peaks and valleys. every day life is always up and down, and when you hunt everyday, or nearly so, it's pretty much the same. some days just suck sweaty balls, others are unbridled joy. yesterday was the former. a complete debacle. somehow between the last squirrel I shot on Monday and Wednesday morning my scope got knocked off. Lefty treed three yesterday and Slick one. I missed the first one Lefty treed 5 times for no apparent reason. could not tell where bullets were hitting, so I assumed it was just me. squirrel timbered out to a hole. I don't consider myself any sort of marksman, but when I have a wide open shot with a good rest at a squirrel offering up it's entire head, I simply do not miss. I might not bugeye them every time, but I damn sure kill them 99 times out of 100. Lefty treed another within 5 minutes. I did hit this one, but it was hit poorly and hung up in some branches. I shot that rats lifeless body 20 time before it hit the ground. I really hate leaving them hung up. off to another spot and Lefty treed a grey squirrel in a place where I've never seen one before. missed it three times and it timbered out to a hole. I know the gun is fucked up now and it is not me shooting badly. it appeared that I was hitting high and right by about 1" to 1 1/2". when you are trying to shoot rats in the eye, an inch might as well be a mile. while I contemplated calling it a day to go home and zero my scope, Slick got on one pretty hot, so I went after him. had a nice wide open shot, so I attempted some Kentucky windage an did knock the squirrel out, but it fell about 40 feet and caught itself on the branches of a 6 foot sapling, just out of the reach of two leaping dogs. rat managed to get back on the tree I shot it out of and froze in a large crotch, offering me another good shot. I shot three times, and did hit it once, at least, but it just slumped down in the crotch and died. I tried shooting it out to no avail. it was only about 25' up and saw a very long dead tree trunk that looked long enough and that I could actually hold up the weight. it was heavy, but I managed to get it up the tree and I could touch the squirrel, but I could just not reach any higher and control the weight of it. the coons or a lucky bird of prey will get that one. I had to leave it. that was enough for me. we made a b-line for the truck and came home with one squirrel shot to hell. turned out the rifle was shooting about 1 1/4" low and right, about 5 o'clock. got that fixed and back to dead nuts on. I still shot about 100 rounds to make sure I was doing my part. good to go.
today started off pretty slow. Slick treed one in a giant, sprawling white oak after about 30 minutes of hunting. took me a long time to finally find it, both dogs lost interest and were running off the tree. I tied Slick, didn't give a shit what Lefty did since it wasn't his tree. took me 15 minutes of hide and seek to finally get into a position where I was able to throw a big stick and scare the squirrel around the tree enough for a shot. nothing but brains. we hunted on there for another hour and found nothing but holes and leaf nests. Stop number two was not much better. both dogs went a long way before finding something to bark about. Lefty first with an obvious den full of holes, Slick with another a couple minutes later. I'm thinking it's gonna be another one of those days, but just then Slick cut loose 300 yards out. I double time it over to him and damn if he didn't have one. I was able to slip into position and wait, and in a minute or so, squirrel slid around tree enough to offer me half it's head, which was enough this time. Ok, this is looking better. two minutes after I sent the dogs on, Lefty had one. I covered the 200 yards pretty quick and found the squirrel. I'm on a good rest, and while I'm chambering a round, both dogs run off the tree to me and the squirrel slides around the tree, and out of harms way the barrage of expletives that that I launched that those two must have registered because they both ran back and stayed on the tree. I had to move around the tree 180 degrees and start the game of hide and seek over, but I finally got a good shot at the head and made it. damn rat just slumped down into a small crotch and died. pumped 29 rounds into this one to try and knock it out, but could not do it. out of ammo, so we started the 3/4 mile walk back to the truck. I ain't happy. that makes the fourth squirrel in three outing to get hung up. only one that was predictable was the one I tried to liberate with the long stick. the others were just plain bad luck, and I was able to get two of them down. was a dreadfully long walk back to the truck this time. I really, really hate leaving dead rats up in trees.
eat lunch, regroup. it's too nice of a day to pack it in now just because shit keeps going sideways for no good reason. off to another woods we go. Lefty found one quick, but again, just as I was positioning the reticle on rats heat, two dogs run off the tree right to me and scare the squirrel around the tree. that one disappeared and I didn't care. too pissed at dogs to worry about shooting another squirrel. I send them on again and Slick found one fast. I located squirrel and shot it in the head, but too low to get the brains. rat hits the ground, takes off running and both dogs are hot after it. I could not see which one actually caught it, but by the time I could see them and reach for the trainer, Lefty had destroyed it. oh, well. That makes three squirrels in the bag. Slick found another within a couple minutes. I found the squirrel, tied him and was able to deliver another head shot. Then we repeated that sequence, but I did not have to tie Slick this time. another head shot. 5 in the bag, and one left hanging. I turn the dogs around content to take home 5 even though I killed 6. on the way out Slick found another one. he did a good job with it so I decided to go ahead and shoot it while it offered itself up nicely. it was all Slick today. the six I brought home were all treed by him. Lefty treed three today, but one got left hanging and the others just evaded us.
I didn't sit down here this afternoon to write a book, so sorry for the long wind. I've had a lot on my mind these past few weeks, most of which is not related to squirrel hunting, so it was nice to recount our hunts the last couple of days. writing is rather therapeutic for me at times. no more squirrel hunts until Monday. work tomorrow. try and get another easy deer this weekend with the revolver.
Slick 23
Lefty 20