Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Small Game Maddog's 2016 limb chicken thread.

Finally!

Tomorrow is opening day for us and I plan on being in the woods before daylight. Its been in the low 60's, the last few mornings and high '50's forcasted for tomorrow morning.

The wind didnt come up until around noon today, so maybe it will be still tomorrow morn.

Cant guarantee I will see or kill anything, but I'm gonna get caught trying.

Got 5 gray squirrels this cool morning..

And we're off!

I should save these for a batch of that chowder, but they're getting chicken fried and gravy for the sake of being festive on opening day. Went 2-3 on these two. I was "still hunting" aka getting impatient and moving around when one popped up out of a dry creek bed and froze. Easy 10 yard shot. The other one tried to slip off a few minutes later. First shot went I dunno where, second one got him through the lungs, maybe 15 yards. Not bad for a fuzzy front sight if I may puff my chest.

(Muzzleloader opened the same day, so ostensibly I'm deer hunting :D)

Nice! I was bowhunting deer yesterday and could have killed a ten squirrel limit with a .22 pistol. The young grey squirrels were absolutely thick on the ridge I was hunting.

Got out early Sunday morning around seven, beautiful cool morning with no wind, easier to spot squirrels. Just a beautiful morning right after sunrise here in Alabama.
Spotted this squirrel around thirty yards away moving around in the top of a pecan tree. Had to be patient a few minutes to get a shot not obstructed by leaves, then dropped a .22 caliber Eun Jin Dome pellet right through the old noggin, and it dropped straight down without even a twitch. Spotted a couple more later across the woods with binoculars, but the wind had picked up a little bit and I could not relocate them as I crept closer to where I had spotted them. Rifle is a .22 caliber Evanix AR6 Renegade pcp air rifle with Nikon's 3-9x40mm EFR scope.

I am having the absolute worst squirrel season I think I've ever had. Only shot 9 since Aug. 15th. Heat, rain, humidity, dry eyes, old age [you name it] are all conspiring against me. Just not seeing that many, then shooting too quick and missing.....this sux.....heaven forbid, I may take a shotgun [choke] the next time out.....



maddog

There's no shame in taking a shotgun.

Wished I'd a shotty this morning. Missed two with the pistol.

I swear, Phillip, you've got more nice stocks on squirrel shooters....

Got one more shotgun that I have not used in years, a Stevens 94 16 gauge single shot; it was my fathers and grandfathers. It stayed over at Mom & Pops from 2000 until he died in 2012, and I brought it home. I should get it out and shoot a few with it, if not just for old times sake for the memories of Pop. Very light weight gun, easy to carry but lot of recoil. Not a beauty but a good ol' gun from the '50's.

That is a good old reliable shotgun. My grandpa used a Winchester M37 Steelbuilt .12 gauge. Grandpa always bought a 30" full choke and sawed off 2" of barrel. He would finish off the cut and remount his bead. Gramps claimed that was the perfect amount of choke for a rabbit, quail and squirrel gun. My guess is that ended up as a light modified constriction. For rabbit and quail that's about right, mite open for a general purpose squirrel gun I think.

Our opener was Saturday but I had to work. Went for a couple hours late Sunday afternoon. Saw a few, heard a few more but only got one close enough for the Browning Auto-22 .22 Short. The canopy is just unforgiving right now. Went with a buddy yesterday "runnin' & gunnin" with scatterguns on some GMA land and I killed 3 with the Ithaca 37 16ga and some ancient paper hulled Remington #5s that were loaded before I was born. During the last hour, we crept into a small oak grove on the edge of a cow pasture and I swapped the Ithaca for a Savage 24 .22/.410 thinking there might be a chance to snipe one with the rifle barrel. I did get a clear shot but neglected to flip the barrel selector so killed the last one of the day with the .410 barrel, again with an old paper shell. It'll be a couple weeks before I can go again so hopefully it'll be a bit cooler and the leaves will be thinned out a bit.

Mt little bonny and clyde

First rabbit of the season; I was going through the edge of a small open area in my woods that is full of weeds and a big brush pile when it flushed and ran, but then committed a fatal error and stopped right before running into the thick growth, somewhere around about 20 yards or so away. Peeked the barrel of the Kimber Hunter around the tree I was standing behind just enough to clear it and put a CCI Subsonic through the head. It flopped around on the ground for a few seconds and I thought it might need another bullet to finish it off, but in a few seconds the thrashing around was done. Not a big rabbit, but probably average sized for a cottontail around these parts.

Nice work..

Really cute! Congrats to the young hunters!

This has been the worst season, I've had in recent memory. But today was beautiful, and I nailed a couple, despite my horrible shooting.









Gonna try to hunt the next few days, to make up for the last month and a half.


maddog

Went this am, and it was prolly the most beautiful day, since the season opened. I did a change in firearms, and took my single shot .22 H&R Sportster. Got shots at 3, and nailed 2, with 4 shots.








This ole girl died eating her last acorn.





Cleaned them and headed for home. Gonna hit er a lick again tomorrow.


maddog

We got a little shower, less than an inch, Friday and it really helped things a lot.

Decided to chase squirrels this morning and had a good day. Got the limit, before the wind came up.

We finally got some cooler weather down here in KY, and I was able to get out Friday evening. Ended up with 5 (1 short of the limit) all activity had ceased when I took this pic so I figured that was it for me; but on my way out I managed to pop 2 more.

Got one Friday, missed on another. Thought I'd hit number two but if I did it got away.