$8,000 Squirrel, the continuing of saga HogKiller

[HogKiller]

One picture is worth $8,000 which is what this darn thing has cost..conservatively.
Maverick VP 600mm barrel, JSB Match Diabolo Exact King MKII Heavy .25 Cal, 33.95 Gr, 890fps, 120 yards. #2 reg 124bar, Transfer port on P, Huma Slug probe, #7 on the dial, Trigger Cam on gun but some fool forgot to turn it on so ... video is after the fact. If you look at the one of it on its side, on the top of the shoulder at the base of the neck. I watched for this little sucker for an hour and it finally popped up a few times. And of course a pic of the mighty hunter with his trophy. One shot of the distance of this, my friend Pete is over to the right of the entrance, at the end of the gray log. It was actually poking up above the log, It sort of sounded like I hit it but it just fell over, like you see in the first pic

View attachment 363326

 

[PumaCarl]

They all get cheaper from here out! Nice shooting.

 

[nervoustrig]

May you remove so many that the cost per ground squirrel asymptotically approaches the cost of a pellet.

 

[JohnL57]

Nice shot!
I too have ground squirrels to thank/blame for my current airgun obsession. I don't think I'm in quite as deep financially-so far.........
It was the "perfect storm" of ground squirrels in 2010 that flipped the switch for me.

 

[HogKiller]

They all get cheaper from here out! Nice shooting.

Thanks, I was actually surprised I hit it....twice. I need to work out the ballistics, I don't understand the settings on the ballistics calculator...yet. Things aren't quite working out right, or even close for that matter. It's like the pellet is traveling twice as fast. Oh I'M AN IDIOT, I'm on record of that now, I had the right weight for the pellet but, the wrong DIAMETER in my Streklo.Pro (lap top). Put in the right diameter and lo and behold, the numbers work great. Now to get the iPhone app to agree.

 

[PumaCarl]

Strelok Pro is an awesome tool!

 

[Smitty911]

Thanks, I was actually surprised I hit it....twice. I need to work out the ballistics, I don't understand the settings on the ballistics calculator...yet. Things aren't quite working out right, or even close for that matter. It's like the pellet is traveling twice as fast. Oh I'M AN IDIOT, I'm on record of that now, I had the right weight for the pellet but, the wrong DIAMETER in my Streklo.Pro. Put in the right diameter and low and behold, the numbers work great.

It that's the worst thing that happens in your life, you got off easy. I have to start spending some quality time with my gear and get both them dialed in.

Smitty

 

[Ranchibi]

Worth every cent too...

 

[HogKiller]

It that's the worst thing that happens in your life, you got off easy. I have to start spending some quality time with my gear and get both them dialed in.

Smitty

Oh that turns into the one of the best, I've got some real suck but....no where near as bad as some so, I'll just whine about the calculator.

 

[qball]

You better mount that $8,000 squirrel! The bright side is the second squirrel costs just the price of pellet. Or if you do what financial world called dollar cost average then at second squirrel they cost $4,000 each and third….. The key take away is more you shoot the cheaper each squirrel is on average, so chop chop!

 

[HogKiller]

You better mount that $8,000 squirrel! The bright side is the second squirrel costs just the price of pellet. Or if you do what financial world called dollar cost average then at second squirrel they cost $4,000 each and third….. The key take away is more you shoot the cheaper each squirrel is on average, so chop chop!

Yeah, I'll have to dollar cost average. I'm thinking of being a touch unfair and putting some chicken scratch out, see if I can draw them out, I'll do it when I leave for the day. just to get them comfortable. I'm going to invest in a squirrel call, just not sure which one to get.

 

[Airgun-hobbyist]

@HogKiller You're spot on with the math and hunting prowess. I started in this hobby with similar circumstance as you. The difference being, the squirrel's had de-nutted and plucked a couple dozen chestnut trees in literally a matter of hours after my planting them. I've also done some math on this hobby. I stopped doing the math.

 

[HogKiller]

@HogKiller You're spot on with the math and hunting prowess. I started in this hobby with similar circumstance as you. The difference being, the squirrel's had de-nutted and plucked a couple dozen chestnut trees in literally a matter of hours after my planting them. I've also done some math on this hobby. I stopped doing the math.

Yeah, math hard. I just needed a headline. Spending time with my buddy Pete and having coffee/lunch afterwards is good. I did notice something rewatching the video for about 300 times, there was a definite impact splatter, that wasn't evident on the actual kill shot, Same 33.95 pellet.

 

[HogKiller]

Well, went out again today FINALLY. Got there at 0800, pesky critter were running all over, of course no matter how quiet you are they go to ground. Took a few ranging shots, my StrelokPro is off by about 2.3 MOA, elevation was off, windage was dead on. Some critters popped up, I took a few shots, made a few corrections and heard a "thunk". When I went out, I found two bodies, I'm pretty sure I hit a total of 12, they may have crawled off to their burrows or i just didn't see them in the grass. I think the first one was a pregnant female.

 

[_walter_]

nice shooting. i also have thousands invested just to do what can be done with $100 lol

 

[HogKiller]

Went out last week with a friend and his sister, over cast and nary a squirrel to be seen, sun starts to peek through and a breeze starts up, more sun and more breeze and MORE squirrels, then WIND, oh please give me a break. Got one body and 3 thunks of a 33.95 hitting something besides ground.

Thought I'd try again today at a civilized hour 0930, squirrels all over the place EXCEPT where I set up to safely shoot., saw one finally at 100 yards out and of course I miss, patiently wait. and wait...and WAIT....Oh what do I see, some movement about 25 yards to my left, between bleachers, dial down and are... you SERIOUS??? I missed, ok another pops up missed it....then over to the left more behind a tree and some junk is another one, missed it too, ok time to take up some other sport...oh wait it comes back...thump lights out a young-un 61 ft lbs, bye bye. major overkill but oh well.

Started looking around again and ohhhh at 75ish yards is another one out by the tree/road/fence, got set up and fire, and miss....starting to see a trend here...have another go and THUMP, it's still moving, I hit it again and gone. See another to the left posing....fire and THUMP and off it goes. WTH. Oh one more sunning its self on a fence rail, fire THUMP and it goes off. I know darn well I hit both of them and they should have dropped. Went out to look for bodies and nothing, not even the one I knew was dead. THIS time I've got some video proof. These things must be wearing body armor. Now, in my own defense, I was shooting off of a tripod, standing, for the first time and I normally have my buddy with me spotting for cars and bicycles.

 

[Raider03]

May you remove so many that the cost per ground squirrel asymptotically approaches the cost of a pellet.

At about 6.5cents/pellets (9 tins from PA) that works out to about 123,080 squirrels. I hope we're all around to see that.

 

[HogKiller]

At about 6.5cents/pellets (9 tins from PA) that works out to about 123,080 squirrels. I hope we're all around to see that.

At the rate I'm going, the odds are most definitely NOT in our favor.

 

[Ezana4CE]

@HogKiller 126yards? That’s fair play to us non-professionals. Take a few shots, why not? And hey, be thankful you have $8k to throw at some ground squirrels. What gets me about the whole thing is how you shot the one, then the other runs up on him like he’d been waiting to do something to him. It’s not quite sure what was happening, but it definitely wasn’t a “Saving Private Ryan” moment. These critters can be something else. Sheesh!

 

[HogKiller]

@HogKiller 126yards? That’s fair play to us non-professionals. Take a few shots, why not? And hey, be thankful you have $8k to throw at some ground squirrels. What gets me about the whole thing is how you shot the one, then the other runs up on him like he’d been waiting to do something to him. It’s not quite sure what was happening, but it definitely wasn’t a “Saving Private Ryan” moment. These critters can be something else. Sheesh!

In honesty, today was 75 yards in the videos, 25 for the pic, MAX out there is about 125, if they'd cut the darn weeds. As for the $8k, my grand kids don't need food and clothing right? Yeah, I'm very thankful I've got the bucks to toss at this 'hobby' or is it an obsession...nah, I've only got 3 PCP's a break barrel and a old Daisy 717. My Mavericks work so I'm done with that branch of the Rabbit Hole®. I've given up on slugs.