Well, I had errands to do this morning so the sod raiding grey squirrels in my yard got a temporary reprieve this morning,,,, but the afternoon was a different story :)
Finished my running around and got home a little after 1pm. When I pulled into the driveway there were 2 fat greys out on my lawn doing their thing, but they saw me and high tailed it to the woods at the back of my property. Ok,,, no problem,,, I can wait :)
About an hour later I look out into the back and there they are again. I quickly head down to my basement shop to grab a weapon. Hmmm, lets see, what should I use?? I know,,, haven't shot my home tuned .177 Fast Deer in a while, she'll get the job done :) I grab the Fast Deer and a couple of CPH pellets, load her up and sneak out the back bilco door.
I eased my way to the corner of the house and peeked around. Nothing !! they're gone !! Rats.... Only thing to do is wait it out, so I grab my chair and set up in my concealed location. As I'm sitting there scanning the trees tops I suddenly see a fat starling sitting on a branch at the top of a large oak tree,,, distance is about 25 yards. I'd rather shoot the squirrels but heck, nothing else around so I decide to take a shot. Put the crosshairs on the yellow beaks chest, pull the trigger and a second later see a puff of feathers and hear that wonderful "POP" that the CPH's make on impact. The yellow beak falls like a sack of nickels and hits the ground on the other side of my rear fence in the thick brush.
As I sat there trying to decide if I wanted to climb over the fence to find the starling for a photo op I suddenly caught a glimpse of some movement way up in the top of one of the other oak trees. I scanned the branches closely and finally managed to make out just the wisp of a tail and the tip of a tiny ear. There he was, he was up there all the time. I loaded another CPH and tried to work myself into a shooting position. Finally, after about 5 minutes I got into a position where I had a clear head shot. The distance was 20 yards and at a very steep angle with the squirrel looking right at me. If I aimed just in front of his left eye the pellets trajectory should carry it straight up into his fuse box.
I took a breath, exhaled softly and squeezed the trigger. The Deer barked and I was rewarded with that loud "POP" that I love :)
The squirrel instantly fell off the branch and fell straight down, hitting the ground with a loud "THUD". There was no death dance, squirming or even a twitch,,, he just laid there deader than a stone. The Fast Deer had done the job cleanly. I love that little rifle :)
The pellet hit him right where the crosshairs were placed and traveled through his head and out the other side. Before skinning and cleaning I proudly took a pic of the Deer and her kill to share with you all. I decided not to try getting over the fence to retrieve the starling,,, my back hurt just thinking about it.
Hopefully me and Joe Cuz will have some pics to post tomorrow,,,,, we're heading out tomorrow morning bright and early for some squirrel hunting. I'm gonna take Joe to one of my favorite hunting spots and we're gonna try and thin the wild herd a bit.......
Jeff
