This morning I opened the front door & heard the unmistakeable cackle of grackles. Off to the garage I went & came out with one of my tuned Gamo 850 carbines. I took 3 out of a huge fig tree before they caught on & flew to some nearby trees. Odd behavior considering these are pretty skiddish bird! I took another one that landed on a power line close by the house. I then stalked another group in some nearby pecan trees where I got yet another before the group flew away. As I was going to collect my kill I saw a young male squirrel on a low hanging limb of the pecan tree. He continued to look on at me not seeing me as any sort of threat. Wrong move! He didn't even seem bothered that I was within twenty yards of him holding my gun directly at him???? I took aim dead on directly at his throat knowing he was just a bit too close for my zero-I wanted a head shot & was willing to scare him off rather then going for the safe heart lung shot. I don't know what happened but I must have flinched at the last second and missed just to the right. He paused just long enough for me to reload then scurried up the tree. Thinking he was safe at the top He stared down at me I braced my arm against a small fence took aim for the head once again & connected just below his ear! The next sound was the thud of his lifeless body hitting the ground. On the way back to the house & stopped in the barn to visit the coon my girlfriend has began to feed I kinda like him so she's safe for now. All-in-all a pretty good morning, which took place in just under 20 minutes.
