Was cloudy, dark and dreary all day today with rain threatening, but I decided to take a ride to the duck farm and see if I could find any squirrels. Wanting to try the .177 predators on squirrels I grabbed the S1k, the predators and headed for the farm.
The duck farm is really a great, target rich environment, to shoot in, however you have to develope a tolerance for the odor that permeates the air. We've had rain for the past 3 days and you can't even imagine how all that water intesifies the "aroma" !! The squirrels don't seem to mind it though so I plodded throught the thick mud of the duck pens until I got down to the stream and woods at the bottom of the farm.
I set up in my usual spot and sat there for about an hour, but there wasn't a squirrel to found. I decided to try a small section of woods near the entrance to the farm, as I had seen some squirrel nests in the trees there. As soon as I stepped into the woods my eye caught a bushy tail running from one tree to another about 20 yards in front of me. I stalked closer to the tree I thought the nutter ran up but I couldn't find him anywhere in the tree. I decided to sit down and wait it out so I found a good log to sit on and waited. I waited for 30 minutes, scanned every branch on every tree in the immediate area, but never did see that squirrel again.
I decided to stalk through the rest of the little section of woods, working in the direction of my truck. Just before I got to the end of the woods, an area that is covered in thorny bushes and vines, I saw a squirrel that had just crawled out of hole in a nearby tree about 20 yards away. Just as I brought the S1k up to my shoulder the little bugger saw me and dashed off throught the trees. He made one fatal mistake when he momentarily stopped on a small branch to look back at me. Distanced was 35 yards, I put the crosshairs on him, pulled the trigger and the Predator pellet struck home. At the sound of the "thwack" the squirrel fell stone dead to the ground, unfortunately landing right in the middle of an almost impenetrable tangle of thorn bushes and vines. Took me five minutes, painful minutes I might add, to crawl my way through the tangle and retrieve my trophy.
The Predator pellet hit him in his right shoulder, passed throught the shoulder meat, passed into the main body shattering the spine in the process and the pellet finally stopped just under the skin on the far side of the body. After suffering several bleeding cuts on my arms and neck retrieving the squirrel I decided to call it a day. All in all a good showing so far for the .177 predators on squirrels. Below is a couple of pics my daughter took of me and the "trophy".
Jeff
