Posted By: RH Custom Guns
Successful handgun squirrel hunt! - 11/05/2018 4:34 PM
This weekend I had a chance to take out my new 12" .22LR Match Contender barrel for some squirrel hunting. A big thanks to Kurt Bellm for getting the barrel to me before the hunt!
I'll get to the absolute best part of the story first, and that is that I got to take my 6 year old son with me! The day before, we went to sight in the Simmons 4x32 scope I mounted on the barrel. Though he had a hard time finding the crosshairs in the EER 4x scope, he did get a chance to fire off a few rounds - his first ever from a pistol.
The next day, we were having a father son camp out with a couple of other friends, and we headed out before anyone else got there so just the two of us would be able to hunt a bit. He spotted the first squirrel 30 seconds after we got to our spot, and then I discovered how much practice I really need to make those head-shots!
So, over two mornings of hunting and 4 squirrels, I did well shooting on every other squirrel. The first squirrel I hit, after missing about 7 shots, low in the spine and had to finish him on the ground. The next squirrel was one shot to the head and done.
The next morning, I took my friends dogs with me. As we were walking down the lane, I saw a squirrel tail popping up from behind a limb and I moved around for a shot. After missing twice, the squirrel jumped into a hole in an adjacent dead tree trunk. I could see the squirrel in the hole, so I started trying to rustle him out of there with my shooting sticks. He finally tried to run to a stand of trees a little ways away, and the dogs got him. I hauled the dogs off before they did too much damage, dispatched him and put him in my game pouch. One to the dogs...
Later that morning, my buddies and I went looking for bushy-tails in a different area, and we saw a squirrel pop his head out of a hole. Because squirrels usually stress out and move if bothered enough, I started scraping the side of the tree with my sticks. Sure enough, he bolted straight up the tree. He was about 50 feet straight up when I put one bullet through his eye from a very awkward shooting position.
So, I guess I needed to make some really bad shots in order to remind myself to calm down and concentrate on the next one...
One big lesson that I learned is that the 4x scope is too much magnification for that hunt. I took the 4x off of my 7mm TCU barrel, just to have something to use for the hunt, but I will definitely be switching to a 2x in the future.
Another lesson that was driven home again is how incredibly addicting handgun hunting is! I had one of those rare moments when I was walking in the woods thinking, "I am exactly where I want to be, doing exactly what I want to do." That feeling, plus a freezer full of squirrel meat are so rewarding!
PS - I didn't take any pictures from the hunt, as I was alone half the time, and with my youngster the other half. I'm working on being able to take pictures in the future.
I'll get to the absolute best part of the story first, and that is that I got to take my 6 year old son with me! The day before, we went to sight in the Simmons 4x32 scope I mounted on the barrel. Though he had a hard time finding the crosshairs in the EER 4x scope, he did get a chance to fire off a few rounds - his first ever from a pistol.
The next day, we were having a father son camp out with a couple of other friends, and we headed out before anyone else got there so just the two of us would be able to hunt a bit. He spotted the first squirrel 30 seconds after we got to our spot, and then I discovered how much practice I really need to make those head-shots!
So, over two mornings of hunting and 4 squirrels, I did well shooting on every other squirrel. The first squirrel I hit, after missing about 7 shots, low in the spine and had to finish him on the ground. The next squirrel was one shot to the head and done.
The next morning, I took my friends dogs with me. As we were walking down the lane, I saw a squirrel tail popping up from behind a limb and I moved around for a shot. After missing twice, the squirrel jumped into a hole in an adjacent dead tree trunk. I could see the squirrel in the hole, so I started trying to rustle him out of there with my shooting sticks. He finally tried to run to a stand of trees a little ways away, and the dogs got him. I hauled the dogs off before they did too much damage, dispatched him and put him in my game pouch. One to the dogs...
Later that morning, my buddies and I went looking for bushy-tails in a different area, and we saw a squirrel pop his head out of a hole. Because squirrels usually stress out and move if bothered enough, I started scraping the side of the tree with my sticks. Sure enough, he bolted straight up the tree. He was about 50 feet straight up when I put one bullet through his eye from a very awkward shooting position.
So, I guess I needed to make some really bad shots in order to remind myself to calm down and concentrate on the next one...
One big lesson that I learned is that the 4x scope is too much magnification for that hunt. I took the 4x off of my 7mm TCU barrel, just to have something to use for the hunt, but I will definitely be switching to a 2x in the future.
Another lesson that was driven home again is how incredibly addicting handgun hunting is! I had one of those rare moments when I was walking in the woods thinking, "I am exactly where I want to be, doing exactly what I want to do." That feeling, plus a freezer full of squirrel meat are so rewarding!
PS - I didn't take any pictures from the hunt, as I was alone half the time, and with my youngster the other half. I'm working on being able to take pictures in the future.
