Another squirrel hunting report from Kentucky.
This last week has been quite an experience for this ole boy and his beloved squirrel hunting. And some of it not to my liking nor my credit. Lets just say, much frustration.
Went out several times, but due to the crazy orange army season I have pretty much hunted a thicket where no one else should be in there. That, in itself, introduces additional challenges to the game of squirrel hunting. I was able to take a few squirrels out of there, but with much effort and less than acceptable results. For whatever reason(s), even before orange army crazy season, I have been experiencing an abby-normal amount of misses and/or poorly placed shots on squirrels. I shot two squirrels down out of the tops of trees that was never found. It was simply a hit/miss situation that was becoming increasingly worse on the miss side of things.
Yesterday morning I went back to that thicket in hopes of getting number 50 for the year. That too, resulted in two more misses that should have been hits. Even though there were still squirrels still out and about, that was the last straw for this ole boy. So, I called it quits for that hunt and headed home.
Arriving home I cleaned my Crockett squirrel rifle, set up a target out back, loaded Mr. Crockett again and went to investigating. For whatever reason(s), some shots were hitting 1.75" to 2" to the right from only 25 yards. All hits were scattered and definitely not uniform. This puzzled me. After a couple of hours had passed, I wound up changing a few things to where it was hitting well again with much tighter and more uniform groups, then headed right back out for an evening hunt. This time I went to one of my squirrel hunting big woods.
Arriving there, I chatted with my buddy (the land owner) for a while. While doing so we saw a couple of squirrels in the distance that were out and about so I grabbed my Crockett rifle and possibles bag out of my truck and proceeded to climb one very steep hillside that comes right down to his house and garage, to a location that I know squirrels hang out. While doing so, I happened to have heard some squirrels rustling in the leaves that sounded fairly close. Looking to my right and uphill about 25 yards, I noticed two bushy tails chasing each other up and down, around and around a tree. That type of scenario has proven to be very beneficial in the past, as the squirrels get so focused on each other that they lower their guard and pay less attention to their surroundings. I was trying the best I could at going up the very steep hill a few feet trying to get to a tree, hopefully to get a good rest off of, but both squirrels bolted across in front of me with the trailing squirrel seeing me in motion. It jumped up on the side of a smaller tree about 25 yards away or so and just hung there looking at me. As steep as that darn hillside is, I knew there was no way I could make the shot offhanded. I could barely stand up the way it was. Really wanting that number 50, I decided to try something I have never done before. I slowly laid down on my belly, got a good bead off of my elbows and the ground, and fired up the steep hill. I was laying so flat that the leaves blew out in front of the barrel about 4 feet or so and up into the air. The sound of the shot was muffled as well. A very unique and different type of sound than what I am used to out of this ML.
Number 50 had just hit the ground quite dead.
Feeling satisfied, I clawed my way up the hill to where number 50 was laying, tied him to my stringer, ran a couple of damp patches that had Windex on them down the barrel, followed up with a couple dry patches, reloaded and continued my ascent to a fairly flat bench. Even though this was in the big woods, it is still fairly thick with brush, as well as with extremely dry and thick leaves on the ground that made it difficult to sneak around without alerting everything in the next county over.
Easing around a bit I ran up on another squirrel that, as is often the case for this time of year, saw me first and headed up the side of a tree. From my position I knew there was no getting any closer to that one, and I did have a small diameter tree to get a half-way rest off of, but I could not get a clear shot at that squirrel. There were simply too many tree limbs in the way. He finally moved up just a little bit so I took aim at the only part I could see fairly well, his head. Fired and missed. Two shots, one squirrel. Not looking great again for ETipp.
After reloading I eased my way around the side of the slope until the bench ended and I was once again on steep hillsides. Due to an approaching low pressure system moving in, the winds all of a sudden picked up on that side of the hill. The stronger the wind became, the less squirrels I saw. So I headed back towards the direction I came from and thinking perhaps I was only going to get this one squirrel on this hunt. My plan was to go in there up higher and return down lower. So returning I walked back downslope a ways on that difficult to walk on, steep hillside, then worked my way back towards my truck. I just happened to look over and I saw a squirrel downhill on the ground trotting with a walnut in its mouth, but the squirrel disappeared just behind a ledge. Quickly taking advantage of the situation, I quietly as possible moved downhill to a suitable tree to take a rest off of and waited. I stood there for a minute or so hoping the squirrel would show itself again, and I happened notice a jagged chunk on the end a of stump. Then it dawned on me, that jagged edge was that squirrel sitting there with a walnut in its mouth. Quickly taking aim, I fired, and the squirrel vanished. Not knowing if I actually hit the squirrel or if I had missed again and the furry little critter just high tailed it downhill, I worked my way over to the edge and took a peek down. The squirrel was laying about 7 feet downhill. Very well then, things were looking a bit better here. 3 shots, 2 squirrels.
By the time I tied my squirrel on my stringer, ran a few patches down the bore, and reloaded, with the increasing low clouds, I was running out of daylight for the day, at least on that side of the hill. Thinking this was going to be my total for this hunt, but still moving slowly and as quietly as possible, I walked up on two more squirrels that were on the ground, but moving straight away from me. I froze in position while trying to keep the last squirrel in sight, I was pleased to see that he decided to stick to that one smaller area about 40 yards away rather than keep going straight away from me like his buddy did. He actually came back towards me maybe 10-15 yards or so. In very slow motion and being as quite as possible in the darn noisiest woods I have ever been in, l eased over to a tree to get a rest off of. The squirrel just happened to have climbed up a smaller tree and parked on a branch all hunkered over like they often do. Getting a bit darker on that side of the hill, it was difficult to tell exactly which way the squirrel was actually facing. Fully realizing this was going to be it, that there was not going to be another chance for this hunt, I centered the sight on the fur ball and fired. I had just gotten my third and final squirrel for the day. So, 4 shots, 3 squirrels. Much more acceptable than what I had been experiencing.
I had been at it since early morning. Going out on my first hunt before daylight and staying out until late morning, realizing there was something not exactly right, returning home, tweaking and shooting my Crockett, cleaning it several times, one final cleaning, reloading and heading right back out for the evening hunt.
By the time I had arrived home it was dark. Then the work picked back up again by having to clean ole Crockett, clean squirrels, shower, eat and bedtime. But alas, I was finally able to get number 50 for the year with Mr. Crockett, and with a couple extra squirrels to boot. I simply could not let it go at 49. I had tried 6 or 7 times over the last few days to get number 50 and failed. That, in itself, was eating away at me. Facing knee replacement in 3 weeks, and with tons of work that needs to be done around this old home place before then, I was still not about give up until I had achieved this.
With the said, I already have Mr. Crockett loaded up for the next hunt. My wife is about to shoot me with it if I don't get all the chores done before knee surgery. I keep telling her to give me just one more last chance to get out and chase squirrels with my Crockett Squirrel Rifle before I am laid up for a few months. In addition, I also keep promising I'll get all the chores done before then but she's growing impatient and getting about as ornery as a gut-shot grizzle bear. Not sure how many more last chances I can get by with.
I'm really looking forward to my hunt tomorrow.
