I stepped into the woods today to watch a deer. It's a mid-size doe that I'm keeping an eye on. It comes to the creek every day around 4:00pm to drink. It's crossed my mind that maybe I should shoot it, but this one seems to be more for watching than anything else. It usually gets within 10 to 25 yards of me before it shies off, depending on the day. It was feeling bold today and got pretty close.
I saw what I thought was a small wood chuck off about 30, 40 yards away. Only it was the wrong color. I slowly went prone, brought my "squirrel sniper" to my shoulder, chambering a round as I did so, and beheld the biggest danged squirrel I've seen outside of captivity rooting around on the ground. I turned the safety on and back off, making a loud clicking sound. (If you've ever dealt with the safety on a Romanian trainer, you know what I mean). Mr. Godzilla Squirrel stood up, I centered the crosshairs on its chest as its head was obscured, and squeezed one off.
This is the biggest squirrel I have ever taken.
The squirrel toppled and didn't even thrash. It was a very clean kill, and one I'm proud of.
The deer watched all this with interest, then went back to drinking.
While skinning the animal, I found that the bullet, a Winchester XPERT .22LR HP round, began expanding almost immediately. It nicked the spine, creating a secondary projectile of a vertebrae which went partially through some muscle on the back. The spinal shot would explain the lack of thrashing. The bullet exited, leaving a hole about .30". There is not much bloodshot meat however, and I'm very pleased.
This makes three squirrel in the freezer now, and I may pass up the squirrel stew and instead make something in the oven.
I still can't get over the size of that critter though!
Josh <><