Got home from work a little after 3 pm, changed into full camo, grabbed the .22 Goldfinger, a cannister of predators and headed out the door to get in some squirrel hunting during the last few hours of the day. Due to the shrinking daylight I headed over to the large tract of pine forest right around the corner from my house. This is the tract of woods bordered by a row of large old oak trees where the squirrel population is quite good this year.
Within 3 minutes of leaving my driveway I was shutting off the truck engine in my usual parking spot. Loaded a predator and began slowly stalking the row of old oaks looking and listening for squirrel activity. I had worked my way halfway down the row of trees when I saw 2 nice sized nutters foraging on the ground. I crept to within 25 yards before they noticed me and scurried quickly to the nearest tree. One of the nutters smartly clung to the opposite side of the tree trunk out of my sight, but the other one hesitated on my side of the tree just a second to long. The predator slammed into him at the base of the head with a loud "POP". After the hit he pulled himself around to the opposite side of the tree out of my sight, but about 2 seconds later I heard his limp body fall from the tree trunk and drop into the thick leaf litter on the forest floor. As I walked over to retrieve my trophy the second squirrel made a dash up the tree branches and leaped into the next tree. I tried to get a bead on him but he never stopped moving. He raced from one tree to another like he was running for his life,,,,, which he was :)
I slowly hunted the oaks and pine trees until dark, and while I did see other squirrels I never had another shot present itself. On the way out I slowly made my way through some very thick, and painful, thorn thickets hoping to flush a rabbit coming out for dinner but saw nothing.
Got home and took a couple of pictures so I could share the hunt with my fellow GTA members. Gonna try and get in another hunt tomorrow after work if I get home on time......
Jeff
