Yes, 1" groups at 25 yards seems awfully loose, even with questionable ammo. I really don't know what kind of accuracy a lever gun like yours is capable of, but if you want some insight, I'd suggest paying a visit to Rimfire Central. mountains of information about everything rimfire there.
Nancy and I got skunked yesterday. first time this season that I did not see a single squirrel. The dogs ran their butts off, and went to a few dens, but there was just no signs of life in the squirrel woods yesterday. weird.
Nancy had stuff to do today, and we are going on an all day hunt tomorrow, so I took the dogs out by myself today. It was a beautiful morning, and very nice with just me and the mutts. I treasure my time in the woods, and especially when I'm out with my dogs. I've been taking lots of people squirrel hunting with me this season, and have only been out by myself a couple of times before today. I was planning to hunt for just a couple of hours so as not to run the dogs ragged. I want them rested for tomorrow. What in the hell was I thinking, lol? I let them off their leads at 9:40.These two were absolute beasts today. Slick did the heavy lifting, like he usually always does, but Lefty is hunting with as much gusto as he has in a very long time. Slick got the first two, then they hit one together, then Lefty got one of his own. I was patient playing hide and seek with all of them, and the dogs stayed treed pretty well for longer than they usually will, and I was able to make good head shots on all of them. four in the bag in less than an hour. Slick got on one a couple of hundred yards out, and Lefty was barking a little a couple hundred yards away from Slick, but in the same general direction. Slick worked up to his "I'm totally sure now" bark which is about two octaves lower than his sort of whiney "I think I smell something" bark, so I headed toward Slick, and no sooner than I started picking up the pace, I could see that Lefty was making a bee line to Slick and joined the chorus. as I approach the dogs on a tree I stop and take a look with binos as soon as I can tell what tree they are on. this time I was about 100 yards away, but as soon as I put my glasses up, I saw two squirrels dancing around in the tree. I'm all but running toward them now, and as I got close, both squirrels bailed. the dogs both saw just one and followed, so I did, too. squirrel was frantic to get away and fell trying to negotiate some tiny limbs up high and fell. Somehow, it caught itself on some skinny branches about 20 feet off the ground. I thought for sure he was going to hit the ground, but got up a tree and took off again. after covering about 60 yards in and out of a half dozen trees, dogs right under it the whole time, squirrel laid up in a pretty huge red oak. as I circled tree I finally found the squirrel, but had to move a good ways to get a look at something besides his tail. I finally found a position that gave a look at about 1/4 of it's head. Figuring I wasn't going to do any better with this one, I took the shot and missed low. Squirrel took off up the tree higher but did not timber out. I got into position again, the dogs still hot on the tree. lots of clutter between me and squirrel this time and I had to stand on my toes to put the reticle on his head. I shot and missed again and the squirrel timbered out 50 0r 60 yards, and almost back to the tree they were in to begin with. The dogs stayed with it again and I had to find the squirrel after I caught up with them. I had another tough shot at about 1/4 of the head again. I rushed that shot a bit and missed, again. I might have been a little keyed up myself by then, lol. The squirrel just slid around the 8" trunk. I could see its feet, and the dogs were on the tree hot, so I just waited patiently for the dogs to move a nervous squirrel enough to get a better shot. After about 3 solid minutes looking through my scope at a squirrel shifting a few inches back and forth around the tree trunk, it finally came around enough to show me half its head and held still long enough for me to put a bullet in it, finally.
I was really happy to knock that one out as both dogs put on a clinic staying with that one through all of that. With five in the bag, I turned them back toward the truck, and it took Slick about ten minutes to find another. I had a long walk of 300+ yards stepping over large dead ash trees and their broken pieces every ten feet to get there. When I could see the dogs they were both on a medium size shagbark hickory. I took a quick look with my binos, didn't see a squirrel, so I got closer and start circling and looking, expecting to find a hole as hickories are frequently den trees. I get about 270 degrees around tree and see the dogs are not looking at the tree they appeared to be on, but looking right at a squirrel not 15 feet off the ground in very small tree. I took a quick rest and put one in the noggin. that was number 6, so I didn't waste any time getting back to the truck, but I did have call Slick back in from a couple hundred yards out once I got across a small swollen creek. That dog never quits. After I dropped the tailgate I checked the time and it was exactly 11:30. I'd guess that I walked about 3 miles on this mornings hunt, so we covered some ground, but it was pretty much non-stop. First limit I've bagged by myself this season. I sure have been blessed with a pair of special dogs. helluva a performance from both of them this morning. Saw 7, killed 6
Slick 63
Lefty 39
