Saturday afternoon after the shop closed it was time for my second hunt of the season. Considering I was only able to make three outings last season, two outings in two days, I was in my glory. With 70 degrees it makes for a perfect day. The rifle that I chose for this hunt was my Royale 400 .22cal. Didn't even bother with a mag. just strapped on a pellet pouch full of 18g JSB's. I've got an old-probably 26 years old Leupold 2-7 compact, light weight, parallax non-adjustable preset @ 30 yards from the factory. Back in the day, this was one of the few scopes that would hold up to the heavy recoiling springer and gas ram airguns. This combo makes for a light weight, easy to handle hunter.
The new section of woods that I have access to has a long line of mature hickory trees. Normally these trees are squirrel magnets, however last year none of the trees had any nuts on them, apparently trees go through some type of cycle or whatever, but this year, they are LOADED with nuts and squirrels. Still having a lot of leaves on the trees, made it hard to spot the squirrels but the steady rain of cuttings falling from the tops of the trees was encouraging and exciting!
After a little patience I off handed a couple of squirrels from the tree line. Slowly worked my way further into the woods along a ridge which has even more mature nut trees and hardwoods. The ridge is bordered by a nice little flowing creek. Really made me feel like I was in the mountains of Kentucky or West Virginia. Man, I love being in the woods this time of year. Last squirrel of the day was a challenge. He was high in a hickory tree doing his thing, moving, cutting and dropping nuts. I was in the seated position, resting against a smaller tree trunk, he had no idea I was there, and although I was getting anxious to make the shot, I knew that patience was part of the game. As luck would have it, the first time he paused for a break, he was almost directly on top of a limb about a 1 1/2" in diameter. Having a very stable rest and only about 30 yards away, I toyed with the idea of trying to shoot along the edge of the branch and catch the right edge of his head. Patience Jim, Patience, there are better shots coming. What's the hurry, this is hunting. After this short break he started moving again, but paused long enough with his head cleanly exposed to make the perfect shot. Mr Squirell bounced off a few branches landing on the other side of the creek. Time to go home with my 5th kill. I kid you not, on my way out of the woods, I saw four more squirrels gathering their nuts for the winter. This property will be on my list for future hunts.
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