Rifle: CZ 452 American 17Hm2 (Morning)
Scope: Weaver V16 4-16x42AO
Ammo: Eley 17Hm2 17gr.
Rifle: CZ 452 American #1
Scope: Clearidge Ultra XP 4.5-14x40AO
Ammo: SK Standard Plus 40gr. Solid
I met Mike this morning for an Orange County hunt. Never hunted in this county before. We hunted over @ Timmy’s place. It was a very nice lay of squirrel woods. Hunted a ridge by some old vehicles over looking a creek bottom. It was 34 F and there was a light frost. We both decided on the Mach 2 for our weapon of choice. Mike saw a lot more than I did. My first one seen, came as I was finishing up my prayer and it was no more than 15 feet away. Would have been an excellent pistol shot, but I didn’t have that much time to react.
Mike ended up shooting 4 or more times and I saw him knock one out of a tree. I shot at my first one sitting on a log on the other side of the ridge in the sunlight eating a nut. When I settled on him, he was blurry, so I AO’d up to 75y and he cleared up. There was some brush in the way, but I decided to take the shot anyway. I did miss, but through the scope I could see I was on the mark, just striking brush. My only kill was finally deemed a “co-kill” great term coined by Mike. After we assessed the situation we came to the conclusion that he knocked the squirrel out and I caught it sitting on a log recovering from the shot. I put one in the shoulder from over 50 yards and it was lights out. This was the only squirrel of the morning but it is a beautiful place to hunt.
Afternoon Hunt
Brad and I met up for an afternoon hunt over @ Robert’s place. Brad had mentioned he thought it would be a good place to still hunt so we did today. He went with his Mach 2 and I ran my American #1. We set up over the ridge on the back of the property around 3:30pm. I ended up seeing 2 before Brad saw any. I couldn’t get on either of them before they scurried away. I thought as the afternoon was going by we weren’t going to be successful, but around 4:50pm things changed.
I heard some chasing up towards Brad and he was getting ready to take a shot. At that moment I had movement in my area. As I was getting my scope settled on my target Brad broke a shot and made contact. My squirrel scurried over to a fallen tree and stood on the rootball to recon the noise. Too bad for him, I had a clear shot and took it at about 35-40 yards. A through and through in the jaw, lights out. Brad ended up shooting 2 more times and taking one more squirrel. I thought for sure we were going to get “skunked” but that proved to be wrong. Lesson is that you have to hang in there until the end of the hunt. Because it isn’t over until the sun sets.
Squirrels taken by myself: 2
Shots taken by myself: 2 (Hm2)
1 (.22lr)
