Squirrel Season Opens :)

[longislandhunter]

Well,,,, all you lucky NY'ers who live upstate ,,,,,, squirrel season opened up this morning   :)  

I'll be lookin forward to some squirrel huntin stories and pics,,,,,, Harry,,,, are you cocked and loaded  :)   ??

Unfortunately squirrel season here on Long Island doesn't open until November 1st so I still have a bit of a wait,,,, but I'm thinkin of driving up to my summer home up in Delaware County and introducing my Talon to the "big woods"   :)

Jeff

[Big_Bill]

I know your chaffing at the bit Jeff,

But I am surprised that there are any squirrels left on Long Island, hehehe,

I look forward to your accounts with your "Dark Side" partner.

Bill

[longislandhunter]

Hey Bill,,,, plenty of tree rats left here on the Island,,  to many according to my reckoning  :)

Funny thing is that up near my summer home there really aren't that many squirrels, there are some of course but not in the numbers one would expect.  Maybe it's just my area I don't know...  Years ago, when the family owned dairy farms near me were still in operation,  there were more squirrels to hunt, but that's because the farmers were growing corn for their cows and the nutters exploited the food source.  But even then their numbers weren't what I always wanted them to be.  

Anyway, it's all about the hunt anyway,,, if I bag something that's just an extra gift, so I think I'm really gonna try and put a couple of days aside and try to get up to Delaware county and scare me up a mountain squirrel  :)

On a side not,,,,, I drove up there on Saturday, just for the day, to mow the lawn and on the way back home I saw a beautiful coyote standing on the side of the Thruway watching traffic.  I've heard them up at my summer home at night howling in the mountains but this is the first one I've seen, especially in the middle of the day standing next to a major highway.  My guess is that he was probably patrolling the roadway edges for a roadkill ,, but it was a beautiful sight.  

Jeff

[shadow]

Get after em boy's and look forward to dem stories and pic's.:) Ed

[only1harry]

Thanks for reminding me Jeff.  I just checked my hunting license.  It doesn't expire until the end of Sept. so I 'm good to go!  The only problem is I haven't seen a tree rat in a while.  I know they 're out there but my trees are so full of leaves, it provides perfect cover for them.  I 'll hear them or see the branches or leaves move but I can't even spot them with the binoculars.  If I do it's usually a tail or I can't tell which part of the body it is.  Oh well, have to work harder at it I guess.  I like it better in the Fall, not much cover for them :)  I 'm still in G-hog mode trying to spot that big female but I haven't see it in a week or more either.  No Grackles, no Starlings.. very quiet around here lately.  I 'm glad small game season started.  

BTW, I see the coyotes on the side of the road watching the traffic at night less than a mile from my house every couple of weeks.  Now I have to figure out a way to get one with the Condor :)

[longislandhunter]

Get yourself a rabbit "squeeler" and you'll be all set  :)

The one I saw had an absolutely beautiful coat of fur, was really a sight.   A friend of mine shot one a few years ago and got a full body mount,  looks awesome in his living room !!

I think that mighty Condor of yours is more than up to the task........   :)




Jeff

[only1harry]

I was thinking just that Jeff, I need a good call for the coyotes.  They don't stand a chance against the mighty Condor  :-)  If I can put my crosshairs on one which is the hardest part.

I just finished doing some target shooting and shot a few over the chrony outside after a fresh 2700psi fill.  At power wheel setting 4 the 31gr pellets (Eley) flew at just over 1,000fps or 69fpe.  PW setting 6 produced 1,060fps (or 77+fpe) so this is an 80fpe gun for sure.  After about 7 shots it was still shooting 1,040fps.  
Again I chickened out and backed it down instead of keep going higher.  My log is starting to get some huge holes in it and I wasn't sure if these Eley bullets/slugs would make their way through it at ~1,100fps if I went crazy with the power wheel.  My 3 2x4's (24" long) that I cut up are already destroyed and that's shooting mostly at the lowest PW setting where it won't turn any more.  At PW 6 the 31gr slugs went 99% through two (2) 2x4's - they stuck their head out the back of the 2nd amidst 1"+ splinters.  One of these days I 'll get the guts to go higher than 6 on the power wheel.  As soon as I get a nice new (bigger) log and a few more 2x4's or go to the range :-)  I was then day-dreaming what PW 6 would do to a coyote's head if it can go through 2 2x4's.  Hopefully a taxidermist can patch it up to look nice if I ever get one :)

The gun got a little louder at PW 4, but at 6, there was a big difference and it was starting to sound a little like a rimie, as though the Airhog shroud is not doing its job, but I 'm sure it was not intended to muffle the sound at those velocities.  I'm confident it would have been a lot louder without it.  The shroud is very effective at 990fps & below and is as quiet as or better than my C2240 pistol w/10" barrel.  I filled the tank over the wknd with only 2100-2200psi for testing, and it was shooting Kodiaks @ 900-910fps (38+fpe).  The gun was unbelievably quiet.  All you heard was the hammer hit the top hat.  I shot into the grass because when shooting at the logs or 2x4's the impact makes a loud thump.  All I heard was "tink".  My wife was about 40ft away doing her thing with the flowers and I said did you hear that?  She said "hear what?" :-)

[gamo2hammerli]

That Condor scares me. heh heh And impresses me. A critter hit with that kind of FPE in it's head or some vital organ almost have no chance!!!! And I like the full length shroud on yours....

[only1harry]

Yeah.. you 're not the only it scares Stanley :-)

Well I went back out there after Jeff reminded me that today is "Opening Day" and was able to spot 2 squirrels, one at 5:45 and another around 6:15pm.  They were way up, like 65-70ft hopping from one branch to another, tree to tree, and all I could see were the leaves moving.  They weren't looking for food.  They were just traveling back to their nests after making their rounds and were constantly on the move.  I finally saw them both when they were get getting closer to their destination.  One when he got to the edge of the trees ran across the lawn and then across the street to his home on the neighbor's oak tree, and the other ran across the lawn after he reached the last tree on the opposite side, to get to my willow tree where I watch them come down from almost every morning.  5min. later I saw another one sneak into the hole up high on my oak tree about 45yds out.  Didn't see where he came from.  He 's the same big one I tried to get last season, and I actually spared him a couple of times, as he looked very lonely and would sit on the branch outside the hole for hours towards the end of the season, like waiting for his mate or relatives to come, but most likely they were part of the 20+ I took, so there was never a reunion.  I was starting to admire him as I watched him several times fight off many other invasive squirrels trying to take over his tree & territory right after the last season season was over towards the end of winter.  A couple of them actually were waiting for him outside the hole.  I was watching the whole thing unfold and I realized these were not resident nutters.  They would stick their head into the hole on the side of the tree very fast and pull away and set up a trap & wait for him, or were challenging him to come out and fight.  After 10-15min. he eventually came out and beat the crap out of them both and chased them away almost the entire length of my property.  I 'm going to try to avoid shooting this one because he 's a fighter and has my respect.  After I wiped out his entire family he still defended his territory valiantly all by himself but he 's also one of the biggest squirrels I 've ever seen so he scares others easily.  His torso seems unusually long.. he is just a big fella..  
Call me crazy, but when you sit by the window for hours looking for something to shoot, you get to observe a lot of things you would have surely missed otherwise.. and because of that some of the quarry I 'm after has earned my respect.

[TexasShooter72]

Guess we got lucky here(Texas)...   squirrel's are in open season year round' with a hunting license!

Matt