Hunted For My Dinner

[longislandhunter]

Got off work this afternoon at 3 pm and raced home to get changed into my hunting clothes.  This week was so busy and hectic at work I really needed to get to the duck farm and do some pest shooting to relax.  

Got into my duck farm huntin clothes, grabbed the .177 B26-2, filled my belt pellet pouch with Tomahawk pellets, and raced over to the duck farm.  

Parked the truck and as soon as I got the gun out of it's case saw a starling land on a branch of a dead tree 40 yards away.  Dialed the AO on the golden antler scope to 40, put the crosshairs on the birds chest and squeezed the trigger.  "Thwap",,, first kill of the day fell to earth.  

I decided to slowly still hunt around the edges of the farm and look for targets of opportunity.  About 30 minutes into the hunt I managed to get within 30 yards of some birds raiding a grain feeder.  Put the scope on a large dove standing on the edge of the feeder and squeezed.  The tomahawk slammed home with a smack and the bird fell dead.  I was in a good spot so I just hunkered down and waited.  5 minutes later the doves came back.   Went through the same routine as before and dove #2 was down.  5 Minutes after had dove #3 down.  Decided to move to another location so I retrieved my kills and moved on.

Got to the far end of the farm and managed to sneak within 50 yards of a large crow in the top of a tall dead pine tree.   I usually try to keep my shots within 40 yards, but my B26-2 shoots those tomahawks like a laser so I decided to try the shot.  Put the crosshairs on the crows chest, raised the scope just a tad and pulled the trigger.  BAM,,, pellet slammed home.  The crow did a death glide from the top of the tree, which was real high, but unfortunately his death glide trajectory slammed him into the ground on the other side of a large duck waste pond so I couldn't retrieve him for pics, but I was really satisfied that I had made that shot.  

I continued my still hunting around the farm and as I rounded the corner of one of the barns I saw 2 small ground hogs feasting on grass in an area that had just been mowed.  One of the g-hogs (apparently the smartest of the two) raced away non stop towards some old farm equipment.  The 2nd one started running away but for some reason stopped for a split second to take another look at me.  That was all I needed.  The gun came up, the crosshairs went on his head, the trigger came back and the little g-hog went down for good.  He was a small one, but he'd be nice and tasty and tender :)

As I was walking back to the truck I was approaching 3 grain feeders close to each other in one of the duck pens.  I was about 30 yards away when I suddenly saw a good sized squirrel crawl out from the feeder and streak to the nearest tree, which was about 20 yards away.   I set myself up with the sun to my back and started scanning the tree limbs trying to locate the squirrel.  Had a hard time finding him, but after  5 minutes I finally glimpsed the white hairs on the tip of his tail poking around the side of a medium sized branch.  I maneuvered into a good shooting position that gave me a clear head shot.  Squeezed the trigger, heard the pellet slam home and the squirrel went limp, hung on with his back legs for a few seconds, then fell to the ground.   I was starting to get hungry so I picked up my last trophy of the day and headed back to the truck.  

My daughter took a couple of pics of me with the g-hog and squirrel,,, then I snapped a couple of pics of the the deadly B26-2 surrounded by her kills.  I fried the squirrel, doves and g-hog in seasoned herb butter until the pieces were golden brown then I chowed down   :)

Jeff

[Splash]

The perfect way to end the day, nice shootin Jeff.
Mike

[shadow]

Knockin em dead is all I can say Jeff!. Fantastic shootin,pic's and story buddy and the B26-2 look's like she's in heaven laying next to her trophy's. The tree rat look's like a female, maby just wheened her babe's. Again great hunt buddy. Ed

Good shooting and a good story. Even better that it produced a scrumptious feed.

[dw33]

That place is gold mine for you.  Good shooting.  Jeff, I have a 4x scope with AO on my RWS 48 and I don't usually mess with it.  Does it really help to adjust it for different shots/distances?  Thanks, David

[Big_Bill]

GREAT Jeff,

What a day! and a fifty yard shot to boot!

Great Shootin, Great Account of your hunt, and Great Photos ! Now that's what I call,a an A1 hunt, a perfect end to a perfect day.

Jeff, you have so manybeautiful shooters. I fall in love with the rifle you use in each of your hunts. So many pretty babies !

[longislandhunter]

Thanks Bill,,,, I really enjoyed my hunt today, I was looking forward to it all day while I was at work, literally counting the minutes until I was off duty.  


David,,, as for utilizing the AO on the scope it helps me tremendously, especially when I'm shooting smaller targets like birds.  Adjusting it to the proper range gives me an extremely clear/in focus sight picture which  is invaluable when trying to place that little pellet exactly where you want it.  

I do have a couple of rifles set up with low power non AO scopes, but I use them almost exclusively for small game hunting on larger game, like squirrels and rabbits, and use them in hunting areas where I know I'll be encountering mostly quick shooting at medium ranges.  In those instances I don't have the luxury of taking the time to adjust the AO for each shot and those scopes work well for me.  But when shooting small targets where  exacting accuracy is the game, like at the duck farm, I rely heavily on the higher power AO scopes to get the job done.  

Jeff

[JMG]

Hehe great shootin Jeff gotta love the B26-2 and the GA scope I know exactly what ya mean about the ao adjustment... and the GA seems to be nuts on for distance. If the image or target is sharp the AO's range is right and I have found that the AO' numbers on my GA's are pretty darn accurate!

John

[plateshooter]

Seems you had a great day Jeff.  I love fried Dove and squirrel too.  Not to crazy about the ground hog.  We ate them back in the poor days with 5 kids.  We use to par boil them, pull the meat and run it through a grinder.  Spaghetti sauce or sloppy joe mix made it tolerable .

Those are some clear well exposed photos, what camera are you using?

[longislandhunter]

The camera is an Olympus "camedia"  D-560 camera. I bought 2 of em a few years back for my 2 daughters as christmas presents, but it wound up my oldest daughter isn't a picture taker so little by little her camera became mine :)      

The reason I went with Olympus is that a friend of mine had an Olypmus digital and I was really impressed with the clarity of his photos.   The cameras I bought, even though they're a less expensive model than the one my friend has, is very simple to use (which is a good thing for me) and the pics are really very sharp if I keep the camera steady.  Every once in a while I get a pic that's a little blurry, but when that happens it's usually me moving the camera as I push the button.  

As for the g-hog,,, I know what you mean about par boiling them.  I do that with the older, tougher ones and then use a slow cooker method of preparing them.  But the young ones, like the one I got yesterday, are really very tender if you fry them golden brown and they have a very mild taste.  

Jeff

Jeff,
I enjoyed your hunt and second the cooking methods you use.
When I was younger, my grandmother cooked and I watched
her use a woodburning cookstove.  She cooked Squirrels, old chickens and tougher
meats "on the back" of the stove.  The heat was lower there sort of like a slow cooker.
I use a slow cooker and do not par-boil anything unless I am going to fry a tough meat.

Mostly I fry or broil, sometimes grill.  Too bad the crow fell where he did.
I enjoy every one of your hunts.  
Thanks for posting them.

[SDale]

Geez Jeff... You got ALL the luck! Good guns to shoot, GREAT place to hunt AND a daughter that isn't freaked out by dead critters.

Mind if I stop by if I'm ever out that way? hehe

[longislandhunter]

Anytime Sam,,, we'll go out and harvest some critters and have lunch  :)

My youngest daughter, the one who takes the pics, hunts with me quite often for small game with a shotgun.  She just recently asked if she could learn to use my airguns and hunt with me using them instead of her shotgun. She can gut out a deer almost as quickly as I can.  My oldest daughter doesn't hunt, doesn't want to kill anything, but like her younger sister she is always bugging me to cook up wild game for dinner.  Both of em were raised on wild game meat and to this day they both love it,,, any kind of game, squirrel, rabbit, birds, waterfowl, g-hogs, anything I bring home.    

Jeff

[SDale]

Right on!!!

Hope my daughter turns out the same way! She's only 2, but she's the same. She'll eat anything I bring home too (providing that I also eat it! LoL).  She's watched/helped me clean & cook squirrels, turkeys etc and had no problems with it at all. The wife on the other hand... She doesn't like wild game too much.  She's eaten squirrel, but only after it's been brined over night & I tell her that it's chicken & dumplings! LoL

[DAMAGE]

Good to see you still nailing them M8 nice shooting & your posts all ways make for a No1 read as usual.