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Freezer
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What was you "Blind Squirrel shot?
Freezer
Senior MemberPosts: 1,739 Senior Member
Orchardman got me thinking...Even the blind squirrel finds a nut. What's your blind squirrel shot?
Mine came about 10 years ago when I was visiting my brother in PA. I had repaired some guns for him and couldn't bring my favorite deer rifle a Savage 99f 308 with a 2x7 Leupold and a good trigger job. As luck would have it his FIL had a Savage 99 in 300 Savage with a 4x Galaxy over see through rings, a 9 lb trigger and a box of 40 year old 180 gr Remington Core Locs with two rounds missing.
It was near the end of the day and nobody had shot a buck, this never happened in 25 years on this property. I was was in a ground stand in an open field and at the other end of the field at the drop off a heard of deer came out. I studied the heard with my binoculars and noticed a decent buck on the drop of the hill. I estimated the distance to be 300 yards. Because he was standing on the down slope I couldn't see his legs and half of his chest. I figured My best chance was a neck/head shot and figured the bullet drop would be about 28 inches. If I missed at that distance I might get a second shot. I set for the shot and squeezed the trigger three time before the trigger broke. When my eyes cleared the deer wasn't there. I stepped of the distance 287 yards. He fell where he stood on the drop of the hill.
The bullet entered slightly below and to the rear of his eye and didn't exit! A non typical basket 11 point.
My second was a Scotch Double on Mallards. It was a slow day in the blind when three Mallards started circling. Every hunter in the area started wailing on their Mallard calls. I thought about it I figured Mallard don't know Sprig! I pulled out my Pintail call and started calling, they broke toward me and set their wings! I could believe what I saw and waited until they were 25 yards out. They were coming in in a V shape with the left duck slightly higher than the other two. I stood up, raised my shotgun and and pulled the trigger just as the higher duck right broke down and in. As both ducks collapsed. I felt like Erkel, "Did I do that?". I could have easily dropped the third but was dumfounded watching those two big ducks drop with one shot.
Mine came about 10 years ago when I was visiting my brother in PA. I had repaired some guns for him and couldn't bring my favorite deer rifle a Savage 99f 308 with a 2x7 Leupold and a good trigger job. As luck would have it his FIL had a Savage 99 in 300 Savage with a 4x Galaxy over see through rings, a 9 lb trigger and a box of 40 year old 180 gr Remington Core Locs with two rounds missing.
It was near the end of the day and nobody had shot a buck, this never happened in 25 years on this property. I was was in a ground stand in an open field and at the other end of the field at the drop off a heard of deer came out. I studied the heard with my binoculars and noticed a decent buck on the drop of the hill. I estimated the distance to be 300 yards. Because he was standing on the down slope I couldn't see his legs and half of his chest. I figured My best chance was a neck/head shot and figured the bullet drop would be about 28 inches. If I missed at that distance I might get a second shot. I set for the shot and squeezed the trigger three time before the trigger broke. When my eyes cleared the deer wasn't there. I stepped of the distance 287 yards. He fell where he stood on the drop of the hill.
The bullet entered slightly below and to the rear of his eye and didn't exit! A non typical basket 11 point.
My second was a Scotch Double on Mallards. It was a slow day in the blind when three Mallards started circling. Every hunter in the area started wailing on their Mallard calls. I thought about it I figured Mallard don't know Sprig! I pulled out my Pintail call and started calling, they broke toward me and set their wings! I could believe what I saw and waited until they were 25 yards out. They were coming in in a V shape with the left duck slightly higher than the other two. I stood up, raised my shotgun and and pulled the trigger just as the higher duck right broke down and in. As both ducks collapsed. I felt like Erkel, "Did I do that?". I could have easily dropped the third but was dumfounded watching those two big ducks drop with one shot.
I like Elmer Keith; I married his daughter 
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One afternoon we decided to shoot pistols from his back yard. There was a huge rock about 7-8 hundred yards away. I thought out loud as to whether or not I could hit that rock with my Smith & Wesson M&P .38 Special. My friend's dad laughed.
So, of course, I tried it. I hit it dead center on my very first shot. We were all amazed. But, I proved it to be pure dumb luck as I tried several more times and never came close.
Gun control laws make about as much sense as taking ex-lax to cure a cough.
Two axis does, one shot from my XP-100
One in the foreground was head shot, remainder of the bullet jacket lodged in the spine of the second, severing it. I did not even see the second one until the rest of the heard cleared out.
Here's the remainder of the bullet I recovered from #2. That knife edged part of the jacket slipped between the vertebrae
I guess you could say he gave the poor animal a hot lead enema.
Gun control laws make about as much sense as taking ex-lax to cure a cough.
The bird flapped up from the tree for maybe 5 feet before folding up and plummeting to the ground.
We hiked over to where it fell, and the bullet basically nicked the side of its neck. I had cut it’s throat from almost 200 yards with a .22LR.
I have another where I hit a bumble bee flying around a thistle head at probably 70 yards with a blast from an 18” barreled 12 gauge. It was one of those “See that bee down there?” And snapped off a hip shot. Well, the bee dropped from the air. Both the witnesses busted out laughing.
-Mikhail Kalashnikov
I was hunting squirrels from aground stand watching a thicket with a large live oak and several shellbark hickories. It wasn't long after sunup that a couple of squirrels started running around in the live oak and two finally gave me a shot.
At the shot one dropped out of the tree and about 30 sec later the other one dropped out, both dead. Then about a minute later another one dropped out of the tree dead.
Then just as I was going to go retrieve the dead squirrels, a bigger one started running around in the live oak as if its tail was on fire. It jumped from the live oak to a hickory sapling and started down toward the ground and just before I shot at it , it fell dead.
So, half a limit with one shot.
But, that's not my "blind squirrel" story.
Louisiana, early fall......leaves still thick as hay bales. I'm using a scoped 10/22T. It was slow that morning, but I finally heard one gnawing beech-nuts. Decided to wait him out. 45 minutes of waiting and he never moved. But the shower of beech-nut shells raining down on me was amazing. I wasn't going to give up.
To make a long wait short, he suddenly broke and ran for no reason I've ever figured out.. I threw up my rifle, and fired a shot out of anger in his general direction. I never saw the squirrel, much less got it in the scope. 3 seconds later he hit the ground 20 feet from my feet. Perfect brain-shot.
Things happen.
Mike
N454casull
This is another squirrely squirrel what happened story; I had gone out in the forest late after it warmed up to 45 or so after a below freezing night. After I had walked off the dirt road about 50 yds, a white squirrel came from nowhere and ran out about 45 long paces or so and peaked through a main tree trunk crotch at me; I could not resist shooting at it, even though I knew it was too far for a shotgun even loaded with the #2 shot I was using.
I, at least, went over and checked the area even though I did not see it fall; and there it was. Being white I should have found blood----I could not----even the taxidermist said he could not find where it had been hit------I guess a pellet went in the ear hole.
(I post this some years earlier)
I was creeping down an old logging road with my trusty 10/22T, Had already busted 3 squirrels along the way and decided to pick them up on the way back. It was getting dark when one presented itself as the perfect target.... head-down against a 3 foot live oak.
Popped him, he hit the ground with a "thud", and I decided to hunt for ten more minutes.
That was it for the day. Upon retreat, I couldn't find him. The other 3.....no problem.
One week later I was hunting the same trail. Got to the same tree. Got the exact same shot presentation. Scored. Picked up the squirrel and later at home skinned him along with the rest.
A 22 cal hole through the meaty part of his thigh indicated we'd met previously. Well healed, not lethal. He should have lived to be an old squirrel. But he wasn't a smart squirrel.
Mike
N454casull
I've shot dozens of deer, hundreds of ducks, a few hundred rabbits, 5 antelope, 2 bison, 1 elk, uncounted armadilllos, possums, raccoons, snakes, and way more uncounted thousands of pdogs, and a few well loved pets. Most, with the exception of pets, I can do with complete aplomb.
But squirrels, of all things, after 50+ years of hunting them....still give me the shakes.
Don't know why. It might be the cat and mouse thing.
Mike
N454casull
The squirrel came to and started chattering causing me to jump out of my skin and ran off10 yds or so and stopped still chattering-----I had to shoot it again.
I was hiking and hunting the Cascades in Northern California. Where I was there weren't many people but a lot of bear and cougar. The only thing that out numbered them were the squirrels and they would harass you and rat you out wherever you went.
On day I was scouting the woods and a very large squirrel just wouldn't leave me alone! I had moved almost 200 yards and the dang thing kept following me! I had no intention of killing it but and thought I might teach him a lesson he'd never forget. I drew my Ruger Security Six and aimed at the branch below him. At 35 yards I squeezed of the shot and hit the tree branch square just below his belly. The squirrel jumped from the branch and hung on to the trunk of the tree, then fell over dead. I was dumbfounded. I took it back to the cabin for further examination, not a spot of blood on him. I barked a squirrel!
I'm a believer
I'd say I have a shot and he said I don't. Then he'd have a shot and I wouldn't. Finally I said I have a shot, my buddy said I have a shot. Quietly we counted 1, 2 BANG! Hogs took off every which way. Only one hog lay dead under the feeder. We both said I know I didn't miss as I took a head shot. My buddy said the exact same thing. We go down to the hog and turned on our flashlights. He dropped dead in his track. On the back side of his head you could see red blood that sprayed in a "V" pattern where both are shots hit him and passed through his head. With two dozen plus hogs, we picked the same one to shoot! I said nice shooting, he said same to you!
John 3: 1-21
My uncle and I started carrying a .410 pump shotgun with a pistol grip in his truck when making trips through crow country. Our idea was to blast the crows from the truck without stopping.
On our first chance to try this silly idea we turned from one road onto another and spotted a crow about 15 yards from the highway in a field. I grabbed the .410, my uncle rolled down the window (he was driving) and I made some effort to actually aim the gun and blasted away. We were rolling around 15-20 mph.
Crow rolled over dead on the spot! After that I never attempted a similar shot even though a couple of opportunities presented themselves - no sense in messing up my average!
A couple of us went up for the first weekend of firearms season. Another guy had been up there all week and was leaving to try another parcel of land in the next county. He had hauled a refrigerator carton out into the woods maybe half a mile from the bunk house and brushed it out for a ground blind.
He told me how to find it and said I could use it if I wanted too, he had set it near a run and had found some fresh rubs.
I sat out there on Saturday evening, and as the sun had not yet set it was still getting pretty dark in the pine woods. I kept checking the iron sights on my Marlin 336C and figured as long as I could still align the sights on a target I'd be good.
Well, just at the time I figured it was time to call it a day I spotted a spike that had quietly wandered in behind me busily worrying a sapling. I readied the Marlin and could not make out the sights against his body. He was standing over a patch of snow, so I aimed into the snow, found my sights, moved to just behind his near foreleg, raised the rifle until I lost the sight picture against his body and fired.
The buck literally dropped in his tracks, made an attempt to stand and fell back over. I trotted back to the bunk house where everybody else was already inside eating and drinking beer and told them I had just killed a deer.
They all called BS and said they hadn't heard any shot. I cleared my rifle and stowed it and told them I was off to bring back my deer. After I had been gone for nearly an hour they got curious and came out of the bunk house to see me dragging the deer in.
None of us knew how to field dress a deer, so we did it wrong and hung it from a tree limb by it's neck. After I had everything below the diaphragm out on the ground I started to cut up through the ribs along side the sternum and got soaked past my elbow from all the blood that came gushing out - along with the heart which fell to the ground.
Every beer can I cracked open that night tasted like blood but I'd finally gotten a deer with the most blind shot I'd ever taken before or since.
I have killed many double while duck hunting - intentionally, I might add, as they typically flock together - but this was not intentional and I'd never done it before on upland birds.
"Slow is smooth, smooth is fast, and speed is the economy of motion" - Scott Jedlinski
He was at his grandfather's farm, and was going to shoot a high powered rifle for the first time in his life. I don't know the details of the rifle. The way he described it, he was instructed to get in a kneeling position to make the shot. Just as he fired, a deer just happen to wander in front of the rifle, and the shot hit it in the throat or neck. Whichever it was, it resulted in a dead deer.
I don't know if it's true, but it makes for a good tall tale.
Gun control laws make about as much sense as taking ex-lax to cure a cough.