I had the pleasure of spending time in the woods with Dale (Badger) this morning. He rolled down my driveway before 7:00am as I was having my first cup of coffee. It was still a little TOO dark to see, so we sat at the entrance to my garage and spoke of recent misery's and successes, family and TOO's brotherhood. (Both of us thankful for being a part of and having the support such a outstanding group of people.)
The conversation stopped abruptly as the first Fox squirrel of the day ran across the grassy opening 120 yards below us. As my guest, Dale was given first shot. He moved in and got into position.
Through the broken beams of sunlight, the squirrel's tail shone a bright gold from the top of the 100 year old oak... and then it was gone. Lost in the sea of green leaves. I jumped one next on a mad run across the squirrel tree limb highway. He paused giving me a broad-side shot which I took without using a rest and missed. We followed him up the woods another 30 yards then lost him...We moved on. What little hope of a bright day quickly turned to gray and overcast as the morning wore on. The next area offered oak and beach nuts with cuttings and shells drifting down from some high limb far up in the canopy. Dale moved to a clearer line-of-sight and waited him out. As he came down the trunk of the tree Dale raised up and head shot em from 1 1/2 stories up.We saw very few squirrels the rest of the morning and what few we saw were lost in the tress within moments. I had a second shot at one smack in the middle of the tree, 3 ft. off the ground at 20-25 yards and missed... Granted I was squatting to get the shot with no rest but Come On!... I went 4/4 just the other day but now I'm rushing the shot (head shots only) and getting disgusted... maybe its the gun...
We hunted the section of woods slowly until a huge flock of robins, blackbirds and grackles took over the area we were in from ground to tree top. We had so much movement in the tree leaves it was impossible to see a squirrel moving up there. Nearing noon and the only thing we saw more of than those birds were chipmunks. We both agreed we had never seen so many. Discuraged at the disapearence of all the squirrels, we worked out way back to the house for a drink of water and to ice down to 1 Dale had shot.
As we reflected on the lack of squirrels it was mentioned how there were occasions where I had almost hit them running in front of me on the 4 wheeler and and how it was "funny" how when you were just walking along at a good pace they seemed to all over the place. Dale even remembered how many we saw last year when I drove him around the place in Dad's golf cart... ya! the golf cart. Jump shooting from the golf cart seemed like a fun idea and we could cover lots more ground. lol So up to the garage we went. We buzzed through my yard and down to the lake trail jumping one almost as soon as we hit the trail. We lost him him the tree top but it seemed like we were on to something. not a few min later we jumped another. Badger had me position our "golf cart of death" for the shot. Two times the squirrel sat up and looked our way then went on hopping to the base of another tree. The third time however the Savage cracked and another head shot tree rat went to the game bag. Rolling down the trail behind the garage we jumped another and AGAIN I missed... Now I'm really troubled and don't trust the gun scope is right since this shot was a rested shot and under 30 yards. Within the first 20 min. of driving around in that big white, hard top, squeaky elect golf cart , we jumped more squirrels than we had seen all morning. We talked of resolving the recent forum question of "if chipmunks were good to eat" but ran out of time and called it a day with Dale taking home 2 good sized Fox squirrels.
Thanks for another good day afield Dale.
PS: You were only gone a few min. and I was down at the range papering the gun. @ 50 yards it shot 1" high and 3/4" left. :smiley_blackeye:
No wonder I kept missing the head shots.
The conversation stopped abruptly as the first Fox squirrel of the day ran across the grassy opening 120 yards below us. As my guest, Dale was given first shot. He moved in and got into position.
Through the broken beams of sunlight, the squirrel's tail shone a bright gold from the top of the 100 year old oak... and then it was gone. Lost in the sea of green leaves. I jumped one next on a mad run across the squirrel tree limb highway. He paused giving me a broad-side shot which I took without using a rest and missed. We followed him up the woods another 30 yards then lost him...We moved on. What little hope of a bright day quickly turned to gray and overcast as the morning wore on. The next area offered oak and beach nuts with cuttings and shells drifting down from some high limb far up in the canopy. Dale moved to a clearer line-of-sight and waited him out. As he came down the trunk of the tree Dale raised up and head shot em from 1 1/2 stories up.We saw very few squirrels the rest of the morning and what few we saw were lost in the tress within moments. I had a second shot at one smack in the middle of the tree, 3 ft. off the ground at 20-25 yards and missed... Granted I was squatting to get the shot with no rest but Come On!... I went 4/4 just the other day but now I'm rushing the shot (head shots only) and getting disgusted... maybe its the gun...
We hunted the section of woods slowly until a huge flock of robins, blackbirds and grackles took over the area we were in from ground to tree top. We had so much movement in the tree leaves it was impossible to see a squirrel moving up there. Nearing noon and the only thing we saw more of than those birds were chipmunks. We both agreed we had never seen so many. Discuraged at the disapearence of all the squirrels, we worked out way back to the house for a drink of water and to ice down to 1 Dale had shot.
As we reflected on the lack of squirrels it was mentioned how there were occasions where I had almost hit them running in front of me on the 4 wheeler and and how it was "funny" how when you were just walking along at a good pace they seemed to all over the place. Dale even remembered how many we saw last year when I drove him around the place in Dad's golf cart... ya! the golf cart. Jump shooting from the golf cart seemed like a fun idea and we could cover lots more ground. lol So up to the garage we went. We buzzed through my yard and down to the lake trail jumping one almost as soon as we hit the trail. We lost him him the tree top but it seemed like we were on to something. not a few min later we jumped another. Badger had me position our "golf cart of death" for the shot. Two times the squirrel sat up and looked our way then went on hopping to the base of another tree. The third time however the Savage cracked and another head shot tree rat went to the game bag. Rolling down the trail behind the garage we jumped another and AGAIN I missed... Now I'm really troubled and don't trust the gun scope is right since this shot was a rested shot and under 30 yards. Within the first 20 min. of driving around in that big white, hard top, squeaky elect golf cart , we jumped more squirrels than we had seen all morning. We talked of resolving the recent forum question of "if chipmunks were good to eat" but ran out of time and called it a day with Dale taking home 2 good sized Fox squirrels.
Thanks for another good day afield Dale.
PS: You were only gone a few min. and I was down at the range papering the gun. @ 50 yards it shot 1" high and 3/4" left. :smiley_blackeye:
No wonder I kept missing the head shots.
