 25 yards away, set the AO on the scope for the distance, cranked the power to 9x and just waited. Sure enough after about 10 minutes they started to move again. I was intently watching this one large grey when all of a sudden I saw something black in the top of one of the trees. I put the scope on the black spot and saw a nice sized black squirrel clinging to the trunk of the tree almost completely hidden. There is a small population of black squirrels near where I live and I've always wanted to get one and finally here was my chance. I moved out onto the trail and changed my position just enough to get a profile of his head. I Put the crosshairs on his head and fired. The predator slammed home, a solid hit, and the rat dropped about 5 feet landing on another branch. You could tell he was hit hard, but he clung on. I loaded another predator, took aim and fired again. Like the first pellet this predator slammed home also and the tree rat finally fell to the ground crunching into the thick dried leaves. I moved to retrieve him and all of a sudden he started pulling himself along the ground towards some thick underbrush. I hurriedly loaded another predator, took aim and fired hitting him in the shoulder. At the shot he went limp, however a second later he was pulling himself along the ground again determined to get into the briar patch. Another predator went into the gun, another shot and another predator slammed into his mid section. He went limp again and just layed there.
Figuring he was finally dead I walked over and reached through the underbrush to grab him. His head was facing me and as I reached to grab his head believe it or not he came to life, grabbed onto my hand and bit me on the thumb. I already had a pellet loaded into the Goldfinger so I just put the end of the barrel up against him head and pulled the trigger. Needless to say that finally sent the nasty tree rat to squirrel heaven. The bite was barely a scratch, but he did draw some blood. I'm up on my tetanus shots but I cleaned the bite when I got home anyway. I simply couldn't believe the tenacity of this squirrel,,,, fiercest little squirrel I've ever run up against,,, he just wouldn't die !!!
Anyway, I hunted the row of oaks until almost dark and did see about another 1/2 dozen squirrels, but never got a shot at them. I didn't mind though,,,, I had finally gotten my black squirrel. :) On the way out, was almost dark at this point, I jumped 3 nice rabbits in some thick brush but I never got a shot. I'm glad I decided to check out this patch of woods,, it's gonna provide plenty of good hunting this winter,,,,, I just have to be careful of the killer squirrels who live there :)
Took some pics when I got home, hope ya like em........
Jeff
