Gun: CZ 452 American #2
Scope: Bushnell Legend Ultra HD 4.5-14x44SF Mildot
Ammo: Aguila Super Extra Subsonic 38gr. HP
Woke up extra early this morning to get on the road by 5:15 am. The dogs and I were on the way up to Lake Gaston. This is a trip we made many years when I was coming up through middle and high school into my early twenties. This is the place that really helped me gain such a passion for squirrel hunting.
Rolled into the neighborhood around 6:55 am to see Don (a neighbor) already out hunting. I had a squirrel cross the road in front of the truck, just before pulling into the driveway to my grandparents place. Jumped out of the truck and Sassy didn’t waste any time, heading into the woods. She left me no time to gear up. I heard Don shoot and I made my way over to where he was with the puppies. Don had his newly acquired Ruger 10/22 takedown, USA Shooting Team edition, topped with a sig sauer red dot sight.
I saw my first squirrel hiding in a large white oak tree. I opened up my Steady Stix, and settled in to make the shot. I made contact but the squirrel was bladed away from me, so I had re-position to make the final shot. I made a neck shot to send the squirrel down to the puppies. After the puppies finished there mouthing of this squirrel, Sassy was in pursuit and treeing what would be a double. Well I’m sorry to report I missed the same squirrel with a clearly open shot at a steep angle with 3, yes 3 shots! (In the days following this hunt, I returned to this tree to find a nice golf ball sized group of bark missing from just over where the hind quarters of the squirrel was. My gun was accurate but it was such an extreme angle that I assume that’s why the shots were high.) That’s when we found out there were two squirrels in the tree, because they jumped ship and made a den hole in a large white oak. It gets worse…..
We crossed the street and Sassy trees a squirrel behind another neighbor’s trailer. Don and I move in and Don ends up taking a big male with multiple shots. Sassy treed some squirrels on our lot by the wood pile. Well again I missed multiple shots as one of the squirrels hopped through the trees laughing at what a poor 22 operator I was. I did end up taking that squirrel with a shoulder/gut shot. I had seen a squirrel go up a sweet gum tree when Sassy initially treed. I decided to check up on that tree with my binos and sure enough still up there. I moved so that the squirrel would show itself on Don’s side of the tree and from there he was able to take it with 3 shots.
We ended up with 5 that morning. Don had taken one from his back porch before I arrived, while having his morning coffee. I totally forgot to snap any pics of our take this morning. Too caught up in the moment I guess. Thinking I’ll take the CZ 452 16″ American out this afternoon.
Shots taken by myself: Too many!
Squirrels taken by myself: 2
Afternoon Hunt
Gun: CZ 452 16″ American
Scope: Clearidge Ultra XP 6-20x40AO Mildot
Ammo: Federal Automatch 40gr. solid
My Daddy and I started hunting around 2:30 pm, which was a little early, because we didn’t catch movement until after 3 pm. The first two skirted us, one in the top of a tall pine and the other hitting a nest in an oak. The next squirrel Sassy treed in the yard at our place in an old holey tree, known for years to be a den tree. This squirrel however, skipped the holes and started tree to tree movement to get deeper in the woods. Daddy shot first with his Marlin Model 60, and missed. I then connected and he fell down around 12 feet into another tree crotch to get stuck. Don had joined us now, and he fired twice, and Daddy connected with the bean to knock him out of the branch. Koda didn’t want to leave this area, as I placed the squirrel in a tree (to be retrieved on the way back) and she thought she was training again. She sat there and continued to bark at the squirrel as we walked off to hunt more.
Don and I went back towards the road as Daddy peeled off to start the grill for supper. Sassy treed again down by another neighbor’s place. We headed her way as that squirrel decided to come down the tree with the dogs at the bottom and find it’s way to a hole at the base of the tree. Being a seasoned squirrel hunter, with now around 22 years under my belt, I figured I better give the tree Sassy hit a once over again. A quick scan with my Leupold Yosemite binoculars revealed a squirrel. I told Don to move to the front edge of the house so he could see it. Don made a mid body hit, which sent the squirrel down the tree, and the dogs were on the chase. The squirrel hit a large oak and was only about three feet up opposite Koda. Both Koda and Sassy moved the squirrel up around 20 feet and I sat down with my stix and parallaxed down to 10 yards and made a neck shot, knocking yet another breeder out of the tree.
From here Don headed to his place and then Sassy treed again after sunset in another neighbor’s yard. I took a shot and missed on a quartered away squirrel that then bailed into a pine, to be hunted another day. This is where I finished up, although Sassy treed again after legal shooting light.
Don and Daddy finished up the evening with some harmonica and guitar play. It was a good day.
Shots taken by myself: 2
Squirrels taken by myself: 2
