Managed to accomplish my final goal in the Sumatra project. After all, squirrel shooting and other small game hunting was my objective. OrneryOlMoFo357 invited me on a coyote/squirrel workout and I brought the Sumatra and a tank for the squirrels. Probably some of you have questioned the use of an airgun alongside firearms on a CA ground squirrel colony. After all, the range gets out past 200 yds pretty quickly and an airgun does limit your range compared to a 223.We went to a ridge that offered 360 degree squirrel shooting and the evolution started slowly as these squirrels knew the license plates on the Suburban and Bronco.
I practiced on small rocks while Ornery worked on his long range shots. Then a few squirrels started showing up and and were lased at acceptable, but long ranges. One guy kept showing up and the shots threw dirt on it but, didn't connect at the 70 yd range. So the rock shooting continued, while working on where to hold. Then the 70 yd squirrel appeared and was standing up like a picket pin. The Sumatra cracked and down went the squirrel!
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25 downloadsHere's the pic of Sumatra's first blood. The shot was taken from a folding bench.
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24 downloadsA little wound detail. Didn't actually find the entrance & exit holes.
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21 downloadsHere's the traditional trophy pose. 
Being pleased with the gun at this point I put it away and dragged out the powder guns.
NOT!! Of course I continued air gunning, they were coming out for their afternoon feeding and I had some sight data fresh in my head. Next was a 35 yd shot that had a lot of luck involved. Took the shot while leaning against a tree and ricocheted into the squirrel.
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20 downloads
Continuing with the Sumatra, I got the shooting sticks out and started working a patch of squirrels that were out at about 80 - 150 yds. This seemed to be a good place to give the gun a good long range workout. Tried a 93 yard shot, with about 18" of holdover, and it resulted in a great acrobatic show starting with a 12" leap straight up and a 360 back flip. No blood and the squirrel didn't give me a second chance. Doubled the holdover on a 120 yd shot and hit about two feet low. Decided it would be better to hit another one, rather than keep doing these hail mary shots.
Laser said 83, that seemed reasonable. Increased the holdover from the 70 yd shot and let fly. Apparently a midbody spine shot, the squirrel started doing a front leg crawl. Squirrel stopped about a foot from a hole and the third shot seemed to be a chest cavity hit. Yes there was a miss between one and three.
Squirrel seems to be anchored and dying, with the fourth shot it waved a goodbye and laid it's head down. This seems to tell me that I need a mildot scope to take some of the guess work out of this airgun squirrel sniping.
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21 downloadsThe funny color is probably due to the cell phone battery being on it's last legs and/or the low angle of the sun. With three hits on this squirrel there was no visible blood.
Additional Details:The pellet used on this expedition was the Eun Jin 28 gr Dome. It seems to be high on the Sumatra's favored list. Using a ballistic program show that the 35 yd shot was 844 fps with 44 fpe, the 70 yd shot was 758 fps with 36 fpe and the 83 yd shot was 730 fps with 33 fpe. The 35 yd shot should require a hold under of .6", the 70 shot a hold over of 3.1" and the 83 yd shot a hold over of 5.4" according to the ballistic program.
