My wife and I stayed later this morning. Just as I was getting ready to leave, the squirrels decided to start foraging. I noticed this one in the front yard. Normally, I let them go, don't want to be noticed by someone on the street. But I started scheming as to how I could pull off a safe shot. If I get the front screen door propped open and am shooting at a downward angle... It might just work.
I went and fetched the S510, which is on the other side of the house. By the time I got back to the front, she was making her away across the driveway. Plan change, I would have to get her from out the mud room door. I opened the door and she went on alert. I opened the screen door and chambered a JSB 18. She started up the side of a pine tree I squatted down, and she dug her claws in, ready to run up the side of it. She was nice enough to stay on the SIDE of the tree, rather than going around to the back. This was a close shot, maybe 8 yards. I'm not sure of my hold-over. It is 1 MD at 10 yards, so I guessed 2 MD at 8. The trajectory changes SO fast at those close distances!
I lined up on her fuse box and let 'er rip. POP. She tumbled off the tree and was twitching on the ground. I was aiming for the right ear hole and she was vertical on the tree, so my hold-over was about right, but I hit to the right a bit, which was lower on her head.
The pellet entered the right side of the neck under the ear and just behind the jaw hinge, and got the carotid artery. It exited the left side, just below the ear. So I think I got her brain stem too. She was a gusher, as you can see by the as-found pic.She's an average sized Gray. Their fur is coming in thick now, but they aren't too fat just yet.
By this point, I was already 15 minutes late to work, and I hadn't even left yet. I went in, locked up the gun, capped the scope and rested it in its corner. Just as I was walking about, I saw another nutter bounding across the BACK yard.
...but that is the topic of a follow-up post later this evening.
Here are the pix of the first one:
I went and fetched the S510, which is on the other side of the house. By the time I got back to the front, she was making her away across the driveway. Plan change, I would have to get her from out the mud room door. I opened the door and she went on alert. I opened the screen door and chambered a JSB 18. She started up the side of a pine tree I squatted down, and she dug her claws in, ready to run up the side of it. She was nice enough to stay on the SIDE of the tree, rather than going around to the back. This was a close shot, maybe 8 yards. I'm not sure of my hold-over. It is 1 MD at 10 yards, so I guessed 2 MD at 8. The trajectory changes SO fast at those close distances!
I lined up on her fuse box and let 'er rip. POP. She tumbled off the tree and was twitching on the ground. I was aiming for the right ear hole and she was vertical on the tree, so my hold-over was about right, but I hit to the right a bit, which was lower on her head.
The pellet entered the right side of the neck under the ear and just behind the jaw hinge, and got the carotid artery. It exited the left side, just below the ear. So I think I got her brain stem too. She was a gusher, as you can see by the as-found pic.She's an average sized Gray. Their fur is coming in thick now, but they aren't too fat just yet.
By this point, I was already 15 minutes late to work, and I hadn't even left yet. I went in, locked up the gun, capped the scope and rested it in its corner. Just as I was walking about, I saw another nutter bounding across the BACK yard.
...but that is the topic of a follow-up post later this evening.
Here are the pix of the first one:
