Awesome Shot!...How'd I do that?

[Black Mamba]

Ok, so...TexasShooter72 was right. There were more squirrels about.

Found one today and punched his ticket from 42 yards. Great situation too. I looked out the back door and there he was behind my 30 yard target back on the "Kill Branch" of the tree. He was munching away and I thought..."Ya!"

I got the Talon and loaded a 15.8 JSB Exact. Opened the sliding door to the cold (32 deg) day and sat down at my kitchen table. Set the scope on him and added a 1/2 mil dot up and the trigger went off as planned. I had aimed at his brain as he gave me a beautiful side profile. He pitched off the branch immediately and hit the leaves without a single movement. After he hit the ground I expected the "electric dance" to begin. It didn't. Nothing.

Sooo, I got my kill bucket and went to retrieve him. I was not sure he was dead when I got there. No blood or brain matter about, eyes open wide. In fact, no signs of injury AT ALL. I thought I might have either knocked him out or scared him to death. I poked him with the bucket and he was not moving. I took a breath and picked him up by the tail. He was out cold...or stone dead.

Reluctantly I brought him back up to the house ready to let go of the bucket with the psycho squirrel in it at any second. Never happened. Once I got him up to the house and on my shooting table I had to figure out what had happened. Upon a very thourough examination of his furry self I found what initially looked like a grazing wound on the very top of his head between the ears. There was a small amount of blood there too. I wiped away the blood and began poking around with my finger to find a very well concealed hole in the top of his head. I only found it because I started "messaging" his cranium trying to find out what did him in.  Sure enough, my pellet hit him in the VERY top of the head, cracked through the skull and killed him stone dead. I am still puzzled.

Now, I know that they are very fast animals and I have missed them several times due to them moving as the shot goes off but I cannot rememeber seeing him even twitch before being struck. In my memory it was just click, pop, smack, drop.

Ranks up at the top of my wierd kills. Here's a couple pics.

I realize that it looks rather pronounced in the picture above but that is only due to my prodding and poking around and moving the hair out of the way. When I set him on the bench for examination you couldn't see any wound. Not even blood.  

[RCnMo]

You can't get a kill any cleaner than that! I think you electrocuted that rat and shaved his head when you were done.

[gamo2hammerli]

I think you `Bend it like Beckham...` Excellent shot....however you did it.

[Timmyj1959@yahoo.com]

So,,, how did Ya do that Greg:?,,, Well,, Ya gots a Talon,,, Ya been practisin,,,Lets face it,,, YOUR GOOD!!!!! Nice shootin Bud. !! Tim.

[shadow]

Now that's some shootin Creg, very nice indeed.:) That nutter will be needing a hair er fur piece for the top of his head hehe. Sound's and look's like great shot placement with the impact/shock value to top it off, great pic's Creg.:) Ed

[Black Mamba]

Well, thank you Timmy but if it weren't for the kill I'd say it was a bad shot actually.  I was trying to put it in between the eye and ear and out the other side.  How it went into the middle of the head on a side profile shot still boggles me.

[miked6762]

Nice shot, nonetheless. Maybe he turned into it just as you were squeezing off.Congrats

[nalby]

Great shot   clic it's over

[Timmyj1959@yahoo.com]

A confesion,,, some of what I percived to be my worst shots,,,, resulted in CLEAN KILLS!!!!! We only practice to be the best we can,, we all want to "Drop Em" "Lights Out",, in the real world unfortunatly, it dont always work like that. We just keep on practicin:) That was by the way,,, bout as good as it gets Buddy,,,,,NICE SHOT!!! You seem to be questioning yourself,,,, DONT!!! Sometimes when I make a "Perfect Shot" I say:: I got lucky,,,, No,,, most likely its cause I been practicin at that range & KNEW where my pellet was gonna hit!!  Ya done good Greg..(Sorry If I misspelled Yer Name,, My Bad),,, NICE pic. Keep after em Buddy!! Tim.

[Black Mamba]

Now ya got me laughing.

Thanks to all of you.

I do practice allot.  I do know where it's gonna hit out to 65 yards (most of the time) and I do ALWAYS go for the "lights out" shots.  You got me pegged there.  (smile)

This fella just threw me for a loop.  miked6762 is probably right, he musta turned when he heard the shot.  I just didn't see it in my scope.

And I'm not complainin' fellas.  It was a good shot and I was proud, just.....a weird ending.

Now I can only hope some other sucker comes into the "open territory" soon.

[Timmyj1959@yahoo.com]

Greg,, @ 65 yrds,,, they can be GONE "Sometimes" before the pellet gets there!! Im not sayin they "Jump the string" like White tail Deer CAN DO,,, Im just sayin,,, it takes more than a "Blink of an eye" for a pellet to go that far,, if they decide to move, BEFORE you shoot,, sometimes Ya miss:? This guy stayed put,,,,, you NAILED his A$$!!!! NICE shootin Bud,,,, Thats some EXELLANT shooting!! Course,,, them Talons make those kinda shots easy!!??? He He!! Tim.

[only1harry]

Great 42yd shot Greg!  You are really good with that Talon.  

This has happened to me once or twice.  One time last year I could not find blood on the squirrel anywhere.  I went back in to get the camera and my cleaning knife and when I came out the neighbor's dog had run off with him so I never really knew what happened.  Another time I was aiming between the eyes and the squirrel was hit on the side of the head.  I think it's possible they move their head the last milisecond as we are pulling the trigger.  Squirrels move very fast.  They make extremely quick spastic-like movements so I think it's very possible for them to reposition their head in an instant.  I have also shot squirrels with a side body shot and could not find any blood except for the small hole after parting the hair out.  
After having shot enough of them you start running into situations like these every now & then.  Good shooting!