2012

Gun: CZ 452 American 16″

Scope: Clearidge Ultra XP 6-20x40AO Mildot

Ammo: Federal Automatch 40gr. Solid

Went over to my buddy Chad’s property for this morning hunt. He and his son Brandon, myself and Sasy were after some gray and fox squirrels. Squirrel movement was a little slow to start with, as we got going around 7:30 am. It was foggy and overcast. Temp was around 52 degrees when we started. We were working around Chad’s double box stand in the field edge shaking vines and such. I stepped out to the field to see a black and white fox squirrel standing on his hind legs to see what all the noise was about. It was over a 100 yard shot. By the time I got Chad’s attention, and stepped back out to the field, the fox squirrel was gone.

Sassy went to that corner of the field and treed a gray squirrel in a giant pine tree. I was the only one that was able to locate the squirrel she treed. The squirrel eased out on a long branch about 3/4’s the way up. I used my stix to make the shot. One squirrel down.

Sassy then took off down a path to inadvertently tree a gray squirrel I saw go up a water oak. As we moved in, the squirrel was trying to hide. From my angle it was an easy 20-25 yard shot, so we let Brandon take it with his single shot H&R 20 gauge. Well he missed on the first shot but the squirrel stayed put. Brandon reloaded, blamed the miss on the shell not being high brass, and connected on the next shot. This squirrel must have been in the circus, as it did a back flip and landed in another area of the tree. The squirrel started to do a sit up, as Brandon was prepping for a third shot. Chad called him off, and made a shot from his Marlin XT-22 to knock the squirrel down to Sassy.

We headed to another box stand where the activity was hot. We heard a squirrel scurry across the ground into the brush, but Sassy was having trouble locating it. Sassy then ran out into a more open area and knew there was a squirrel there but couldn’t pin point it. That squirrel was on the back of a pine tree, it jumped out on the ground and the chase was on. Sassy treed it in a smaller tree with a nest. The squirrel then came down this tree to resume the chase on the ground. Chad really wanted this squirrel as he was in as hard of a pursuit as Sassy. Sassy got this squirrel treed once more, but it bailed into some smaller trees still on the move.

Brandon and I were trying to catch up and found the squirrel in a big sweetgum. This squirrel knew exactly where it was going. Straight into a den hole. It’s rear end almost wrapping around the tree as it made the hole. There happened to be another gray squirrel in this tree that made the hole before we could react.

We decided to go by Chad’s sight in area, as I hadn’t seen it yet. We decided to sit here and rest for a few minutes and chew the fat We were discussing Chad sighting in his newest Marlin XT-22, when we started to hear what sounded like pine bark being scratched. That’s usually a classic give away for a squirrel. It was no different this time. Across the pond in a large pine were to fox squirrels chasing each other in this pine tree. We devised a plan to move in and take both of them. I was given the clear to take the first shot. I set up my stix to settle in for a shot, as Chad and Brandon surrounded the tree. I powered up to 14 and the fox squirrel came in clear t 50 yards on the adjustable objective. I had a clear shot, this was going to be great…. I fired once, nothing, fired again, squirrel still frozen, fired the third time, no dice! Brandon said, “I can see him!” I responded, “Well you might as well shoot him, cause I can’t hit him!” With that, Brandon’s 20 gauge, sounded of and one high brass later the fox squirrel was falling out. Chad laid eyes on the other fox squirrel, as I made my way out to the field to see if I could get a better angle. Chad ended up taking the other male with one round of CCI Mini Mag 36 grain hollow point.

It was later confirmed that my rifle was off, thus the reason for the multiple misses on the fox squirrel.