Panther Bags Another One

[longislandhunter]

Got home from work late this afternoon due to a chiropractor appt., but had just enough time to get in some hunting for the last hour of daylight.  I didn't have enough time to sneak around the briar patches with the QB-57 looking for rabbits so I grabbed the .22 cal Panther and went after squirrels.  

I parked my truck and entered the woods, slowly working my way down the main trail that leads through the woods.  I had gotten a couple hundred feet down the trail without seeing or hearing anything so I decided to just take a stand and watch and listen for squirrel activity.  As I stood there listening for sounds of squirrels feeding on the ground I kept scanning the large pine trees on both sides of the trail.  As I looked into the top of a really large pine I suddenly saw what liked a fuzzy pine cone on a thick branch,,, it just didn't look right.   I put the scope to my eye and took a better look,,,,, yup,,, it was part of a tail alright.  I moved the scope up a bit and got a good side view of the tree rats head, his beady little black eye staring down at me.  

There was an awful lot of branches from other trees between me and the tree rat but after a couple minutes of shifting my position I finally got into a position that gave me a head shot.  There were branches in the way but there was a small triangular opening that would put the pellet right at the base of the eye,,, if I could snake the pellet directly through that little open triangle in the branches.  Put the scope on 9x and put the crosshairs on the nutters eye.  Squeezed the trigger on the Panther and a second later heard a lout "POP" and the CPH slammed home.  The Panther had shot dead straight and got the job done.   The nutter fell off the branch, hit the ground and only twitched once.  The distance was 25 yards.  I'm really impressed with the accuracy and the knock down power the Panther is giving me with the CPH's.  

By the time I got out of the woods it was well after dark but when I got home I took a couple of pics to post.  He was a pretty good sized nutter,,, he'll make a fine meal at a later date.   :)

Jeff

[Big_Bill]

Great account of your hunt Jeff,

Fine shootin, and Great photo also !

Thanks for keeping us up, with your hunting exploits ! Those of us that can, do...and those of us that cannot, love to read your posts !

Bill

[shadow]

Glad that you and a few of our fellow hunter's are keeping the Hunting Gate kicking , I'm finishing up a few airgun project's cause spring's coming and the focus will be hunt, hunt and hunt hehehe. Great account of your hunt buddy and as alway's fantastic shot and pic's. That is a nice size dinner there next to your Panther gal and I know one of em will end up in my collection in time. ;) Ed

You murderized that poor rat!  Nice shot.

[Gene_SC]

Hey Jeff, thanks for showing me the accuracy of that Panther..:) Proof is in the Eye..:)

Gene

[tat2dman]

Was thinkin about 1 of those,then I saw the g1 for $79,have to wait a minute...

[longislandhunter]

Thanks guys,,,,,, I'm lovin that Panther  :)    

She's turned into a squirrel whackin machine  :)

Jeff

[only1harry]

Good shooting Jeff.   Nice to see you 're getting a lot of good use out of your new Panther.

I was at my mom's house on Sunday.  At one point around 11am I look out the window and there are 20 squirrels running around and chasing each other on the neighbor's 2 large oak trees!  I was drewling :-)  I had never seen so many squirrels all at once!  Talking about a squirrel factory.  They must be feeding them.  It's the only way I can explain it.  I won't be asking them if they need help with the pesty tree rats.  They used to yell at me when I was younger shooting them with my Crossman 760.  I had brought the 350 .22 to do some target shooting in the secluded back yard so I loaded a JSB Exact 15.9 and waited by the window for one of them to come my way.  Nothing.  After an hour they had all gotten tired from running around and disappeared into the oak trees for a snack and a nap.  Not one of them stepped foot on our property or tried to go around the back yard through the woods.  
Could it be their grandparents passed down some weird stories about a dangerous teenager next door 25+ years ago?  :-)