I've seen squirrels around the neighborhood, but none in my back yard for at least a week. This morning when I got up, my son told me there were THREE under the feeders. I asked him: "Do you wanna take one?" --> "YEAH!"
They kept feeding while I unlocked the .177 Compatto and chambered a Baracuda Hunter. We slid the door open as quietly as possible. The nutters kept a wary eye on us, the more so since we were talking.
So, I gave him the rifle, told him the hold-over (2 MD) and he took kind of a sub-optimal shot and missed high. I think maybe he was using the second MD OVER the crosshairs (hold-under) rather than holding OVER 2 MD. We'll talk tonight and review this footage together. The lesson will be not to rush the shots. The suburban squirrels are brave enough. I think the best case is that he would have spined it.
I was going to take the next one, if he was foolish enough to stick around. You can see the alpha male chased off one of the others. "The alpha squirrel gets the pellet!" thought I. I saw that there were still two, which told me at that time that LiFu missed. Too bad, but I wanted a shot too. I shot this one standing offhand at about 11 yards.
Forensic Analysis:
You can see by the vid that the pellet entered the forehead just by the right eye, popped out the eye on the way through the brain, exited the neck muscle, but stayed under the skin. Perfect! The pellet had expanded and actually fragmented, which I've not seen yet with a Baracuda hunter. Of the part that mushroomed, two bits came off, and there were bits of bone in the area too, from the back of the skull. These .177 Baracuda Hunters, with an MV of 850-890 fps and impact at 10-15 yards are pretty devastating. On side profile head shots, they do go through, but scramble the noodle up pretty well on the way. I get blood out the ears (popped eardrums) 100% of the time I hit the brain. On chest shots, they usually don't exit, but stop under the skin on the far side of the squirrel.
I would appreciate a Like/thumbs-up on YouTube if you enjoyed it.
Full video:
Slo-mo only:
They kept feeding while I unlocked the .177 Compatto and chambered a Baracuda Hunter. We slid the door open as quietly as possible. The nutters kept a wary eye on us, the more so since we were talking.
So, I gave him the rifle, told him the hold-over (2 MD) and he took kind of a sub-optimal shot and missed high. I think maybe he was using the second MD OVER the crosshairs (hold-under) rather than holding OVER 2 MD. We'll talk tonight and review this footage together. The lesson will be not to rush the shots. The suburban squirrels are brave enough. I think the best case is that he would have spined it.
I was going to take the next one, if he was foolish enough to stick around. You can see the alpha male chased off one of the others. "The alpha squirrel gets the pellet!" thought I. I saw that there were still two, which told me at that time that LiFu missed. Too bad, but I wanted a shot too. I shot this one standing offhand at about 11 yards.
Forensic Analysis:
You can see by the vid that the pellet entered the forehead just by the right eye, popped out the eye on the way through the brain, exited the neck muscle, but stayed under the skin. Perfect! The pellet had expanded and actually fragmented, which I've not seen yet with a Baracuda hunter. Of the part that mushroomed, two bits came off, and there were bits of bone in the area too, from the back of the skull. These .177 Baracuda Hunters, with an MV of 850-890 fps and impact at 10-15 yards are pretty devastating. On side profile head shots, they do go through, but scramble the noodle up pretty well on the way. I get blood out the ears (popped eardrums) 100% of the time I hit the brain. On chest shots, they usually don't exit, but stop under the skin on the far side of the squirrel.
I would appreciate a Like/thumbs-up on YouTube if you enjoyed it.
Full video:
Slo-mo only:
