Brokennock
Cannon
These pics are from late September or so. I went out "squirreling" with my 20 gauge smooth rifle and premade shot cartridges of 1oz #5 lead shot. Wandered thru a state forest with a mix of old pines and mixed age Oaks and Hickories, with some ash, tulip poplar, some beeches, and a bunch of maple thrown in. Plenty of the little annoying red pine squirrels barking if I moved too quick through the pines, especially near old rock walls where they and the chipmunks watch eachother's backs. I think the greys use them as a diversion trying to get me to waste ammo. My distance vision isn't the greatest, but my peripheral is, and I pick up any movement within vision quickly. So my usual squirrel tactic is to not worry about being super stealthy, move quietly, but not stalking slow, and home in on movement or squirrel talk. When I hear a grey vocally protesting I move in on the sound then sit or stand against a tree and wait them out. Once they come back out to play or feed, bang. I had shot an average size squirrel and was moving along, trying to tune out the reds and chipmunks when I heard a grey and moved toward the sound, spotted him in a smallish maple as he climbed to safety. Conveniently a downed tree was against the maple so I sat there and waited. Sure enough I'd only had a few puffs of my pipe when I heard a grey barking really close. I searched all the trees it sounded like he should be in. I could not see him. Bark, bark, bark, he kept up his protest. Finally I looked straight up the tree I was sitting against and there he be, part way down, head downward, above my head protesting this lump blocking his way to the ground. I brought the gun to full cock, stood, set the trigger as the muzzle lifted and buttplate came to shoulder, bang, tipped my face down and my color up to protect from the shot coming back down after reaching max height, and from falling squirrel, I heard the thump before the smoke cleared. Just glad I looked up before he decided to force his way through. Honestly if I had a better look at him, I wouldn't have shot, small for a grey, and plenty more. That shot also set off 4 barred owls, very close by, to hooting like mad. I cleared the area and made my way to more quiet hardwoods for the last hour of light. 2 more shots, yes, one miss, but not enough light for more pics.
