Work has been stressful lately, so I wanted to try something different. I took my air rifle out for a fun day of squirrel hunting!
The temperature finally got above freezing, so I got out before daylight to set up. At dawn, I spotted a squirrel moving along a branch to my right, when he got behind a tree, I got into a better position and when he came back out, I was ready. He was facing kind of quartering towards me, and the pellet entered between his neck and shoulder, and exited behind his opposet shoulder. He was dead before he hit the ground. The shot was 24 yards.
After that, I moved to another spot about 150 yards away, and it seemed like there were squirrels everywhere! Which is really odd because it's been weeks since I've seen ANY squirrels on that property. They were all just out of range. After I sat there for about an hour, another bushy tail came down out of a tree to my left. He saw me move and bolted half way back up the tree, but when he stopped, I already had the scope on him. The sound of the air rifle was quickly followed by a loud "Thwack"! And he dropped like a stone. That one was a perfect head shot at 27 yards.
The challenge of hunting with an air rifle is something I've always enjoyed. There isn't much noise, no real recoil, and the squirrels never know what hit'em!
Just a few more and I'll have a full meal!
For anyone interested in the gear, I was using a Beeman model 1073 in .177 with Gamo Rocket pellets.