I had about an hour or so this evening after work. I almost didn’t go until I checked the forecast and noticed a chance for rain in the morning. I headed to one of my regular hunting grounds in search of an elusive squirrel I’ve been after for about a month.
Walked briskly to the area, picked out my spot, kneeled down, and waited. After about a half-hour of perfect calm except infrequent noise from vehicle traffic on distant roads, faint chatter from nearby residents talking outdoors, and occasional crow cawing I heard that rustling in the fallen leaves I’d been waiting on.
Below is a panoramic view from my stakeout spot.
I aimed my binos in the direction of the noise but saw nothing. Now my heart is pumping a little as the noise grows louder. Not long after the shuffling stops abruptly, I’ll be damned if this nutter didn’t run up the embankment and jump onto a tree trunk about 10-12 yards in front of me. He was checking me out and I slowly shouldered then leveled my .25 Lelya 2.0 at him. As I started to adjust my parallax knob my nutty buddy jumped off the tree trunk and scampered off. I started to try and stalk it but I knew I that I didn’t have time to play that game so I stayed put, listened, and tried to catch it in my binos. But to no avail, I was too high up on the other side of the creek to see where he was. It sounded as if he was moving away again and I began to look further in the distance to see if I could locate the direction he was running. Then I caught him through my peripheral outside of my binos in my left eye. He took to an oak tree trunk about 20 yards out straight ahead!! This time I leveled my rifle lined up my reticle on 5x magnification, tried adjusting the parallax on the fly just before taking my shot. Because of the low magnification I had no idea if I was in the ballpark with the parallax, but I knew he wasn’t getting away today. I caught him on the oak tree trunk, aimed for a shoulder, and let it fly. I heard the “thunk” of a body shot and knew he was hit, but he jumped around and repositioned himself. I almost second guessed the hit. I cocked her again and aimed for that shoulder without thinking about it and *ping* I let another shot off, then “thunk.” I heard another body shot hit and this time he did that familiar slow fall backwards off the trunk, but I couldn’t see where he fell. I honestly can’t recall if I was kneeling or shooting offhand. I think they were offhand shots because I recall standing up to try to see him in the binos after it jumped off of the first tree.
I took the photo below as I walked down to retrieve the carcass. This is the oak tree he was shot off of.
.
After he fell I sat still and listened. I heard rustling in the leaves for around approximately 5-10 seconds and then nothing. I started to retrieve him, took a step, but decided to wait a few minutes to see if another would show up. After about 15 minutes passed I stood back up and headed over to where he’d fallen. I honestly didn’t realize he fell into the creek bed, just missing the trickle of the stream flowing through it. Below is a photo of where he fell before moving him. I decided to call it an evening after about 45 minutes out so I had time to clean him before the sun finished setting.
While cleaning him I noticed that he had fleas. Upon examining the flesh below the skin I saw that the first shot was a little low, but the second cut into his pulmonary system. When I gutted him and examined his internals I saw the familiar dark blood and blood clots in the thoracic cavity. I also noticed blood coming from his nose. There were also two strange looking fat, white, coiled, snail shaped glands that were swollen on both sides of his anus. I’d read about these and heard them discussed in YouTube videos. Someone said they were scent glands. This was my first time seeing them. I just cut them off and tossed them out with the offal. I guess that’s something that occurs during mating season. Edited to add link on 05/18/2022 In the following link I found and posted information concerning the glands around the anus https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/the-prod-and-the-fox-squirrel/?referrer=1 They are called Cowper's Glands.
Both shots passed through the other side sort of parallel with the entry wounds.
Walked briskly to the area, picked out my spot, kneeled down, and waited. After about a half-hour of perfect calm except infrequent noise from vehicle traffic on distant roads, faint chatter from nearby residents talking outdoors, and occasional crow cawing I heard that rustling in the fallen leaves I’d been waiting on.
Below is a panoramic view from my stakeout spot.
I aimed my binos in the direction of the noise but saw nothing. Now my heart is pumping a little as the noise grows louder. Not long after the shuffling stops abruptly, I’ll be damned if this nutter didn’t run up the embankment and jump onto a tree trunk about 10-12 yards in front of me. He was checking me out and I slowly shouldered then leveled my .25 Lelya 2.0 at him. As I started to adjust my parallax knob my nutty buddy jumped off the tree trunk and scampered off. I started to try and stalk it but I knew I that I didn’t have time to play that game so I stayed put, listened, and tried to catch it in my binos. But to no avail, I was too high up on the other side of the creek to see where he was. It sounded as if he was moving away again and I began to look further in the distance to see if I could locate the direction he was running. Then I caught him through my peripheral outside of my binos in my left eye. He took to an oak tree trunk about 20 yards out straight ahead!! This time I leveled my rifle lined up my reticle on 5x magnification, tried adjusting the parallax on the fly just before taking my shot. Because of the low magnification I had no idea if I was in the ballpark with the parallax, but I knew he wasn’t getting away today. I caught him on the oak tree trunk, aimed for a shoulder, and let it fly. I heard the “thunk” of a body shot and knew he was hit, but he jumped around and repositioned himself. I almost second guessed the hit. I cocked her again and aimed for that shoulder without thinking about it and *ping* I let another shot off, then “thunk.” I heard another body shot hit and this time he did that familiar slow fall backwards off the trunk, but I couldn’t see where he fell. I honestly can’t recall if I was kneeling or shooting offhand. I think they were offhand shots because I recall standing up to try to see him in the binos after it jumped off of the first tree.
I took the photo below as I walked down to retrieve the carcass. This is the oak tree he was shot off of.
After he fell I sat still and listened. I heard rustling in the leaves for around approximately 5-10 seconds and then nothing. I started to retrieve him, took a step, but decided to wait a few minutes to see if another would show up. After about 15 minutes passed I stood back up and headed over to where he’d fallen. I honestly didn’t realize he fell into the creek bed, just missing the trickle of the stream flowing through it. Below is a photo of where he fell before moving him. I decided to call it an evening after about 45 minutes out so I had time to clean him before the sun finished setting.
While cleaning him I noticed that he had fleas. Upon examining the flesh below the skin I saw that the first shot was a little low, but the second cut into his pulmonary system. When I gutted him and examined his internals I saw the familiar dark blood and blood clots in the thoracic cavity. I also noticed blood coming from his nose. There were also two strange looking fat, white, coiled, snail shaped glands that were swollen on both sides of his anus. I’d read about these and heard them discussed in YouTube videos. Someone said they were scent glands. This was my first time seeing them. I just cut them off and tossed them out with the offal. I guess that’s something that occurs during mating season. Edited to add link on 05/18/2022 In the following link I found and posted information concerning the glands around the anus https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/the-prod-and-the-fox-squirrel/?referrer=1 They are called Cowper's Glands.
Both shots passed through the other side sort of parallel with the entry wounds.
I bet you have to google that!
,