I spent almost all day hanging the new curtains the wife has been bugging me to put up and doing some other things she wanted done. I finally finished a little after 4pm and even though there was only about an hour of daylight remaining I grabbed a gun and sped down the road to my favorite squirrel woods. Last night I finally got around to filling the hollow synthetic stock of my .177 Powerline and that combined with the pictures Ed (Shadow) posted of his beautifully camo'd powerline made me decide to take the powerline out for a hunt. I haven't hunted with her for quite some time but she's a real powerhouse and deadly accurate. The rifle is sighted dead on with tomahawk pellets so I was confident I could hit a critter if I could find one.
I pulled quickly into the parking spot, loaded up a tomahawk and quickly entered the woods. I knew I didn't have much daylight left so I just quickly headed for a section of pine trees in the middle of the woods that I know is a favorite haunt for the grey squirrels. As I snuck into the pines I saw some movement on the ground up ahead of me. It was a large grey haulin butt to the base of a large pine tree. I could see and hear him scrambling up the tree all the way to the top where he disappeared into the thick branches. I backed off from the tree to a location that gave me a good vantage point, sat down at the base of another pine tree and decided to wait him out. Sure enough after about 10 minutes of sitting perfectly still I saw some movement. The grey came out of hiding and was quickly running from branch to branch. He worked his way from one tree to another, always on the move. I followed him visually hoping he would just pause long enough for a shot. He finally stopped, partially in the open, 3 trees away from the first one he climbed. Due to the branches between us all I could see clearly was his back half and his head but that was good enough. I cranked the scope to 9 power, placed the crosshairs on his eye and gently squeezed the trigger. The powerline fired and a second later I heard the "POP" and the tomahawk hit home. Upon impact the grey immediately rolled off the branch and hung there by his rear leg. He hung there for about 10 seconds and then fell to the forest floor with a thump. I got up and walked to retrieve my kill, pacing off the distance as I went,,,,, 40 yards. Found him laying at the base of the tree as dead as a stone,,, the tomahawk had hit him square in the head. Picked him up, put him in the game bag and returned to the trails to work my way out of the woods.
I slowly made my way down the trails, working my way back towards my truck, scanning the trees and underbrush as I went. I had gotten about 1/2 way back to the truck when I suddenly saw some movement in the briars about 10 yards ahead of me on the side of the trail. I stopped, knelt down and peered into the tangle of briars. It took me a second but I finally saw what I was searching for,,,, a brown patch of fur and a dark eye looking back at me,,,, it was a nice cottontail. I slowly moved to my left inch by inch until I found a small shooting lane through the briars that gave me a head shot. Distance was only 10 yards so I put the crosshairs on his eye and raised up just a bit. Pulled the trigger, the powerline fired and the bunny rolled over on his side, kicked his legs a few time then laid still. The briars were so thick it actually took me a couple of minutes to work my way into them and snake my arm in far enough to grab him. I got some nasty scratches from the thorns but it was worth it. :)
The daylight was almost gone so I put the bunny in the game pouch and quickly made my way back to the truck. When I got home I had my daughter take a couple of pics of me, the powerline and the critters. Then I took a couple of just the powerline with her kills. BTW,,,, filling the stock with the memory foam really had a huge impact on the firing characteristics of the powerline, tamed down the vibration quite a bit.... After that rifle made that 40 kill so cleanly I think I'm gonna take the powerline out on my next few hunts....
Hope ya like the pics.....
Jeff
