You know, when I first moved into my place 10 years ago, I was a live and let live kinda guy. I had no quarrel with the millions of ground squirrels that were living in the 200 acres of open space behind me. I used to look at them and think..."damn, thats a lotta squirrels", but they didn't do nothin to me so I left em alone. But I had to have my turtleponds. That means water. And so begins the saga....
It was a grand site to look at...3 ponds...300gal, 400gal, and a 600gallon. With turtles galore that I bought in the petstores and online. They had the run of the backyard. I turtleproofed it so they couldnt dig under the fences and escape. I used chicken wire, wood, rocks, and even pored a little concrete in some areas to keep them turtles in. While a pond turtle wont dig too much, a squirrel will. All of sudden I had holes along the fenceline. Squirrels were comin in and out, to drink the water and feast on the lush grasses that grew in the yard. The dogs were constantly barking, and killing squirrels every now and then. I'd backfill their holes, and the next day theyd be back again. Now, these holes was big enough fer my turtles to git out, and I was missin a few. It was then that I decided to wage a private war against the enemy squirrels.
At first, I just concentrated on the ones that were digging under the fence. I bought myself a Gamo Shadow .177 at the local wallymart, and went to war. I won most of the time, it was too easy...10~15 yard shots. Pretty hard to miss a ground squirrel at that range. Bodies were buried and I got tired of burying em so I just threw em over the fence and the next day they would be gone cause the coyotes would take them. All the time I'm lookin up on the hill and them squirrels was havin babies!!! Well...since I was unemployed at the time, I could spend all day poppin those little critters, and I did. So they were multiplying out of range, and then when I got tired of sittin out there all day, then they'd show up again...leavin another hole behind.
Well...I figured that I'd get me a high powered airgun, and start sniping them right off of the hill...50~100 yards out. Enter the legendary Diana 350M .177, and later a .22 version of the same, for those ultra long range shots. Now, I just put a heavy dent in their population, the burrowing owls moved in when the squirrels died, and things were gettin better. No more holes under the fence. Winter came, and they go kinda inactive for a while, but I was hooked on airguns!!! I had nuthin to shoot!!! By now I had picked up a Hammerli Storm .22, for close range skunk shooting. Put a BSA red dot on top and went nite huntin. That was a whole lotta fun let me tell you. The thrill of poppin a skunk without getting sprayed, and barely able to see them besides. 5 bit the dust within a few weeks.
Lets fast forward to now, because I could go on for hours, plus I'm gettin kinda tired of typin. Summertime, only a few ground squirrels are ever seen waaaay up on the hill, cause I blew them all away. It was gettin a little too easy...I had a .22 350M with a 6-24X50 Leapers scope mounted on it, and if I couldn't hit the squirrel with the first shot...well I would just walk those pellets right up to them, because they were *dummer than a stump* and standin up to see what was going on!!! And they would just stay there until I put a 14.3gr CP pellet in them. But there were some that I just couldn't hit, and I began to refer to these little critters as "squirrels with a miracle". The pellets would dance all around them, but they would just stand there, and not get hit. Now these little lucky critters became my personal vendetta. Enter the B21 .22, the beast from the east. I call her "chigger" for chinese trigger? Anyway...it was time to take the miracles away. I spent hours setting up the open sights on chigger...poppin pellets into the squirrel dirt mounds that were 50~60 yards away, and it was good. Chigger is quite the miracle herself it turns out. The challenge is...using chigger and her open sights, take the hill...reclaim it...wipe out all squirrelly vermin within range.
Now these sharpeyed squirrels had gotten so that all I had to do was walk out in the backyard a bit, and they would be standin up lookin for me!!! They looked like "miniature fur soldiers" far out there. So...I picked up chigger and loaded up a pellet in the house, then went out back with her, and did my walk around thing. I looked up...sure enough there was two standin there about 50 yards out. I walked over near a bush and to them I just disappeared. But really I had ducked out of their sightline and sneaked along the solid wooden fenceline, until I got to the chainlink fence with the green vinyl slats that faces out into the open space. Got me a nice spot and set up chigger. You see, chainlink fence makes a great riflerest, especially when its vinylcoated stuff like mine is. I know that yer not supposed to rest the barrel on stuff, but during time of war, you do what needs to be done. So, I put chigger's barrel right in a "V" and sighted in on one of them fur soldiers that were still standin there. Bam!!! (no pun intended, chinese rifle hehe) one squirrel ran off, but one was still standin there, looking even more intently than before...I'm thinkin he was a couple of inches taller!!! Quick loadup, put chiggers barrel back in my favorite V, sight up on dummy, and BAM!!! Down goes dummy. No more miracle. At that range, with 49 year old eyes, open sights, and a penchant for vengeance....I'm thinkin thats pretty good. And besides...BRYAN wanted me to tell the story.
There's still one squirrel with a miracle left though. But I'm thinkin "Chigger?" is gonna take care of that.
