Got out this evening for about an hour or an hour and half and came back with one. Stalked it for about 20 minutes. Gotta clean it and out it up. The sun is just about down. More details to come.
One Gray for the Day w/.25 Edgun Lelya 2.0
- Thread starter Ezana4CE
- Start date
Ok as y’all can see from the picture below dusk is approaching. It’s become obvious that the days are growing shorter. It was just before 7pm when I shot her. This was a particularly challenging hunt, but I liked it and learned some things.
Here is a shot of the area I selected to lay-in-wait. It was in a briar thicket within a young tree stand. I chose this location because I’m in camo and I figured that I could blend in better. Also because it was about 50 yards from where I shot the others the other day. The biggest issue with this spot was that I was positioned expecting squirrels to come from the north and west. One came from the west, but this young girl came from behind me (from the south). To my rear (the opposite direction of the view in the picture) were masses of old dead vines that had overrun young trees with new growth woven into them. What this created was one hell of an impediment to my field of view with the naked eye. Through the scope it was difficult to focus beyond the vines in front of me. I have grown comfortable hunting using 5x magnification on my FFP Vector Veyron 3-12x. Good field of view and sufficient for tracking and quick acquisition so far.
As I was saying, after sitting in this spot for around 20-25 minutes I began hearing movement. First from the west then to my south. The one behind was closer which enables me to see the branches moving As she moved through the trees and vines. Every now and then I’d see a tail. Then I was finally able to track the movements in the canopy through the scope, but she was moving rather slowly. Wind was blowing east to west primarily so I don’t know if she smelled me. I do smell like Off! insect repellent. Anyhow, she seemed apprehensive or occupied and wasn’t coming towards me. It’s almost as if she was going around me. So after about 10 minutes of tracking her as she ambles through the tangled vines and branches, I decided to edge my way out of the thicket towards a small clearing to my 9 o’clock. I’m basically duck walking sideways out of some briars trying to keep an eye on her. When it seemed that I had a clearer shot, I noticed that she was behind a tangle of vines between two young oaks, so I kept edging left. I was careful to use my left hand to bend some vines and branches so they weren’t making noise scraping against my clothes, but there was one green briar vine I didn’t see and caught my pants. When I felt it pull on my pants I tried to remove it, but it was in the threads good. I began to tug at it and tried to move my leg away simulataneously (I’m on one foot now) and pulled too hard. The damned brush started shaking and whoaaaa baby! Did this young girl start barking!?! I’d never encountered such a vociferous squirrel in the woods (I’m new to squirrel hunting). She alerted the other squirrel(s), the birds, the deer, the damn mosquitos, “Hey!! We have company!”
I mean she would NOT shut up. Once my leg was free I was able to edge around and she jumped trees. If she didn’t see me, I know she heard me shake the vines. When she got to the other tree she kept barking. I located her through the glass and lined my reticle up and all I got was her rear portion to the back of her rib cage, BUT I was actually having a hell of a time seeing the cross hairs of the reticle on her. I was trying to adjust the parallax knob between 10-15 yards (I don’t take a rangefinder with me). It was tough for me to see any changes in the quality of the image as I turned the knob. This was a low light situation and this reticle isn’t illuminated. Also since it’s an FFP at lower magnification it’s dark and thin. The trade off is a wider field of view at lower magnifications. Anyhow I needed her to shut up before she ran everything off. I thought it best to take a body shot in attempt to hit her behind the ribs and push the pellet into the heart. I took the shot and hit a the branch she was on. I stroked ol’ Lelya and racked another pellet. As I was indexing my next round the squirrel repositioned herself on the tree trunk facing downward. I guess she wanted to get a better look at where I was and what I was doing. All the while she’s still barking and flipping her tail vigorously! This time I wanted her vitals so I aimed as best I could for behind her shoulder and let her rip. This was an offhand shot. I heard the thud and knew she was hit. In that same moment she fell silent and fell to the earth.
My heart was pumping. I looked in her direction as she gave a few last twitches. At first I thought she might try to run off, but it didn’t take long to realize her final movements were her death throes. She wasn’t flopping like a lot of headshots seem to make them do. Movement ceased within seconds. I made a mental note of where she was. Since it was getting dark I wanted to glass the canopy one last time for another. So I did briefly and only saw birds. I then made my way to her body, poked it with a stick and tried to see where I hit her, but it was too dark beneath the trees. I left my string at home, so I again I left her where she fell, took a glove, and hooked it to a vine to mark her location. I then moved west a ways looking for another squirrel. After a few minutes I determined that between the noise she and I made and the flash from the picture I took (I didn’t think it was that dark), we’d made enough of a commotion to scare everything else off for a while. I didn’t have time to wait another 20 minutes for things to calm down; it had gotten too dark. So I retrieved her and made my way out.
Took some pics when I got home and saw that I hit her in front of the shoulder pushing the pellet into her neck. After cleaning her I didn’t find it. Didn’t see exit wound either and the top of her shoulder was broken up. I assume it was lodged in her skull some where. I dug around her shoulders and neck with my fingers and knife tip and didn’t find the pellet. The other shoulder was bruised pretty badly as well. Sorry guys, no pics of the Lelya today. It was getting dark and I had to clean her wearing a headlamp. I have a racoon headshot post and another squirrel hunt with rifle pics that I posted a couple days ago. I haven’t changed anything. Hope this isn’t too long of a write up. If so let me know. I look forward to your comments and questions. Thanks for reading.
Pictures of point of impact
Gear: Edgun Lelya 2.0, Vector Veyron 3-12x FFP scope (non-IR), Midway single-point sling, .25 JSB Exact Match Diabolo King 25.39 grain pellets, Vortex Diamondback HD 10x42 binoculars.
Here is a shot of the area I selected to lay-in-wait. It was in a briar thicket within a young tree stand. I chose this location because I’m in camo and I figured that I could blend in better. Also because it was about 50 yards from where I shot the others the other day. The biggest issue with this spot was that I was positioned expecting squirrels to come from the north and west. One came from the west, but this young girl came from behind me (from the south). To my rear (the opposite direction of the view in the picture) were masses of old dead vines that had overrun young trees with new growth woven into them. What this created was one hell of an impediment to my field of view with the naked eye. Through the scope it was difficult to focus beyond the vines in front of me. I have grown comfortable hunting using 5x magnification on my FFP Vector Veyron 3-12x. Good field of view and sufficient for tracking and quick acquisition so far.
As I was saying, after sitting in this spot for around 20-25 minutes I began hearing movement. First from the west then to my south. The one behind was closer which enables me to see the branches moving As she moved through the trees and vines. Every now and then I’d see a tail. Then I was finally able to track the movements in the canopy through the scope, but she was moving rather slowly. Wind was blowing east to west primarily so I don’t know if she smelled me. I do smell like Off! insect repellent. Anyhow, she seemed apprehensive or occupied and wasn’t coming towards me. It’s almost as if she was going around me. So after about 10 minutes of tracking her as she ambles through the tangled vines and branches, I decided to edge my way out of the thicket towards a small clearing to my 9 o’clock. I’m basically duck walking sideways out of some briars trying to keep an eye on her. When it seemed that I had a clearer shot, I noticed that she was behind a tangle of vines between two young oaks, so I kept edging left. I was careful to use my left hand to bend some vines and branches so they weren’t making noise scraping against my clothes, but there was one green briar vine I didn’t see and caught my pants. When I felt it pull on my pants I tried to remove it, but it was in the threads good. I began to tug at it and tried to move my leg away simulataneously (I’m on one foot now) and pulled too hard. The damned brush started shaking and whoaaaa baby! Did this young girl start barking!?! I’d never encountered such a vociferous squirrel in the woods (I’m new to squirrel hunting). She alerted the other squirrel(s), the birds, the deer, the damn mosquitos, “Hey!! We have company!”
I mean she would NOT shut up. Once my leg was free I was able to edge around and she jumped trees. If she didn’t see me, I know she heard me shake the vines. When she got to the other tree she kept barking. I located her through the glass and lined my reticle up and all I got was her rear portion to the back of her rib cage, BUT I was actually having a hell of a time seeing the cross hairs of the reticle on her. I was trying to adjust the parallax knob between 10-15 yards (I don’t take a rangefinder with me). It was tough for me to see any changes in the quality of the image as I turned the knob. This was a low light situation and this reticle isn’t illuminated. Also since it’s an FFP at lower magnification it’s dark and thin. The trade off is a wider field of view at lower magnifications. Anyhow I needed her to shut up before she ran everything off. I thought it best to take a body shot in attempt to hit her behind the ribs and push the pellet into the heart. I took the shot and hit a the branch she was on. I stroked ol’ Lelya and racked another pellet. As I was indexing my next round the squirrel repositioned herself on the tree trunk facing downward. I guess she wanted to get a better look at where I was and what I was doing. All the while she’s still barking and flipping her tail vigorously! This time I wanted her vitals so I aimed as best I could for behind her shoulder and let her rip. This was an offhand shot. I heard the thud and knew she was hit. In that same moment she fell silent and fell to the earth.
My heart was pumping. I looked in her direction as she gave a few last twitches. At first I thought she might try to run off, but it didn’t take long to realize her final movements were her death throes. She wasn’t flopping like a lot of headshots seem to make them do. Movement ceased within seconds. I made a mental note of where she was. Since it was getting dark I wanted to glass the canopy one last time for another. So I did briefly and only saw birds. I then made my way to her body, poked it with a stick and tried to see where I hit her, but it was too dark beneath the trees. I left my string at home, so I again I left her where she fell, took a glove, and hooked it to a vine to mark her location. I then moved west a ways looking for another squirrel. After a few minutes I determined that between the noise she and I made and the flash from the picture I took (I didn’t think it was that dark), we’d made enough of a commotion to scare everything else off for a while. I didn’t have time to wait another 20 minutes for things to calm down; it had gotten too dark. So I retrieved her and made my way out.
Took some pics when I got home and saw that I hit her in front of the shoulder pushing the pellet into her neck. After cleaning her I didn’t find it. Didn’t see exit wound either and the top of her shoulder was broken up. I assume it was lodged in her skull some where. I dug around her shoulders and neck with my fingers and knife tip and didn’t find the pellet. The other shoulder was bruised pretty badly as well. Sorry guys, no pics of the Lelya today. It was getting dark and I had to clean her wearing a headlamp. I have a racoon headshot post and another squirrel hunt with rifle pics that I posted a couple days ago. I haven’t changed anything. Hope this isn’t too long of a write up. If so let me know. I look forward to your comments and questions. Thanks for reading.
Pictures of point of impact
Gear: Edgun Lelya 2.0, Vector Veyron 3-12x FFP scope (non-IR), Midway single-point sling, .25 JSB Exact Match Diabolo King 25.39 grain pellets, Vortex Diamondback HD 10x42 binoculars.
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I’m still very green to squirrel hunting. I’ve done my reading, but in the woods I’m learning as I go. Grays around here seem to be a lot more active in the mornings. This was my first successful evening hunt. It rained earlier so I’m unsure if this will be a consistent thing or if the rain kept them in their nests until it stopped. The stalk was challenging, but nice. I like when animals challenge me. She wanted to play the waiting game. What made it tough was all of the vines. Yea, I think I blended in well with my camo, but it was a tough spot to move from undetected and she appeared from the direction I least expected.
Thanks. The details are posted and I butchered and edited this writeup to death. I hope I fixed most of my typos and mistakes. Let me know if it’s too long and drawn out for you.
It’s a nice gun. I haven’t really shot mine a whole lot, but it’s growing on me. You can check my “raccoon headshot” post or my ”early morning squirrel hunt” post for pics of the gun. I didn’t take any this evening. It got dark on me and I chose to spend my time skinning and cleaning the squirrel.
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