Day before yesterday I got home at 6am after working a midnight shift and decided to get in an hour or two of squirrel hunting with the Black Shadow .22. There's a small patch of woods down the street from my house that has a good squirrel population so I got in the truck and in 5 minutes was entering the woods. I especially like hunting squirrels during the first hour or two of daylight, I just find the squirrels to be extremely active during that time and also so intent on finding breakfast that they can be a little easier to sneak up on.
I worked my way throught the first section of woods very slowly, scanning the ground and tree tops, but by the time I got to the end of the woods I hadn't seen any nutters. I decided to work my way through a sections of the property that used to be a landscaping nursery and get to another section of hardwoods on the other side. When I got to the hardwoods I found an area with several squirrel nests in the trees and decided to find a good spot, sit down and just wait.
After about 30 minutes I saw a squirrel exit one of the nests, but not having a good shot I watched as he climbed down the tree and began searching the ground for food. I watched that squirrel for about 20 minutes, never getting a clear shot, then he disappeared in the other direction never to be seen again. As I was scanning the area in front of me I suddenly saw a little patch of grey that I hadn't noticed before. I put the Black Shadow up to my shoulder, peered throught the scope and sure enough there was a squirrel sitting on a log 40 yards away. Put the crosshairs on him, pulled the trigger and heard the .22 cal predator slam home. Squirrel fell off the log and I had my first kill of the day. When I retrieved him I found him to be a very young one, the smallest squirrel I've shot this year, but he'll sure be tender :)
I returned to my log and sat there for another 30 minutes but never saw anything so decided to head back towards the truck. When I was almost back to the truck I stopped to take a break and started scanning the tree tops. I suddenly saw some movement in the very top branch of a large oak tree that had a large nest built into the top forks. I was surprised that I had never really noticed that nest before, perhaps it's because it was so close to where I park the truck. I probably got out of the truck and was so intent on getting "in" the woods that I didn't pay attention to what was on the outer perimeter of the woods.
Anyway, Looking throught the scope all I could see what the head of the squirrel. His entire body was clinging to the far side of the branch but his head was poked around the tree looking at me. My Black Shadow is extremely accurate with the predator pellets so I decided to take the shot. The distance was 40 yards. I put the crosshairs in between his eyes and pulled. Again, like the first kill, I heard the predator smack home. The squirrel clung to the branch for about 2 seconds then fell to the ground like a stone. Picked him up and found a hole right in between his eyes.
Returned home with my trophies, made some breakefast, then hit the sack for the rest of the day. I really enjoyed that morning hunt. I may do that more often. I took some pics although they came out a little fuzzy.
Jeff
