16 replies to this topic

[rws fan]

Since the weather has been so nice lately, I called up my buddy if he wanted to go shooting some ground squirrels on New Year's Day, he said he was game. And boy am I glad we went up to our shooting grounds...Right when we pulled up we saw squirrels running everywhere... looked as if the rut was in full swing, lol. We checked our zero on our rifles and proceeded to put a real pounding on the lil buggers. I was using my .25 Marauder and my friend was using his .22 Filarms PCP. I seriously don't remember how many we took, at least 75+ between the both of us; my friend says at least 100. We tried to remember where we shot them so we could make a huge pile but we shot so many and all over the field it would have taken a lot of time from shooting just to retrieve them. So we just moved from mound to mound all day (well the most active ones). We just would sit and shoot pretty much back to back, 360 degrees around us. It was some serious fun as they were either getting blown into or out of their holes and sometimes blown off their mounds.The diggers were taken from anywhere from about 40 out to 102 yards. Well, here are some pictures of the massacre.. I took about 100 pictures and here are just a few...Both of these taken from same mound 102 yards w/ .25 Mrod

Anyways, thanks for looking. I can't wait to go back in the Spring to get a ridiculous amount of kills,

Henry

[ShooterJohn]

Henry what a great post and array of pictures. That looks like great day of airgunning for sure.

[Air Rifle Hunter]

Fantastic job Henry! You and your buddy really busted those ground squirrels with some serious air slung lead! That looks like a pretty fun time.

[Brant]

Nice Shooting!

[JimT.]

Great photos and a good story. Thanks for sharing.

[ratassassin]

Well done!

[rws fan]

Thanks guys. My friend for some reason didn't think we'd get that many because it was kinda cold. Right when we pulled up about 8:45am the fog was lifting and it was about 42 degrees. It was a great day though since the squirrels were out chasing each other around or soaking in the rays on the countless mounds the whole time we were there. The temperature high for the day was about 65 degrees with very little to no wind. The weather couldn't have been any better. I was actually kinda hot out there, lol.Henry

[KNOCKED UP]

That looks like one day of great fun.Tom

[Air Rifle Hunter]

Did you guys have a buddy bottle (guppy bottle) in your backpacks? I get about (30) good shots with my .22 Marauder and about (16) to (22) good shots with my .25 marauder. And from the photos, it looks like boths of you made quite a few shots. How did you keep your rifles charged up?

[butthead]

Way to whack'em. Nice pics as well.

[rws fan]

Did you guys have a buddy bottle (guppy bottle) in your backpacks?

I take my 44 cu ft carbon fiber tank in a backpack I have that fits perfect. I've thought about getting a guppy but we just shoot so much it's better to just back pack a bigger tank. Something else I thought about was backpacking a guppy with regulator hooked up with hose straight to my gun so I don't have to deal with filling in the field.I had 4k psi in my tank when we got there and had 2.9k psi when I got home. Might have to get a bigger tank too.I also shot my gun using the single shot tray because it is a pain loading up clips out there. Much easier to pour a bunch of pellets in a pouch than fumbling with clips and my gun is a lil more accurate too.Henry

[Rob]

Best varmint kill of this year for SURE..

[rws fan]

I just remembered my buddy caught a lot of the action on his video camera mounted to his scope... I can't wait till he has time to edit and hopefully post.Here is a video he made at "the spot" earlier last year:http://www.youtube.c...QSwnFckcAfQ-SWwHenry

[Air Rifle Hunter]

I've watched that very video many times when I first started getting into air rifles. That's some pretty good shooting on those ground squirrels. Although I don't think I would have taken a couple of those shots due to the goats being behind the squirrels.

[rws fan]

I've watched that very video many times when I first started getting into air rifles. That's some pretty good shooting on those ground squirrels. Although I don't think I would have taken a couple of those shots due to the goats being behind the squirrels.

Well the goats are long gone.... so no more goats. There are a couple horses there now, but they stay on the other side of the field... and this particular field is a 1/4 mile by 1/2 mile wide. Also, he zooms in a lot (I believe 40x) so everything is close. Those goats must have been at least 150+ yards away. He is also an excellent shot, performing nothing but "brain surgery" as he says, lol. He also shoots off a monopod and 10x power on his scope.I was right next to him when he made longest kill (for him) of the day, 92 yard head shot...said the mil-dot on his scope was the size of the ground squirrels head:One of the reasons he stopped making the videos was that editing is a lot of work and he got a couple emails regarding the goats being in the line of fire; but as you can see they didn't even flinch. Only the intended targets were harmed.Thanks for your concern,Henry

[Air Rifle Hunter]

You could tell in the video his is a great shot. Those "Brain Surgeries" were pretty exacting. 92 yards is quite the distance to be taking down a ground squirrel and an amazing shot! My farthest shot to date on a ground squirrel (head shot) is 82 yards. I hit squirrels at 86 and 90 yards, but could not recover them to see what the POI was, so I figured they were not hit in the head at that time. And don't get me wrong, I wasn't trying to pass any judgement on the shots that were near the goats, I was just saying I probably wouldn't have shot in that direction since I've had pellets pass through the squirrels heads at 75 yards and ricochette off of rocks in the dirt behind them. I know a few guys that would have no problem taking a shot like that. I'm just a worry wart I guess .

[rws fan]

No worries...I just can't wait to get back. I've been wanting to go lately but we told ourselves we have to wait till at least March. Gonna give them a chance to re-populate lol.I also got a great deal on a brand new high-speed camera so I could catch some of the action in slow motion.Here is a pic of the camera on my .22 Marauder, I'm going to put an Airforce tri-rail scope base soon so I could move the scope forward. I'll then be able to shoulder the rifle and not have the camera in my face lol.Im learning how to work the video editing software that came with my computer (Windows movie maker). Here is my first crack at editing/ my first slow mo video the day after I got the camera, kinda cheesy though lol. I'm not trying to shoot accurately, I just wanted to catch the pellet flying through the air on film.http://www.youtube.c...feature=relatedI have since learned how to work my camera a lot better and can't wait to shoot something in slow mo. I'm going to try to get a jack-rabbit or a cotton-tail on film hopefully this weekend since the weather is supposed to be nice and it's pretty much the last weekend for cotton-tail and quail...Henry